I'm watching "The Six Million Dollar Man"
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
- Start date
Pretty sure it was Farrah Fawcett
I have the complete Time-Life DVD set of series the series and watched every episode a couple years ago now.
Farrah Fawcett’s four appearances, in order, were:
1) “Rescue of Athena One” (as astronaut Kelly Woods) (first season)
2) “The Peeping Blonde” (as the news reporter who sees Steve Austin using his bionics) (second season)
3) “The Golden Pharaoh” (as an old girlfriend of Steve’s) (third season)
4) “Nightmare in the Sky” (back as her first character on the series, now named Kelly Wood (instead of Woods)) (fourth season).
At that point, the fourth season, she has started doing “Charlie’s Angels”, I think. Otherwise, who knows how many more we Farrah episodes we would have gotten? (Maybe, just to confuse viewers further, they could have then brought her back again on “The Bionic Woman” as the reporter character.) :-)
Farrah Fawcett’s four appearances, in order, were:
1) “Rescue of Athena One” (as astronaut Kelly Woods) (first season)
2) “The Peeping Blonde” (as the news reporter who sees Steve Austin using his bionics) (second season)
3) “The Golden Pharaoh” (as an old girlfriend of Steve’s) (third season)
4) “Nightmare in the Sky” (back as her first character on the series, now named Kelly Wood (instead of Woods)) (fourth season).
At that point, the fourth season, she has started doing “Charlie’s Angels”, I think. Otherwise, who knows how many more we Farrah episodes we would have gotten? (Maybe, just to confuse viewers further, they could have then brought her back again on “The Bionic Woman” as the reporter character.) :-)
Close. It was her role as the astronaut Kelly Woods in “Rescue of Athena One” that came first, and that was also the only character she played twice, returning to play Kelly “Wood” in the fourth season episode, “Nightmare in the Sky”. Fawcett’s two other appearances as two other characters, including as the reporter in “The Peeping Blonde”, came in between these two.
I wonder if Woods changing to Wood was just a mistake, or a deliberate change to avoid a conflict of some sort, like how Monte Markham's "Seven Million Dollar Man" was changed from Barney Miller to Barney Hiller after the sitcom Barney Miller premiered.
I have no memory of "Rescue of Athena One". In fact, the only appearance I do remember well enough to remember the story is the reporter character. That's why I thought she'd played that one twice.
Which season is this one for?
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000396/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
She played three characters. Two episodes as "Major Kelly Wood".
Theme was used in season 4, but I think it was used from season 2 through 5.
Youngtrek pointed that out already, but thanks.
Have you come up to the episodes that introduce Jaime Sommers yet? That's when the show gets really good.
And Bigfoot. Don't forget Bigfoot!
And Bigfoot. Don't forget Bigfoot!
I watched all those loved Lindsay Wagner. She was good. Bigfoot is good too.
I'd love to see a more serious reboot of this and also dealing with the trauma of having half your body be a machine which the shoe really didn't show much of. It was sure a product of its time, but any person in Steve, or Jamie's position would have a hell of of a lot of issues in dealing with almost half their body being a machine. I'd like to see that.
I think the 2003 UPN series Jake 2.0 with Christopher Gorham tried to do something along those lines. It even cast itself as a modern take on 6M$M, complete with gimmicky Lee Majors guest appearance.
There was also the Sci-Fi Channel's 2000-02 series The Invisible Man, which picked up on a premise used in the 6M$M pilot movie but dropped in the series -- that the surgically modified super-agent was effectively the chattel of the government agency and was forced to work as their agent. I think Jake 2.0 may have done something like that too, but I forget. It wasn't very good.
Speaking of not very good, there was also the mercifully short-lived Michelle Ryan Bionic Woman reboot, which went in for the dark and angsty stuff even more than the other two did. When it comes to wanting a more serious take, I'd say be careful what you wish for.
As far as "product of its time" goes, the original 1971 Kamen Rider in Japan started out as a dark, angsty, horror-themed series in which the Kamen Rider -- who was converted into a superpowered cyborg by an evil organization that he escaped before they brainwashed him -- lamented that his super-strength meant he could never safely touch another person again and was doomed to be alone. But pretty soon it got retooled into a lighter, more kid-friendly series and the angst went away entirely. Sort of the same thing that happened to 6M$M after the pilot movie, with the darker psychological elements quickly being swept aside.
I would think that along with super strength would necessarily come super control - the ability to safely USE that strength. Otherwise, it'd be useless. So if a super strong character can touch anything without destroying it, they should be able to control themselves enough to touch people as well.
So for example, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" would never happen...Superman could safely have sex with anyone he wants, because necessarily one of his powers would be the ability to precisely control his muscles. Otherwise, he'd cause earthquakes just by walking around, he'd rip doors off their hinges just by opening them, he'd tear a hole in the ground just by sitting in a chair...
And so you'd think that Steve Austin or Jaime Sommers would also have this same super control over their strength. It'd have to be a part of their 'programming'. Otherwise they couldn't function at all.
I loved the show Jake 2.0 it was a nicer version of the grey goo horror because his body was full of nanites but he managed to live a life, but became government property kind of. There was a early 2000s CGI show Max Steel that had this in overdrive the nanites had consumed the hero's body allowing him to shapeshift into different people at will.
I know the Michelle Ryan show was dark and angsty, thank god it got canceled though, it wasn't that good.
I know the Michelle Ryan show was dark and angsty, thank god it got canceled though, it wasn't that good.
I vaguely remember the original 2000 version, though I never saw the 2013 reboot.
On top of just not liking it, I was offended that Bionic Woman failed to give Kenneth Johnson creator credit. Granted, their version was so completely different that they could've given it a different title and main character name and it would've qualified as an original show, but they did use the names Bionic Woman and Jaime Sommers, and thus Johnson deserved compensation for that. Heck, the 2010 Human Target was another series that used only the title and main character name and was otherwise completely unrelated to the source material, but it gave credit to Len Wein & Carmine Infantino.
The 2013 reboot was utter, utter shite. Not even kids who were the target for it liked it. The 2000 version felt much more grounded and had a more serious tone.
I just remembered another movie I saw "Running Delilah" which was surprisingly good for its time, and did deal with the trauma issue.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111035/reference
A film based on 6 Million has been in development hell since 1995, but it seems the big problem is that they don't know whether to make a comedy or a drama out of it. Indeed, with all the movies released in the last few decades about enhanced supermen, what should a story do to stand out nowadays?
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