MacGyver: Season 1

1985 · 22 episodes · ★ 7.5

What Season 1 of MacGyver

Season 1 of MacGyver Has 22 episodes and premiered on September 29, 1985. Here's the complete episode guide with air dates, runtimes and ratings.

22episodes

Sep 29, 1985premiered

May 7, 1986latest episode

16.8 hrtotal runtime

Season 1 Episodes

1x01 Pilot
Sep 29, 1985 · 49 min · ★ 7.5
When a science lab studying the ozone layer mysteriously explodes, MacGyver is called in to rescue the scientists that are trapped underground. It's soon discovered that the explosion cracked a tank of sulfuric acid, and MacGyver is in a race against time before the Army uses a missile to seal up the base.
Directed by: Jerrold Freedman · Written by: Thackary Pallor · Starring: Paul Stewart, Michael Lerner, Michael C. Gwynne, Shavar Ross
1x02 The Golden Triangle
Oct 6, 1985 · 48 min · ★ 7.0
When MacGyver tries to retrieve a canister filled with a deadly chemical in Burma, he stumbles right into an area known as the Golden Triangle, where the military uses farmers as slaves on the opium fields. MacGyver is mistaken for a narcotics agent and is captured, but convinces the slaves to fight their oppression. MacGyver assists by setting several traps at the slave camp, and when the army returns to suppress the unrest, the real action begins.
Directed by: Donald Petrie, Paul Stanley · Written by: Terry Nation, Dennis Foley · Starring: Keye Luke, Joan Chen, James Saito, Clyde Kusatsu
1x03 Thief of Budapest
Oct 13, 1985 · 48 min · ★ 8.0
MacGyver travels to Budapest to meet with a Russian double agent who is in possession of a watch containing information about other Russian spies. However, before MacGyver can take the watch, the agent is killed and the watch is stolen. Now MacGyver must work with the Gypsies to get it back.
Directed by: Lee H. Katzin, John Patterson · Written by: Terry Nation, Joe Viola, Stephen Downing · Starring: Bruce Abbott, Michael Constantine, Nicholas Kadi, Sid Haig
1x04 The Gauntlet
Oct 21, 1985 · 49 min
MacGyver attempts to get a reporter out of a Central American country with evidence linking a general to an illegal arms dealer. As they reach the border, it is clear escaping to Mexico will be no easy task, as the general and the arms dealer have every imaginable route severely guarded.
Directed by: Lee H. Katzin · Written by: Stephen Kandel, Judy Burns · Starring: Robin Curtis, Gregory Sierra, John Vernon, Sam Vlahos
1x05 The Heist
Nov 3, 1985 · 45 min
When $60 million worth of stolen diamonds destined for a relief charity end up in the hands of casino owner Jack Catlin, MacGyver must head to the Virgin Islands to try and get them back. With the help of Chris Rhodes, a senator's daughter, MacGyver masterminds a plan to break into Catlin's vault and steal them back.
Directed by: Paul Stanley · Written by: James Schmerer · Starring: John Carter, Victoria Bass, Vernon Wells, Gavin Buhr
1x06 Trumbo's World
Nov 10, 1985 · 45 min
MacGyver comes along on a expedition to Brazil with his friend, entomologist Dr. Alden. They meet with a landowner and recluse, Trumbo, who is initially hostile. However, when they realize that a mile-wide column of army ants is moving through the jungle, they team together to mount a defense.
Directed by: Donald Petrie, Lee H. Katzin · Written by: Stephen Kandel · Starring: Peter Jurasik, David Ackroyd, Will Gotay, Maurice Sherbanee
1x07 Last Stand
Nov 17, 1985 · 48 min
When MacGyver is on his way to a vacation, he takes the wrong way and ends up at a small airstrip where everybody seems to be behaving strangely. Too late, he discovers that the airstrip has been taken hostage, and he has been caught in the middle of a plane-hijacking attempt.
Directed by: John Florea · Written by: Judy Burns · Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kay Lenz, Art Hindle, Harry Caesar
1x08 Hellfire
Nov 27, 1985 · 45 min
During a trip to visit some friends, an accident starts a fire in an oil well owned by MacGyver's friends. MacGyver and his buddy then go to fetch dynamite in an abandonned mine at great peril to themselves after they decide the dynamite is the only feasible way the fire can be put out. However, when they use it, the fire only becomes more intense. Can MacGyver and his Hellfire friend survive the incredible heat to put out the fire and save the oil buried underneath the well?
Directed by: Richard A. Colla · Written by: James Schmerer, Stephen Kandel, Douglas Brooks West · Starring: Rudy Ramos, Cooper Huckabee, Nana Visitor
1x09 The Prodigal
Dec 8, 1985 · 45 min
A man wants to testify against his mobster brother in Federal Court, and MacGyver has the job of keeping him safe, but the man's mother is dying and he wants to visit her.
Directed by: Alexander Singer · Written by: David Abramowitz · Starring: Richard Romanus, Carl Franklin, Angela Clarke, Michael Champion
1x10 Target MacGyver
Dec 22, 1985 · 45 min
After blowing away a nuclear facility under the control of an aggressive world leader, MacGyver returns home for some peace and quiet, only to find his boss waiting for him. He advises MacGyver that a contract is out on his life and he needs to skip town for awhile.
Directed by: Ernest Pintoff, Lee H. Katzin · Written by: Terry Nation, James Schmerer, Stephen Kandel · Starring: William Frankfather, John Anderson, Nick Dimitri, D'Mitch Davis
1x11 Nightmares
Jan 15, 1986 · 45 min
When MacGyver comes home with some important documents, he's drugged by enemy agents and told that he will die in six hours if he doesn't retrieve the documents for them. But MacGyver, using an old prisoner trick, escapes. Now the only problem is convincing someone that he's not just another drunk.
Directed by: Cliff Bole · Written by: James Schmerer · Starring: Dana Elcar, Robert O'Reilly, Tammy Lauren, J.P. Bumstead
1x12 Deathlock
Jan 22, 1986 · 45 min
MacGyver is trapped in a mansion with Pete, a code expert, and a government agent who may or may not be on their side. However, an old nemesis has electronically booby-trapped the entire mansion to make sure they can't go anywhere.
Directed by: Alexander Singer · Written by: Stephen Kandel, Jerry Ludwig · Starring: Dana Elcar, Wendy Schaal, Christopher Neame, Beulah Quo
1x13 Flame's End
Jan 29, 1986 · 45 min
An old girlfriend of MacGyver's contacts him for help after she discovers evidence of uranium thefts from a nuclear processing plant where she works.
Directed by: Bruce Seth Green · Written by: Stephen Kandel · Starring: Robert Englund, Conlan Carter, Tannis G. Montgomery, Robin Pearson Rose
1x14 Countdown
Feb 5, 1986 · 47 min
A mysterious person who calls himself "Viking" has just bombed the cruise ship Victoria, underway in the North Pacific Ocean. He demands six million dollars or another bomb will go off within hours. So MacGyver gets called in, along with his old Vietnam bomb-defusal partner, Charlie Robinson, to disarm it. But when they get there, they find out there's more than one bomb on the ship. Complications arise when MacGyver's partner sets off one of the bombs, and the bomber decides that DXS operated in bad faith and refuses to hand over the bomb-disarming instructions after he gets the extortion money.
Directed by: Stan Jolley · Written by: David Ketchum, Tony DiMarco · Starring: Dana Elcar, Ellen Bry, Steven Williams, Michael Cavanaugh
1x15 The Enemy Within
Feb 12, 1986 · 45 min
After a daring escape from East Germany where he gets rescued, and in the process saves a fellow operative with a quick mechanical fix, MacGyver thinks that he deserves some peaceful vacation time. But Pete lures him into baby-sitting a Russian defector who can identify KGB agents.
Directed by: Cliff Bole · Written by: David Abramowitz · Starring: Dana Elcar, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Michael Goodwin, Viktoriya Fyodorova
1x16 Every Time She Smiles
Feb 19, 1986 · 45 min
MacGyver is on his way out of Bulgaria with a secret microfilm, when he meets Penny Parker, a beautiful, talkative American, who is on the run from her lover, a man named Stephan Frolov. She stashes some jewels on MacGyver, thus making him a suspect, and now MacGyver and Penny must flee Bulgaria together.
Directed by Charles Correll · Written by James Schmerer · Starring Teri Hatcher, Michael Fox, Kai Wulff, Milos Kirek
1x17 To Be a Man
Mar 5, 1986 · 45 min
In Afghanistan, wounded and hunted by the Soviets, MacGyver is given refuge by an Afghan woman and her son. But they are themselves at the mercy of an Afghan thug, who will kill MacGyver if he finds him at his woman.
Directed by: Cliff Bole · Written by: Don Mankiewicz · Starring: Dana Elcar, Ajay Naidu, Persis Khambatta, Sid Haig
1x18 Ugly Duckling
Mar 12, 1986 · 45 min
A 15-year-old genius accidentally hacks into a defective missile guidance system and attracts the attention of both the FBI and some black marketeers, who think that she may fix it for them. It's up to MacGyver to save her from being kidnapped by either side.
Directed by: Charles Correll · Written by: Larry Gross · Starring: Dana Elcar, Ned Bellamy, Melinda O. Fee, Russell Johnson
1x19 Slow Death
Apr 2, 1986 · 45 min
At the beginning of the episode, MacGyver literally has to jump onto a moving train that he missed earlier to return top-secret files and documents to the U.S. Government. Soon after, a local tribe stops the train. They take all passengers hostage until the men responsible for the death of the tribal leader's son is found among the passengers.
Directed by: Don Weis · Written by: Stephen Kandel · Starring: Alan Fudge, Tracy Reed, Frances Bergen, Carrell Myers
1x20 The Escape
Apr 16, 1986 · 45 min
When a mother superior at a religious mission in North Africa asks MacGyver to help a young woman with something, he is glad to help. However, when he finds out the young woman wants him to break her brother out of jail, he may have taken on more than he expected.
Directed by: Don Chaffey · Written by: Stephen Kandel, Fred McKnight · Starring: Kristina Wayborn, John de Lancie, Paul Verdier, Miguel Fernandes
1x21 A Prisoner of Conscience
Apr 30, 1986 · 45 min
Pete Thornton investigates the supposed death of an old friend, a prominent Russian dissident, and finds he must get his friend's daughter Maria out of the country before the secret police arrest her for an alleged conspiracy. However, while in Russia, Pete bumps into MacGyver, who followed him from the United States. While disappointed MacGyver followed him, Pete gladly welcomes MacGyver into his plans when the secret police arrive to take Maria into custody. Following a high speed boat chase to escape the police, Pete and MacGyver find out from Maria that her father is not dead, he is being held in a maximum security ward at a state mental institution. To get into the mental hospital, MacGyver plays the part of a mad patient and Pete plays the part of a doctor who has been assigned to him. With the help of the other patients, MacGyver is able to escape into Ward Zero, where Pete's friend is held. MacGyver breaks him out and hides him with the other patients.
Directed by: Cliff Bole · Written by: Stephen Kandel · Starring: Dana Elcar, Paul Koslo, Jane Merrow, Marvin Kaplan
1x22 The Assassin Season Finale
May 7, 1986 · 45 min
Posing as a watchmaker who manufactures bomb timers, MacGyver manages to catch a master killer—Piedra—before he attempts an assassination on a high-profile target. However, Piedra isn't about to be stopped for long.
Directed by: Charles Correll · Written by: James Schmerer · Starring: Dana Elcar, Corinne Bohrer, Anthony De Longis, Richard Yniguez