Wade’s The Six Million Dollar Man Page I

My The Six Million Dollar Man & The Bionic Woman Episode Rankings

Wade’s Ranking	The Six Million Dollar Man episode	The Bionic Woman episode
#1	“The Seven Million Dollar Man” (2x05)	“Doomsday Is Tomorrow” (2x13 & 2x14)
#2	“The Bionic Woman” (2x19 & 2x20)	“The Ghosthunter” (1x13)
#3	“The ESP Spy” (2x18)	“Kill Oscar” (2x05 & 2x06)
#4	“Kill Oscar” (4x06)	“The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man & the Bionic Woman” (REx01)
#5	“The Secret of Bigfoot” (3x16 & 3x17)	“The Return of Bigfoot” (2x01)
#6	“The Return of the Bionic Woman” (3x01 & 3x02)	“Fembots in Las Vegas” (3x03 & 3x04)
#7	“The Bionic Criminal” (3x09)	“Deadly Ringer” (2x15 & 2x16)
#8	“Return of the Robot Maker” (2x15)	“Sanctuary Earth” (3x16)
#9	“The Golden Pharaoh” (3x18)	“The Night Demon” (2x20)
#10	“Death Probe” (4x13 & 4x14)	“Mirror Image” (1x12)

Importance
Inception
Notes on Favorite Episodes

Check out Steve & Jaime on my Favorite Characters from Pop Culture Page.

Importance

The Six Million Dollar Man was a ground breaking television series on a number of levels.

The Six Million Dollar Man was the first serious science fiction TV show to achieve mainstream, sustained popularity. Before The Six Million Dollar Man, just 11 TV series of speculative fiction broke the Nielsen top 30. Of these 11, only three series (Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, & Get Smart) made the top 30 on consecutive seasons. Of these three shows, only Bewitched appeared in the top 30 for more than two seasons (seven, in fact). Furthermore, of the 11 speculative fiction series, only three were in the Nielsen top 10 (Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, & Batman), &, again, only Bewitched was a top-10 show for more than a single season (four, actually). Thus all four series that achieved undeniable ratings success were half-hour comedies. Granted that Batman was not a traditional sitcom, but it was, nevertheless, a comedy. Clearly, as great as Bewitched was & is, it is not SF & is not a series of the same stripe as The Six Million Dollar Man. Although The Six Million Dollar Man occasionally dabbled with campy plots & sometimes bordered on fantasy, it was at its core, a 60-minute SF drama. The Six Million Dollar Man finished its premiere season at #11 in the Nielsen ratings & was #9 in its third season & #7 in its fourth.

The Six Million Dollar Man introduced the words “bionics” & “cyborg” into the layman’s lexicon.

The Six Million Dollar Man cemented Lee Majors & Lindsay Wagner as pop culture icons & may have had some influence on Farrah Fawcett’s meteoric rise as well.

The Six Million Dollar Man raised the bar for the quality & complexity of television titles sequences, stuntwork, & special effects. The Six Million Dollar Man is noteworthy for its innovative use of slow-motion photography & sound effects. The Six Million Dollar Man featured a bevy of notable guest stars, such as John Houseman, William Shatner, Ray Walston, Andre the Giant, Farrah Fawcett, et cetera. The Six Million Dollar Man also pioneered the two-part episode & the crossover episode, as well as having among the first actors (Richard Anderson & Martin E Brooks) to play the same roles on two series simultaneously.

Lee Majors’ second series, The Fall Guy, made frequent reference to The Six Million Dollar Man as well as Majors’ relationship with Farrah. The Fall Guy ran contemporaneously with William Shatner’s second series TJ Hooker & on the same network (ABC). Ironically, The Fall Guy, while not as successful as The Six Million Dollar Man, was slightly more successful than TJ Hooker, which was, in turn, more successful than Star Trek.

Inception

Colonel Steve Austin was introduced in the bestselling 1972 novel Cyborg by SF author Martin Caidin. In 1973, ABC produced three telefims based on the character before launching the weekly series, The Six Million Dollar Man, in 1974.

A number of differences between the literary & TV Austin exist. Although the education of the TV Austin is never explored, Caidin’s hero has three PhDs. In general, the cyborg of the novels has less advanced bionics than his television counterpart. In the novels, for instance, Steve could not see from his bionic eye, his arm did not enhance his lifting strength, & his legs did not propel him much faster than the natural legs of an Olympic track star. Caidin specifically notes that Austin may be able to break the Olympic records for sprinting, but not by much. What makes the literary Austin truly unique is his oxygen metabolism & therefore his ability to perform aerobic activities. Because his three artificial limbs have no oxygen demand, they can perform at maximum output indefinitely; so Steve is definitely the world champion when it comes to long-distance running. Furthermore, his gripping strength far exceeds that of a normal human.

Caidin’s Austin is an Air Force colonel, but in the pilot film, Steve is a civilian test pilot. The second telefilm, however, restores Steve’s military background. In the novels, Steve’s boss is Oscar Goldman of the OSO. The pilot maintains the organization as OSO, but changes the director’s name to Oliver Spencer. The second telefilm, however changes the agency to OSI, but restores the name of Oscar Goldman.

The second & third telefims, produced by Glen A Larson, have a James Bond flavor to them, putting Austin in a tuxedo. The series, produced by Harve Bennett, restores Lee Majors to his Big Valley roots by portraying Austin as an unsophisticated country boy, often seen with a toothpick in his mouth.

Caidin followed up Cyborg with three further adventures of Steve Austin: Operation Nuke (1973), High Crystal (1974), & Cyborg IV (1975). These novels exist in a different continuity from The Six Million Dollar Man.

Notes on favorite episodes

The Six Million Dollar Man

#1

“The Seven Million Dollar Man” (2x05)

“The Seven Million Dollar Man,” which first aired on November 1, 1974 was written by Peter Allan Fields, who wrote or co-wrote four episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man (including “The Bionic Criminal”), three episodes of Star Trek: TNG (including “The Inner Light”), & 10 episodes of Star Trek: DS9 (including “Blood Oath” & “Crossover”), in addition to writing for The Man from UNCLE, Xena: Warrior Princess, & Knight Rider.
“The Seven Million Dollar Man” was directed by Richard Moder, a prolific television western/SF/action director, who directed 14 episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man (including, “Death Probe,” “The Bionic Woman,” & “The Return of the Bionic Woman”).

“The Seven Million Dollar Man” introduces the character of Barney Miller (portrayed by Monte Markham), who has two bionic arms & two bionic legs. Although never explicitly stated, Barney does not seem to have any artificial sensory organs. Although Steve quips that Barney’s additional expense is due to inflation (unlikely after only one year), the implication is that Barney’s arm is more expensive than Steve’s eye. I find this unlikely also, as, given the capabilities presented on the show, Steve’s eye (much more than Jaime’s ear) is probably the organ farthest out of reach of current technology & would likely be the most expensive. On the other hand, it may be that the nuclear power source of the bionic implants is what makes them so costly, & the eye, requiring less power, is therefore less expensive...

Shortly after Steve first meets Barney in “The Seven Million Dollar Man” in a small lounge, they arm wrestle. Barney wins, & the implication is that, not only does Barney outmatch Steve in terms of the number of super-strong limbs, but that just one of Barney’s arms is stronger than Steve’s single bionic arm. This makes Steve’s victory in the climactic battle seem even less likely.

In the lounge scene mentioned above, three patrons watch Steve & Barney arm wrestle. Just before the climactic battle (also mentioned above), Steve meets Barney & Carla at the same lounge to discuss the procedure whereby Barney’s bionic strength will be neutralized. The same three patrons also watch this confrontation, dressed in the same clothes. Maybe they’re regulars.

Two months after “The Seven Million Dollar Man” aired, the popular police sitcom Barney Miller debuted on television. When Barney returned in the third-season episode “The Bionic Criminal,” his last name was changed to Hiller.

At one point near the end of the climactic battle, Steve pushes both of Barney’s arms away with his left arm. This makes Steve’s victory in this battle more understandable.

At the beginning of “The Seven Million Dollar Man,” Steve & Rudy discuss Steve’s past relationship with Rudy’s head nurse, Carla Peterson (played by Maggie Sullivan), who is involved with Barney at this point in the series. This seems intended to refer to Steve’s relationship with the nurse assigned to him after his bionic surgery in the pilot film. Actress Barbara Anderson (perhaps best known as Eve on Ironside) portrayed this nurse whose name was Jean Manners, not Carla Peterson.

Reportedly, author Martin Caidin originally wanted Monte Markham for the role of Steve Austin.

During the first & second seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man, the series producers were much more restrained in their use of sound effects. Consequently, during Steve’s arm wrestling bout with Barney, there is no bionic strength sound effect. Interestingly, when Steve & Carla recall the incident in the third-season episode “The Bionic Criminal,” the flashback reveals the bionic strength sound effect during the match.

In the second reunion film (“Bionic Showdown”), Oscar says that he knows of only four bionic people in the world: Steve, Jaime, Steve’s son Michael Austin, & Kate Mason. He seems to have forgotten about Barney & Andy Sheffield (from the fourth-season episode “The Bionic Boy”). Perhaps by the time of “Bionic Showdown” Barney & Andy have either died or been deactivated.

Near the beginning of “The Seven Million Dollar Man,” Steve searches through several OSI personnel photograph files, looking for Barney’s photograph. Steve performs this search at a high rate of speed, & the search is accompanied by the bionic eye sound effect. If Steve’s eye indeed possesses this much additional processing power above that of a normal human eye, then the technology to build it is even more out of reach, & the hypothetical price tag even higher.

#2

“The Bionic Woman” (2x19 & 2x20)

“The Bionic Woman,” the first two-part episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, which originally aired on March 16 & 23, 1975, was written by Kenneth Johnson, who was also the creator/producer of The Bionic Woman TV series, The Incredible Hulk TV series, & the V mini-series.

“The Bionic Woman” was directed by Richard Moder, a prolific television western/SF/action director, who directed 14 episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man (including, “The Seven Million Dollar Man,” “Death Probe,” & “The Return of the Bionic Woman”) & 6 episodes of Wonder Woman.

Johnson’s inspiration for “The Bionic Woman” came in part from The Bride of Frankenstein, & Jaime does in fact refer to herself as the Bride of Frankenstein at one point in the episode.

Johnson claims that he wanted to have Jaime in a coma at the end of the episode, but that network executives insisted that she die in emulation of Love Story.

Two songs performed by Lee Majors are included in “The Bionic Woman”—“Gotta Get Loose” & “Sweet Jaime.” Majors would go on to sing the theme song for The Fall Guy, “The Unknown Stuntman,” which was a minor hit in 1984.

At one point, Steve reads a yearbook signed by Jaime. In the inscription, Jaime has misspelled her own name as “Jamie.”

Unlike Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, & other popular SF series, The Six Million Dollar Man was never released in its entirity on videotape. In fact, “The Bionic Woman” was for many years the only episode(s) of The Six Million Dollar Man available for home video in North America in any format.

“The Bionic Woman” establishes Ojai, CA as Steve’s home town in addition to introducing the characters of Jaime Sommers & Jim Elgin (Steve’s stepfather). “The Bionic Woman” also features the second appearance of Steve’s mother, Helen Elgin.

The villain of “The Bionic Woman” is Joseph Wrona, played by Malachi Throne who also played False Face on Batman, Commodore Mendez on Star Trek: TOS, Senator Pardek on Star Trek: TNG, & a number of other guest characters on many television series.

Oscar mentions tuning down Jaime’s bionics to normal human levels as a possible cure to her as-yet-unknown malady in a procedure evidently the same as that performed on Barney Miller earlier in the second season.

Jaime’s maximum running speed shown in this episode is 40 MPH. Steve’s top speed in The Six Million Dollar Man pilot was 60 MPH.

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