The era of (fictional) Bionics (Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman)

[The Old Mixer]

I was mostly going by what I'd gleaned from Wiki and IMDb. The original pilot movie was run in a 90-minute format, so for syndication they added new material to pad it out into two one-hour installments. This consisted in part of reused footage from later episodes. The most obviously godawful add-on in the syndication version of the pilot was the sequence at the very beginning showing Steve's first lunar mission, which was a nonsensical hack-job mess. Also, apparently any scenes in which they keep using the same close-up of Rudy Wells are suspect, as they all seem to be taken from one scene in the original pilot movie.

The post in question wasn't directly linked; it's here:

The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing The Mod Squad "Cry Uncle" Originally aired February 22, 1973 The visit of Captain Greer's uncle, a painter, may have something to do with a series of art thefts. Greer is interrogating an art gallery guard named Henson (Richard Newton) about a million-dollar...

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[DarrenTR1970]

It's also interesting how much the show plays up friendly relations between the US and the Soviets, in contrast to the reheating of the Cold War that began near the end of the seventies.

I've heard of a theory that says that the 'Six Million Dollar Man' was set in the near future from the time of its air date based on Steve Austin's mission to the moon being after the official Apollo missions had concluded, maybe closer to the late-70s/early-80s.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Hmm, I don't feel they're that similar. In the movie, Steve (in addition to being a civilian rather than the Air Force colonel he became in the series) was an unwilling agent under duress, trapped into working for the government that owned half his body (much like in Christopher Gorham's Jake 2.0, which was somewhat inspired by 6M$M). In the series, he was a free agent who willingly worked for Oscar, although he often had to be talked into it.

I think in the very beginning, he was more of a free agent. "Your problems aren't my problems until I make them my problem" sort of thing. But was really referring more towards his personality of the quieter, reserved "aw shucks" country boy instead of the quippy really bad James Bond copy.

"Wine, Women and War" was really dire. And, like the pilot, the syndicated expanded edit is ridiculously padded. The fishing scene goes on forever with reused close ups and inserts. Lots of shots from, I think, Colossus: The Forbin Project and that guy from a lot of Universal shows who sounds 100 years old doing ADR (I wish I could describe him better but IYKYK).

It's interesting that Oscar is portrayed as the same kind of manipulative hardass as Spencer from the pilot, but Richard Anderson is a much more amiable performer from the start, so it doesn’t really fit him as well as the characterization he developed in the series. A classic case of a character being rewritten to fit the actor's strengths.

Even though they were pals, Oscar was sometimes kind of a dick to Steve where he was all "babe" to Jaime. And once "Sexy Rudy" was cast (Martin E. Brooks), they fell over themselves to see who would laugh hardest at one of Jaime's jokes. It was kind of cute, taken in context, as both men were clearly smitten with her on a big brother level. One thing about both shows that I did appreciate was the feeling of family as they went along. At the same time Rudy went from being an expert in bionics to an expert in, well, everything scientific.

Regardless, Martin Brooks' version of Rudy was the favorite as a kid and I ate up the episode he got bitten by a super monkey and got Steve level powers.

The worst instance was the Skylab sequence in "The Rescue of Athena One." You could see Majors and Farrah Fawcett moving their upper bodies as if to pretend they were floating between handholds, but due to inept directing, the camera was far enough back that you could clearly see them walking.

Funny enough, I watched this last night. Agreed, this was not "Space:1999" level of low gravity depiction. A shame, the story was excellent with genuine suspense and a good "fist in the air" climax.

Hmm, I was around 8 when TBW premiered, and I don't remember finding it any less interesting than its parent show. But my big sister and I often watched it together, so maybe that was a factor. (I vaguely remember us joking around with each other about "Fem-butts.")

I still watched it whenever it wasn't pre-empted, but I vividly remember my sister and I wishing Jaime would stop singing "Feelings" and get on with the action.

Freiberger? Uh-oh.

All things considered, it could have turned out worse.

One thing that really impressed me in my rewatch, but also kind of saddened me, was the reminder of how the Space Age looked to us back then in the early ’70s, when we really believed we’d continue forward from Apollo rather than all but giving up on manned spaceflight. Watching "Athena One," I almost wept at getting to relive what it felt like to be in those times.

The NASA connection is another reason I preferred TSMDM. I loved the space program and the shared excitement you're talking about. It was more interesting an area of storylines to me than Jaime being a teacher (which they didn't spend a lot of time on in the end). This is also a reason I prefer I Dream of Jeannie over Bewitched, but that's another thread entirely.

It's also interesting how much the show plays up friendly relations between the US and the Soviets, in contrast to the reheating of the Cold War that began near the end of the seventies.

Doomsday and Counting is a great early example of that. Although this episode would have benefitted from having more than one actor attempting a Russian accent.

 

[Christopher]

Regardless, Martin Brooks' version of Rudy was the favorite as a kid

Alan Oppenheimer's my favorite, though that's partly because I also came to know him for his animation voice roles.

I find it amusing how, when they replaced Oppenheimer with Brooks, they initially tried putting pale makeup on his hair to make him seem to be balding, but then they gave up trying and just used his full head of hair. Sometimes I think Rudy must have invented a hair-regrowth formula among his other achievements.

This is also a reason I prefer I Dream of Jeannie over Bewitched, but that's another thread entirely.

I'm more a My Favorite Martian guy. Though of those two, I was more of a Bewitched viewer. Somehow I never really cared that much for Jeannie.

 

[urbandefault]

Alan Oppenheimer's my favorite, though that's partly because I also came to know him for his animation voice roles.

I find it amusing how, when they replaced Oppenheimer with Brooks, they initially tried putting pale makeup on his hair to make him seem to be balding, but then they gave up trying and just used his full head of hair. Sometimes I think Rudy must have invented a hair-regrowth formula among his other achievements.



I'm more a My Favorite Martian guy. Though of those two, I was more of a Bewitched viewer. Somehow I never really cared that much for Jeannie.

It was pretty obvious to me at the time the Brooks wore a hairpiece.

Here's how he looked in 1959:

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

This is a series that works best when you wear your heave prescription Nostalgia Glasses on. If you look at it with today's eyes, it's a hard journey. Even with forgiving eyes, it can be tough.

Agreed. Most of TSMDM's run was a classic example of a TV gimmick beaten to death, when it worked best as a single-purpose concept, much like The Immortal (1969), another successful ABC TV movie turned into a series that did not match the potential of the pilot, and so many others of TV's past.

Just a quick correction, they didn't put Steve out at the end to keep him on ice between missions. That was Oliver's suggestion, but Rudy said "over my dead body." He was just in a coma while he was being repaired.

Ahh! That's right. Still, the pilot ended on such a grim note--there was no joyous, heroic moment announcing the dawn of a new superhero with more adventures to come. It was Austin laying there with an uncertain future he had no control over.

The two Glen Larson follow ups were just terrible

Well, it was Glen Larson....

The second season was really solid and the introduction of Jaime was a great benefit. But this is also where the series started down its more cheesy path.

First, someone let Lee Majors believe he could sing.

The greed of agents, studios and vanity of popular actors feeling they can branch out into music. A common ploy throughout TV history. Majors' level of "singing" was only worthy of ending up on the old Rhino Records celebrity music disaster CD series, Golden Throats.

It really does bring the episode down somewhat, which is a shame because Ken Johnson's script is excellent (so good he retooled it for a two part Hulk episode "Married").

Kenneth Johnson was one of the best things ever to grace the entire Bionic mini-franchise for Universal. That said, if I had to compare the dramatic impact of "The Bionic Woman" 2-parter to "Married", Johnson outshined his earlier work with The Incredible Hulk screenplay, as much for Bixby's criminally underrated range to deal with subjects of that level of human complexity as it succeeded due to Mariette Hartley's unforgettable performance.

When we got The Bionic Woman series, we got the other side of the coin. The "girl's show" and even as a kid, I wasn't crazy about it. It was fine to have Jaime doing jobs Steve never could (beauty pageants and lady wrestling), but at this point, the bionic shows were more gimmicky. And TBW was geared more towards Lindsay Wagner's interests, like saving tigers and environmental issues (nothing could be more boring to a 10 year old boy who wanted people being tossed around). Still, she had some solid episodes (Kill Oscar, the Lisa Galloway episodes, Doomsday is Tomorrow and more fembots) and, I agree, Lindsay was a much more accomplished performer in these shows than Lee, who used his eyebrow more and more to do the heavy lifting.

The Bionic Woman had some strong episodes, but it--like its parent series--was not the kind of material designed for regular episodic TV. TBW would have been better off with two TV movies, with the second ending with Sommers moving on in life.

The mustache season was the end of Steve having a personal life of any kind. He was all about the job. He wasn't even a personality at this point, just a glorified stuntman. And even in season 3, the weirdo celebrity guests were laughable: Rodney Allen Rippy, Sonny Bono, Flip Wilson....really just terrible.

You are quite right. At that point, TSMDM would not have been out of its element if he had a mission aboard the Love Boat.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Agreed. Most of TSMDM's run was a classic example of a TV gimmick beaten to death, when it worked best as a single-purpose concept, much like The Immortal (1969), another successful ABC TV movie turned into a series that did not match the potential of the pilot, and so many others of TV's past.

The Immortal didn't even try. They took a great TV movie and instead of doing something thought provoking with it leaned hard on the chase format in an effort to become the next version of "The Fugitive" - right down to rewriting some of that series' episodes.

The show had the benefit of Chris George and the amazing Dominic Frontiere music. It also had some of the most energetic and brutal fight scenes of the era. At a time when networks were backing away from violence, The Immortal was pushing back with some great dust ups. Hal Needham was Chris George's double and they so closely resembled each other, it was genuinely difficult to tell them apart. Needham was a little thinner with looser hair, but they were a great match. This helped tremendously.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I guess it's appropriate to post this since it was just uploaded this morning on YouTube

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I'll post his other two reviews as well.

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[Skipper]

Are there any recent movies or TV shows where a character is shown running very fast but not super-fast (about 60 mph) in a convincing manner? I can only think of superheroes and the like but they basically move at supersonic speeds, not the more "moderate" speed of the Bionic Man.

 

[matthunter]

Are there any recent movies or TV shows where a character is shown running very fast but not super-fast (about 60 mph) in a convincing manner? I can only think of superheroes and the like but they basically move at supersonic speeds, not the more "moderate" speed of the Bionic Man.

Possibly the Halo TV series? Master Chief and the other SPARTAN-II supersoldiers are meant to be able to run at ~35mph (Chief once managed over 50mph in the books, but tore a muscle doing it).

The mention of Jake 2.0 above reminded me of the short-lived series Now and Again, which had the brain of a fatally-injured man (played in flashback by John Goodman from Roseanne) transplanted into a superhuman body. The exact source of the enhancements was not explicitly stated except that the body was "engineered" for perfection but the end result was quite similar to 6M$M, and like the mention of Jake 2.0 meant that a civilian was suddenly beholden to a government agency and unable to return to a normal life (a lot of the drama focused around him trying to help/interact with his "widow" and teen daughter without revealing who he really was).

 

[Skipper]

Possibly the Halo TV series? Master Chief and the other SPARTAN-II supersoldiers are meant to be able to run at ~35mph (Chief once managed over 50mph in the books, but tore a muscle doing it).

The mention of Jake 2.0 above reminded me of the short-lived series Now and Again, which had the brain of a fatally-injured man (played in flashback by John Goodman from Roseanne) transplanted into a superhuman body. The exact source of the enhancements was not explicitly stated except that the body was "engineered" for perfection but the end result was quite similar to 6M$M, and like the mention of Jake 2.0 meant that a civilian was suddenly beholden to a government agency and unable to return to a normal life (a lot of the drama focused around him trying to help/interact with his "widow" and teen daughter without revealing who he really was).

Thanks. I remember SMDM showing Steve running in "real time" a couple of times, but it didn't seem very convincing...

I'll see if I can find some clips on Youtube!

ETA:
You know, it's not bad!

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[Christopher]

The mention of Jake 2.0 above reminded me of the short-lived series Now and Again, which had the brain of a fatally-injured man (played in flashback by John Goodman from Roseanne) transplanted into a superhuman body. The exact source of the enhancements was not explicitly stated except that the body was "engineered" for perfection but the end result was quite similar to 6M$M, and like the mention of Jake 2.0 meant that a civilian was suddenly beholden to a government agency and unable to return to a normal life (a lot of the drama focused around him trying to help/interact with his "widow" and teen daughter without revealing who he really was).

Oh yeah, Now and Again. I had some issues with that show (which was created by Moonlighting's Glenn Gordon Caron). For one thing, Eric Close, who played the main character in his new body, wasn't half as charismatic as John Goodman, who only appeared as the character in flashbacks. For another thing:

Spoiler: Now and Again storyline

Dennis Haysbert's character told the guy up front that his family would be killed immediately if he made any attempt to contact them and tell them he was alive -- and the very first thing he did after that was to try to contact them and tell them he was alive! Who would do that?

Even worse, the series premise guaranteed that he kept having more and more contact with his family (even if they didn't know who he was), and Haysbert didn't follow through on his threat to kill them, which rendered the threat ineffectual and made it seem like a cheap fakeout by the writers to create artificial suspense. The show had its merits, but I had trouble getting past the weaknesses.

 

[the G-man]

I was 11 when the Bigfoot episode first aired and, man, that was all ANYONE in school could talk about the Monday morning after. We were still jazzed up two and 1/2 days later.

 

[JD]

Possibly the Halo TV series? Master Chief and the other SPARTAN-II supersoldiers are meant to be able to run at ~35mph (Chief once managed over 50mph in the books, but tore a muscle doing it).

The mention of Jake 2.0 above reminded me of the short-lived series Now and Again, which had the brain of a fatally-injured man (played in flashback by John Goodman from Roseanne) transplanted into a superhuman body. The exact source of the enhancements was not explicitly stated except that the body was "engineered" for perfection but the end result was quite similar to 6M$M, and like the mention of Jake 2.0 meant that a civilian was suddenly beholden to a government agency and unable to return to a normal life (a lot of the drama focused around him trying to help/interact with his "widow" and teen daughter without revealing who he really was).

I watched Jake 2.0 and Now & Again and really enjoyed both of them, and Chuck too.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Thanks. I remember SMDM showing Steve running in "real time" a couple of times, but it didn't seem very convincing...

I'll see if I can find some clips on Youtube!

ETA:
You know, it's not bad!

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These shots are actually pretty good, yeah. Was it what was used in the show opening? I don't have time to check now, but that always looked good, I thought.

The show opening is, by the way, simply great, IMO.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The opening is classic. The narration is burned into a lot of brains.

 

[Skipper]

These shots are actually pretty good, yeah. Was it what was used in the show opening? I don't have time to check now, but that always looked good, I thought.

The show opening is, by the way, simply great, IMO.

I think they are used in the pilot.

 

[theenglish]

If that is from the pilot, it has the bionic sound effect added to it. Somebody mentioned the original movie had been re-edited for the pilot -- were the bionic sound effects in the show from the very start?

 

[Skipper]

These shots are actually pretty good, yeah. Was it what was used in the show opening? I don't have time to check now, but that always looked good, I thought.

The show opening is, by the way, simply great, IMO.

I think this particular scene was from the pilot. According to some reviewer, they showed him running in "real time" 3-4 time in the entirety of the show.

 

[theenglish]

Oh, I was thinking of the sound effects when I asked because they weren't used in the original Cyborg movie nor the two follow up movies--so I didn't know if they started using those effects in the show's pilot episode. The original three movies just used sped up footage to show him running fast as well--and it is effective for the most part because he's running at basically highway speeds.

EDIT: There really isn't a reason some street level heroes shouldn't be able to move "moderately" fast. Even being able to move at 60mph should give a distinct advantage in a variety of scenarios.