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The Best Episodes of MacGyver Season 1

Every episode of MacGyver Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of MacGyver Season 1!

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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 with only a knapsack filled with everyday items he picks

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    MacGyver Season 1 Episode 14 - Countdown
    8.0/10(570 votes)

    S1:E14

    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
    Writers:David Ketchum, Tony DiMarco

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  2. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 22 - The Assassin
    7.9/10(491 votes)

    S1:E22

    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

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  3. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot
    7.8/10(2480 votes)

    S1:E1

    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

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  4. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 5 - The Heist
    7.7/10(636 votes)

    S1:E5

    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.

    Director:Paul Stanley
    Writer:James Schmerer

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  5. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 10 - Target MacGyver
    7.7/10(579 votes)

    S1:E10

    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.

    Directors:Ernest Pintoff, Lee H. Katzin
    Writer:Terry Nation

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  6. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 11 - Nightmares
    7.6/10(545 votes)

    S1:E11

    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.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writer:James Schmerer

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  7. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 12 - Deathlock
    7.6/10(543 votes)

    S1:E12

    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.

    Director:Alexander Singer
    Writers:Stephen Kandel, Jerry Ludwig

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  8. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 20 - The Escape
    7.5/10(465 votes)

    S1:E20

    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.

    Director:Don Chaffey
    Writers:Stephen Kandel, Fred McKnight

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  9. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 4 - The Gauntlet
    7.4/10(660 votes)

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:Lee H. Katzin
    Writers:Stephen Kandel, Judy Burns

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  10. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 16 - Every Time She Smiles
    7.4/10(518 votes)

    S1:E16

    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.

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:James Schmerer

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  11. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 6 - Trumbo's World
    7.3/10(660 votes)

    S1:E6

    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.

    Directors:Donald Petrie, Lee H. Katzin
    Writer:Stephen Kandel

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  12. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 7 - Last Stand
    7.3/10(596 votes)

    S1:E7

    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.

    Director:John Florea
    Writer:Judy Burns

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  13. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 9 - The Prodigal
    7.3/10(545 votes)

    S1:E9

    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.

    Director:Alexander Singer
    Writer:David Abramowitz

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  14. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 19 - Slow Death
    7.3/10(479 votes)

    S1:E19

    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.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Stephen Kandel

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  15. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 8 - Hellfire
    7.2/10(578 votes)

    S1:E8

    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?

    Director:Richard A. Colla
    Writer:Douglas Brooks West

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  16. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 21 - A Prisoner of Conscience
    7.2/10(459 votes)

    S1:E21

    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.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writer:Stephen Kandel

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  17. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 13 - Flame's End
    7.1/10(518 votes)

    S1:E13

    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.

    Director:Bruce Seth Green
    Writer:Stephen Kandel

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  18. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 15 - The Enemy Within
    7.0/10(519 votes)

    S1:E15

    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.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writer:David Abramowitz

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  19. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 18 - Ugly Duckling
    7.0/10(504 votes)

    S1:E18

    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.

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:Larry Gross

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  20. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 3 - Thief of Budapest
    6.9/10(734 votes)

    S1:E3

    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.

    Directors:Lee H. Katzin, John Patterson
    Writers:Terry Nation, Joe Viola, Stephen Downing

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  21. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 2 - The Golden Triangle
    6.7/10(779 votes)

    S1:E2

    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.

    Directors:Donald Petrie, Paul Stanley
    Writers:Terry Nation, Dennis Foley

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  22. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 17 - To Be a Man
    6.6/10(477 votes)

    S1:E17

    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.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writer:Don Mankiewicz

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"Countdown" is the best rated episode of "MacGyver" season 1. It scored 8/10 based on 570 votes. Directed by Stan Jolley and written by David Ketchum, Tony DiMarco, it aired on 2/5/1986. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "The Assassin".