Super Jaimie

I absolutely adored this TV series, which unfortunately I've not been able to find in recent years on re runs. For me it was much more entertaining than its predecessor, The Six Million Dollar Man, possibly because being female, I identified more with its heroine. Also, I agree with another comment made that Steve Austin (Six Million Dollar Man) is more a comic book figure, while Jamie is a real multi dimensional person.

The series revolves around a lovely young lady, Jamie Sommers, who suffers severe injuries in an airplane crash and is then rebuilt with bionic legs, one arm, and an ear. This first female cyborg is then sent undercover on spy missions by the Office of Scientific Investigations (OSI), using a high school teacher front as her cover.

Lindsay Wagner is simply perfect here, charming and endearing as Jamie Sommers. Jamie's bionic colleague, Steve Austin (played by Lee Majors) occasionally joins her on missions. However, the other star I recall best from the series is Max, the wonderful bionic German Shepherd and her frequent companion.

Jamie uses her special bionic speed, strength, and hearing in each episode to hunt down assorted spies and mad scientists. The episodes feature lots of action adventure and surely one of the most appealing heroines in television history. Jamie is beautiful, intelligent, affable, and compassionate...vulnerable in a sense (despite her powers) but strong and resourceful. Her strength is not simply bionic but strength of character. She would make a wonderful role model for modern young female viewers. In the intervening decades, television has never come up with a female action adventure star to equal her.

The Bionic Woman is not just sheer, wonderful fantasy but it also brought us amazing femininity and full-on, '70's glamour...Lindsay Wagner advanced the usually dormant societal awareness of how a beautiful looking woman could also be strong, compassionate, fair and run at 60 mph in high heels! The series is important in that it raises the profile of actually seeing women as something more than just pretty, stay-at-home objects of male desire... In many ways much of its residual effect is only realised after time has passed...

On another level, the series is easy on the eye, full of action and has great music...it is escapism which is translatable to new generations of sci-fi fans...and Ms Wagner... you are so beautiful!!!

Even though I was a huge fan of "The Six Million Dollar Man", I was also a fan of this show. The main thing I liked about the series was that while Steve Austin was more or less a comic book character come to life, Jaimie Sommers was more of a real person. Jaimie had more of a private life and she still had time to enjoy that life. Also, you could see she was more vulnerable and was not afraid to show her softer side. You could also see that she had her self doubts about her job, which also made her a more endearing characacter. Also, this had some more comic elements to it and that's what helped to distinguish it from the show from which it was spun off from.

Lindsay Wagner is wonderful as Jaime Sommers, the bionic woman. For a show in the mid-70's it was brilliantly done, the cast, the plots, the special effects for its time were awesome. It is not a surprise that lindsay won an emmy for the episode (Deadly Ringer), it was definitly one of the best. Lindsay is a great actress and hopefully she will be acting for a long time to come.

All I can say is I love Lindsay Wagner! She was my favorite actress as a child and The Bionic Woman was my favorite TV show of all time! I would rush home after school so that I could see her battle it out with Steve Austin against the evil Fembots! When Stephanie Powers starred in "The Return Of Bigfoot" well, all I can say is "did it get any better?" As I watch the show now, it's still fun to see the super-human strength Jamie had as she went undercover for many a mission for the OSI. As cheesy as the "special effects" look now, you have to admit they were pretty cool in their day and made the show a lot of fun, especially the series when Jamie & Steve were surrounded by the evil and powerful FEMBOTS! To all the shows creators, producers and directors I applaud you for a job very well done! Lindsay, if you ever read this, I love your causes and your efforts and the fact that you will always be my heroine! PS: If anyone would like to exchange emails, drop me a line sometime! Martin Gatin, Calgary Alberta, Canada. Email: mlgatin@shaw.ca PSS: If anyone has any screen shots taken from the TV show's introduction I could add to my collection I would very much appreciate it!