Wade’s The Six Million Dollar Man Page II

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)

“The ESP Spy,” which first aired on March 2, 1975, was written by Lionel E Siegel, who contributed screenplays to Forever Knight, The Bionic Woman, The Amazing Spider-Man, Mannix, & Hawaii Five-O, in addition to writing scripts for The Six Million Dollar Man.

Extrasensory perception-gifted Audrey Moss (played by Robbie Lee), like Barney Miller/Hiller would make a single return appearance in the third season of The Six Million Dollar Man, never to be heard from again. Robbie Lee also appeared in Big Bad Mama & an episode of Police Woman, both starring Angie Dickinson.

In the first-season episode “Operation Firefly,” Steve is the skeptic, & Oscar believes in psychic phenomena. Their positions are reversed in “The ESP Spy.” In the third-season episode in which Audrey appears, “Hocus-Pocus,” the villain (portrayed by Pernell Roberts) is decidedly non-psychic & non-super. Why a bionic man & a telepathic girl should have to join forces to defeat him remains a conundrum.

“Kill Oscar”(part II) originally aired on October 31, 1976 & marked the last onscreen kiss for Steve & Jaime of the 1970s.

In this episode, Steve & Rudy re-tune Jaime’s bionic ear so she can distinguish fembots from humans. This is a continuity error. In the first installment of “Kill Oscar,” Rudy made no adjustments to Jaime’s ear. Jaime ceased to hear the fembots midway through the episode, because Dr Franklin (John Houseman) turned down the fembots’ transistor power output.

“Kill Oscar” marks Steve’s second clash with a robotic duplicate of Oscar. The first was in the second-season “Return of the Robot Maker.” This time Steve identifies the duplicate, not by its failure to sweat, but because the robot crushes a pencil it steps on.

“The Secret of Bigfoot” first aired on February 1 & 4, 1976 & was written by Kenneth Johnson who also wrote The Six Million Dollar Man episode, “The Bionic Woman,” among others.

“The Secret of Bigfoot” guest stars Andre the Giant (certainly best known as a pro wrestler, but also known as Fezzik in The Princess Bride), Stefanie Powers (The Girl from UNCLE, Hart to Hart, McLintock), & Severn Darden (who had guest roles in many series, notably I Dream of Jeannie, The Night Stalker, & Wonder Woman & appeared in Real Genius, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, & Battle for the Planet of the Apes).

In “The Secret of Bigfoot,” when Shalon, Apploy, et al probe Steve’s mind, one of the scenes they uncover is of Steve running bionically with Jaime. Despite their extreme interest in Steve’s bionics, this revelation of another bionic human passes sans comment.

Reportedly due to massive public outcry at the death of Jaime Sommers (& due to the exceptional ratings of “The Bionic Woman”), Kenneth Johnson wrote & produced “The Return of the Bionic Woman,” which details the resurrection of Jaime & which originally aired on September 14 & 21, 1975.
“The Return of 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 Bionic Woman,”).
This episode begs the question, “Didn’t Jaime have a funeral?”

“The Return of the Bionic Woman” marked the first appearance of Martin E Brooks as Dr Rudy Wells. Brooks’ makeup in this episode is clearly intended to make him more closely resemble Alan Oppenheimer, the actor who portrayed Wells in two of the pilot films & in the first & second seasons of the series. Oppenheimer would, in fact, play Rudy one more time in the third-season episode “The Bionic Criminal.” By the fourth season, Brooks would become a part of the regular cast with his name in the title sequence.
Oppenheimer is a prolific guest star &, in addition to providing voices for a number of animated TV series, played the Klingon Koroth in an episode of Star Trek: TNG & Starfleet Captain Keogh in an episode of DS9.

The lies & subterfuge of Oscar & Rudy in this episode are strongly reminiscent of “The Seven Million Dollar Man” & “The Bionic Criminal,” & it is a small wonder that Steve trusts these guys at all!

Did physicians have a different set of ethics in the 70s? Dr Michael Marchetti’s relationship with Jaime, his patient, is not only unprofessional, it’s a serious breech of ethics! & the fact that Oscar & Rudy knew this guy was moving in on Steve’s fiancee & kept it from Steve makes the three of them amply deserving of a bionic right cross.

Once again Barney Miller/Hiller is omitted from all discussion of extant bionic people. (Michael tells Jaime that Steve is the only other bionic person.)

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