Karl Puschmann is Culture and entertainment writer for the New Zealand Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.
Sorry ladies, but the fantasy's over. For two decades us dudes have had to live in the long dark shadow cast by the unachievable and unrealistic ideals of masculinity and male usefulness portrayed by '80s television icon MacGyver.
For us, it hasn't been easy. For you, it's been disappointing. How could it not? When MacGyver was created he was created with it all.
He had book smarts and was able to use science and whatever old junk happened to be lying around to escape dire predicaments.
If captured - as he frequently was - he'd quickly fashion a makeshift laser bomb out of nothing more than a AAA battery, a punctured tyre and a rotten apple core.
If you and I found ourselves trapped and all we had to assist our escape was some chewing gum, a tea pot and a rusty bottle cap well... we'd still be trapped now. Both sitting there wishing I was MacGyver.
He was also the quintessential handyman. The dude was capable of making a fully working aeroplane out of freaking bamboo so a clogged drain or a dishwasher installation ain't gonna faze him one bit. Me? I can barely work my lawnmower.
On the rare, once-per-episode, occasion where his brains let him down MacGyver could still rely on his brawn. Of all the various fighting disciplines Mac, as his friends called him, favoured the sucker-punch.
Of course, you can't have a sucker-punch without a sucker and any baddie squaring up expecting a fair fight quickly found themselves on the ground wondering what happened.
Actor Richard Dean Anderson in a scene from the TV show MacGyver. Photo / Getty Images
He had a cool job that probably paid well: secret agent. He had a cool ride: a rugged open-top Jeep Wrangler. And he had cool style: action casual. Hell, the guy pulled off wearing a bomber jacket. You gotta give up props to that.
Mac was also blessed with a folksy manner that he backed up with wholesome good looks and a truly splendid mullet. It all made for an unthreatening combo that encouraged crushes rather than carnality.
It's a combination that to this day still gets women of a certain age giddy. When MacGyver actor Richard Dean Anderson popped up in New Zealand last year for the Armageddon Expo my social media newsfeeds went into estrogen overdrive.
So really, what man alive could hope to live up to these impossible standards? No man, that's who. Which could be the reason why series creator Lee Zlotoff has decided to bring MacGyver back as a woman.
And what a woman! Or, more correctly, what woman? Well, it seems that's up to you and I to decide.
In what is either an extremely canny marketing move or a supreme example of slacking off Zlotoff is outsourcing the creation of MacGyver 2.0 to the people. He's launched a website, thenextmacgyver.com, where anyone can submit their vision of the, er, next MacGyver.
Deadline is April 17 after which he'll choose five he likes, give the person behind each of them a cool $5k before pairing them off with a producer to knock up a pilot script. The best of these will be made and boom! There you have it, a brand new rebooted MacGyver. Simples.
The only stipulation is that MacGyver must be a woman. Aside from that the rule seems to be go as crazy and wild as you feel.
All of which raises some interesting questions: What would the New Zealand MacGyver be like? Where would she be from? How might she act? Could she pull off a bomber jacket?
Important questions all, which you can answer in the comments below.
