The Six Million Dollar Man - Series 1 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

Gentlemen, we have the technology to build the world’s first Bionic man. Remember that? I do. So here we go into a world were a man can be rebuilt to better than before with a 1970’s nuclear reactor in arm.

As a man of 34 years old, seventies TV played very much an influential part of my life, The Six Million Dollar Man being probably the most pivotal TV series that I ever watched. Not only was I in another world for an hour every ...
...that a new series of the The Bionic Woman has now been fully commissioned for the Autumn schedules with a 21st Century makeover has really started to bring back the memories, to keep it brief the main role of Jamie Summers will be played by the same actress who played Zoë Slater in East Enders goes to show that a fresh take in just around the corner for The Six Million Dollar Man, or in today’s climate could be $6 billion. For me personally I bought ... more

Gentlemen, we have the technology to build the world’s first Bionic man. Remember that? I do. So here we go into a world were a man can be rebuilt to better than before with a 1970’s nuclear reactor in arm.

As a man of 34 years old, seventies TV played very much an influential part of my life, The Six Million Dollar Man being probably the most pivotal TV series that I ever watched. Not only was I in another world for an hour every Thursday night at 7.30pm on what was then the golden age of Thames Television, but was also fascinated how a man could run in slow motion and still catch vehicles that were dong at least 60 mph!!!

Learning this week that a new series of the The Bionic Woman has now been fully commissioned for the Autumn schedules with a 21st Century makeover has really started to bring back the memories, to keep it brief the main role of Jamie Summers will be played by the same actress who played Zoë Slater in East Enders goes to show that a fresh take in just around the corner for The Six Million Dollar Man, or in today’s climate could be $6 billion. For me personally I bought the boxed set of Season 1 as more of a nostalgia trip and also a good excuse to stay in and watch the majority of the episodes back to back in a similar way that I did with Lost. I wasn’t disappointed at all. From the beginning where you place the disk in you see a different Steve Austin. I shall explain….

---Episodes---

The boxed comprises of the 3 TV pilot movies and all thirteen Season 1 episodes.

The Moon and the Desert
Wine Women and War
The Solid Gold Kidnapping

Population: Zero
Survival of the Fittest
Operation Firefly
Day of the Robot
Little Orphan Airplane
Doomsday and Counting
Eyewitness to Murder
The Rescue of Athena One
Dr. Wells is Missing
The Last of the Fourth of Julys
Burning Bright
The Coward
Run, Steve, Run

Originally aired in March 1973, as a Monday night feature. The first feature length episode is the first pilot. Called ‘The Moon and The Desert’ and tells the origin of Steve Austin and the accident he survived to become Bionic. Although this story is referred to by the main titles of every episode the character surrounding Austin are not that we have come to expect in further seasons. There is no Oscar Goldman for starters; instead there is the character of Oliver Spencer played by the late Darren McGavin. A darker character by far and more ruthless than Goldman who refers to Austin as a tool for getting the job done, the character of Rudy Wells is played by the well known actor Martin Balsam and not Alan Oppenheimer. He is a close friend of Steve Austin and his narration through this explains his story. Throughout the film it is little things like OSO which changed to OSI, which was the organisation that Goldman headed up. Also please not that this version of the pilot id the version that was aired in later seasons, hence the narration and the addition scenes of Austin walking on the moon, this was spliced into the film to effectively pad out the timings to stretch over two episodes as it was shown as a two part story, where as the original version was not.

One thing that is missing and would not be utilised until the series started proper was the sound effects for when Austin was running and jumping. There are a number of scenes where you do see Austin running in slow motion, but it is refreshing if not a bit funny to see him running at full speed, although this looks a little like Benny Hill it does go to show what the producers were trying to attempt. Don’t forget this was based on the novel ‘Cyborg’ by Martin Caidin and was staying very close to the source of that novel.

Subsequently the next two pilots see a distinct change of pace, the rawness of the first pilot has gone to be replaced with a more of a mega superhero story. For example in Women and Wine we see a quite remarkable cast including David McCullum and Britt Ekland to name but a few. But also a story surrounding arms dealing. The main difference is that Dusty Springfield sings the opening and closing title song with opening sequence including Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells, seriously this is totally different from the titles they used after. It is interesting to note that you see Austin do more in this such as swimming at high speed, running, bursting through walls than you do in the disappointing ‘Solid Gold Kidnapping’ and that for me lets the third pilot down as the character of Austin becomes more Man From Uncle than Bionic Man. It is not until Population Zero that you hear the well known theme tune.

Now getting onto the Episodes, after a good reception with audience figures with the pilots and with anticipation high, Season 1 of The Six Million Dollar Man launched in 1974. Personally the first season will always be my favourite for a number of reasons, mainly because we get the rawness of the original pilot back into the episodes. It is played down to earth by Lee Majors and with solutions being applied by a man thinking of how to use his powers to get out of that situation. It is this that gave the series its humanity. It is also good to see that full use of slo-mo running was used, as this acted as a very powerful medium to show Austin running. Although that it is not to say that all episodes ion the season are good as a few are downright laughable.

Other than the third pilot movie, the episode ‘Brightest Light’ truly stands out as a probable low point, the story is that astronaut Josh Lang has come back from a space mission and has been affected by sort form of light while outside his capsule in orbit. This gives him a strange power allowing him to think at a greater speed with a high level of brain activity, he has an idea to take dolphins into space (!!!) and goes about ensuring that this is done. I have to admit to chortling at some parts of this story, while not the best of the season as compared to the excellent Rescue of Athena One, Day of the Robot or Population Zero, it is the acting by William Shatner who plays Josh Lang that goes so over the top that it just raises the episode from abysmal to really disappointing.
The stories do range from robot makers to rescue missions and a varied mix of stories to the extent that they do not overlap or repeat, it is also interesting to note that some stories in this season set up further sequels in the next season and beyond, the violence is really no more than cartoon fighting, in slo-mo of course but is good to watch, by the end of the season the stories are at full speed with characters going on the run, and having to manage these issues. You also see Austin with weaknesses and there are a number of times that the stories do actually make you think that the character is in considerable danger and not a case of he has a power he uses it and nails the bad guys, the suspense comes from when the powers will be used and how they will be used, therefore setting up suspense and anxiety of the scene.

---Regular Cast---

Out of all the cast that appeared in Season 1, only three were the main characters, the rest being guest stars as the villains or co stars that were only in it for as basic cameo appearances.

Lee Majors plays Steve Austin, in the original pilot he was a civilian tester of aircraft that was changed to astronaut holding the rank of Colonel, who had walked on the Moon. At the time Majors was a known face from TV series such as ‘The Big Valley’ as Heath and ‘Owen Marshall: Counsellor of Law. He had appeared in films such as Will Penny before taking the part of Steve Austin.

Richard Anderson plays Oscar Goldman, Head of the OSI, a well known face from the cult classic ‘Forbidden Planet’ and the last season of ‘Ironside’, one of his most notable appearances pre Oscar Goldman was in the final episode of ‘The Fugitive’ with David Jansen. Although appearing in all but one of the episodes, Anderson went on to appear in the original Bionic Woman series and to produce the three TV movies in the last eighties to round the legacy ioff.

Alan Oppenheimer plays Rudy Wells, the creator of Steve’s powers. Oppenhiemer is well known in animation circles as a voice artist and has voiced numerous characters in animations such as ‘He Man’ where he played Skeletor and ‘Battle of the Planets’. Alan was replaced in later season by Martin E Brooks.

---Extras---

For a show that has just breached its 35th anniversary it is very, very surprising that no extras are included as part of the box set. This is a real shame as Universal could have got something together. Personally I would have liked to have seen interviews with Le Majors and Richard Anderson as they are today, maybe a documentary about the making of the series and the successful merchandising that followed, which could been spread over the potential five season boxes.

Even a sprinkling of trailers that would have been shown on American television would have been enough, it is a real missed opportunity here as this is something that everyone remembers that nothing has been added to the box. Come on Universal pull your fingers out, we could have at least have some promotional photo’s… please!!!

---Trivia---

The accident that you see at the beginning of the titles, was not staged for the show. This was footage of a real aircraft being tested and unfortunately crashed. The aircraft itself was a fore runner of the space shuttle that was tested in the last sixties. Although the pilot survived, he was quoted as saying that he could never watch the show because of this.

In the early 1990’s, Lee Majors had to have a double knee replacement. This was due to 5 years of hard running with additional stress put on the knee were filming of him landing from a jump meant he had to bend right down to show the compensation of the landing.

Rumour has it that the famous noise of the Bionics was created by a metal ruler being slapped whilst over the edge of a desk and the sound then being considerably slowed down. Although this has never been confirmed.

---Availability---

Availability is very good, when originally released the box set was priced at £34.99, which for just 16 episodes is questionable value for money. But recently with Season 2 being released containing 21 episodes has been slashed in price. Virgin were selling this last week for £17.00 and it is only £15 on Sendit.com. Bearing in mind that after this there are four more season and a further three films to be released that the on-line price is a very good saving.

---Overall---

With a rather bland picture of Steve Austin as seen in the ‘Rescue of Athena One’ episode on the cover and the electrical circuitry background, it does not seem that a lot of effort was made for something that was being released on DVD for the very first time. It is this and the lack of extras, although some would consider the episodes gold anyway, that has let the package down. Even the recent release of Hawaii 50 had more than this. The episodes themselves have not dated well, and for the age that would be expected, obviously the fashions of the time and the cars that are used do tie this down. As I watched nearly three quarters of the box in one sitting you did get to see how heavily used the stock footage was, for example taking clips from another film to use as a spacer. Ay a shot of a 747 taking off and landing was more than likely used in another Universal production.

Putting all this aside, the positives far outweigh the negatives in all areas. The episodes do tell stories that are interesting and can be followed and show what high respect the studio had for this series. As a program that is really only shown on the SCI-FI channel with the occasional airing on Five, I can see why this has been a popular release.

Personally for me speaking it has given me to see in whole the episodes that I swa before, and relish in watching again. Yes the acting and dialogue is a bit naff in parts, but then again if you take on board that a man can run at 60 mph and jump a 100 feet in the air then the rest is a breeze. Bottom line is I really enjoyed this and would recommend this fully to anyone who watched this as a kid.

Until next time, take care.

Tim 

...less