The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man is a television series about a cyborg working for a U.S secret service called OSI. The show is based on the book Cyborg from Martin Caidin, and first aired in 1973.
| Table of contents |
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2 Catch phrase 3 Main characters 4 Parts 5 Episode list 6 Trivia 7 External links |
Overview
The background story of the show is the crash of astronaut Steve Austin in an M2-F2 "lifting body", shown in the opening credits of the show (with NASA footage of Bruce Peterson's 1967 real-life accident [1]). Austin is severely injured in the crash and is "rebuilt" in a title-giving operation that costs six million dollars. His right arm, both legs and the left eye are replaced by bionic (cybernetic) implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norm. He uses his enhanced abilities to work for the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) as a secret agent (and as a guinea pig for bionics).
The show was very popular during its run and introduced many pop culture elements of the 1970s, such as the shows opening catch phrase and the slow motion action sequences and the accompaning "electronic" sound effects. The title role was played by Lee Majors and made him a pop culture icon.
Catch phrase
The shows memorable opening narration become part of American pop culture. Despite the show's age, it is still easily recognized.
- "Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."
Main characters
- Steve Austin, the title-giving character (played by Lee Majors)
- Oscar Goldman, the Director of the OSI (played by Richard Anderson)
- Dr. Rudy Wells, Austin's physician (played by Alan Oppenheimer/Martin E. Brooks)
- Jaime Sommers, the bionic woman, played by Lindsay Wagner
Parts
- A 20.1:1 zoom lens along with a nightvision function in the left eye.
- Bionic legs allow him to run at more than 67 mph and make great leaps.
- A Bionic right arm with the equivalent strength of a bulldozer
| Episode # | Original Air Date |
Episode Title | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-1 | 07-Mar-73 | The Six Million Dollar Man (a/k/a The Moon and the Desert) | |||
| M-2 | 20-Oct-73 | Wine, Women and War | |||
| M-3 | 17-Nov-73 | The Solid Gold Kidnapping | |||
| Episode # | Prod # | Original Air Date | Episode Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1-1 | 40013 | 18-Jan-74 | Population: Zero | |
| 2. | 1-2 | 40007 | 25-Jan-74 | Survival of the Fittest | |
| 3. | 1-3 | 40016 | 01-Feb-74 | Operation Firefly | |
| 4. | 1-4 | 40012 | 08-Feb-74 | Day of the Robot | |
| 5. | 1-5 | 40014 | 22-Feb-74 | Little Orphan Airplane | |
| 6. | 1-6 | 40005 | 01-Mar-74 | Doomsday, and Counting | |
| 7. | 1-7 | 40023 | 08-Mar-74 | Eyewitness to Murder | |
| 8. | 1-8 | 40024 | 15-Mar-74 | The Rescue of Athena One | |
| 9. | 1-9 | 40021 | 29-Mar-74 | Dr. Wells is Missing | |
| 10. | 1-10 | 40022 | 05-Apr-74 | The Last of the Fourth of Julys | |
| 11. | 1-11 | 40020 | 12-Apr-74 | Burning Bright | |
| 12. | 1-12 | 40015 | 19-Apr-74 | The Coward | |
| 13. | 1-13 | 40025 | 26-Apr-74 | Run, Steve, Run | |
| Episode # | Prod # | Original Air Date | Episode Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14. | 2-1 | 41201 | 13-Sep-74 | Nuclear Alert | |
| 15. | 2-2 | 41204 | 20-Sep-74 | The Pioneers | |
| 16. | 2-3 | 41206 | 27-Sep-74 | Pilot Error | |
| 17. | 2-4 | 41208 | 04-Oct-74 | The Pal-Mir Escort | |
| 18. | 2-5 | 41224 | 01-Nov-74 | The Seven Million Dollar Man | |
| 19. | 2-6 | 41214 | 08-Nov-74 | Straight on 'til Morning | |
| 20. | 2-7 | 41220 | 15-Nov-74 | The Midas Touch | |
| 21. | 2-8 | 41223 | 22-Nov-74 | The Deadly Replay | |
| 22. | 2-9 | 41213 | 29-Nov-74 | Act of Piracy | |
| 23. | 2-10 | 41227 | 13-Dec-74 | Stranger in Broken Fork | |
| 24. | 2-11 | 41228 | 20-Dec-74 | The Peeping Blonde | |
| 25. | 2-12 | 41210 | 10-Jan-75 | The Cross-Country Kidnap | |
| 26. | 2-13 | 41233 | 17-Jan-75 | Lost Love | |
| 27. | 2-14 | 41216 | 19-Jan-75 | The Last Kamikaze | |
| 28. | 2-15 | 41207 | 26-Jan-75 | Return of the Robot Maker | |
| 29. | 2-16 | 41212 | 02-Feb-75 | Taneha | |
| 30. | 2-17 | 41230 | 23-Feb-75 | Look Alike | |
| 31. | 2-18 | 41226 | 02-Mar-75 | The E.S.P. Spy | |
| 32. | 2-19 | 41244 | 16-Mar-75 | The Bionic Woman (1) | |
| 33. | 2-20 | 41245 | 23-Mar-75 | The Bionic Woman (2) | |
| 34. | 2-21 | 41231 | 20-Apr-75 | Outrage in Balinderry | |
| 35. | 2-22 | 41229 | 27-Apr-75 | Steve Austin, Fugitive | |
| Episode # | Prod # | Original Air Date | Episode Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36. | 3-1 | 43020 | 14-Sep-75 | The Return of the Bionic Woman (1) | |
| 37. | 3-2 | 43029 | 21-Sep-75 | The Return of the Bionic Woman (2) | |
| 38. | 3-3 | 43018 | 28-Sep-75 | The Price of Liberty | |
| 39. | 3-4 | 43024 | 05-Oct-75 | The Song and Dance Spy | |
| 40. | 3-5 | 43010 | 12-Oct-75 | The Wolf Boy | |
| 41. | 3-6 | 43017 | 19-Oct-75 | The Deadly Test | |
| 42. | 3-7 | 43003 | 26-Oct-75 | Target in the Sky | |
| 43. | 3-8 | 43001 | 02-Nov-75 | One of Our Running Backs is Missing | |
| 44. | 3-9 | 43012 | 09-Nov-75 | The Bionic Criminal | |
| 45. | 3-10 | 43006 | 16-Nov-75 | The Blue Flash | |
| 46. | 3-11 | 43021 | 23-Nov-75 | The White Lightning War | |
| 47. | 3-12 | 43019 | 30-Nov-75 | Divided Loyalty | |
| 48. | 3-13 | 43026 | 14-Dec-75 | Clark Templeton O'Flaherty | |
| 49. | 3-14 | 43022 | 21-Dec-75 | The Winning Smile | |
| 50. | 3-15 | 11-Jan-76 | Welcome Home, Jaime (1) | ||
| 51. | 3-16 | 43033 | 18-Jan-76 | Hocus-Pocus | |
| 52. | 3-17 | 43027 | 01-Feb-76 | The Secret of Bigfoot (1) | |
| 53. | 3-18 | 43028 | 04-Feb-76 | The Secret of Bigfoot (2) | |
| 54. | 3-19 | 43007 | 08-Feb-76 | The Golden Pharaoh | |
| 55. | 3-20 | 43008 | 15-Feb-76 | Love Song for Tanya | |
| 56. | 3-21 | 43032 | 22-Feb-76 | The Bionic Badge | |
| 57. | 3-22 | 43031 | 07-Mar-76 | Big Brother | |
| Episode # | Prod # | Original Air Date | Episode Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58. | 4-1 | 45124 | 19-Sep-76 | The Return of Bigfoot (1) | |
| 59. | 4-2 | 45108 | 26-Sep-76 | Nightmare in the Sky | |
| 60. | 4-3 | 45121 | 03-Oct-76 | Double Trouble | |
| 61. | 4-4 | 45105 | 17-Oct-76 | The Most Dangerous Enemy | |
| 62. | 4-5 | 45102 | 24-Oct-76 | H+2+O = Death | |
| 63. | 4-6 | 45120 | 31-Oct-76 | Kill Oscar (2) | |
| 64. | 4-7 | 45196 | 07-Nov-76 | The Bionic Boy | |
| 65. | 4-8 | 45114 | 21-Nov-76 | Vulture of the Andes | |
| 66. | 4-9 | 45194 | 28-Nov-76 | The Thunderbird Conection | |
| 67. | 4-10 | 45126 | 12-Dec-76 | A Bionic Christmas Carol | |
| 68. | 4-11 | 45115 | 19-Dec-76 | Task Force | |
| 69. | 4-12 | 45125 | 02-Jan-77 | The Ultimate Imposter | |
| 70. | 4-13 | 45122 | 09-Jan-77 | Death Probe (1) | |
| 71. | 4-14 | 45123 | 16-Jan-77 | Death Probe (2) | |
| 72. | 4-15 | 45106 | 23-Jan-77 | Danny's Inferno | |
| 73. | 4-16 | 45107 | 30-Jan-77 | Fires of Hell | |
| 74. | 4-17 | 45113 | 06-Feb-77 | The Infiltrators | |
| 75. | 4-18 | 45101 | 13-Feb-77 | Carnival of Spies | |
| 76. | 4-19 | 45109 | 20-Feb-77 | U-509 | |
| 77. | 4-20 | 45110 | 27-Feb-77 | The Privacy of the Mind | |
| 78. | 4-21 | 45116 | 06-Mar-77 | To Catch the Eagle | |
| 79. | 4-22 | 45128 | 15-May-77 | The Ghostly Teletype | |
| Episode # | Prod # | Original Air Date | Episode Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80. | 5-1 | 47306 | 11-Sep-77 | Sharks (1) | |
| 81. | 5-2 | 47307 | 18-Sep-77 | Sharks (2) | |
| 82. | 5-3 | 47322 | 25-Sep-77 | Deadly Countdown (1) | |
| 83. | 5-4 | 47323 | 02-Oct-77 | Deadly Countdown (2) | |
| 84. | 5-5 | 47311 | 09-Oct-77 | Bigfoot V | |
| 85. | 5-6 | 47326 | 16-Oct-77 | Killer Wind | |
| 86. | 5-7 | 47315 | 30-Oct-77 | Rollback | |
| 87. | 5-8 | 47303 | 06-Nov-77 | Dark Side of the Moon (1) | |
| 88. | 5-9 | 47304 | 13-Nov-77 | Dark Side of the Moon (2) | |
| 89. | 5-10 | 47309 | 27-Nov-77 | Target: Steve Austin | |
| 90. | 5-11 | 47313 | 18-Dec-77 | The Cheshire Project | |
| 91. | 5-12 | 47319 | 01-Jan-78 | Walk a Deadly Wing | |
| 92. | 5-13 | 47314 | 08-Jan-78 | Just a Matter of Time | |
| 93. | 5-14 | 47301 | 22-Jan-78 | Return of the Deathprobe (1) | |
| 94. | 5-15 | 47302 | 29-Jan-78 | Return of the Deathprobe (2) | |
| 95. | 5-16 | 47397 | 30-Jan-78 | The Lost Island | |
| 96. | 5-17 | 47328 | 06-Feb-78 | The Madonna Caper | |
| 97. | 5-18 | 47334 | 13-Feb-78 | Dead Ringer | |
| 98. | 5-19 | 47317 | 20-Feb-78 | Date With Danger (1) | |
| 99. | 5-20 | 47320 | 27-Feb-78 | Date With Danger (2) | |
| 100. | 5-21 | 47332 | 06-Mar-78 | The Moving Mountain | |
| Episode # | Original Air Date | Episode Title | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-4 | 17-May-87 | The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman | |||
| M-5 | 30-Apr-89 | Bionic Showdown | |||
| M-6 | 29-Nov-94 | Bionic Ever After? | |||
Trivia
The aircraft seen crashing in the opening sequence of the show is real. It was an M2-F2, a "flying body configuration" built by Northrop. The audio is from a crash that occurred on May 10 1967: "I can't hold her, she's breaking up! She's breaking--". The crash occurred at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The actual test pilot, Bruce Peterson, hit the ground at 250 mph, tumbling six times. Like the fictional character, Steve Austin, Peterson lost use of his right eye, but retained use of all limbs. Because of his impaired vision, he had to stop flying, ending his career. Understandably, Peterson has said that he hated reliving his accident, week after week, courtesy of Steve Austin.