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MacGyver Season 7 Episode 5

The Coltons

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4.9

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 10/14/91

The Colton brothers—with a little help from their mother and bulldog—seek out a witness to a murder in Chinatown.

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Fan Episode Reviews (3)

A good change of pace to the series.

10

By carnival19, Jan 27, 2011

I really enjoyed this episode. I don't care if a lot of people didn't like it, I thought it stood it's ground very well. After seeing the Coltons in numerous MacGyver episodes, it's nice to finally see them on their own. I agree that it probably wouldn't be a great series (this episode was the pilot of a new series) but it was a great way to conclude the Coltons story. Mama Colton beautifully played by Della Reese is so endearing, and the three brother are as good. It really made a great episode with a lot of rhythm and action. Again a great way to conclude their tenure in this series.moreless
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Not an episode of MacGyver, though he makes a cameo in it.

1.0

By joemono, Nov 13, 2010

This is absolutely, hands down, the worst episode of MacGyver. And the reason is simple: It's not an episode of MacGyver. It's a pilot episode for a spin off show about a family of bounty hunters. That idea on it's own isn't necessarily bad and if I were here reviewing an episode of that show I'd probably have nicer things to say about it. However, putting the MacGyver name on it means it's part of the series. And that's why it's terrible.

MacGyver appears at the beginning of the episode in a short scene where he and one of the Colton brothers escape with the help of Frog, the Colton's dog. The building explodes and MacGyver leaves. The episode proceeds. Then about 20 seconds before the credits start, MacGyver drives up and they all have a laugh about something. Terrible.

Why was this aired as a MacGyver episode?moreless
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Easy to understand why this potential "spinoff" didn't see the light of ABC's schedule with such a dull would-be pilot script.

4.6

By mark_28, Jun 27, 2010

When I was first made aware of the potential of a Colton brothers spinoff late in MacGyver's sixth season (this episode was actually a holdover from season six originally scheduled to air in May), I was excited. I enjoyed all of the episodes featuring the Colton brothers, and respected the capable actors portraying the four characters. But what a disappointment it was, featuring one of the dullest stories this series has ever seen. The pyrotechnics of the explosion scene early in the episode was the only salvageable element even from MacGyver's cameo, where we witnessed our hero reduced to begging a dog to deliver him a plastic bottle of sulfuric acid (huh???) to eat through the ropes that bound he and Frank together. The rest of the episode was simply boring, with an attempt to persuade us that Billy was only old enough to be preparing for his freshman year at college, and in which it became obvious that Frank and Jesse would always be saved from termination by the bulletproof vests they slipped on every morning. The episode was at its most logistically ridiculous when Frank and Jesse somehow led the two bozo cops on a wild goose chair at the hair salon by apparently dressing strangers up to look like themselves and then letting them take their red van. Just as bad was the scene where supposedly dead Frank and Jesse were having a conversation and beckoning their bulldog savior even though there was an armed guard only a few yards away. In short, the episode was a complete and unsalvageable mess, and I was shocked to see that series executive producer Stephen Downing was the primary scriptwriter for such a wasted effort.

Ratingswise, "The Coltons" put up MacGyver's best numbers so far in season seven. That was the good news. The bad news is that the episode's 9.8 rating tied for MacGyver's worst ever rating for ANY first-run episode prior to season seven. It was abundantly clear to everyone by this point that MacGyver was gonna meet its demise in season seven....and meet it earlier than otherwise expected.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Richard Dean Anderson

MacGyver

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Richard Gant	Assistant District Attorney Johnny Denmark	Guest Star
Cuba Gooding Jr.	Billy Colton	Guest Star
Cleavon Little	Frank Colton	Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (2)
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- Frank: Oh, you dummy. The bottle!
  MacGyver: You keep calling names like that, he's going to take a walk.
  Frank: He knows I love him. Don't you, sugar puss? Push the bottle, Froggie, come on down, sweetheart.
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- Billy: College. Don't even know what classes to sign up for.
  Frank: First two years they tell you.
  Jesse: Now how would you know? You ain't even seen the inside of a high school, let alone college.
  Frank: I know because I'm three years, six months, eight days older than you are, therefore wiser than you are, little brother.
  Jesse: There comes a time when chronological age and wisdom catch up. In our case, that happened when you was about four years old.
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NOTES (9)
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- This episode was originally intended to air during the sixth season, but was held back until the seventh.
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- This is the second of Martin Evans' two, unrelated appearances on MacGyver. He can also be seen in season three's "The Odd Triple".
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- This is the second of Bill Dow's two, unrelated appearances on MacGyver. He can also be seen in season three's "Kill Zone".
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- This is the third of Michael Sicoly's three, unrelated appearances on MacGyver. He can also be seen in season three's "The Spoilers" and season five's "Live and Learn".
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- This is the second of Mitchell Kosterman's two, unrelated appearances on MacGyver. He can also be seen in season five's "Live and Learn".
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- The Finnish episode title is "Coltonin veljekset", and the French episode title is "Les frères Colton", both meaning "The Colton Brothers".
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- This is purportedly the third of James Hong's three, unrelated appearances on MacGyver. He can also be seen in season two's "The Wish Child" and season three's "Lost Love". However, Hong never appears on-screen despite receiving a guest star credit.
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- Though credited, Dana Elcar does not appear in this episode.
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- This episode was a proposed pilot for a Colton brothers television series. It was not picked up. The post-opening sequence credits reflect this: Little, Lawson, Gooding, Jr., and Reese are listed as "Also Starring" followed by the regular guest stars.
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