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The Six Million Dollar Man Season One DVD boxset
01/11/2005 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
DVD. Universal/Playback 8238385. 3 * 90 minute pilots (even if they are actually split into twos) and 13 * 50 minute episodes. 15 and quarter hours. No extras. Price: nominally from £34.99 but as little as £26.00 so shop around (UK)) stars: Lee Majors and Richard Anderson . check out website: www.universal-playback.com
A couple years back, I reviewed a couple of the released DVD one-offs of 'The Million Dollar Man' pilots and episodes. If you're purist, I don't think you should lose those DVD pilot episodes because apart from splitting the three pilot episodes into two parts, they've also messed around with the credits. Granted that the Dusty Springfield song at the end of them stands amongst probably the worse in theme musics and is still used once.
Of the 70s US TV shows, 'The Six Million Dollar Man' series was rather pivotal in bringing super-heroics or rather in his case, super-bionics, and all the various series of its ilk onto the small screen. What is interesting watching season one is how the production team is finding their way in both story content and power demonstration, although I have to say from early on there was a realisation regarding the problems of finding him some serious physical opponents. The change from using Colonel Steve Austin as a super-spy to special agent called on when needed was a rather painless transition.
For those not in the know, astronaut Steve Austin (actor Lee Majors) was testing a forerunner to the space shuttle which crashed resulted him in becoming a half-blind treble amputee. One of the American intelligence organisations, the OSI (Office Of Scientific Intelligence), were on the look out for such a person for a project to make a cyborg or now more commonly called a bionic man where limbs could be replaced with augmented mechanical parts. The price of the project was six million dollars and a TV series that lasted 7 seasons.
'The Six Million Dollar Man' pilot rather closely followed the book it was based on, 'Cyborg' by Martin Caiden, and is still a seriously recommended book to read if you want to build your own bionic man. At the time this book was released and the detail that Caiden went into and his connections to the USAF, a lot of people felt he'd based it on real life. Yes, there was an accident and indeed the footage of the crash was used in the opening credits of the series but test pilot Bruce Peterson never became a cyborg. Still, it gave everyone pause for thought that Caiden knew a lot more than he claimed. The book also goes into a lot more detail regarding the transformation: a heart valve replacement, spine re-enforcement, hiding the joins between plasti-skin and human flesh with scars and actually getting Austin to learn how to use them. With bionic augmentation, Austin was capable of running up to 60 miles per hour and pressing a couple hundred weight with his left arm - always has a bracelet on its wrist. He also had a replacement eye with optical zoom and sniper vision which was way beyond what Caiden envisaged who gave him a concealed camera. All of this was somewhat abbreviated or glossed over in the TV pilot but back in the 70s but the important elements followed the book rather well. It even had actor Darren McGavin playing the OSI chief Oliver Spencer in the pilot although he was replaced by actor Richard Anderson (playing Oscar Goldman) for the rest of the series. Oddly enough, the pilot also made Austin a civilian pilot although this was also quickly changed and put him back in the rank of USAF colonel, presumably as it allowed for many more doors to be opened that way.
The thirteen episodes of the first season were an interesting mix of sorting out problems where only one special man could go in unaided to rescue or procure some thing of national interest as well as the usual villain pieces. Austin also had to balance out excuses with truth with explaining when people who saw him do something extra-ordinary things.
All of these episodes are worth a watch and its rather interesting to see them in the proper order than how we saw some of them in a re-run back in the early 90s on television. Of particular interest is the rescue mission in the third pilot, 'The Solid Gold Kidnapping' which couldn't have been done any other way with human heroes. 'Population Zero' has a few shades of 'The Andromeda Strain' about it and the mad scientist's way of imprisoning Austin in a deep freezer and his escape showed someone thinking instead of relying on force. There was also a nice touch as he was building up speed warming up that only his body and right arm showed any sign of sweat. Probably the most well known is 'The Rescue Of Athena One' which co-starred Majors then wife, Farrah Fawcett, in a mission to Skylab which used actual space footage. The episode also showed that you could have adventure without necessarily having villains. It also demonstrated again that despite his abilities, Austin wasn't a totally invulnerable superman which added some credibility to the character.
The role of Steve Austin was really tailor-made for Lee Majors and it would be really hard to see anyone else in the part even back then. Also the real Science Fiction element at the time was having a cyborg hero, it wasn't until the latter seasons that other SF elements started coming into play.
If you're of my age group, you'll remember all of this anyway. If you're younger, then you might well want to see what your parents raved about. I'm glad to say I was happy that the proposed comedy film version was scuppered last year. Have a look at this one instead. 'The Six Million Dollar Man' gave a hero to amputees as much as normal folk and it introduced 'bionics' to a wider public who sees this as the means to go forward in limb replacement. Real life has yet to catch up on this series, but it definitely showed the way for science to aspire to. There's a few bits of illogic in the series and most of it holds together reasonably well to add to your TV viewing.
GF Willmetts
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