October 1976: “The Following Information Is Classified…”

Martin Caidin’s 1972 novel Cyborg inspired the 1973-78 TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, which in turn spawned the TV show The Bionic Woman.

Airing from 1976 to 1978 and starring the bright and talented Lindsay Wagner, the science fiction superhero series was popular enough to produce a Kenner doll (with its own Bionic Beauty Salon playset) a record, a metal lunchbox, two paperback novels, a Parker board game and a five-issue comic book series from Charlton (1976-77).

Unlike its abortive 2007 remake, the original series managed to be optimistic and humanistic (without being saccharine).

Watching the last episode, I was surprised to find that, unlike most American TV programs, the show did not simply break off, or run out of gas and splutter to a stop. It effectively concluded, and concluded well.

The dispirited Jaime Sommers, tired and somewhat sickened after three years of being a superspy “robot lady,” quits the secret Office of Scientific Intelligence, only to find that she can’t quit — she’s government property. They intend to jail her.

The Bionic Woman meets The Prisoner.

This cynical, realistic take on what the U.S. government would do is a little surprising in a 1970s adventure show. She has an ally in her dash for freedom from American law enforcement — her ex-boss Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson, who takes a break from exposition to enjoy a strong acting turn).

Jamie tells him, “I thought I was more than a pawn to you, or one of your little tools…”

“You’re hurting my arm,” Goldman replies.

Ever the compassionate heroine, Jamie takes time to help the alienated son of a blind man, and finds the solution to her own personal dilemma.

Wagner had specifically asked for a concluding episode, and the writer, Steven E. De Souza, worked all Wagner’s frustrations with doing a network series into Jamie’s emotions about her spy job.

The script, and Wagner’s Emmy-winning charm and acting ability, let the series finish with class.

April 1972: Superman and Machine

America’s love of gadgetry would naturally culminate in the man who becomes a gadget.

In 1972, only a dozen years after the term “cyborg” was coined, Martin Caiden wrote a novel by that name that combined science fiction with secret agent shenanigans. 

Like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man and many others, Colonel Steve Austin required a horrific tragedy to aesthetically balance his superhuman status. So Caiden gave us a detailed account of how the mangled form of the astronaut, torn apart in an air crash, became a literal superspy. Caiden followed up with three sequels: Operation Nuke (1973), High Crystal (1974) and Cyborg IV (1975).

In the novel, Col. Austin ends up with tireless legs, a poison dart gun/battering ram for an arm and a sightless camera for an eye. A swiftly produced TV movie starring Lee Majors upped the ante in the direction of Superman. 

And just as Superman was born from the social and economic anxieties of the Great Depression, the Six Million Dollar Man reflected a dominant force in postwar America: the technological focus of the military-industrial complex.

Humanoid robots, a rampaging Venus probe, an alien Bigfoot, another super-powered astronaut (played by William Shatner) and a Seven Million Dollar Man (played by Monte Markham) were among the menaces that threatened TV’s stalwart cyborg. 

“The Six Million Dollar Man truly found its identity when Austin faced off against super-powered fantasy figures,” wrote John Kenneth Muir in his Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television. “As a spy, Steve was just so-so, but as a superhero he kicked ass.”

In addition to Caiden’s novels, six paperback novelizations were published about the series, and Charlton Comics featured the character in both a nine-issue comic book series and a seven-issue black-and-white magazine. 

Like The Man from UNCLE a decade earlier, The Six Million Dollar Man inspired a distaff spin-off — The Bionic Woman (the producers thought it would be vulgar to stick a price tag on a woman).