User reviews

"The Six Million Dollar Man" had to prove it was worthy of being given its own regular series after the opening feature length pilot episode wasn't enough. A further two pilot episodes were made before the actual series was commissioned. The pilot episodes are 73 minutes each, which is long enough to sustain much interest. The first feature length episode is very well made. Lee Majors immediately made the character of Colonel Steve Austin his own and he is the only constant throughout the entire run of episodes. He is the only actor one can associate with the character. Before Richard Anderson came along as Oscar Goldman, Darren McGavin was cast as the Government character. His was more of an antagonistic character to Austin as the tension in their scenes is clearly in evidence. Martin Balsam played the surgeon who helped change Austin's life in the first pilot episode instead of the actor who was cast in the regular series (his name escapes me). The opening episode focuses more on how Steve Austin adapts with the way fate has entered his life. About three quarters of the running time is taken up with this and it works effectively. I like the way in which Austin is portrayed as a human being with feelings and not just as another one-dimensional action hero. The writing is great as each of the main characters in the pilot are given depth. About the last 15 to 20 minutes is taken up with some action scenes and they are exciting. Seeing a man who possesses the ability to be stronger and faster than the average person was the selling point of "Six Million Dollar Man" and it always worked. With the first season being a ratings winner, the creator of "Six Million Dollar Man" Kenneth Johnson, created the spin-off show, "Bionic Woman." That show is for another review. Overall, the best episodes are from the first season til the end of the third one. The fourth and fifth seasons contain some good episodes but the quality had fallen away slightly. However, that can happen with the best television shows. Richard Anderson was well cast as Government man Oscar Goldman. His character was more of an ally to Steve Austin and that was a wise move. I didn't really take to Lee Majors changing his image by growing his hair longer and having that moustache. Neither suited him. I enjoy episodes where characters like Bigfoot are included and evil Robots that square up to Austin. There are some noteworthy supporting actors involved, like William Shatner, Jane Merrow, John Saxon and others. "Six Million Dollar Man" is the kind of show where you find some stories resembling Science Fiction or Fantasy, thanks to the show's inital premise. There are all kinds of plots, including crossover episodes involving Jamie Sommers as the Bionic Woman. "Six Million Dollar Man" will go down as a classic show and one that remains very enjoyable today.

A test pilot, Colonel Steve Austin, is badly injured in a test accident. His mangled body is rebuilt by the government with advanced mechanical parts, giving him superhuman strength, speed and senses. He is then employed as a secret agent.

An entertaining action series from the 1970s. Enjoyed it as a kid: the action scenes, the hero with superhuman abilities, the interesting plots. Lee Majors is perfectly cast as Steve Austin. Could be a bit predictable and formulaic at times though.

Even looking back as an adult it holds up well, unlike many of my childhood favourites which now seem quite cheesy.

Before Arnold became a Terminator, Lee Majors was everyone's favorite cyborg. For any sci-fi or adventure show fan, this was THE show of the 70's. The 60's had Kirk, Spock, Tribbles, and Klingons; the 70's had Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman, Jamie Summers, and Bigfoot.

Lee Majors was Steve Austin, astronaut; a man barely alive...... There was nothing Stone Cold about this Steve Austin, except maybe his wardrobe. Lee Majors was quite entertaining as Col. Steve Austin; part James Bond, part Buzz Aldrin/Chuck Yeager, and part Superman. Lee gave Austin a nice mix of serious and fun. Yes, his acting could be as mechanical as his bionics; but, Majors always had a bit of a twinkle in his eye (may have been the lens in the bionic one). He never took himself too seriously in the role, but could convey that emotion when the script called for it.

Richard Anderson was steady as boss and pal Oscar Goldman. Like Majors, he was limited, but well suited to his character. Anderson could be a good supporting actor when he rose to the occasion; and he often did.

I personally preferred Martin E. Brooks to Allan Openheimer, as Dr. Rudy Wells. Brooks came across more as a scientist. The other supporting characters varied in quality from show to show, but Rudy was always an integral part.

The episodes vary in excitement and imagination. The later seasons suffered from repetition, but, the early ones hold up well as good science fiction. Personal favorites include the death probe; the Russian installation with a doomsday device that is accidentally activated; the booby-trapped Liberty Bell; the androids; Steve's return flight in the experimental craft from the pilot movie;the Bionic Woman cross-overs; and, of course, Bigfoot. I preferred the more science fiction oriented stories to the more mundane cops and robbers shows.

The show had quite a mix of guest stars. There were the greats, like William Shatner, Lou Gossett Jr., Guy Doleman (from Thunderball and the Ipcress File), and Ted Cassidy and Andre the Giant as Bigfoot (Andre played him first). There were the so-so, like Farrah Fawcett (Majors), Cathy Rigby, Gary Lockwood, and John Saxon. Then there were the strange, like Sonny Bono and Larry Csonka.

This was the show that caused millions of kids in the 70's to run in slow motion, while making strange noises. It also had the coolest action figure; it came with an engine block that you could cause Steve Austin to lift, by pressing a button on his back. You could also look through the bionic eye, although you had to make your own sound effects. I understand these things go for big bucks on eBay.

Years later, I found a copy of the original novel, Cyborg, by Martin Caidin.

The character was a bit different. He was more of a secret agent than in the series, and the bionics were a bit different. The eye was actually a camera, rather than a telescopic lens. It was explained that Austin's stamina was greater, since his lungs didn't have to provide oxygen to his bionic limbs. He also had special enhancements for the limbs for special missions. In one, he has webbed feet for underwater swimming. The book plays up Austin's intelligence and scientific background more. It was generally well written, and makes a nice contrast to the series.

There have been rumors of an updated movie. At one point, it was pitched as a comedy with Chris Rock. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case right now. It has tremendous potential as and action/sci-fi movie, particularly with advances in special effects. Here's hoping the right script, director, and cast comes along and makes it a reality. Of course, they'll have to adjust it for inflation; 6 million doesn't buy much these days. And defense contractors are notorious for overcharging for substandard work.

While we're waiting, how about a DVD box set?

They made this guy who was practically dead a robot super agent for six million bucks. But that was 40 years ago and doesn't take inflation into account so I guess it makes sense. It's a really funny show unintentionally but Lee Majors is really cool. They do stuff like show footage backwards to make it look like he jumps up on top of buildings, make it look like he runs with super speed, etc.

A show that was ahead of it's time. The actor's never overacted. It was a very underrated tv show, with an excellent cast.

I am watching this for the first time since when I watched it as a kid when it aired originally and I must say the editing and continuity issues are terrible.

I never thought I would be a movie snob and have that bother me, but it really does. Every episode they reuse shots so many times. They will be in a car driving around the corner and then they cut to the people inside then they cut back to the car driving around the same corner and then to the people inside many times.

There's a scene in one episode with a helicopter that's clearly blue and has wheels and then they show it landing on a submarine it's black and doesn't have wheels. And then all of a sudden it's blue again.

There's also a seen one with an airplane. That's clearly marked Boeing 747 on the side. But then when they show it landing it now says Pan Am. It looks like they use stock footage in many cases and didn't care that it doesn't match.

And also, there are many scenes where they'll show people around a table talking and then a little later, they'll show the same scenes, but the words are now clearly overdubbed and the mouths don't match, but they're having a different conversation.

I'm not sure why it bothers me so much but it really makes it hard to watch. I'm on episode three and they've already shown the machines and the surgery scene 100 times and it's supposedly in two different locations yet the operating rooms look identical and it's all the same doctors. Will try to get through it.

Oh the 1970's, who can forget this era when life was less complicated and we moved at a slower pace. People had face to face conversations when seated at a table instead of staring into a cell phone.

Producers in the 1970's could still captivate their audiences without relying upon unrealistic CGI generated explosions and long drawn out finale battles.

I'm referring to shows such as Rockford Files, CHiPs, Knight Rider, Charlie's Angels, Bionic Woman, Dukes of Hazzard and of course The Six Million Dollar Man.

Filmed in everyday cities in every day buildings, no computer generated effects, these shows riveted youths such as myself. These were shows that the entire family could sit down and watch and of course youths could discuss at school the next day.

Today's trashy reality fake-reality shows just don't compare. I am so grateful to the producers of these golden era shows for influencing my childhood.

Who could forget the Death Probe episode? This episode scared the crap out of me. For years I've wondered what they used to power it - it moved so fast. And who could forget the Bigfoot episode? Classic television.

I recall asking my parents to buy my brother and I the newest Six Million Dollar Man toys. Those toys provided us with hours of playing time.

Thank you Harve Bennett, Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner for making our childhood just a little more enjoyable.

I remember watching this as a boy. It was captivating and sparked many fantasys only a young kid can have.

We all wanted to be Steve Austin.

The series is like an over ripe cheese that only the 70s could serve up.

Of course it's corny. Of course its nonsense. Of course its brilliant.

Its the stuff of fantasy.

What more could you want?

"THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN"-PART MAN,PART MACHINE,ALL ACTION

What was it like to be a kid growing up in the 1970's when this show came on? You see,I remember this series coming on television very well. For one,I was one of those kids who from some reason was glued to the set when this show came on Friday Nights on ABC-TV during the 1970's. I was one of those kids who for some reason went out and brought up a lot of memorabilia stuff including all of the merchandise that flew off the shelves relating to this show: Who remembers owning one of the two dolls of "The Six Million Dollar Man" action figures that were made by Mattel which featured the character with the bionic grip and not to mention his mentor who had changeable outfits,let alone tons of stuff including the GMF View-Master set of one of the episodes not to mention seeing one of your friends walking on the playground or jumping over something in slow motion....Oh yeah,that TV soundtrack to the show which had Lee Majors doing country tunes and rock and roll stuff?

For the answers to the questions depicted? YES!!! I WAS THE 1970'S! FOR ONE,WAS ONE OF THE CHILDREN WHO WORSHIP QUALITY 70'S TV PROGRAMMING! By the way,if you remember 70's TV characters like Archie Bunker,George Jefferson,Maude Findley,James and Florida Evans,Fred Sanford,Dee Pepper Columbo,Jim Rockford,and Kolchak,Baretta and not to mention Theo Kojak,then the character name of Steve Austin should come through the light!

Even after all of these years,"The Six Million Dollar Man" still holds up to the test of time and to this day,it has always been a personal favorite of mine as a child,and still is regarding as a vintage classic even after some 30 years later with some of the best special effects around. Ever since it premiered on ABC-TV in September of 1974,it was a runaway bonafide hit which was garnered huge ratings with the audience and was always in the top-ten of the Nielsens,where it stayed for six astounding seasons until its final episode of the series ended in May of 1978,after producing 108 episodes,which in turn took ABC to the top of the Nielsens where it was on one of the most watched shows during its run on Friday nights in its first four seasons,and from there in its last two the network moved the series from Friday nights to Sunday nights opposite the Sunday night competition:"60 Minutes",and "The Wonderful World Of Disney" until 1978,when the series ended.

About the show.................. Long before "Cyborg" became famous with Arnold Scwarzenegger in the "Terminator" films,Lee Majors was everyone's favorite cyborg,and for every fan out there,this show delivered the goods since this was indeed part science fiction/action-adventure genre mixed in with some international espionage and political intrigue for a great effect. Lee Majors' role as Steve Austin was in fact a combination of James Bond,part Buzz Aldrin/Chuck Yeager,part Road Runner and part Superman in which gave this series a nice mix of seriousness and fun. Let's face it,he was part-human,part-mechanical;the world's first bionic man. Better than he was before...BETTER,STRONGER,FASTER...............

The character of Steve Austin,who was an astronaut who suffered an accident and was rebuilt by a government agency and was under the supervision of his boss,Oscar Goldman played by Richard Anderson,and there was Dr. Rudy Wells,played by Martin E. Brooks,who was responsible for Steve's bionic parts. The chemistry between these characters were to be tested throughout the series,but as the show progressed the chemistry between them was brilliant. The sound effects which included the bionic eye looking miles ahead,or the sound of bionic legs running faster and faster is what made this show stand out beyond them all. FANTASTIC! you say? I'll say AWESOME!........

This show was just pure fantasy from the get-go with the stories truly engaging and very well written the offered variations in excitement and imagination,and during the last two seasons of the show it suffered from repetitation since the earlier episodes(from the first three seasons)and from there the ratings slipped too. The show had a mixture of guest stars of who's who in Hollywood from William Shatner,Ted Cassidy and Andre The Giant as Bigfoot(Cassidy played him first)to the guest of TV show regulars like Gary Lockwood,John Saxon,Cathy Rigby, Lindsay Wagner(who played Steve Austin's love interest,Jamie Summers which was for the inspiration to the spin off,"The Bionic Woman"),to the strange and bizarre like Sonny Bono,Larry Csonka,and so forth. Nowadays it is a crying shame that this series is no longer shown on any cable network(cable's The Sci-Fi Channel was the last to do so...an all-day marathon of this series was shown not too long ago)or any syndicated market station doesn't show this anymore,and I wonder why? Why isn't there a big-screen version of "The Six Million Dollar Man" coming to theaters? I heard rumors its going to be George Clooney.

But by the way,while during the last two decades many of our favorite TV shows(Star Trek,The Untouchables,I Spy,Mission:Impossible,McHale's Navy,The Wild,Wild West,Lost In Space,The Fugitive,Charlie's Angels,SWAT,The Brady Bunch,The Twilight Zone,Lassie,Flipper,My 3 Sons, and not to mention our animated TV favorites Scooby Doo,The Flintstones) and cartoons(Batman,Superman,X-Men,Daredevil,Spider-Man,Hulk,The Punisher)have been made into full-length feature films,so now is the time for SMDM to give it the big-screen treatment and the respect it truly deserves.

Television really never had it so good as the five years when "The Six Million Dollar Man" more or less dominated the airwaves. I was exactly seven years old when the show first premiered as a weekly event and while seeing the very beginnings of the series are hazy recollections at best it quickly became THE weekly television event in our household. At least as far as I was concerned -- back then parents actually regulated stuff like what TV you watched and where you went after school. We each got to pick one show to watch every weekend (no TV on school nights!) and I always picked The Bionic Man. The few times I was forced to miss it due to groundings or family scheduling conflicts were absolutely traumatic. I literally had no idea how the epic "Secret of Bigfoot" turned out for a whole year waiting for it to go into rerun phase because of a behavioral infraction the week of part two. Take it for granted that I never screwed up like that again.

For my money the show was better than "Star Trek" because it was (at first, at least) far less pompous. We didn't necessarily tune in to learn anything, we tuned in to watch Colonel Steve Austin bust through walls, jump over buildings and throw stuff with that bionic screeching projectile sound effect. Eventually the show demonstrated to us how to be good citizens, see right from wrong and appreciate the military industrial complex. Eventually the show lost it's edginess and became routine, with disco mustaches and Bionic Woman & Farrah Fawcett guest appearances that intruded on our fun.

But man, all the memories: Sasquatch, The Death Probe, John Saxon as a faceless robot squawking backwards, the weekly opening segment, Oscar Goldman with his omnipotent phone in a briefcase, Steve's Mercedes and custom belt buckle, and who can forget that sweet jacket covered with NASA mission patches. What the heck was that supposed to mean? Though you must admit that just like Kirk's v-necked wrap tunic, anybody else other than Colonel Steve Austin would have looked like an idiot paravanting around in it.

Seriously, sometimes I wonder what people REALLY watch these days on television, and what brings them back week after week. Watching people dance or forage for coconuts or sing, yeah whatever. Even the fiction shows of today that are considered "hits"; what's the deal with them? How do they keep audiences tuning in every week, buying the products that are being advertised and turning into hysterics when a particular series is threatened with cancellation? Back when SMDM (as we call it for short) was the thing we honestly didn't know if he would be back the next week ... not because the show might have been canceled, but because for all we might know he could have been KILLED every week. He wasn't just some actor playing a role, we believed in this show. And not just because we were dumb kids, but because it was convincing, absorbing and oh so brain dead stupid.

You honestly couldn't help but love it, and when I mean "convincing" I am not referring to the bionic special effects, I mean that we believed in the little microcosm this television show inhabited. It involved us as viewers and engaged our imaginations, which is not something I have encountered on TV in a live action show since "The X-Files" started to suck. There's no way to deny that once SMDM became a ratings hit and the Bionic Man a childhood icon it became muddled and weak, though even in it's last season there were some wonderful SMDM moments.

What's more important is that the show has endured the passage of time, perhaps mostly because it hasn't to this date (April 2008) been remade or otherwise ruined: The image of Colonel Steve Austin in his polyester lounge suits flipping over cars and chasing Bigfoot around the woods has remained intact, aside from some later years made for TV movies that I somehow managed to miss. The memory remains intact and unsullied, though a complete series North American DVD release would be appreciated, thank you.

10/10: Please, don't remake it, sir.

For its day, this show was the Apex Predator of prime time TV. You've got a superhero, but he's not bulletproof like superman. He may be strong, but he's far from invincible. Nonetheless, through courage, grit, leisure suits, slow motion running, and over the top sound effects, Steve Austin is able to vanquish the foe and maybe wrestle the odd personal demon along the way. Oh, and there will be a girl...or two. As time went on, the show channeled the mantra "there is no over the top". Let's fight counterfeiting Soviet spies. Let's fight an evil computer intent on no good. Let's fight a probe from Venus. Let's make a girlfriend for Steve who is also bionic. Let's fight a mad scientist on an island with a weather machine and fembots. Culminating in Steve Austin and his bionic babe fighting Bigfoot, who is also partly bionic, and made by time travelling aliens who live in the center of the Universal Studios ride. Hell, let's make that one a three parter!

For nine year old me, this show was MUST SEE TV. And if you can channel your inner nine year old, you'll have a bionic time of it.

Fans of great acting, great writing, great sets, and great stories need not apply.

But if you want to see a man punch Bigfoot while on his way to throw a time machine into a volcano, then this is the show for you!

The Six Million Dollar Man was a show that was entertaining and it actually taught me about romance. I was about six when I first started watching it. I was enthralled by the action and the feats that this man could perform. He had a bionic right arm, two bionic legs, and a bionic eye that could enable him to see great distances. His strength was more than that of ten men. He could run faster than a car and he was a super intelligence agent. Along the way he meets a variety of interesting characters and ones that I have never forgotten about. There was Barney, the seven million dollar man who lets his bionics take over his mind and he uses them for his own benefits instead of that of his agency. Then there was the probe. The probe was a machine that was designed to go to space but never made it there. On Earth, it wreaks havoc and Steve has his hands full with it. Then of course there was Jamie Summers. She was Steve's girlfriend that has a tragic parachuting accident. Steve, blinded by love demands that she is given bionics. She receives them but she has amnesia. There love is tragically put on hold and it is this plot line that for the first time in my young life, I was taught about the power and tragedy of love.

But the best of all the episodes of Steve Austin was the one's centering around Bigfoot. This also introduced the world to Andre The Giant. The Bigfoot episodes were scary. Here is this huge creature that is also bionic and he is a little stronger, a little faster and a little more vicious than Steve Austin. It is some of the best T.V. I've ever seen and it is one that will have a lasting impression on me for the rest of my life.

I remember that I asked my mom how they did all those things. How a man could jump that high, how he could lift a car and such. It was then that my parents explained to me that this was all make believe. That this is what is known as magic. Well it was from that moment on that the movies and TV captured my imagination. And for that I will be eternally greatful to The Six Million Dollar Man.

As a teenager I loved this series. Could watch it a hundred times. It never gets boring. I'm waiting for Wahlberg to show us his version of the 6 (now) billion dollar man.

When the music kicks in and he start to run so do my tears.

Like so many young kids of that time this was simply the best thing on television It's dated I know but if they put it back on tele I would watch them all again

Cannot describe what this meant to me as a small child

I am off to YouTube now to reminisce.

This is one of the ways you can tell you're getting old: when someone says the name "Steve Austin." Do you think of a bald wrestler rolling around on the mat groping other guys, or Lee Majors moving in slow motion and squinting? I think of the latter.

"The Six Million Dollar Man" is one of the first shows I remember watching as a child. I watched the shows, I played with the toys, I wanted to BE Steve Austin. Lee Majors (along with Clint Eastwood) proved that some people look so cool when they squint. I look like I need my prescription checked when I do it, but I'm not Lee Majors. Steve Austin could handle anything they threw at him, not just because of his bionics, but because he was smart, he never gave up and always kept his cool. I still want to be like him when I grow up.

Recently, I've seen some episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel. Sure, the 1970s fashions are a little jarring (polyester rules!), and sometimes the plots are juvenile, but overall the show holds up pretty well. It could be very intelligent when it wanted to be, funny when it was called for, and always exciting and fun. It reminds me of a time when six million dollars was a lot of money, and American technology could produce wonders like a functional cyborg.

Yeah, I'll take Lee Majors over the bald wrestling guy any day. After all, how many wrestlers could take on spies, terrorists, aliens, Bigfoot, a killer Venus probe and Sonny Bono and live to tell the tale?

Okay, let's forget for a moment that the show degraded to cybernetic Sasquaches, Astral Projection and a Death Probe that looked like a cross between a Dalek and an SUV. The first three seasons of this series, and the pilot movie in particular were truly engaging and well written. Lee Majors, who had previously starred in The Big Valley and the movie Will Penny with Charleton Heston, got his big break in 1973 with a TV adaptation of Martin Caidin's ground-breaking novel, Cyborg. It was his first starring role, and as far as television was concerned, one of the most unique characters ever to grace the screen. Broken down to its most simple (bionic?) components, it was James Bond meets Frankenstein's Monster. The film did so well that ABC green-lighted a series of TV movies, that, in turn, garnered enough support to make a series. That's a monumental feat, considering that at that same time, Gene Roddenberry was enduring multiple failures with Questor (who, one might say. later evolved into commander Data), Earth II and a revival of Star Trek. Ironically, the series started off slow, with a minimal budget and a shifting schedule. By the time "Six Mil" found it's niche, the good writing was being rejected in favor of grabbing ratings by signing B-list guest starts like Sonny Bono and George Foreman. The rest... unfortunately, is TV In-Joke history... not too unlike Knight Rider and Quantum Leap. Let's hope Stargate SG1 and Angel fare better in the annals of TV History.

I enjoyed this show when it first came out. Many episodes in reruns still stand the test of time. The science and special effects were often cheesy but the story lines were engaging. Simple clean entertainment,many morality tales and interesting guest stars ....