As of this writing, there are 8 days remaining until the premiere of the new "MacGyver."

This Physics Teacher/Escape Artist/Home MacGyver at heart, is very pleased. Oh hell I am bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Now, yes. I have read some of the "bad press" the show has gotten before being released. I even heard Richard Dean Anderson himself say the show lacks what made the original great. Even so, I am still looking forward to it. If it gets of to a rocky start, maybe the producers can set is straight. I heard that Henry Winkler who helped produce the original is involved here as well. That could be an asset.

Lets hope Lucas Till can rise to the occasion. He has some big boots to fill.

Well I have never seen it but it looks a bit like mission impossible from the trailer which I like.

What exactly does he think made the original great? And what definitely definition of "great" is being used? I would think as a physics teacher the show would offend you as so much was gotten flat out wrong.

Danny, to answer your questions...

Richard Dean Anderson always said that while MacGyver was clearly the smartest and most resourceful, he was also very human and never arrogant or a braggart about it. MacGyver was one of the few shows to and the end of the run, have the star do a voice over that thanked the audience for their successful run. The show never talked down to the audience.

Your second point is a bit harder to address. Lee David Zlotoff the producer of the show swore that everything MacGyver did was possible. As a Physics teacher I will often amend this to add that everything MacGyver did was possible, but some of it was highly improbable.

Examples,

Breaking open an old fashioned wire heater and using the hot wire to melt zip ties he was restrained with. This was beautiful and 100% possible for anyone to do.

Blowing open a locked cell door by putting a chunk of Sodium in the keyway and splashing water on it....
Well, sodium and water does go boom, but the Mythbusters showed that the explosion would not have been strong enough to open a jail lock. Possible. Science is correct, but not very probable.

Banging a metal rod on concrete to make it a magnet. This is only possible in the way that X-man Kitty Pride can line up her atoms with a solid object's atoms and she can pass through them. Is it scientifically possible? Yes. Will any human ever see it happen? The odds are so bad that I will say no. (By the way, the opposite is not only possible but very easy to do. Bang a magnet on a hard object a few times and you will turn it into a metal rod.)

But I loved the show for its' realistic fantasy. So much of it could have worked, and someone on that show understood the Chemistry and Physics they portrayed.

This is about as likely as a cubic foot of seawater 20,000 feet below the surface of the ocean boiling. Not very.

<< Opus analogized, "This is about as likely as a cubic foot of seawater 20,000 feet below the surface of the ocean boiling. Not very." >>

I hear you Opus, but your analogy doesn't work scientifically.

By definition water deep underwater cannot boil. Boiling is a function of pressure not temperature, as such if the water is deep underwater it is under tremendous pressure for the other 20,000 feet of water being pulled down on top of it by gravity. Boiling requires less pressure than that provided by Earth's atmosphere. If the water was moved up to boil, or if the ocean receded so that water could boil, then it wouldn't be deep under anymore. By definition that water you speak of cannot boil.

Sadly, hitting a metal rod on a hard surface MIGHT allow the molecules inside to line up forming a magnet. I think if you tried a few billion times it might work once. Again, highly improbable, but possible.

Class dismissed.

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cpQ4Jy2A7g

Seriously? You call him on that and you like Mac?

You call me on that and you don't?

Ok, so I watched it. No spoilers here. Lets just say that while it wasn't Richard Dean Anderson... It was great!

Long Live MacGyver!

Long live? Well it seems to have dominated ratings for Friday night so that is a good start. Glad you were not disappointed.


In spite of some absolutely abysmal reviews it had an audience.

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/macgyver-2016

Maybe they can keep going.

I liked it. I liked the original as well. However, I thought that I read somewhere (long ago) that in the original series, no bad guys were killed (or was that the A-Team?) anyway, I digress... great start so far. I will be watching.

I think it was in the A-Team because it was in Mr. T's contract. At least that was tee rumor.