MacGyver (TV Series)

Live and Learn (1990)

Richard Dean Anderson: MacGyver

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  MacGyver : What you see here is an example of equilibrium. Now it looks like the forks should fall over but they don't. Can anybody tell me why?

  [long pause] 

  MacGyver : C'mon. Any ideas at all?

  Deron : Some kind of trick.

  MacGyver : Yeah, but it's a trick of nature. It does this because the centre of gravity and the centre of mass are balanced in exactly the same place.

  Deron : Big deal, man!

• MacGyver : Sometimes things are hidden under the surface - you just gotta know how to bring 'em out!

• MacGyver : Archimedes once said, give me a place to stand, and I will move the world!

  Deron : Archimedes huh? Sounds like a cool dude, but uh, who does HE play for?

• MacGyver : If this is really what you want for yourself, great. That's no crime. But, if it isn't... If you wake up 30 years from now and all you are is 30 years older, that is a crime.

• [last lines] 

  George Fraley : Ah, maybe he could use a tutor to help him get started.

  MacGyver : You've got somebody in mind, George?

  George Fraley : Yeah. I just might. Somebody who's getting excited about education again.

• MacGyver : Tony, I don't think your father knows how to read!

  Tony Milani : What? I've seen him read!

  MacGyver : No, I think that's just an act. I first suspected it when he looked at the school reinstatement form. And then he completely misread a sign out at the site.

  Tony Milani : Why would he fake it?

  MacGyver : I dunno, maybe he's ashamed. Angry at himself. Maybe he's afraid of what people would think if they knew.

• MacGyver : Deron, I want you to come up here and help me demonstrate how physics affects our everyday lives. Especially yours.

  Deron : Man, I don't need physics. I'm an athlete!

• MacGyver : You are a large mass. I am a much smaller mass, but with a lower centre of gravity. Now let's check out this equilibrium principle.

  Deron : It's your funeral, man!

• MacGyver : [Pointing to a nuclear densometer]  Can anybody tell me what THAT thing is?

  Deron : A Martian toothbrush!

• George Fraley : You think you're so idealisitic? When I started teaching, I was Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy all rolled into one! Full of innovative ideas. Excited about turning kids onto their own potential. Race, colour, poverty, the drug scene - they weren't a problem, I had all the answers!

  MacGyver : What happened?

  George Fraley : What happened? this is what happened - I had one drawer, and a desk I had to share with two other teachers. No homeroom of my own. Fourtyfive kids in a class! Not enough textbooks to go around. A day that starts with 20% teaching and 80% just trying to keep order! Two thousand bucks in the bank, and a mortgage that won't quit!

  MacGyver : You saying it's not worth it?

  George Fraley : All I'm saying is I'm your average overworked, underpaid, underappreciated teacher whose biggest thrill is to discover a senior who could find Washington DC on a map, and spell the word "necessary"! And I was going to change the world...