Made more immortal by Marge Simpson's adoring sisters than its actual aesthetic importance in the realm of action-driven 80s television, Macgyver is, for better or for worse, a definitive product of its time. Bad haircuts, cornball synthesized scores, muscle cars - yep, it's all here.

But Wonder Woman, Dukes of Hazzard - these shows from around the same time as Macgyver have become beacons of good old-fashioned cheese over the years (especially now that each has its respective first season available on DVD). Macgyver, though, isn't quite as much fun - at least not here.

Richard Dean Anderson's neatly mulleted and always crafty Macgyver as a character is one for the record books; he's the only man on Earth who can fasten a neutron bomb out of bubble gum, an old gym sock, and a paper clip. We should have elected him president long ago. The man can wiggle himself out of any damned situation he gets himself into. Right on!

However, these first 22 episodes of the notorious series do not paint the show in its best possible light. Patterson is a capable performer and gets through the majority of his dialogue here without much difficulty, but it's his sense of fun that he manifested in Macgyver's heyday that is sorely lacking here. He's learning his rhythms, but that doesn't mean that he's hitting every mark that he should.

And it doesn't help matters that this DVD edition is almost as bare-bones as you can get. One would think that a show with the kind of syndication prevalence Macgyver has had over the years would merit a first-season DVD package that boasted at least a few unique extra features, but all we get here are previews for other Paramount TV-on-DVD titles (more on that below). Boo.

But fans get a chance to watch the pilot episode of the show - not a terrible opener, truth be told - as well as a handful of notable episodes that suggest the outlandish and enjoyably ridiculous romps that Macgyver had in later seasons.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

We get Macgyver in its full-frame glory, and things are - gasp! - really not all that bad. This writer was expecting the show to come replete with mega-grain and dirty transfer prints, but even though signs of age pop up with pretty regular frequency, someone paid attention to these Macgyver transfers. Colors are sharp and well defined, contrast is surprisingly well-represented for TV of this era, and black levels - while fairly inconsistent - really aren't that bad. Not a definitive transfer, but a surprisingly good one.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Well, the good news is that we get to hear Macgyver the way it was meant to be heard. The bad news is that we're hearing Macgyver with many of the mono trappings it had from the get-go. The Dolby Digital mono track here is a bit cleaner than Macgyver TV reruns, but there's still quite a bit of depth lacking. Dialogue is moderately tinny, the music is scratchy, and there is a shocking lack of exploitation of the film's admittedly limited dynamic range. It's a shame, too, because nothing says, "AWESOME! " like Macgyver blowing something up. The explosions are in mono. What a drag.

Also included are English closed captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Well, in addition to twenty heretofore unaired Macgyver episodes, the long-lost Elizabeth Taylor cameo and the original soundtrack written and performed by INXS...

Just kidding.

Previews for Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy on DVD is all we get here. No dice.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Final Thoughts

For fans of this addictive show, this first series of Macgyver will definitely be worth checking out. However, even most fans know that the show doesn't start getting really good until the third or fourth season, so if you're not a complete Macgyver lunatic, these might be good fodder for your Netflix queue more than anything else. For $38.99, it's not a terrible buy, but fans of the show deserve more.