{"id":1941,"date":"2026-10-12T18:09:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T11:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:09:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T11:09:26","slug":"richard-dean-anderson-the-iconic-macgyver-he-was-different-a-tv-hero-who-didnt-use-guns-he-would-think-look-and-solve-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/?p=1941","title":{"rendered":"Richard Dean Anderson, the iconic MacGyver: \u2018He was different, a TV hero who didn\u2019t use guns. He would think, look and solve the problem\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He had a solution for everything. There was no problem he couldn\u2019t tackle. Whether it was forcing open a lock by melting ice, building a defibrillator out of two candlesticks and a microphone cable, making a bomb with a stick of chewing gum or defusing one with a paper clip. He could even stop a sulfuric acid leak with milk chocolate bars. As a popular Spanish saying<\/a> inspired by the character goes: \u201cYou\u2019re more dangerous than MacGyver in a hardware store.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea people said that in Spain. That\u2019s fantastic,\u201d says Richard Dean Anderson, the actor who brought the resourceful hero to life, bursting into laughter. Warm and engaging, the 76-year-old was one of the biggest nostalgia draws at last weekend\u2019s San Diego Comic-Con M\u00e1laga. At the event in the Spanish city, he signed autographs, posed for photographs with fans and took part in an entertaining panel discussion. He also spoke with EL PA\u00cdS.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting fans is wonderful. It\u2019s the best part of all this,\u201d says the U.S. actor, who appreciates the warmth of the public, if not the warmth of the weather. \u201cI\u2019m from Minnesota. I have thick blood. Yesterday [Friday] was really hot. It was terrible,\u201d he says while figuring out how to use a handheld fan.<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cWe ran into a bit of chaos that didn\u2019t seem to keep the fans in mind. I don\u2019t know if they are getting what they came for. I suppose I could adjust and accept that\u2019s the way it is here, but I think about the fans, the people who pay the money to come and meet me and get an autograph or whatever… It all feels a little casual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, I don\u2019t really have a social life where I live and it\u2019s always nice to meet people,\u201d says Anderson, who lives north of Malibu, California, and leads a lifestyle far removed from that of a typical superstar.<\/p>\n

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An image from the series ‘MacGyver,’ with Richard Dean Anderson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anderson spends most of his time with his dogs and walking by the sea, away from television and the media. It\u2019s a personal choice. After appearing in more than 600 episodes of the daytime drama General Hospital<\/i> and becoming MacGyver, he later took on the role of Lt. O\u2019Neill in Stargate<\/i>, a character that further cemented his popularity in the United States. It also proved to be one of the last major chapters of his acting career.<\/p>\n

The turning point came with the birth of his daughter, Wylie Anderson, 28 years ago. He says he quickly realized that nothing was worth spending time away from her as a newborn. \u201cNow she writes, directs and produces. I try to help her however I can, even if that means getting out of the way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His face may have disappeared from television screens, but at last weekend\u2019s event in Spain, four decades later, it was one of the most recognizable thanks to the enormous success of MacGyver<\/i>. Created by Lee David Zlotoff for ABC, the series aired on Spanish public broadcaster TVE between 1985 and 1992. Over the course of its seven seasons, it became a global phenomenon, drawing huge audiences and turning Anderson into an international star. He says he landed the role after asking to keep his glasses on during the audition so he could read his lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in charge looked at each other and said: if he doesn\u2019t mind being seen with glasses in a role like this, we\u2019ve found our MacGyver,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

The character also closely resembled the real-life Richard Dean Anderson. \u201cThe writers put in things that I was interested in, which included the environment, animal rights, anti-gun [measures]. And then there\u2019s a certain part of living as a human being, like I ski, played hockey, and did all those jocular things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMacGyver was different: a TV hero who didn\u2019t use guns. He would think, look and solve the problems without killing somebody, without shooting them,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat allowed parents and children to watch the show together. And that\u2019s what I feel most proud of and happy about: those relationships, especially between daughters and dads. I think that combination made the series memorable to a broader audience than normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

His role was that of a superhero who, instead of a cape and powers, always had pliers within reach. He was an ordinary person who saved lives, rescued people, and solved conflicts using science, never guns. \u201cI don\u2019t think there are enough people in the world who are intrigued or humbled by science on television today. Because you really have to watch, listen and observe. Whereas a sitcom or a regular drama, you can just hear,\u201d says Anderson.<\/p>\n

The actor says he helped devise many of the ingenious fixes his character used to get out of trouble. \u201cWe had collaborators \u2014 advisers from technical schools and universities near Los Angeles. They told us how something could be solved with what was in the room, and others contributed too. It was a collective effort,\u201d he remembers before pausing to consider whether MacGyver would have used artificial intelligence<\/a> if it had been available to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s more of a practical solver of problems, more physical,\u201c he says. \u201dHe uses his science mind to see angles or possibilities of what is real, what is right here and now. I don\u2019t know enough about AI, but it\u2019s a little frightening because it appears to me that it takes away the human element. It becomes automatic; it solves. I like the human mind and the way it works now. I understand that AI is not going to let us decide. It\u2019s going to dictate. That scares me. But MacGyver and AI? Maybe he\u2019d just be intrigued, like: how could I use this?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Richard Dean Anderson, the famous MacGyver, at the San Diego Comic-Con in M\u00e1laga. Alvaro Cabrera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MacGyver and the Basques<\/h2>\n

With Anderson visiting Spain, it was impossible not to bring up something rather more peculiar: a first-season episode in which Angus MacGyver travels to the Pyrenees<\/a> to go undercover, disguising himself with little more than a towel, among a group of \u201cBasque mountain fighters who have been at war with France and Spain since time immemorial,\u201d as the show\u2019s narrator puts it.<\/p>\n

The group \u2014 whose members wear txapelas<\/i> and use pelota<\/i> baskets to hurl grenades \u2014 look less like Basque separatists than an unlikely cross between highwaymen and Sicilian gangsters. In the episode, which later went viral on YouTube in Spain, the hero must rescue a geologist whom her captors mistakenly believe to be a physicist and whom, MacGyver suspects, they intend to use to help build an atomic bomb.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so long ago that I don\u2019t remember it,\u201d says Anderson. He has much clearer memories, however, of past holidays in Barcelona and Ibiza, and admits he arrived in M\u00e1laga a couple of days early in order to explore the city. \u201cThe beach, its castle, it\u2019s incredible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n