Thursday, May 28, 2015

Thanks for the Memories!


The final review has been written, and it's time for The MacGyver Project to ride off into the sunset. I wouldn't call it an ending, however.  
  • For starters, the already written reviews and conversations with cast and crew aren't going anywhere -- click here for links to them.  Hopefully people will continue to read them for years to come as a new generation gets exposed to the greatest show on earth, and I encourage everyone to leave comments at any time if you have anything to say.
  • Though I can't promise any more interviews, I do have a few people who have said they'll get back to me when they have more time.  There's also several more people who I never got a hold of and who I may keep searching for, so it's possible that there may be some new Q and A's at some point in the future.
  • I will still continue to write about other topics on this blog (more on this later).
This was the first time I ever did a blog.  In Autumn of 2013 I had finished my book and wanted to keep writing, but I didn't feel like doing another book.  They always say, "Write about what you know," and I thought "why not write about MacGyver?"  I didn't really know what to expect out of the blog, but it turns out that it was way more fun than I ever imagined.  It was great to meet people from around the world and talk about the show.  It was fun to have something to write about.  And most of all, it was just fun to have MacGyver back in my life on a regular basis.  I learned so much about the show, and I realized that I still have so much more to learn. 

There are a lot of people who I would like to thank for being part of The MacGyver Project:
  • First and foremost, I want to thank every one of you who have visited this site in the last two years -- I really appreciate it.
  • Thanks to all the members of the show who took time to answer my questions (which in some cases were very numerous).  Their participation was really fun and exciting for me, and the information they revealed was often new and fascinating.
  • Thanks to all the great people at rdanderson.com:  KTI, Nicole, Annellies, BFT, Tvero, Claudia, Frenchwriter, Jack, and of course KateR.  I hope I'm not forgetting anyone.  It was fun being part of your online community, talking to you about the show, and playing the "guess the screenshot game" - I still can't believe how good you are at that!
  • Thanks to all the members of the MacGyver Online community (too many to name individually).  Thanks for sharing in the interviews and for posting some of them on the MacGyver and MacGyverOnline twitter/facebook.
  • Thanks to Anne from the Rusted Crush MacGyver fansite for linking to my site and for being my very first twitter follower!
  • Thanks to my wife for putting up with my constant watching, writing about, and talking about MacGyver.  It is much appreciated!
  • Thanks to my mother for faithfully watching the show with me throughout my childhood and making it our special show.
  • And last, but certainly not least, thanks to those that commented on my blog.  It was so much more fun to have such knowledgeable, passionate people to discuss the show with.  A few shout-outs here:
    • Corey and Robert, thank you for commenting several times!
    • David, thank you for your contributions.  You and I share a passion for the music from the show, and it was always great to get your input! 
    • Highlander, you're the best!  Always looked forward to hearing your take -- you had great insights and a true love for the show.
    • Al, your reviews were a ton of fun!  They were always witty, clever, funny, and thoughtful, and I really appreciated your perspective.
    • Hmm, is that everyone?  I feel like I'm forgetting someone....oh yeah, this guy named Mark who just happens to be the world's most knowledgable MacGyver fan (this is not hyperbole) with powers of recall that never cease to amaze.  Mark, the blog simply would not have been the same without you -- I'm so glad you found it and that you shared your knowledge and love of the show with all of us.
So, now what?  I've decided that I'd like to keep writing about tv series and ranking episodes since it's a fun format.  There are no series that I know as well as MacGyver, so I will have to watch the episodes in order and rank them as I go.  The next show that I'd like to dive into is Quantum Leap, a series that I watched around the same time as MacGyver and that made a big impression on me.  But first, I had the idea to do a reverse countdown of my favorite Disney songs.  I have a long history with Disney (more on that in a future post), and I thought it would be fun to really dive into the rich history of Disney music.  I will do all of this in the same "MacGyver Project" blog as opposed to creating new blogs -- I realize that may be confusing for some new readers but it's easier for me that way.  Also I like the idea of other shows being under the "MacGyver" umbrella as if MacGyver is the father of all television.

While I'm gone, if you need a MacGyver fix you can check out the aforementioned forums at rdanderson.com and MacGyver Online, and you can listen to the excellent Phoenix Foundation podcast which reviews an episode every Friday, often with special guests.

When will I start my Disney project?  I'm looking forward to taking a break from writing, but I don't know when I will get the creative itch.  It could be next week, it could be in 6 months, or maybe somewhere in between.  Stay tuned!  

10 comments:

  1. It was quite a run. Great blog idea and I'm sure going in you figured it would be more of an enriching personal project to revisit these episodes you hadn't seen in quite a while and ruminate about them online. I'm sure in no way could you have anticipated the magnitude of the audience you'd eventually pull in and especially your success in reaching out to all these cast and crew members for inside information that proved insightful for everybody. I was very glad (and lucky) to have stumbled into this site last fall about 25 episodes into your countdown. My weekly (or so) Google searches for anything MacGyver-related is what was responsible for leading me to the "MacGyver Project".

    Thanks again for all your work and I'll continue to visit to see what direction the site goes moving forward. There will definitely be topics where I'm not likely to have anything meaningful to contribute but I still look forward to your insights.

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    1. Thanks Mark! You're right in that I didn't expect to have any audience whatsoever and thought it would just be me talking to myself -- that still would have been fun, but it was a lot more fun to share with other fans.

      Thanks for sticking with the blog in the future. If you ever wanted to learn more about Disney movies and Disney World, you're in luck! Believe it or not, I can already think of a few crossover individuals from the MacGyver universe who I can reference.

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    2. I'll definitely check up on the Disney songs and see what you come up with. Especially intrigued with possible MacGyver universe parallels. I've never been that big of a watcher of Disney animated films but back in the mid-to-late 80s ABC had the weekly "Disney Sunday Movie", which I was a loyal viewer of....a bunch of family-friendly TV movies that were thoroughly enjoyable to an elementary-age boy as I was. They had some genuine classics there and I expect most would hold up for me even as an adult. Also nice that they featured plenty of "MacGyver" promos for episodes that aired the following night!

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    3. Once I get to Quantum Leap, there will be a ton of MacGyver universe parallels. Not too many with Disney but there are at least a few that come to mind, and maybe I'll find some more along the way. I'll be coming to the Disney project similar to MacGyver in that I have a lot of personal experiences and childhood memories to relate. One big difference is that the Disney fanbase is probably 10,000 times bigger than MacGyver and much more has been written about the topic already, but hopefully I can try and break some new ground.

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    4. re: Quantum Leap - Bruce McGill is at least a cross-over actor. I'm sure there are more - at least for the LA seasons of MacGyver. It's been a while since I watched all the QL eps, but I'm pretty sure there are MacGyver alumni.

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    5. Yeah, McGill is actually in the first and last episode and that's it, which is interesting. Teri Hatcher is in an episode, as are numerous other less famous guest stars. And there's also some crossover with writers and directors.

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  2. I found the blog when Peter Williams tweeted about "Collision Course". (He's a great guy, btw!) And, obviously, the blog here inspired me to do my own rankings of the episodes - which was, omg, so SO hard! And I'm still adjusting the rankings as I go.

    Nick - I would kind of like to see you do a full review of "Young MacGyver". It will probably be rough to sit through, but it would 'complete' your MacGyver rankings. =)

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    1. Thanks H2! Good luck with your countdown!

      As for Young MacGyver, I don't think I can bring myself to sit through the whole thing - the first five minutes were enough to convince me that it would be at the bottom of the list and also an hour of my life that I wouldn't get back.

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  3. I think I discovered the blog by going to page 6 of a random search a few months after you'd started and glad I did. Its been great fun and a brilliant idea with some witty and interesting analyses and excellent interviews. It was certainly difficult to rank the episodes but pleased to have finally done it. Will check out future posts from time to time although won't have too much to say on the new topics I may also go back and comment some of the episodes I missed out on before - it was hard to keep up at times!

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    1. Thanks Al, it's been great to have you on board!

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