Belated 50th Anniversary Viewing
Now it's a slo-mo but sound-effectless sprint to the finish as we proceed into the last five episodes of SMDM S1 just ahead of our new 50th Anniversary Viewing season.
The Six Million Dollar Man
"Dr. Wells Is Missing"
Originally aired March 29, 1974
Wiki said:
When a group of international criminals kidnap Dr. Rudy Wells in order to force him to build them a bionic man, Steve is sent to find and rescue him.
The bionic sound is used for the first time once during the fight scene close to the end of the episode.
Actually, it's used three times, but still hasn't been assigned exclusively to Steve, or even to bionics/robotics in this case.
INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA: Rudy checks into the Hotel Otztal, having gotten an invitation to receive a doctorate from his alma mater. Oscar and Steve call to check on him out of concern fueled by Oscar's instinct (perhaps set off by the fact that Rudy's already a doctor). Steve volunteers to drop in and check on Rudy. As Wells finishes checking in, a pair of heavies chloro him right in front of the complicit desk clerk (Than Wyenn).
When Steve arrives at the hotel, the clerk gives him a story about Wells checking out early due to an invitation to be a gentleman's house guest. Outside, the porter (Norbert Schiller) tells Steve of how Rudy, mistaken to have been drunk, was carried into a car. The clerk calls a stately manor to warn Alfredo Tucelli (John van Dreelen), who, accompanied by Julio Tucelli (Michael Dante; presumably a brother given the actors' ages, but I didn't catch where they established that) and a heavy named Yamo (Jim Shane), questions Wells about having created a bionic man. As Steve's driving to check out his lead, a duo in another car start ramming his rear. Both cars being topless, Steve gets beside them and rips out their steering wheel, sending them into an unseen crash (but with no sound to indicate the usual obligatory result). At the village the car is from, Steve questions a mechanic, Anton Brandt (Curt Lowens), who's initially friendly but clams up, making a call to Tucelli afterward. Suspicious of the mechanic, Steve uses some Austrian he learns from a waitress (Cynthia Lynn) to call Brandt from a payphone and order him to visit the man he's answering to (which seems way too easy). Steve follows him on foot to Stately Tucelli Manor, leaping atop the wall. After the mechanic is sent away, Steve sneaks into the house from an upper story window and sees Rudy downstairs maintaining his story that he's been engaged in cancer research for the past two years. Rudy spots Steve and calls out to him before Yamo TV-fus his lights out.
Under threat of Yamo working over the unconscious Steve, Rudy pretends to relent, giving Tucelli a story about how the government cut off his research and Steve being a pharmaceutical company agent who's also been trying to recruit him to create a bionic man. Rudy's allowed to talk to Steve, who plays along with Rudy's act, through which Rudy conveys information about the situation that he's in. Suspecting that Steve is actually Wells's bionic man, Tucelli has him locked in a dungeon cell and watches via hidden camera as Steve busts out of his chains, which includes tearing out the piece of concrete wall they're bolted into. Steve is out before they catch up with him, but Tucelli calls out to him to surrender for Rudy's safety. Steve complies and is taken back into custody, surrounded by armed guards.
The next morning, Tucelli arranges for a test of Steve's abilities. First up is a brawny savate expert named Pierre, who gets in a couple of good kicks before being tossed aside. Next he sends in two men, Kurt and Vincent (uncredited Dave Cass and Terry Leonard, who I believe were the abductors), and after Pierre joins in as well, Steve fends off all three at once--the bionic sound being used once for Steve as he flips one of them. Tucelli is most impressed as Steve ultimately tosses all three away. Yamo, who's no piker for a guy without bionics, rips up a lamp post and charges at Steve with it, but with the help of some reused shots, Steve repeatedly tosses away all four assailants, to Rudy's amused approval. Alas, the bionic sound effect is used twice for Yamo(!!!) as he gets in a couple of good blows with the post, first against Steve's legs to get him off his feet, then smashing into his bionic arm. Tucelli calls off the fight and Rudy questions Steve about whether his real leg or bionic one was injured. Once again Steve plays along.
Back in Tucelli's lab, to save Steve's life, Rudy offers to inject him with a drug that will put him under Tucelli's control. He shoots it into the leg that Tucelli has been led to believe is real. After Steve and Rudy are left alone with Yamo, Steve breaks his strap and kicks Yamo into a wall. Steve, his bionic arm now in a sling, decoys the guards by making a break on foot, while Rudy commandeers a Jeep. Steve takes down the heavy gates with a flying kick, then hops in the back of Rudy's Jeep, which is followed by Tucelli's men. Steve gets out to play decoy again, and the hoods try to run him down, but have trouble catching up with him as he accelerates past 60 mph on the windy, muddy road. As he hides in bushes, Yamo gets out to find him on foot, and Steve kicks the car over a cliff with two men inside, sending the vehicle to its OTVF. A one-on-one duel with Yamo ensues, in which the hood proves to be a close match for Steve sans his bionic wing, but Steve ultimately bests him with a flying kick.
In the coda, Rudy's back in Washington, we're told that the Tucellis have been taken into custody, and Steve shows Rudy and Oscar that his repaired arm needs a little adjustment by breaking a coffee table into two with the touch of his pinky.
The Six Million Dollar Man
"The Last of the Fourth of Julys"
Originally aired April 5, 1974
Wiki said:
When a terrorist uses a laser to try to kill a group of prime ministers attending an international meeting in Paris, Steve is assigned to infiltrate his compound and stop him.
At a secure installation in a neutral country, Agent Balsam (Hank Stohl) sends an urgent, coded message about a laser being ready before he's caught and kills himself offscreen with a cyanide capsule...as underling Root (Special Guest Star Kevin Tighe) reports to Quail (Steve Forrest), who's also accompanied by a femme fatale named Violette (Arlene Martel). Quail promises Mr. Ives (Ben Wright), the investor for whom he developed the weapon, of an attack that will go off at exactly 6:00 p.m. on the titular date.
Oscar assigns Steve to investigate, unsure of who the mysterious Quail is or what it all adds up to. Oscar briefs Steve about the installation and how he'll be inserted by being shot from a sub in a torpedo to a coastline in Norway (which looks absolutely nothing like that Southern Californian piece of coastline with a big cave that we've seen in other TV shows). In preparation for all of this, Steve undergoes some training with Joe Alabam (Tom Reese), a tough drill sergeant who knows about his abilities, which includes vaulting over a 30-foot high fence and simulating the torpedo ride complete with pressure. Cut to the sub, pinging away with its active sonar in the typical TV fashion, where Oscar and Joe see Steve off on his ride.
The insertion is successful, Steve changes clothes and hides his torpedo, then uses a bionically thrown grappling hook to climb up the beach's cliff. (As an IMDb contributor points out, you can see rocks falling upward in the climbing shots.) He then pole-vaults over the fence, grazing the barbed wire despite his training. In the facility, Root's consoles detect a radioactive reading somewhere inside the fence. Steve proceeds through the hard water plant that powers the laser as Quail and Root (who sound kind of like Guardians of the Galaxy) remotely follow the progress of their intruder.
Steve breaks through some bouncy bars into the sewer level. Quail and minions converge on Steve's location in electric carts and a no-name thug TV-fus Steve into captivity.
Quail, Root, and Violette speculate about the nature of the intruder, and deduce that he must be wearing a radioactive implant. Quail and company then interrogate Steve, which includes Violette using a neck pinch that she brought from the ol' home planet:
Mindful of Oscar's advice that he not reveal his strength too soon (The way they play up Steve's coaching, you'd think this was his first assignment.), Steve endures this and other methods, including Root spinning him around while flashing strobe lights.
"Who sent you!?! Was it Johnny!?! Chet!?!"
As Violette attempts a solo follow-up with the neck pinch, she tells Steve that she's an Interpol agent. He's reluctant to trust her, but she tells him that they're testing the laser that day, which will involve bouncing it off a satellite. When he learns how they caught him, he asks her to shut off the sensor systems so he can break out....which he proceeds with immediately after she leaves, busting out of his cuffs and forcing open a security door to toss in the guards. She proceeds to an electronics hardware room, shorts out the system, and is apprehended. Steve is then caught fooling around in the laser control room.
As minion Hurst (H. Alan Deglin) activates the laser, which is set up kind of like an observatory telescope, in true Bondian fashion Quail explains to Steve how he plans to use the laser to kill delegates from seven nations at a Paris summit that is against Ives's interests. In an extremely disappointing twist, we learn that the laser is just being used as an unnecessarily elaborate means of detonating explosives that have already been planted on-site...!
Figuring that he's now in the fourth act of the show, Steve shoves away his guards and makes his break with Violette in tow. He tells her that he programmed the laser to self-destruct in five minutes...Good luck, Steve! They evade pursuit, which includes Steve kicking his cart into Root's, and Steve takes her to the bendy-barred tunnel whence he came in. Outside, as Root and armed guards approach, Steve uses his arm to tear open the electric fence, and climbs down the cliff with Violette on his back. In the cave, he loads her into the torpedo, drags it to the water while being fired on from above, and bionic-propels her away toward the sub as the installation goes up. The sub captain (Barry Cahill) wants to dive at the sound of an approaching torpedo, but Oscar convinces him to risk it, aided by sonar not picking up the sound of propellors. Steve and wet Violette are brought aboard.
In the coda, Steve blows off Oscar trying to brief him about his next assignment on the sub, prioritizing getting in some alone time with Violette.
The Six Million Dollar Man
"Burning Bright"
Originally aired April 12, 1974
Wiki said:
Steve's astronaut friend Josh Lang (William Shatner) is impaired after being exposed to an electrical field while in space. However, Lang finds himself with strange abilities from the exposure, including the ability to communicate with dolphins. When Lang's condition deteriorates, Steve must find him and take him to a facility before he harms himself.
The episode opens with Josh being gabby on a spacewalk, starting with jokes but acting increasingly trippy. In Houston, NASA official Calvin Billings (Quinn Redeker) shows Steve the tape and consults with him about his own spacewalking experience. Steve indicates that there was an electrical field involved, but he worked his way past the euphoria that it induced. But Cal indicates that it's been two weeks and Josh hasn't returned to normal, his brain seemingly supercharged. Hoping to prevent Cal from removing Josh from future missions, Steve agrees to look into the matter.
NASA scientists observe as Steve demonstrates his bionic abilities in reused footage from the pilot and the pole vaulting from just last episode. Meeting Steve at Ocean World park, Josh indicates that he knows he's been acting irrationally, but he can't turn it off; and that he feels like a walking computer. At Houston, Dr. Ted Haldane (Warren Kemmerling) indicates that he wants to have Josh put under observation, which would also jeopardize the astronaut's career. He and Steve are called into the programming room, where Josh is having an episode as he gathers up sheets of data and insists that there's a mistake in the programming for the next mission. Steve asks Oscar to have both this and an observation Josh talked about during his spaceflight, about the sun being the origin of space vector, run through a computer. Later, as Steve's jogging with Josh, Josh is drawn to an electrical tower, climbs up it, and starts to talk to an unseen Andy, whom he also addressed during his spacewalk. Josh pulls loose an electrical wire, becoming caught in its current, and Steve goes up to yank it out. Afterward, when Steve vaguely explains his arm, Josh guesses that he's bionic; and continues to deny knowing who Andy is.
Josh: All my life I've dreamed about going up into space, and now I wanna go back...!
Watch out for your job, Decker!
While Steve's poring through Josh's file, Josh escapes from guarded bed rest by switching places with an MP through unknown means. He leaves Steve a note indicating that he wants to meet at Ocean World again. There, Josh tells Steve that he knocked out the MP with electrical energy from his mind, and that the dolphins are talking to him, and he can understand them. He believes that the dolphins are in tune with the electrical field in space, and wants to take a dolphin up with Steve, believing that it will be able to communicate with other worlds. Desperate to prove he can communicate with the cetaceans, Josh goes out onto the plank and mentally commands them to jump in in pairs and fours. (All that's missing is Ted Knight's narration.) What Josh can't explain is the name of the beneficiary on his life insurance policy, Ernesto Arruza, whom he says he's never heard of. Back at NASA, Billings threatens to have Josh placed in protective custody, but Josh knocks him out with that electrical energy from his mind.
Billings confirms that Josh somehow controlled him; and Oscar confirms that Josh was right about the programming error and the sun thing, though he doesn't get into the latter. Dr. Haldane produces an EEG that demonstrates how Josh's mind has been supercharged, and he believes that Josh is threatening to emulate a light bulb by burning too bright before he blows out. Trying to find Josh first, Steve pays a visit to Ernesto Arruza (Rodolfo Hoyos), who turns out to be a man from Josh's home town whose son, Andy, was friends with Josh, and died climbing on an electrical tower when he was ten. Steve tries to find the tower, believing that's where Josh is going. A deputy in a bar (Joseph di Reda) recognizes Josh, Josh reads his mind, and when Josh uses his power to stop the deputy from taking him into custody, Josh accidentally kills him.
Confirming with a waitress at the bar (Anne Schedeen) that Josh was looking for Andy, he proceeds to the tower, where Josh is calling up to Andy again, offering to help him, and starts to climb. Steve tells Josh that he was right about the computer error and the sun thing, and tries to get him to come down so he can be treated, but Josh, saying that he's burning, continues to climb. Steve jumps up onto the tower and climbs after him. While Steve tries to get to Josh on a girder, Josh apologizes to Andy for having dared him to climb the tower. Josh then tries to stop Steve with his mind, and loses control, intensely babbling equations for his sun vector theory before collapsing into Steve's arms. Steve brings Josh down and carries his body past a cordon of deputies.
In the coda, Josh is due for a hero's burial at Arlington, and Steve acknowledges that Josh was an oddball from the beginning, crediting Cal for taking a chance on sending him into space and encouraging him not to let what happened to Josh stop him in the future. Outside, Steve looks at the Moon, hearing Josh's joking during his spacewalk, and says goodbye to his friend.
On the plus side, this was a high-concept episode that was a good showcase for Shat's hammy acting style. On the minus, it seemed a little underdeveloped, like there should have been some payoff for what Josh was going through...like having the opportunity to use his abilities to save the world or something before he burnt out.
While this episode reinforces that there's more space flight activity going on in the Bionicverse, it stays grounded in the present by referencing Apollo-Soyuz as an upcoming space mission.
It was an unpopular decision, but I disagree that it cost him the election. He really had no chance. He was not only serving the second of two consecutive Republican terms, but he was covering for a historically unpopular president, and he was also just some guy who nobody had voted for for president to begin with. He was an appointee. Plus the fact that he was up against a likeable candidate who was generally seen as the antidote to everything Nixon.
It was nevertheless a close election--Carter wasn't a shoo-in--and the unpopularity of this decision is conventionally believed to have tipped the balance against Ford.
I voted for Ford in the
Weekly Reader poll...I'd never heard of that Carter guy.
It was the right thing to do, but he didn't think it through. Instead of just issuing a blanket pardon, he should have iterated all the charges that Nixon would have faced and pardoned him for each one individually.
I think that would have invited the opportunity to game the pardon by finding other charges to go after Nixon with.
A Friday the 13th to remember! Planet of the Apes premiered at 8pm, after which I joined Six-Million-Dollar Man in progress, and then Night Stalker came on at 10pm. Night Stalker, of course, would become one of my all-time favorite TV shows.
Night Stalker debuted on Friday the 13th? That's cute. I would have been watching
Sanford and Son,
Chico, and
Police Woman. I wasn't into
Rockford, which fell between them, but remember it being on when I was in the room.
Good one. Some nostalgic appeal.
I had this, but can't say that it's familiar.
Now this one I remember from in the day, but it eluded my collection.
I have no recollection of this at all. I'm surprised it made it to #11.
Ditto. It's not reprehensible, I'll probably get it.
Not bad for a TV show. But that picture answers the question of how accurate the interior was... namely, not at all.
I figured as much.
Looking back a little, I think the talk of secret missions and a Moonbase was just us trying to make sense of all the stock footage.
Or maybe you were getting SMDM mixed up with
Super Friends.
If Reagan had challenged Ford for the Presidential ticket in '76 like he strongly being advised to, Reagan probably would have won, and it would have been Reagan v. Carter four years earlier.
en.wikipedia.org
Early this morning when I was briefly awake during Me's airing of
The Invaders, I saw...
Gene Fucking Hackman. I didn't know he did TV! (
Looks like Trapper was in the episode, too.)
Sometimes Oscar actually just straight-up gives him assignments.
