The Six Million Dollar Man

I loved The Six Million Dollar Man, I watched it every week if possible and actually wanted to be Bionic when I grew up! I even had Steve Austin Action figures including Oscar Goldman with his exploding Briefcase and Maskatron too. I was a big fan and still have a soft spot for the show and would happily watch it if it is being re-run on TV. It has dated badly in some ways, especially the clothes and hairstyles, but most shows from the 70's have anyway.

It was corny in places too and I wonder why objects such as rocks and steel bars made a whistling noise when Steve threw them! Also the androids were bad especially when their face came off and an actor had a mask with wires and lights on it over his/her face which meant realistically they would have had a side profile like E.T.!

But on the whole I loved it and have fond memories of watching it! It is a classic 70's show!

"The Six Million Dollar Man" had to prove it was worthy of being given its own regular series after the opening feature length pilot episode wasn't enough. A further two pilot episodes were made before the actual series was commissioned. The pilot episodes are 73 minutes each, which is long enough to sustain much interest. The first feature length episode is very well made. Lee Majors immediately made the character of Colonel Steve Austin his own and he is the only constant throughout the entire run of episodes. He is the only actor one can associate with the character. Before Richard Anderson came along as Oscar Goldman, Darren McGavin was cast as the Government character. His was more of an antagonistic character to Austin as the tension in their scenes is clearly in evidence. Martin Balsam played the surgeon who helped change Austin's life in the first pilot episode instead of the actor who was cast in the regular series (his name escapes me). The opening episode focuses more on how Steve Austin adapts with the way fate has entered his life. About three quarters of the running time is taken up with this and it works effectively. I like the way in which Austin is portrayed as a human being with feelings and not just as another one-dimensional action hero. The writing is great as each of the main characters in the pilot are given depth. About the last 15 to 20 minutes is taken up with some action scenes and they are exciting. Seeing a man who possesses the ability to be stronger and faster than the average person was the selling point of "Six Million Dollar Man" and it always worked. With the first season being a ratings winner, the creator of "Six Million Dollar Man" Kenneth Johnson, created the spin-off show, "Bionic Woman." That show is for another review. Overall, the best episodes are from the first season til the end of the third one. The fourth and fifth seasons contain some good episodes but the quality had fallen away slightly. However, that can happen with the best television shows. Richard Anderson was well cast as Government man Oscar Goldman. His character was more of an ally to Steve Austin and that was a wise move. I didn't really take to Lee Majors changing his image by growing his hair longer and having that moustache. Neither suited him. I enjoy episodes where characters like Bigfoot are included and evil Robots that square up to Austin. There are some noteworthy supporting actors involved, like William Shatner, Jane Merrow, John Saxon and others. "Six Million Dollar Man" is the kind of show where you find some stories resembling Science Fiction or Fantasy, thanks to the show's inital premise. There are all kinds of plots, including crossover episodes involving Jamie Sommers as the Bionic Woman. "Six Million Dollar Man" will go down as a classic show and one that remains very enjoyable today.

To understand the genesis of the show, watch first Harve Bennett's "The Astronaut" (1972) ---with the music of Gil Mellé-- and "Texas, We've Got a Problem" (1974). With a good, solid, realistic in treatment (psychologically and artistically), 1973 pilot produced and directed by David Irving and starring Martin Balsam as Dr. Rudy Wells (see H. G. Wells?) and Darren McGavin as the crippled cynical and manipulator Intelligent head Oliver Spencer who is also known as newspaper "Kolchak, The Night Stalker"; the show starts very well with Gil Mellé's electronic and jazzy score a la Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew", then comes a terrible second pilot "Wine, Woman and War", produced by Michael Gleason and written by Glen A. Larson with a dreadful main title and a horrible song by Dusty Springfield in which Steve Austin is a kind of reluctant second-rate James Bond whose mission ends with an atomic explosion. The series really finds its format with the third pilot: "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" with Jack Cole's famous techno medical main title (made with footages from the two pilots, video effects and body animations). During the middle of season 1, the music department decided to add sound effects from Universal's stock music library to highlight the bionic motions (some were already used in a previous series like the 1972 E.S.P. series "The Sixth Sense"---oddly enough, you can hear a noise from a missile when Austin launches an object into the air). The series had three Dr. Rudy Wells: one played by Martin Balsam (first pilot), by Alan Oppenheimer (pilot 2 & 3 and season 1 & 2) and by Martin E. Brooks (season 3, 4 & 5). The first two seasons ---produced by Sam Strangis/Donald R. Boyle and Lionel E. Siegel/Joe L. Cramer--- were in the line of the pilots and then occurs the transitory season 3 ---in 1975, the main composer Oliver Nelson and the music supervisor Hal Mooney left---, a season 4 with some drastic changes (bad writers and producers, the lead wears a ridiculous thin moustache, Goldman has a new office's decoration and the music is composed and renewed by J. J. Johnson) and therefore an un-inspired season 5 ---without Harve Bennett--- in which the protagonist wears a pre-"Fall Guy" haircut. TSMDM is basically an espionage series with a shallow sci-fi canvas (everybody remember the zoom shot bionic left eye with the frames or the infrared vision); notice the various martial music themes to grasp the concept of this pro-gov/militaryNASA/technology drama. The first pilot shows an offhand and rebel Steve Austin who refuses his injured disabled condition (even try to commit suicide) and his involvement in the scientifical department of the C.I.A. (here, O.S.O.: Office of Strategic Operation, and, later O.S.I.: Office of Scientifical Intelligence): official Oliver Spencer (later Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman) even receivs a cold slap. From season 2, we are introduced to another bionic man: paranoid auto racing Barney Miller (with a season 3 sequel) in "The Seven Million Dollar Man", and a woman: tennis champ Jaimie Sommers, in a two-parter (with a season 3 sequel too) in "The Bionic Woman". From that point, the show slips into cheap bionic new products (Bigfoot, boy, dog) with a comic book leaning. The best episodes are those which deal with the space program/Austin's background ("The Rescue of Athena One", "Burning Bright", "The Pioneers", "The Deadly Replay": where we learn about Austin's near fatal plane accident) and the dangers of technology in the hands of America's inner enemies ("Population Zero", "Day of the Robot", "Run, Steve, Run").

The Six Million Dollar Man was one of my favourite TV shows, a show that I enjoyed without fail each week.

Lee Majors played Col. Steve Austin, an astronaut who suffered an accident and was rebuilt by government agency, the OSI (I think it stood for Office of Strategic Intelligence). Austin was the world's first bionic man (well, not really because it later transpired that there was a seven million dollar man but that's another story). He had a bionic eye which could see for miles; he had a bionic arm and two bionic legs to help him run fast.

The show was very entertaining. The sound effects as Austin used his bionic body parts were great. The sound of the bionic eye looking miles ahead-FANTASTIC! The sound of the bionic arm breaking a door down-FANTASTIC! The sound of bionic legs running faster than any normal man-FANTASTIC! Whenever Austin jumped or ran fast, it would be done in slow motion which worked a hell of a lot better than if the scene had been speeded up.

Richard Anderson played a good role as Oscar Goldman, chief of OSI (perhaps not the big chief but some kind of chief). He had good chemistry with Lee Majors on screen and it showed.

There was also Martin E. Brooks who played Dr. Rudy Wells, the man responsible for Steve's bionic body parts. A great character who had his fair share of great storylines.

The episodes were pure 70's fantasy. Austin took on spies, robots, aliens and even Bigfoot himself (my favourite episode). The music was great, the sound effects were great. The whole show was great. Definitely worth checking out on video or DVD.

This is one of the ways you can tell you're getting old: when someone says the name "Steve Austin." Do you think of a bald wrestler rolling around on the mat groping other guys, or Lee Majors moving in slow motion and squinting? I think of the latter.

"The Six Million Dollar Man" is one of the first shows I remember watching as a child. I watched the shows, I played with the toys, I wanted to BE Steve Austin. Lee Majors (along with Clint Eastwood) proved that some people look so cool when they squint. I look like I need my prescription checked when I do it, but I'm not Lee Majors. Steve Austin could handle anything they threw at him, not just because of his bionics, but because he was smart, he never gave up and always kept his cool. I still want to be like him when I grow up.

Recently, I've seen some episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel. Sure, the 1970s fashions are a little jarring (polyester rules!), and sometimes the plots are juvenile, but overall the show holds up pretty well. It could be very intelligent when it wanted to be, funny when it was called for, and always exciting and fun. It reminds me of a time when six million dollars was a lot of money, and American technology could produce wonders like a functional cyborg.

Yeah, I'll take Lee Majors over the bald wrestling guy any day. After all, how many wrestlers could take on spies, terrorists, aliens, Bigfoot, a killer Venus probe and Sonny Bono and live to tell the tale?