[2] MacGyver was unlike secret agents in other television series and films because, instead of relying on high-tech weapons and tools, he carried only a Swiss Army knife and duct tape.
[1] The show's writers based MacGyver's inventions on items they found on location, concepts from scientific advisers John Koivula and Jim Green, and real events.
[5][6] In 2007, the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live featured a parody of MacGyver called "MacGruber" with Will Forte as the title character.
The first test examined MacGyver's famous cold capsule bomb, which utilized the explosive reaction of alkali metals with water.
A charge with 120 cartridges worth of black powder set off by electric igniter managed to destroy the lock, proving the concept, though due to the sheer amount of gunpowder needed and vastly surpassing MacGyver's methods and resources, the myth was declared busted.
It was also implied, although it was not successfully tested, that it is possible to develop a roll of film using orange juice as an acid and ammonia as an alkaline fixer while holding a garbage bag over the setup to create a darkroom.
Another implied, but not tested, tactic was creating a potato cannon using hairspray as a fuel, a camp stove as the ignition, and PVC pipe as the mortar.
Grant Imahara humorously referred to MacGyver as "the second greatest TV series of all time" in the 2006 season MythBusters episode "Crimes and Myth-Demeanors 1".