Phoenix Foundation - A MacGyver Podcast

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: September 25th, 1989 —

MacGyver and Zoe continue their search for an ancient religious artifact alongside murderous competition

MISSION: MacGyver escapes from evil’s clutches and heads out to rescue Zoe and track down the Holy Rose before it’s lost forever.

This week’s highlights include:

Michael Ensign has played some of your favorite snooty film characters. Not the least of which was a popular turn as the hotel manager in Ghostbusters pictured above. He also played the self-sacrificing Guggenheim in James Cameron’s Titanic. We’ll chat about how he got started acting and the Ghostbusters role he initially auditioned for.

BTW, that role Ensign couldn’t discuss during the interview was his appearance on The Detour, specifically this episode.

Ruby laser (Technology)

A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a synthetic ruby crystal as its gain medium. The first working laser was a ruby laser made by Theodore H. “Ted” Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories on May 16, 1960.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_laser.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: September 18th, 1989 —

MacGyver’s kidnapped by a friend and sent on a quest for the Holy Grail

MISSION: After rescuing a senator’s son from Columbian druglords, MacGyver is looking forward to some rest when a childhood friend drags him on a globetrotting quest for an ancient religious artifact.

This week’s highlights include:

Keep your ears peeled for a cameo from my daughter toward the end of today’s episode.

Here is the Mythbusters test of MacGyver’s cold open ultralight…

Pendulum (Torture Device)

The pendulum was an instrument of torture and execution claimed to have been used by the Spanish Inquisition as recently as the early 19th Century. The allegation is contained in the book The history of the Inquisition of Spain (1826) by the Spanish priest, historian and liberal activist Juan Antonio Llorente. A swinging pendulum whose edge is a knife blade slowly descends toward a bound prisoner until it cuts into his body. The method of torture came to popular consciousness through the 1842 short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by American author Edgar Allan Poe but there is considerable skepticism that it actually was used.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum_(torture_device).

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: May 15th, 1989 —

A villain from MacGyver’s past is back to finish the job, but which one?

MISSION: MacGyver, Pete and Jack spend some time panning for gold in the wilderness when they are beset upon by a baddie from MacGyver’s past. Can they identify the attacker before they are all taken prisoner?

This week’s highlights include:

Keep your ears peeled toward the end for a cameo from my darling daughter.

Speed of sound (Physics)

The speed of sound is the distance traveled per unit time by a sound wave propagating through an elastic medium. In dry air at 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound is 343.2 metres per second (1,126 ft/s; 1,236 km/h; 768 mph; 667 kn), or a kilometre in 2.914 s or a mile in 4.689 s.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: May 8th, 1989 —

PTSD drives an acquaintance of MacGyver’s to steal anthrax from a Phoenix Foundation lab

MISSION: MacGyver must track down an old friend with a dangerous strain of Anthrax before it ends up in the wrong hands.

This week’s highlights include:

Anthrax (Bacteria)

Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It can occur in four forms: skin, inhalation, intestinal, and injection. Symptoms begin between one day and two months after contracting the infection. The skin form presents with a small blister with surrounding swelling that often turns into a painless ulcer with a black center. The inhalation form presents with fever, chest pain, and shortness of breath. The intestinal form presents with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or abdominal pain. The injection form presents with fever and an abscess at the site of drug injection.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrax.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: May 1st, 1989 —

Terrorists threaten to shut down an entire city if their demands are not met

MISSION: MacGyver happens across a team of terrorists hijacking a piece of military hardware with which they plan to take an entire city hostage. MacGyver and Pete must go it alone to sabotage the threat.

This week’s highlights include:

Electromagnetic pulse (Physics)

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also sometimes called a transient electromagnetic disturbance, is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Such a pulse’s origination may be a natural occurrence or man-made and can occur as a radiated, electric or magnetic field or a conducted electric current, depending on the source.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: April 24th, 1989 —

An assassination has been planned and not even the shooter knows when it’s coming

MISSION: MacGyver and Jack Dalton are set to recieve high honors from a foreign government, but someone intends to stage an assassination at the ceremony using someone within the Phoenix Foundation.

This week’s highlights include:

House of mirrors (Theme park attraction)

A house of mirrors or hall of mirrors is a traditional attraction at funfairs (carnivals) and amusement parks. The basic concept behind a house of mirrors is to be a maze-like puzzle. In addition to the maze, participants are also given mirrors as obstacles, and glass panes to parts of the maze they cannot yet get to. Sometimes the mirrors may be distorted because of different curves, convex, or concave in the glass to give the participants unusual and confusing reflections of themselves, some humorous and others frightening.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_mirrors.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: April 10th, 1989 —

A local prison break may have infiltrated MacGyver’s new Phoenix-sponsored stress relief nature retreat.

MISSION: MacGyver is alone in the woods with four strangers who all claim to work for Phoenix, but when details of a local prison break reach the group, everyone’s identity is thrown into question.

This week’s highlights include:

Here is the MacGyver Project conversation with Stephen Downing about his daughter Julie’s work in this episode.

Holly (Botany)

Ilex /ˈaɪlɛks/, or holly, is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The fruits are generally slightly toxic to humans, and can cause vomiting and diarrhea when ingested.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: March 27th, 1989 —

MacGyver helps to avoid booby traps and recover Soviet gold from a decades-old crash site

MISSION: Phoenix Foundation is contracted to investigate the 50-year-old crash site of a plane loaded with Russian gold bullion. Step one, is defusing the traps left behind by the original crew.

This week’s highlights include:

David Engelbach, screenwriter for this episode of MacGyver, was kind enough to share some time with us to discuss how the whole thing came about.

Check out that other interview with Mr. Engelbach that I mentioned here.

When Worlds Collide (Powerman 5000 song)

“When Worlds Collide” is a song by the band Powerman 5000 from their album Tonight the Stars Revolt!. The song is virtually always the last song to be played at concerts. It is one of the band’s most well-known songs and has been used in the video games Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw, and in the 2000 film Little Nicky. It is also used as the entrance music for Purdue Boilermakers home college football games played at Ross–Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Spider One has stated that the song is about social classes. In 2016 the band accused Square Enix of stealing the song for use in their popular MMO Final Fantasy XIV.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Worlds_Collide_(Powerman_5000_song).

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: February 27th, 1989 —

MacGyver rescues a teen prostitute from a tragic future and an equally depressing and abusive past.

MISSION: When a teen propositions Pete at a technology convention, MacGyver makes it his business to learn her situation and help steer her out of it. Things get more complicated when her abusive father shows up to take her home.

This week’s highlights include:

National Runaway Safeline (Service)

The National Runaway Safeline (also known as NRS or 1-800-RUNAWAY; formerly known as National Runaway Switchboard) is the national communications system designated by the United States federal government for runaway and homeless youth, their parents and families, teens in crisis, and others who might benefit from its services. It is confidential, anonymous, non-judgmental, non-directive, and free. The hotline number is 1-800-RUNAWAY. Calls are answered every day of the year, 24 hours a day.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Runaway_Safeline.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: February 27th, 1989 —

MacGyver is traumatized by a harsh lesson on the state of racism in America

MISSION: MacGyver attempts to show a troubled African American youth how the deck is not stacked against him. He fails miserably.

This week’s highlights include:

Columbian necktie (Crime)

A Colombian necktie (Spanish: corbata colombiana or corte corbata) was a form of post-mortem mutilation consisting of a deep incision under the victim’s chin, through which the tongue is pulled out and left hanging down in grisly resemblance to a necktie. A male victim’s genitals are sometimes also severed and put in the mouth. It originated in Colombia during the period of political violence known as La Violencia, as a method of psychological warfare, meant to scare and intimidate.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_necktie.