8.4/10466 votesLoading...#1 - The Widowmaker
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/16/1987
MacGyver is forced out of his grief over the tragic death of a friend by a madman with a score to settle from their past association.
Director: Michael Vejar
Writer: John Whelpley
8.2/10409 votesLoading...#2 - Partners
Season 2 Episode 18 - Aired 3/2/1987
MacGyver and Pete meet at a wrecking yard, both thinking that the other one arranged the meeting. Soon an unknown assailant captures them inside a big truck. Their only clue is an obituary for them and Jack Dalton.
Director: Cliff Bole
Writer: Bill Froehlich, Mark Lisson
8.2/10381 votesLoading...#3 - The Invisible Killer
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 4/10/1989
MacGyver heads up a trip with four other Phoenix Foundation employees into the wilderness as part of a stress reduction program. After discovering that a prison bus accident has freed several prisoners, the employees begin to question each other's behavior. MacGyver must now figure out which man, if any, is not to be trusted before it's too late.
Director: Dana Elcar
Writer: Chris Haddock
8.1/10427 votesLoading...#4 - Phoenix Under Siege
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 1/5/1987
While retrieving tickets for a hockey game at the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver and his grandpa Harry get caught in the middle of a woman's plot to blow up the building using a bomb that she herself made. They try to escape, but are locked in. Now they must figure another way out before she activates the bomb.
Director: Gilbert M. Shilton
Writer: N/A
8.1/10379 votesLoading...#5 - Cleo Rocks
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 2/6/1989
Penny Parker's big chance in a major professional role is threatened from two directions: a money shortage and several deaths linked to the musical she is set to perform in.
Director: Chuck Bowman
Writer: John Sheppard, Rick Drew
8.1/10368 votesLoading...#6 - Halloween Knights
Season 5 Episode 6 - Aired 10/30/1989
An old nemsis enlists MacGyver's help to rescue someone important to him—and she's scheduled to be executed during a Halloween Party put on by a professional assassination organization.
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: N/A
8.0/10487 votesLoading...#7 - Countdown
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 2/5/1986
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.
Director: Stan Jolley
Writer: David Ketchum, Tony DiMarco
8.0/10389 votesLoading...#8 - Hell Week
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 11/23/1987
A desperate physics student goes off the deep end and boobytraps a college lab when he fails to win a science competition and to live up to his father's high expectations.
Director: James L. Conway
Writer: Leonard Mlodinow, Scott Rubenstein
8.0/10366 votesLoading...#9 - The Negotiator
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 3/7/1988
MacGyver becomes infatuated with a woman while conducting environmental-impact studies. However, what MacGyver does not know is that the woman was hired to "persuade" him to skip the studies—and if necessary, kill him.
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: Calvin Clements Jr.
8.0/10414 votesLoading...#10 - The Secret of Parker House
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 10/31/1988
MacGyver accompanies Penny Parker to an old house she inherited from her Aunt Betty, who mysteriously died 30 years before. When strange things start happening, Penny is sure that the house is haunted.
Director: Michael Vejar
Writer: N/A
7.9/10432 votesLoading...#11 - The Assassin
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 5/7/1986
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.
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: James Schmerer
7.9/10441 votesLoading...#12 - The Human Factor
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/22/1986
MacGyver and Pete are testing a new security system at the Strategic Research Development Administration. MacGyver successfully bypasses the security and meets Dr. Jill Ludlam, the system's designer. She tries to turn off the security system, but it doesn't realize that it was just a test. MacGyver and Dr. Ludlam are then forced to find a way out, as the security system, named Sandy, tries to destroy the "intruders."
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: Robin Bernheim Burger
7.9/10321 votesLoading...#13 - Legend of the Holy Rose (2)
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 9/25/1989
MacGyver and an old friend dash around the world searching for the artifacts necessary to locate the Holy Grail, just one step ahead of a ruthless man on the same trail.
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: N/A
7.9/10308 votesLoading...#14 - Cease Fire
Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 10/9/1989
During some tough negotiations between two neighbouring states, one side plants a sniper in the vicinity. When Mac discovers the sniper, he fights him, but loses the man and the accusations go out against Mac. Wounded and forced to run, he hides at a private girls' school, where one of the young ladies becomes his only hope to prevent further bloodshed.
Director: Bill Gereghty
Writer: Chris Haddock
7.9/10327 votesLoading...#15 - Passages
Season 5 Episode 21 - Aired 4/30/1990
Frantic with worry about his gravely-ill Grandpa Harry, MacGyver experiences a strange near-death phenomena, seeing his parents again, when he's injured by a man who's stolen an ancient Egyptian relic.
Director: Bill Gereghty
Writer: N/A
7.9/10309 votesLoading...#16 - Lesson in Evil
Season 6 Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/1990
Dr. Zito returns to menace MacGyver and Murphy when he escapes after his latest sanity hearing, leaving a series of nasty clues designed to give Mac a crash course in evil.
Director: Bill Gereghty
Writer: N/A
7.9/10314 votesLoading...#17 - The Stringer
Season 7 Episode 13 - Aired 4/25/1992
While working with Chinese dissidents to expose illegal labor camps, MacGyver gets unexpected help from a young photojournalist who claims to be his son!
Director: Michael Vejar
Writer: N/A
7.8/102,349 votesLoading...#18 - Pilot
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1985
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.
Director: Jerrold Freedman
Writer: Thackary Pallor
7.8/10427 votesLoading...#19 - Ghost Ship
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/1987
While mapping the wilderness for the Phoenix foundation, MacGyver stumbles on a deserted ship and finds a runaway girl who tells him that the rest of crew was driven away by Bigfoot.
Director: Michael Vejar
Writer: Stephen Kandel
7.8/10312 votesLoading...#20 - The Survivors
Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 1/9/1989
While on assignment to test field agents for the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver and Pete discover the wreckage of a DEA plane shot down by dangerous drug smugglers.
Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: W. Reed Moran
7.8/10331 votesLoading...#21 - Deadly Dreams
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 1/16/1989
MacGyver gets involved in the search for an escaped serial killer. Soon he comes to the conclusion that the killer had help from another prisoner—an even more sinister man.
Director: Les Landau
Writer: Stephen Downing
7.8/10341 votesLoading...#22 - Legend of the Holy Rose (1)
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1989
MacGyver and an old friend dash around the world searching for the artifacts necessary to locate the Holy Grail, just one step ahead of a ruthless man on the same trail, who will do anything to get to it before they do.
Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: N/A
7.7/10499 votesLoading...#23 - Target MacGyver
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/22/1985
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.
Director: Lee H. Katzin, Ernest Pintoff
Writer: Terry Nation
7.7/10378 votesLoading...#24 - Three For the Road
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 12/15/1986
A retired actor and his wife stop at a motel on the way to Los Angeles. MacGyver rescues them from a drunkard who nearly makes a mark on their car. MacGyver is supposed to meet a mobster-turned-informant at the motel, but the meeting goes wrong. The mob shows up and kills MacGyver's friend before he can give MacGyver what he promised. Instead the bag lands in the old couple's car, where the old actor finds it and discovers it full of money.
Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Writer: Kerry Lenhart, John J. Sakmar
7.7/10335 votesLoading...#25 - The Endangered
Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 5/2/1988
While visiting an old girlfriend who's a park ranger at a wildlife reserve, MacGyver runs into deadly poachers who are intent on hunting animals on the reserve. When MacGyver tries to uncover their plot, they come after him. Now it's a race against time to escape the poachers, save the animals, and save their own lives.
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: Peter Filardi
The Best Episodes of MacGyver
Every episode of MacGyver ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of MacGyver!
He's everyone's favorite action hero... but he's a hero with a difference. Angus MacGyver is a secret agent whose wits are his deadliest weapon. Armed...
Genres:Action & AdventureDramaFamilyCrimeWestern
Network:ABC
Best Episodes Summary
"The Widowmaker" is the best rated episode of "MacGyver". It scored 8.4/10 based on 466 votes. Directed by Michael Vejar and written by John Whelpley, it aired on 11/16/1987. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "Partners".