Richard Dean Anderson played the title character in MacGyver, which was a Canadian-produced American adventure television series about an extremely resourceful secret agent.

The compelling bit in most episodes was MacGyver getting into a (usually) life and death situation, and having to invent a way out by engineering a solution with materials at hand.

It aired from September 29, 1985 to May 21, 1992 on the ABC television network and filmed primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Henry Winkler was one of the show's executive producers.

Supporting characters included Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar), MacGyver's boss and best friend, Jack Dalton (Bruce McGill), Murdoc (Michael Des Barres), the show's main antagonist, Penny Parker (Teri Hatcher), The Coltons (Della Reese, Cleavon Little, Richard Lawson, Cuba Gooding Jr.), Harry Jackson (John Anderson), Nikki Carpenter (Elyssa Davalos), Mei Jan (Michele Chan), Wilt and Milt Bozer (Robin Mossley, Robert Donner), Sean Angus Malloy (Dalton James), Cynthia Wilson (Roxanne Reese), and Lisa Woodman (Mayim Bialik).