It seems like television will soon have more reboots and continuations of previously existing shows than original programs. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that a slew of classic shows are getting brought into the modern age, and the latest of these is the 1980s action-adventure drama MacGyver, which is heading to CBS. We’re assuming that all anyone needs to get this going is a paper clip, three rubber bands and a cheese grater.
If you were expecting a new MacGyver to take things in a completely different direction, you’re a very silly person. To be expected, they’ll be shooting for a younger version of the character, and he’ll be a super-crafty 20-something who gets involved with a secret organization where his talents for handling things in unconventional ways are used to help prevent terrible events from happening. I’m guessing we’ll see a lot of digital technology involved as well as office supplies.
Luckily, this new version of MacGyver has a pretty interesting creative team behind it. The biggest name of the bunch is filmmaker James Wan, who went from directing the no-budget Saw to last year’s billion-dollar-earning Furious 7, and he’ll be executive producing and directing the potential pilot, with the possibility to continue working on it if it becomes a full series. Writing the pilot’s script is R. Scott Gemmill, a writer/producer on shows such as NCIS: Los Angeles, ER and Jag. Also serving as executive producer will be Henry “Fonzie” Winkler, who was one of the execs behind the original series.
At this point, CBS isn’t being very clear about how into this new MacGyver they are, as it doesn’t appear they’ve ordered it to series just yet. THR’s sources say that a put pilot commitment has been put in place, and that both the network and the parent company are definitely interested in getting this project off the ground.
The original MacGyver, starring Richard Dean Anderson, ran on ABC for 139 episodes from 1985 to 1992, with two made-for-TV movies airing in 1994. The show did decent, ratings-wise, and the eponymous character became shorthand slang for performing a fairly complicated task with only rudimentary objects. Attempts were made to spin it off, with Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki set as Young MacGyver for The WB, as well as plans for a feature film, but nothing came of either project.
There was actually talk earlier this year about putting a new form of MacGyver out there with a young female in the lead, and a crowdsourcing campaign to put together the central concept. That project hasn’t gained much ground since, and it seems likely that CBS’ potential series will be the next version of the character that we see.
