The Six Million Dollar Man

First TV movie pilot that introduced Lee Majors as Steve Austin, a former astronaut who had walked on the moon, but now is test piloting an experimental aircraft that unfortunately crashes, badly injuring Steve near death, but with the skill of brilliant surgeon Dr. Rudy Wells(played by Martin Balsam) and funding by secretive government representative Oliver Spencer(played by Darren McGavin) rebuild Austin with bionic limbs and sight, increasing his strength and survivability immensely, making him an ideal government operative, if he can only emotionally adjust to his new condition... Good setup to the eventual series has a smart, thoughtful script and good direction by Richard Irving. Pity this realistic style wasn't continued though...

I was reading the April 30 issue of This is True (http://www.thisistrue.com/) and found out that this TV series was in fact based on the story of Bruce A. Peterson, a NASA test pilot. The opening credits featured his accident while testing a lifting body concept.

His biography is in (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/ Biographies/Pilots/bd-dfrc-p012.html). Please enter the whole web address as one continuous word (delete the space before Biographies). The comment rules don't allow me to send a very long word.

I remember watching some of the episodes when I was really little. My friends would try to imitate Steve's actions when he ran or jumped, complete with that distinctive 'Bionic' sound.

This is the first pilot of a five seasons series. The overall production values are satisfying enough to make the audience believe of that technological advancement miracle possible. This film is dry, raw, authentic, realistic, semi-documentary, existential and even depressing compared to the optimistic patriotic series thanks to the three actors' performance: Lee Majors, Martin Balsam and Darren McGavin. From the start, the character of Austin is defined: a rebel, a maverick, a dreamer, an individualistic test pilot who is a devotee of his past journey on the moon and doesn't follow the rules by the book -- he is late at his official appointment and replies sarcastically to a commanding officer -- Wells comments his attitude in this term: "Steve, you have a positive genius for antagonizing the wrong people". His best friend is, of course, Dr. Rudy Wells, a humanist, an innovator scientist-surgeon whose main concern is Austin's will to cope with his disability -- the name Wells may be a reference to utopist sci-fi writer H.G. Wells. The first waking up of Austin in Colorado's Research Center as an one-eyed, one-armed legless man, who tries to commit suicide during the night, is shocking, morbid and nightmarish -- it reminds me the bleakness of Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got his Gun". Austin is a self-conscious pragmatic man who wants to know the prize of his recovery: ruthless vulture ("I am not concerned by feelings"), cynical ("Accidents happen all the time. We just start from scrap"), mean ("Actually, we would prefer a robot -- 'robot' means a slave-worker in Czech --. A robot has no emotional need and responses. You're the optimun compromised"), crippled -- notice that he is also slightly disabled and walks with a stick -- O.S.O. head (scientifical department chief of the C.I.A.) Oliver Spencer sends him to his own death in the desert of Arabia on a suicidal mission where he receives another near fatal treatment. Spencer even asks Wells if he can let Austin in an indefinite artificial sleep until he needs him again. Austin refuses to be manipulated like a guinea pig, a "raw material" and reacts harshly: he slaps Spencer, turns down the hand of female Official Mrs. McKay and tells Spencer a curse before his forced electro sleep. The music of Gil Mellé is outstanding by creating the mood of technology, war and the character's psyche -- Austin is horrified by the view of his future artificial limbs, calls his friend Wells "Dr. Frankenstein, I presume?" after the bionic operation, he is uncomfortable with the ambiguity of the nurse's love impulse and feels monstrous owing to the woman's frightened behavior ("What are you?") after the rescue of her jeopardized son. The blend of experimental, distorted, atonal electronic style and a 1970's jazz helps the pace. Everything you want to know about Steve Austin lies in this rough pilot. Many episodes of the following series uses footages from that one and especially designer Jack Cole's main title. This is the work of Richard Irving who manages to produce and direct a clever adaptation of Martin Caidin's book. The film has an anti-government slant of that era via the Austin and Wells characters -- Austin's feeling about Spencer ("You're more of a robot than I am now") and Wells figure it out about Spencer's working plan for Austin in the Service: "Espionage, sabotage, assassination!" -- and, above all, the moral dilemma that is asked by the author of such advancement in the hands of the Power. There are subsequent themes tackled throughout the leading character: the loneliness and desperation, the inability to communicate, the fear of being abnormal and an outcast forever.

A very well done adaptation of Caidin's fine book, it has some interesting differences from the later show. Oscar Goldman, as played by Darrin McGavin is way more heartless and is intent on getting the governments worth out of Steve. Steve is much more mentally distressed and early on, suicidal after being maimed. It played more for adults, with an espionage theme (as did the second 90 minutes installment, Wine Women and War, with perenial bad guy Eric Braeden). It's very close to the book, but eliminates the female Israeli assigned to help Steve. It's very watchable even today and I wouldn't be surprised to see a big budget version get made.

The TV movie that led to "The Six Million Dollar Man" becoming one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, and being fondly remembered by many who were the right age at the time (not least me - I still remember playing with my Steve Austin doll), is strikingly different from what would come. Admittedly the series was hardly a laugh riot, but the source was even straighter, with nothing to indicate that Col. Austin would eventually acquire a bionic girlfriend (and dog) and meet the likes of Bigfoot, a double, and alien killer machines. (We won't mention that "Sweet Jaime" song.)

Not only does Henri Simoun's teleplay furnish our hero with some actual doubt over how much of a human being he is now, but the relationship between him and his superior officer is less chummy - no benevolent Oscar Goldman of the OSI here, instead the OSO's colder Spencer (Darren McGavin, easily taking the acting honours). Plus, when Steve is eventually sent into the field, it's surprisingly straightforward - the movie emphasises drama over derring-do (note the lack of DANANANANANANA sound effects). This isn't always for the best; the actual crash isn't as effective as it could have been, and 30 years on some elements have dated somewhat - who'd be so casual about a nuclear-powered motor today? - but if ultimately it's not as much fun as the series, it's also a bit more thoughtful.

Footnotes: This movie was edited into two parts and shown on the series as "The Moon And The Desert." More importantly, no one here calls him "a man barely alive," let alone says "We can rebuild him" or "We have the technology."