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"When I was a kid, my grandfather used to say to me that a fella's life wasn't worth mentioning if he hadn't shared it with some folks along the way....My grandpa (also) used to say that friendship is a two-sided coin: it can be the best or worst thing that ever happened to you." -- MacGyver

Outside of the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver's had few family members. They included:

• Harry Jackson, Mac's equally inventive grandpa who disappeared for fifteen years. He returned and reconciled with Mac before he died of a heart attack.
• Ellen MacGyver, Mac's mother. She died from a stroke while MacGyver was on assignment in Afghanistan.
• James MacGyver, MacGyver's father. James died in car accident on December 14th 1962 when Mac was a boy.
• Celia Jackson, MacGyver's grandmother. She died in the same car accident that killed Mac's father
• Kate Molloy, MacGyver's college photo-journalist sweetheart killed in China, who bore "Mac" a son-Shawn - but never told him of the fact. Kate was killed by Chinese Colonel Chung; Mac met Kate in 1973.
• Shawn Angus Malloy, Mac's photo-journalist son. MacGyver first met his son in 1992.
• Sue Ling, MacGyver's Chinese Foster Daughter. She was later impersonated by a girl named Mei Len after Sue Ling died in 1989 during an incident at Tiananmen Square uprising.
• MacGyver´s cousin, Allie

Mac's other acquaintance included:

• Wilt Bozer, MacGyver's neighbor at the marina;
• Penny Parker,  a talkative, trouble-prone struggling singer/actress;
Jack Dalton, Mac's pilot friend whom he knew growing up in Minnesota. Jack followed MacGyver to California and set up a private airline, Fly-By-Night. Eventually, it became Jack-Be-Quick Messenger Service and finally Dalton Air Service. Jack is a get-rich-quick schemer and whenever he shows up, trouble is sure to follow. Jack's left eye twitches when he lies.
• Professor Willis, Mac's former teacher, who now studies environmental sciences and. works for the Phoenix foundation.
• The Colton Family, a family of bounty-hunters (Frank, Jesse, their young brother, Billy, mother, Ma Colton and their dog, Frog);
• Mamma Lorraine, Mac's voodoo practicing neighbor who owns Haitian Creations Botanical Shango down the street from Mac's apartment;
• Jennifer Reiner, a prostitute (a.k.a. "Crystal") whom MacGyver, Cynthia Wilson, helped reform.
• Det. Kate Murphy (Head of the Los Angeles police narcotics squad) who helped MacGyver track a psychotic killer called Dr. Zito.
• Lisa Woodman, the teenage daughter of a wealthy industrialist who develops a drinking problem.

Mac's ability to fall in love and maintain a steady relationship have been ever altered by the death of so many of the people he has loved in his life. Therefore, he is hesitant to commit to someone because his job is dangerous, keeps him on the go and mostly, because he fears any potential lover might die and leave him alone like so many others have done in the past. Mac's love interests over the years included:

• Amy Austin, an old flame of Mac's from college who now worked at a nuclear power plant. She got involved in a uranium theft case.
• Debra Easton. She ran an orphanage in the Southeast Asia.
• Lisa Kohler/Kosov. She and Mac were once engaged. He had thought Lisa dead, until she appeared at a hotel with a Soviet delegation. She was now married to Nicolai Kosov and involved in a case about a priceless Ming Dragon.
• Michelle "Mike" Forester. She was a botanist who attended college with MacGyver and Jack Dalton. Mike died from a fall off a mountain. Moments before her death Mac's told her that he was not ready for a committed relationship. The incident made Mac reclusive for awhile.
• Deborah. She was hired by Knapp land developers to influence and later kill MacGyver, but failed at both when MacGyver realized her true intentions - she later died);
• Karen Miller, Mac's old girlfriend - now a park ranger who runs a wildlife preserve. She is no longer interested in MacGyver (she has a new boyfriend, Sam Sheehan).
• Nikki Carpenter, Mac's coworker at the Phoenix Foundation. She commitment phobic since the death of her husband.
• Maria Romberg, Mac's coworker at the Phoenix Foundation. However, any possible romance between Mac and herself was interrupted when she was assigned to Brazil.
• Ellen Stewart Jerico. She was Mac's Eyrie High School sweetheart. He met up with her in 1991 at the Jerico games, an international winter sports competition. She kills her abusive husband, media mogul Ralph Jerico and then pulls a gun on Mac for breaking up with her. Fortunately, Mac talks her down and she receives psychiatric treatment. Boy Mac, you really know how to pick 'em!

Back in Mission City, Minnesota, Mac´s childhood friends were Neil Ryder (now a fire arms dealer), Chuck (now a police officer), and Jesse (deceased). Jesse was killed in 1963 when Mac borrowed his dad's gun and took it into the woods. The gun accidentally discharged when it fell to the ground shooting Jesse in the stomach. Mac tried to carry his friend to safety, but by the time the medics could tend to his injury Jesse had died. Jesse's death influenced Mac's life-long dislike of firearms. As a consequence, in high school, Mac became a member of Students for Gun Control. At 11, Mac and his friend, Freddie Maples drank beer. When they were 16, Freddie died in a alcohol-related car accident.

When not battling nefarious villains around the globe, MacGyver found time for some extra-curricular activities, such as volunteering his time to The Challenger´s Club, an inner city youth club where Mac worked full-time years earlier. Its members included Cynthia Wilson, Head of the Challengers Club, and Breeze, a former gang member,

Shawn and MacGyver ready to hit the road

In the spring of 1992, MacGyver left the Phoenix Foundation to spend time with his photo-journalist son, Shawn Angus Malloy (SAM). They set off on a motorcycle journey of self discovery. But a short time alter,. MacGyver is back in action. when he joins Jack Dalton on a search for a fountain of youth in Kabulstan, a land that appears to be a real Shangri-La.

Then, in 1994, Mac teamed with his archaeology professor to search for the legendary treasure of Atlantis, and later that year he traveled to England to investigate the mystery of his friend's murder and stumbles upon a secret nuclear weapons facility. Looks like its time for more "MacGyverisms."

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