MacGyver
Final Approach
TV Flash files “Final Approach” as hour 27 of 139 in the TV Flash guide — MacGyver (1985–1992) on ABC, season 2, episode 5, aired 1986-10-27, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E05: listed hour 27 of 139 in the MacGyver guide, hour 5 of 22 in season 2. It aired 1986-10-27 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Wish Child” (S02E04). Next is “Jack of Lies” (S02E06).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
MacGyver goes to the mountains to lead four ex-gangster teens on a Phoenix Foundation funded rehabilitation trip. When he gets there, he finds that this task may be a little more complicated then he thought. All of the kids are very rebellious and one of them has a bad grudge against another one. A couple of days later when MacGyver is returning with the kids, their plane crashes in the middle of the wilderness and one of them is injured. Now, MacGyver must fix the plane and help the kids work out their differences so they can save their friend.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Final Approach sit in the MacGyver guide?
S02E05 is listed hour 27 of 139 — hour 5 of 22 in season 2, season 2 episode 5.
When did MacGyver S02E05 air?
Final Approach aired 1986-10-27 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Why doesn't he use a gun?
That is the brand. MacGyver prefers inventiveness — paper clips, chocolate, duct tape — over firearms. The crises are puzzles; the explosions are chemistry class.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The anti-gun action hero done right — clever set pieces and Anderson's unflappable center. Paper clips, chocolate bars, a Swiss Army knife as sacrament: Phoenix Foundation missions as science-fair ingenuity. Still the patron saint of making do. MacGyvered entered the dictionary; mullet science stayed in the yearbook.
No gun required — just a paper clip, a chocolate bar, and Richard Dean Anderson's calm competence. ABC's MacGyver (1985–1992) made improvisational problem-solving a heroic superpower for the mullet age: Phoenix Foundation missions with Dana Elcar's Pete Thornton, Bruce McGill's Jack Dalton in the mix, a Swiss Army knife as sacrament. Lee David Zlotoff's hero taught a generation that duct tape is a lifestyle. **Seven seasons, 139 hours, and a surname that entered the dictionary.** Rex can toast the gunslinger.…
Filed against
- Richard Dean Anderson as Angus MacGyver
Richard Dean Anderson’s Angus MacGyver made paper clips a sacrament — anti-gun action hero, Phoenix Foundation as science-fair ingenuity — then dialed Stargate SG-1 as O’Neill’s wry competence for ten seasons. The verb entered the…
- Dana Elcar as Pete Thornton
Dana Elcar’s Pete Thornton ran MacGyver’s Phoenix Foundation desk — paper clips, chocolate bars, a Swiss Army knife as sacrament, the anti-gun action hero’s municipal boss. Anderson stayed unflappable in the field; Elcar made the…
- Bruce McGill as Jack Dalton
Bruce McGill played Jack Dalton on MacGyver — the loose-cannon friend in a paper-clip action hour that treated a Swiss Army knife as sacrament. Phoenix Foundation missions as science-fair ingenuity, Anderson unflappable at the center. TV…