From Archie Bunker to George Jefferson, from the Fonz to J.R. Ewing, the 1970s introduced any number of iconic television characters. And while most of those characters had instantly recognizable catch-phrases, very, very few had an instantly recognizable sound effect. That belonged USAF Colonel Steve Austin, better known as The Six Million Dollar Man.
Colonel Austin’s fictional journey began in the pages of Cyborg, a 1972 novel by prolific science fiction author Martin Caidin. In the book, Austin is injured in a crash and gets outfitted with cybernetic replacement parts by a government agency; in turn, Austin becomes their field agent. Caidin would write three more novels starring Austin, but not before he’d struck a deal for the character to make his small-screen debut.
ABC could see the potential for an Austin-based show and got The Six Million Dollar Man rolling in a series of three TV movies in 1973. Actor Lee Majors, best-known at the time for his work on The Big Valley, was cast in the lead. The first film was a huge hit (the tenth most-watched program that week), and as the other two rolled out, it was clear to ABC that the character should go to series. The central conceit featured Austin undertaking missions as an agent for the OSI (Office of Strategic Intelligence) while being supported by his boss, Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and scientist Rudy Wells (Martin Balsam, then Alan Oppenheimer, and finally Martin E. Brooks).
Intro to The Six Million Dollar Man (Uploaded to YouTube by Movie Clip Microcosm)
Behind the camera, Harve Bennett (formerly of The Mod Squad) was the executive producer, while Kenneth Johnson was a producer. Following the Six Million success, Bennett would go to produce several Star Trek films. Johnson became one of the driving forces of sci-fi on TV, producing and/or creating shows like The Incredible Hulk, Cliffhangers, V, and Alien Nation. Bennett provided the narration heard at the beginning of what would become The Six Million Dollar Man’s iconic opening.
Intro to The Bionic Woman (Uploaded to YouTube by ilovetvintros)
The Six Million Dollar Man series launched 50 years ago this month and was an instant hit, reaching #11 in the Nielsen ratings in its first year on the air (considering that it was behind hits like All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and Kojak, that’s a real achievement). The show was strong enough that producers introduced another cybernetic character, Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) in a two-part episode in 1975. Though Sommers appeared to have died at the end of the two-parter, she was revealed to be alive when launched into her own spin-off, The Bionic Woman, in 1976. Anderson and Brooks started playing Oscar and Rudy on both shows simultaneously. For the 1975-1976 season, both shows were in the Nielsen Top Ten, with The Bionic Woman even ranking above its parent show.
Lee Majors, already a well-known working actor, was suddenly one of the biggest stars in the world. Incredibly, he became even more well-known when his then-wife, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, became an ABC superstar herself on Charlie’s Angels. The couple were among the most famous celebrities of their day and were major (no pun intended) draws for the network.
History of Six Million Dollar Man Toys by Analog Toys (Uploaded to YouTube by Analog Toys)
In the period just before Star Wars, there wasn’t a bigger sci-fi property in the U.S. than the “bionic” shows. Merchandise tie-ins abounded, from episode novelizations to comics, from clothes to toys. The toys in particular were a major hit for Kenner. The main products were a range of 12-inch action figures with cloth outfits, including several Steve Austins with various actions like a “bionic grip.” Toy Steve also had a periscope-style opening in the back of his head so that you could “look through” the character’s bionic telescoping eye. In addition to Steve, Oscar Goldman and antagonists Bigfoot (the robotic kind) and Maskatron were produced, as were several vehicles, playsets, and accessories (like extra bionic limbs with different functions that could be swapped in and out). Not to be outdone, the Bionic Woman got her own Kenner line, including her enemy Fembot, Jaime-specific vehicles and playsets, and over a dozen different fashion outfits.
However, ABC made the strange decision to cancel The Bionic Woman after its second season in 1977; this has been attributed over time to network head Fred Silverman who often made decisions about audience demographics and potential ratings versus actual ratings. NBC picked up the show for a third season. A quirk of this deal meant that ABC wouldn’t allow Steve to appear on The Bionic Woman any longer, though Anderson and Brooks remained in the cast across networks.
TV ad for The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (Uploaded to YouTube by Rewatch Classic TV)
By the spring of 1978, the ratings of both shows had started to slip, and the two series were cancelled. Nevertheless, the shows hung around in syndication and were beloved enough that NBC decided to revive the characters with a series of television reunion movies. The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman saw Majors, Sommers, Anderson, and Brooks all return. Majors’s son, Lee Majors II, would play a young OSI agent. The first film was a major hit and led to Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. That entry introduced Kate Mason, another recipient of bionic upgrades; she was played by a young actress named Sandra Bullock. The movie ended with Steve and Jaime getting engaged, a dangling plot point that was addressed in the final TV film, 1994’s Bionic Ever After?
Bionic Woman intro (Uploaded to YouTube by TheSciFiSpot)
Since that time, there have been a number of attempts at Universal to build a theatrical franchise around the characters. A reboot of The Bionic Woman (Bionic Woman, minus “The”) hit the air in 2007 with Michelle Ryan in the title role, but that year’s writers’ strike derailed the series, and it was cancelled after a handful of episodes. Warner Brothers acquired the Six Million film rights in 2018, but there’s been no significant movement reported for some time.
The “Bionic” shows were landmarks of their day, proving that action-driven science fiction had a place on networks overflowing with sitcoms, detective series, and variety shows. That bionic DNA can be found in any number of characters to follow, from DC’s Cyborg (popular in comics, animation, and film) to Star Trek’s Borg. In professional wrestling, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes named one of his signature moves “The Bionic Elbow,” and Steve Anderson adopted Steve Austin for his ring-name, later adding “Stone Cold” to the front for good measure.
In this remake- and reboot-obsessed culture, it’s only a matter of time before updated versions of Steve and Jaime make their return. But for a brief time in the ’70s, TV’s biggest heroes wore track suits, ran super-fast in slow motion, and made very distinctive noises when they jumped. The joy they brought fans was worth much, much more than a mere six million dollars.
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Comments
‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ was great right out of the gate with the 3 TV-films of it preceding the series. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the Fall schedule for ’73-’74, but not entirely. They either didn’t have room for it yet, or some perfecting still needed to be done to be weekly-production ready.
This is probably why ‘Jones’ started in January ’73 instead of Sept. ’72. Everyone knows a lot of shows with the ‘normal’ Sept. debut times crash and burn between then and November, thus opening up desirable time slots at mid-season. This is a good thing too, because it has the limelight focused on it as being ‘unexpected’.
After the 3 impressive TV-films but before the series, was the (theater) film ‘Westworld’; an all-time favorite that captured the zeitgeist of the era with elements of ‘Six’ I found very appealing, and still do. This also applies to the ’75 film ‘The Stepford Wives’. They all had the blending of people with computers in common, and a similar vibe.
‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ and ‘The Bionic Woman’ were the right shows at the right time, with the right producers, writers, actors of course, and more. Yes they were entertainment, but were aimed at intelligent people who were not there for an hour of an unending audio-visual assault, STRICTLY to capitalize on the name; like the 2007 ‘Bionic Woman’ short-lived series in the Jennifer Garner ‘Alias’ tradition, or the unwatchably bad ‘Hawaii 5-0’ 3 years later, and equally bad ‘MacGyver’ several years later.
No doubt the creatively brain-dead (and nearly dead anyway) Hollywood will be looking to produce new destroyed takes on ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’ yet again. There’s no Harve Bennett and Kenneth Johnson now; no one like Lee Majors or Lindsay Wagner. We’re too far down in the complete bottom feeder era there’s no coming back from.
I got to meet Lindsay Wagner in 2009 and she was invited to guest star on ‘Bionic’ and of course graciously refused, not wanting to have anything to do with the awful ‘remake’. Lee Majors following series ‘The Fall Guy’ (’81-’86) was produced by the wonderful Glen Larson. Again, the right people at the tight time, for the audiences of that time. Never again. Same with ‘T.J. Hooker’.
To every rule there’s always an exception or two. The 2018 ‘Magnum, P.I.’ with Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks was very well done, updated, but with an ’80s sense and sensibility. It’s too bad it didn’t get the normal number of seasons and shows due to Covid & the writer’s strike. Dan Curtis’s excellent 1991 version of ‘Dark Shadows’ captured the essence of the original, but was cut down by the “Oil War” and its preemptions at the onset of it.
Given the chance and addition of the original stars (not that much older then) it would have been a hit. Well, cancer got Brandon Tartikoff, and Johnny Depp’s about to walk the plank again in yet a 6th ‘Pirates’ film. He needs the money after the disastrous 2012 DS film, and his life ever since. He should be able to do that shtick in his sleep.