Jared Padalecki was Young MacGyver (watch the entire pilot!)

[Aragorn]

Young MacGyver (on YouTube)

Young MacGyver was a pilot for the WB that the network didn't pick up. It starred Jared Padalecki as Clay MacGyver, Angus' nephew. It also starred Kiele Sanchez from "Lost." When you get to the Phoenix Foundation set, you can definitely tell it had WB written all over it.

Supposedly, Padalecki had to back out of the movie Cheaper By the Dozen to make this pilot and his role went to... Tom Welling. So thanks to that movie, Welling has three movies on his resume instead of just one!

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Yeah, but Padaleck has some talent, so he'll win in the end.

I like Sam Winchester, hero/murderer, better than young MacGyver anyway. He's grown up so darn pretty, n'est-ce pas?

Sammy's a little tougher these days...especially more so than Clark. Clark and Angus are pussies.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uti9KncF3hM]When the Levee Breaks and you Strangle Your Brother
[/URL]

 

[OmahaStar]

Hmmm ... I was wrong. I thought I'd find Jared hot in anything. Turns out, I like him as a man, not a boy. What was he there, twelve? Thanks, but I'll stick with Supernatural.

And ... holy crap, that was just freaking awful!

 

[Dorian Thompson]

It was a WB pilot. Chances are it was gonna be crap. Young MacGyver? That's asking to be unforgivably cheesy. Yeah, Jared's gone from geek to gorgeous.

 

[Broccoli]

While it wasn't completely terrible. The biggest sin was that it was boring. And out side of the beginning (and somewhat at the end), there was a significant lack of MacGyverism.

Also, the actress playing the sidekick was terrible and there was too much of "Oh, we love (old) MacGyver!!!" at the beginning.

 

[bigdaddy]

Geek is gorgeous.

 

[Christopher]

It wasn't bad, but it had flaws. The best part was that Clay MacGyver was true to the values of his namesake, a man who cares about human life and rejects violence as a solution. If they'd turned him into the kind of callous killer that's all too common in TV these days, they would've lost the essence of MacGyver no matter how many gadgets he made up. And it wasn't hokey; I loved the way he actually engaged the terrorist leader in a thoughtful discussion about ethics and responsibility.

What I didn't like was the militarization of the Phoenix Foundation. Ron Canada's always kind of cool to have around, but that's not what Phoenix is supposed to be; it's more a philanthropic NGO and think tank. Trying to tie MacGyver into the fad of terrorist-hunting shows was perhaps inevitable in the time this was made (2003), but not really the right approach to take. (And what exactly was the purpose of that "terrorist bomb" on a ski range? I think it was destroying a diamond mine or something? That wasn't explained well.

There were two things this pilot lacked that would've given it more legitimacy:
1) An appearance by Richard Dean Anderson to pass the torch.
2) Duct tape. How can this guy be a real MacGyver if he doesn't have a flattened role of duct tape in his pocket at all times? (And he barely used his Swiss army knife.)

Also, there's a retcon here, since MacGyver was an only child and thus couldn't have a nephew. But the series finale gave him a long-lost son who was clearly meant to take over the franchise as a "Young MacGyver" -- why not simply recast that role (and say he'd adopted his father's surname)? I guess because they wanted a teen MacGyver and that actor would've been 32 at the time.