"The Six Million Dollar Man" The Bionic Woman (1975)

Director:

Dick Moder

Writers:

Kenneth Johnson (written by) &
Martin Caidin (novel)

TV Series:

"The Six Million Dollar Man" (1974)

Original Air Date:

16 March 1975 (Season 2, Episode 19)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Steve Austin reunites with his childhood sweetheart only to have her suffer a crippling accident which can only be rectified with bionic implants.

Plot Keywords:

Legs | Tennis | Tennis Pro | Superheroine | Super Speed

Cast

Lee Majors	...	Col. Steve Austin
Richard Anderson	...	Oscar Goldman
Lindsay Wagner	...	Jaime Sommers
Malachi Throne	...	Joseph Ronaugh
Martha Scott	...	Helen Elgin
Alan Oppenheimer	...	Dr. Rudy Wells
Ford Rainey	...	Jim Elgin
Paul Carr	...	Timberlake
Sidney Clute	...	Mr. Schwartz
Harry Hickox	...	Jon Ellerton
Scott B. Wells	...	Doctor
Elisabeth Brooks	...	1st Nurse
Jeremy Robert Brown	...	Boy
Walt Conley	...	Dr. Lomax
Dana Plato	...	Girl

Runtime:

100 min | USA:48 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Silverton Productions

Trivia:

The popular two-part episode "The Bionic Woman" featured two songs performed on the soundtrack by Lee Majors himself. These were the country song "Gotta Get Loose" and the ballad "Sweet Jamie", the latter of which was loosely based upon the Six Million Dollar Man theme music.

Quotes:

Jamie Sommers: [panicking] What did you let them do to me?
Col. Steve Austin: Look, I know how you feel.
Jamie Sommers: No you don't. Why did you let them do that?
Col. Steve Austin: Jaime, trust me, please trust me.
Jamie Sommers: I don't want to be a freak.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Amazing Race: Alright Guys, We're at War! (#14.6)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Sweet Jamie

Bionic "Love Story"

This movie introduces Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers, a tennis pro who was a childhood friend of Steve Austin, the world's first bionic man (and government agent). Jaime and Steve meet again in the old hometown, and begin to rekindle their relationship. Unfortunately, a skydiving accident causes Jaime to lose her arm, her legs, and the hearing in one of her ears. Steve talks Oscar Goldman, his boss, into allowing the team that made his bionic replacement parts work on Jaime, in return for her services as an agent alongside Steve. Well, the legs work (she can run 60 mph-- in wedgies too!), the arm works (no tennis balls are safe around her!), and, for a while, her ear can pick up twisted nursery rhymes with no side effects. But then her body starts to reject the bionic transplants, right in the middle of a mission against the "Onassis of Crime." Can anything be done to save her?

Originally a two-part episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Bionic Woman" was extremely popular, mostly because of the charm and realism of Lindsay Wagner and her rapport with Lee Majors, who is much more subtle and powerful here, especially near the end. Alan Oppenheimer (no stranger to robots, being one of the mechanics in "Westworld") is memorable as Rudy Wells, and Dana Plato can be seen as an adoring Sommers fan. This is the only "Six Million" or "Bionic" episode available in the United States, showing the two leads at their best, and a perfect supporting cast. It will only make you want to be able to buy the whole series. If only we could.