MacGyver
Out in the Cold
TV Flash files “Out in the Cold” as hour 38 of 139 in the TV Flash guide — MacGyver (1985–1992) on ABC, season 2, episode 16, aired 1987-02-16, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E16: listed hour 38 of 139 in the MacGyver guide, hour 16 of 22 in season 2. It aired 1987-02-16 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Pirates” (S02E15). Next is “Dalton, Jack of Spies” (S02E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When MacGyver and Pete go skiing, a man switches poles with MacGyver, only moments before being gunned down and killed by his former friends. But the gunshot starts an avalanche, which covers MacGyver completely, leaving it up to Pete to convince the mountain rangers to stage a search and rescue before the next avalanche comes. As MacGyver finally is dug up, the gangsters are there, waiting for him, and whatever is hidden in that ski pole.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Out in the Cold sit in the MacGyver guide?
S02E16 is listed hour 38 of 139 — hour 16 of 22 in season 2, season 2 episode 16.
When did MacGyver S02E16 air?
Out in the Cold aired 1987-02-16 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…