7.8/102,340 votes#1 - 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
6.7/10666 votes#2 - The Golden Triangle
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1985
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.
Director: Paul Stanley, Donald Petrie
Writer: Terry Nation, Dennis Foley
6.9/10627 votes#3 - Thief of Budapest
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1985
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.
Director: Lee H. Katzin, John Patterson
Writer: Terry Nation, Stephen Downing, Joe Viola
7.3/10560 votes#4 - The Gauntlet
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/21/1985
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
Writer: Stephen Kandel, Judy Burns
7.6/10538 votes#5 - The Heist
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/3/1985
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
7.3/10570 votes#6 - Trumbo's World
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/10/1985
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.
Director: Donald Petrie, Lee H. Katzin
Writer: Stephen Kandel
7.3/10509 votes#7 - Last Stand
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/17/1985
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
7.2/10495 votes#8 - Hellfire
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/27/1985
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
7.3/10465 votes#9 - The Prodigal
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1985
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
7.7/10495 votes#10 - 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
7.5/10471 votes#11 - Nightmares
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 1/15/1986
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
7.6/10465 votes#12 - Deathlock
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/22/1986
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
Writer: Stephen Kandel, Jerry Ludwig
7.1/10448 votes#13 - Flame's End
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/29/1986
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
8.0/10483 votes#14 - 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
7.0/10452 votes#15 - The Enemy Within
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 2/12/1986
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
7.4/10448 votes#16 - Every Time She Smiles
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 2/19/1986
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
6.6/10412 votes#17 - To Be a Man
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 3/5/1986
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
7.0/10434 votes#18 - Ugly Duckling
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 3/12/1986
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
7.3/10417 votes#19 - Slow Death
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 4/2/1986
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
7.4/10406 votes#20 - The Escape
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 4/16/1986
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
Writer: Stephen Kandel, Fred McKnight
7.2/10402 votes#21 - A Prisoner of Conscience
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 4/30/1986
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
7.9/10428 votes#22 - 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
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!
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
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Pilot" is the best rated episode of "MacGyver" season 1. It scored 7.8/10 based on 2340 votes. Directed by Jerrold Freedman and written by Thackary Pallor, it aired on 9/29/1985. This episode is rated 1.1 points higher than the second-best, "The Golden Triangle".