In an earlier post, Kate said:
I loved that about Mac. Ever since the show was on, if I found myself in a situation that seemed overwhelming, I'd think about what Mac would say or do. It would calm me down and help me to think of a solution.I also felt that in the earliest episodes MacGyver was more "even tempered" in the sense that we rarely saw him laughing, or angry, or scared, or exasperated. He seemed to take everything in stride with a sort of quiet determination that often came across as confidence even though he wasn't really feeling that way. For example, in The Gauntlet when Kate says, "You make it sound so easy," and he responds "That's to keep me from thinking about how scared I am." That was such a refreshing character trait in those days, compared to the other TV heroes at the time who faced danger with bravado and weapons. I found that aspect of MacGyver very appealing.
When I went to MegaCon last year, someone at the panel discussion asked RDA which romantic scene he liked best in the series. Of course, being RDA, he forgot her name, but he said something like the one with "the actress with the curly hair at the campfire." Naturally, the audience knew he meant Robin Curtis and told him her name.