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{{infobox television| show_name = The Six Million Dollar Man| image = | caption = Opening credits| format = Science Fiction
[Richard Anderson
Martin E. Brooks| first_aired = [18 January, 1974 ], 1978 [television series about a cyborg working for the OSI (which was usually said to refer to the Office of Scientific Intelligence, but sometimes was called the Office of Scientific Investigation). The show was based on the novel Cyborg (novel) by Martin Caidin, and aired on the American Broadcasting Company as a regular series from 1974 to 1978, following three television movies in 1973. The title role of Steve Austin (fictional character) was played by Lee Majors, who subsequently became a pop culture pop icon of the 1970s. A spin-off of the show was produced called The Bionic Woman.

Overview The background story of the original novel and the later series is the crash of former astronaut Steve Austin in a “lifting body” craft, shown in the opening credits of the show (the lifting body craft mostly shown was a Northrop M2-F2, however in the episode "The Deadly Replay", a Northrop HL-10, identified as such in dialog, was used). 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 implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norms: he can run at speeds of 60 miles an hour, and his eye has a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities. 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).



Caidin’s novel was a best-seller when it was published in 1972 and was followed by three sequels, Cyborg II: Operation Nuke, Cyborg III: High Crystal, and Cyborg IV (with no subtitle), respectively about a black market in nuclear weapons, a Chariots of the Gods scenario, and fusing Austin's bionics to a space plane.

In the spring of 1973, Cyborg was loosely adapted as a made-for-TV movie starring Majors as Austin (although usually referred to by the title The Six Million Dollar Man, and that is the precise wording used on the original ABC broadcast, this film is sometimes cited by the longer title Cyborg: Six Million Dollar Man). The adaptation was done by writer Howard Rodman working under the pseudonym of Henri Simoun. The film, which was nominated for a Hugo Award, modified Caidin's plot, and notably made Austin a civilian astronaut, rather than an Air Force officer. Absent were some of the standard features of the later series: the electronic sound effects, the slow motion running, and the character of Oscar Goldman (instead, another character named Oliver Spencer, played by Darren McGavin, was Austin's supervisor, of an organization here called the OSO). The lead scientist involved in making Austin bionic, Dr. Rudy Wells, was played in the pilot by Martin Balsam, then on an occasional basis in the series by Alan Oppenheimer, and, finally, as a series regular, by Martin E. Brooks. Austin does not use the enhanced capabilities of his bionic eye at any time during the film.

The first film was a major ratings success and was followed by two more made-for-TV films that fall—Wine, Women and War and Solid Gold Kidnapping (the former bearing strong resemblances to Caidin's second Cyborg novel, Operation Nuke; the latter was an original story), followed by the debut, in January 1974, of The Six Million Dollar Man as a weekly hour-long series. The two movies, produced by Glen A. Larson, notably introduced a James Bond flavor to the series (and reinstated Austin's status from the novels as an Air Force colonel); the hour-long series, produced by Harve Bennett dispensed with the James Bond-gloss of the movies, and portrayed a more down-to-earth Austin.

The show was very popular during its run and introduced many pop culture elements of the 1970s, such as the show’s opening catch-phrase and the slow-motion action sequences and the accompanying “electronic” sound effects. The slow-motion action sequences were originally referred to as "Kung Fu slow motion" in popular culture (due to its usage in the 1970's martial arts television series), but it became far more noteworthy in The Six Million Dollar Man.

For many years, attempts have been made to bring the story of Steve Austin to the movie screen. In the mid-1990s, director Kevin Smith wrote a screenplay (which he talks about on the DVD "An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder" from 2006), and there were reports later that comedian Chris Rock was being considered for the role. In 2003, an announcement was made to film the story as a full-out comedy starring Jim Carrey but that project appears to be on hold. In a July 2006 interview at Comic-Con International, Richard Anderson (who played Oscar Goldman in the series) stated that he is involved with producing a movie of the series but the rights are in litigation between Miramax Films and Universal Studios. A post on writer Kenneth Johnson's website, indicates there are similar problems regarding DVD release of the series in North America, although Region 2 (the United Kingdom) has so far seen the release of the first two seasons since 2005.

The remake of the Bionic Woman (2007 TV series) integrates elements of The Six Million Dollar Man by having Jaime Sommers equipped with an eye implant in addition to the traditional ones.

{{refimprove|article's section called "Medical Bionics"|date=May 2007-->

Medical bionics In medicine, Bionics means the replacement or enhancement of organ (anatomy) or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prosthesis by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it.

This definition of bionics is best known to the general public in reference to the television series The Six Million Dollar Man, in which the titular cyborg character is referred to as a “bionic man.” In the mid-1970s, when scientists in a popular TV series rebuilt a wounded, barely-living test pilot into the world’s first bionic man, making him “better, stronger, faster,” the field of medical bionics was the stuff of science fiction.

However on April 3, at Experimental Biology 2006, some of the leading scientists in the rapidly expanding field of bionics explain how much of what was once fiction is today at least partial reality—including electronically-powered legs, arms, and eyes like those given TV’s Six Million Dollar Man 30-plus years ago.

The symposium on “The $6 Billion Man” is part of the scientific program of the American Association of Anatomists.

Opening sequence The opening sequence featured NASA's 1967 footage of a real-life accident of the Northrop M2-F2 lifting body tumbling end for end down the runway caused by Pilot-induced oscillation. The pilot, Bruce Peterson actually survived reasonably unscathed, although he lost an eye due to an infection acquired while in the hospital.

The opening credits actually used footage of two different lifting bodies; the HL-10, shown dropping away from its carry plane, and the M2-F2 shown in the unstable flight/crash sequence. (The aircraft was actually referred to as being an “HL-10” in the series, and the real HL-10 was used in a later episode; however, in the 1987 TV film The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman Austin refers to it as the "M3F5", which is the name used for the aircraft that crashes in the original Cyborg novel.)

Dusty Springfield originally sang a theme song, "He's The Man", which was used in the opening credits for the "Wine Women & War" telefilm. The song was also used in the promotion of the series, but when the weekly series began the song was replaced by the instrumental theme.

Main characters

Parts

The implants have a major flaw in that extreme cold interferes with their functions and can disable them given sufficient exposure. However, when Austin returns to a warmer temperature, the implants quickly regain full functionality.

The Charlton Comics comic book spin-off from the series also established that Austin's bionic eye could shoot a laser beam and also worked as a miniature camera (these abilities were demonstrated in the first issues of the color comic and black-and-white illustrated magazine, respectively), but neither function was shown on television and are not considered canonical.

The series became known for how Austin's bionic abilities were presented. When running or using his bionic arm, Austin was usually presented in slow-motion, accompanied by an electronic grinding-like sound effect. When the bionic eye was used, the camera would zoom in on Austin's face, followed by an extreme close-up of his eye; his point-of-view usually included a crosshair motif accompanied by a beeping sound-effect. In early episodes, different ways of presenting Austin's powers were tested, including a heartbeat sound effect that predated the electronic sound, and in the three original made-for-TV movies, no sound effects or slow-motion were used at all, with Austin's actions shown at normal speed (except for his running which utilized trick photography); the slow-motion portrayal was introduced with the first hour-long episode, "Population: Zero."

Changes for television A number of changes had to be made to Caidin’s version of the character to make him work for television. In the original novels, Austin was a cold-blooded killer, while the TV version rarely killed after his status as a childhood hero had been realized, and in fact Austin explicitly states his opposition to killing in the pilot film.

A number of changes to Austin’s bionics were also made. In the novel, Austin’s left arm, not his right, was the bionic one. Also, the arm was little more than a superpowered battering ram and not as complex as the TV version. Austin was blind in his bionic eye in the books, which was simply used as alternately a camera or a laser, and was removable. The book version of Steve Austin had some abilities the TV version lacked, such as a radio transmitter contained within a rib, a steel-reinforced skull that made it impossible for him to be knocked out with a blow to the head, and a Carbon dioxide-powered poison dart gun in one of his bionic fingers which the literary version of Austin often used to eliminate bad guys.

Another minor change was a matter of spelling: in the original novels, the term “bionics” was always used in its pure Greek form, e.g. “bionics limbs,” rather than the backformed adjective "bionic" (a formation based on the incorrect perception, which Caidin points out in the novel, that the Greek "-ics" suffix is plural). Perhaps to make it easier to say in dialogue, this was changed to “bionic limbs” et al. for the television series. The word “bionics” is never actually uttered during the first pilot film.

One character name was also initially changed. In the original novel Austin’s superior is Oscar Goldman, as he is in the series; however, in the pilot film the name was changed to Oliver Spencer. The opening credits of the second pilot film, Wine, Women and War, performs retconning to eliminate Spencer and reinstate Goldman as the government chief who authorizes Austin’s conversion; Goldman is also portrayed as a friendlier and more sympathetic character than Spencer, whom Austin accuses of being little more than a robot. In Caidin’s novel, Austin is recruited by the Office of Strategic Operations (OSO). In the TV pilot, it is still referred to verbally as the OSO, but door labels are OSI. Later TV episodes completed the change to OSI, and the first season episode Operation Firefly identified this as the Office of Scientific Intelligence (shown on Steve Austin's ID card).

The pilot film changed Austin’s character, making him a civilian member of NASA, rather than the Air Force colonel he was in the original novel; his military rank and background was restored for the TV series and no further reference was made to him being a civilian astronaut.

Novels Martin Caidin wrote four novels featuring his original version of Steve Austin beginning in 1972 with Cyborg (novel). Although several other writers such as Mike Jahn would later write a number of novelizations based upon the TV series, in most cases these writers chose to base their character upon the literary version of Austin rather than the TV show version. As a result, several of the novelizations have entire scenes and in one case an ending that differed from the original episodes, as the cold-blooded killer of Caidin’s novels handled things somewhat differently than his watered-down TV counterpart. For example, the Jahn book International Incidents, an adaptation of the episode “Love Song for Tanya”, ends with Austin using the poison dart gun in his bionic hand to kill an enemy agent; since the TV version of the character lacked this weapon, the villain was simply captured in the episode as broadcast.

Original novels (all by Martin Caidin)

(Of the above, only Cyborg was adapted for television.)

Novelizations

Other adaptations Charlton Comics published both a color comic book and a black and white, illustrated magazine, featuring original adventures as well as differing adaptations of the original TV movie. While the comic book was closely based upon the series, the magazine was darker and more violent and seemed to be based more upon the literary version of the character. Both magazines were cancelled around the same time the TV series ended. Artists Howard Chaykin and Neal Adams were frequent contributors to both publications.

A British comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus P. Allan, drawn by Martin Asbury and printed in TV comic Look-In. A series of standalone comic strips was printed on the packaging of a series of model kits by Fundimensions based upon the series. In Colombia, a black and white comic book series was published in the late 70s, with art and stories by Jorge Peña. This series was licensed by Universal studios to Greco (Grupo Editorial Colombiano), then kwown as Editora Cinco, now part of Grupo Editorial Televisa. In France, Télé-Junior, a magazine devoted to comic book adaptations of all sorts of TV series and cartoons also featured a Six Million Dollar Man comic (under its French title, L'Homme qui valait trois milliards) with art by Pierre Le Goff and stories by P. Tabet and Bodis. A tradepaperback reprinting several episodes from the magazine was released in October, 1980. Publishing details about "L'Homme qui valait trois milliards" French comic (In French)

Peter Pan Records and its sister company Power Records published several vinyl records albums featuring original dramatized stories (including an adaptation of the pilot film), several of which were also adapted as comic books designed to be read along with the recording.

In 1996, a new comic book series entitled Bionix was announced, to be published by Maximum Press. The comic was to have been an updated version of both the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and feature new renditions of the two characters. Although the magazine was advertised in comic book trade publications, it was ultimately never published.

Merchandise The Six Million Dollar Man spawned a number of toys and other licensed merchandise. Everything from lunch boxes and running shoes to children’s eyeglasses and bedsheets all carried images of Steve Austin. The 12-inch tall Steve Austin action figure marketed by Kenner in the mid-1970s was particularly popular and intact Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman toys continue to attract premium prices on the collector’s market. Besides the lead characters, 12-inch scale action figures were also produced of Oscar Goldman (with an "exploding" briefcase similar to the type used by James Bond in From Russia with Love (film)), "Maskatron" (an android character based upon a cyborg played by John Saxon in several episodes), a Fembot (from a Bionic Woman episode) and the recurring character of Bigfoot (the Bigfoot doll was more than 12 inches high). Associated merchandise for use with the action figures included a rocketship that could transform into a bionic repair station, an inflatable command base, auxiliary bionic arms (critical assignment arms) with different features (such as one that included a flashlight), auxiliary bionic legs (critical assignment legs) with different features.

Fully intact Steve Austin action figures are rare. The bionic right arms of the dolls were covered in an elastic, skin-like material (intended to be rolled back to reveal bionic modules underneath) and this material tended to deteriorate over time. Early versions of the arms also included removable bionic modules that could be easily lost; later versions of the action figured included modules that could not be removed.

DVD releases Universal Playback has released the first 2 Seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man on DVD in Region 2 for the very first time. It has yet to be released in Region 1 for unconfirmed reasons.

{] 2005 [2006|}

Trivia

References in pop culture

Notes and references Episodes

External links



{{infobox television| show_name = The Six Million Dollar Man| image = | caption = Opening credits| format = Science Fiction
[Richard Anderson
Martin E. Brooks| first_aired = [18 January, 1974 ], 1978 [television series about a cyborg working for the OSI (which was usually said to refer to the Office of Scientific Intelligence, but sometimes was called the Office of Scientific Investigation). The show was based on the novel Cyborg (novel) by Martin Caidin, and aired on the American Broadcasting Company as a regular series from 1974 to 1978, following three television movies in 1973. The title role of Steve Austin (fictional character) was played by Lee Majors, who subsequently became a pop culture pop icon of the 1970s. A spin-off of the show was produced called The Bionic Woman.

Overview The background story of the original novel and the later series is the crash of former astronaut Steve Austin in a “lifting body” craft, shown in the opening credits of the show (the lifting body craft mostly shown was a Northrop M2-F2, however in the episode "The Deadly Replay", a Northrop HL-10, identified as such in dialog, was used). 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 implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norms: he can run at speeds of 60 miles an hour, and his eye has a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities. 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).



Caidin’s novel was a best-seller when it was published in 1972 and was followed by three sequels, Cyborg II: Operation Nuke, Cyborg III: High Crystal, and Cyborg IV (with no subtitle), respectively about a black market in nuclear weapons, a Chariots of the Gods scenario, and fusing Austin's bionics to a space plane.

In the spring of 1973, Cyborg was loosely adapted as a made-for-TV movie starring Majors as Austin (although usually referred to by the title The Six Million Dollar Man, and that is the precise wording used on the original ABC broadcast, this film is sometimes cited by the longer title Cyborg: Six Million Dollar Man). The adaptation was done by writer Howard Rodman working under the pseudonym of Henri Simoun. The film, which was nominated for a Hugo Award, modified Caidin's plot, and notably made Austin a civilian astronaut, rather than an Air Force officer. Absent were some of the standard features of the later series: the electronic sound effects, the slow motion running, and the character of Oscar Goldman (instead, another character named Oliver Spencer, played by Darren McGavin, was Austin's supervisor, of an organization here called the OSO). The lead scientist involved in making Austin bionic, Dr. Rudy Wells, was played in the pilot by Martin Balsam, then on an occasional basis in the series by Alan Oppenheimer, and, finally, as a series regular, by Martin E. Brooks. Austin does not use the enhanced capabilities of his bionic eye at any time during the film.

The first film was a major ratings success and was followed by two more made-for-TV films that fall—Wine, Women and War and Solid Gold Kidnapping (the former bearing strong resemblances to Caidin's second Cyborg novel, Operation Nuke; the latter was an original story), followed by the debut, in January 1974, of The Six Million Dollar Man as a weekly hour-long series. The two movies, produced by Glen A. Larson, notably introduced a James Bond flavor to the series (and reinstated Austin's status from the novels as an Air Force colonel); the hour-long series, produced by Harve Bennett dispensed with the James Bond-gloss of the movies, and portrayed a more down-to-earth Austin.

The show was very popular during its run and introduced many pop culture elements of the 1970s, such as the show’s opening catch-phrase and the slow-motion action sequences and the accompanying “electronic” sound effects. The slow-motion action sequences were originally referred to as "Kung Fu slow motion" in popular culture (due to its usage in the 1970's martial arts television series), but it became far more noteworthy in The Six Million Dollar Man.

For many years, attempts have been made to bring the story of Steve Austin to the movie screen. In the mid-1990s, director Kevin Smith wrote a screenplay (which he talks about on the DVD "An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder" from 2006), and there were reports later that comedian Chris Rock was being considered for the role. In 2003, an announcement was made to film the story as a full-out comedy starring Jim Carrey but that project appears to be on hold. In a July 2006 interview at Comic-Con International, Richard Anderson (who played Oscar Goldman in the series) stated that he is involved with producing a movie of the series but the rights are in litigation between Miramax Films and Universal Studios. A post on writer Kenneth Johnson's website, indicates there are similar problems regarding DVD release of the series in North America, although Region 2 (the United Kingdom) has so far seen the release of the first two seasons since 2005.

The remake of the Bionic Woman (2007 TV series) integrates elements of The Six Million Dollar Man by having Jaime Sommers equipped with an eye implant in addition to the traditional ones.

{{refimprove|article's section called "Medical Bionics"|date=May 2007-->

Medical bionics In medicine, Bionics means the replacement or enhancement of organ (anatomy) or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prosthesis by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it.

This definition of bionics is best known to the general public in reference to the television series The Six Million Dollar Man, in which the titular cyborg character is referred to as a “bionic man.” In the mid-1970s, when scientists in a popular TV series rebuilt a wounded, barely-living test pilot into the world’s first bionic man, making him “better, stronger, faster,” the field of medical bionics was the stuff of science fiction.

However on April 3, at Experimental Biology 2006, some of the leading scientists in the rapidly expanding field of bionics explain how much of what was once fiction is today at least partial reality—including electronically-powered legs, arms, and eyes like those given TV’s Six Million Dollar Man 30-plus years ago.

The symposium on “The $6 Billion Man” is part of the scientific program of the American Association of Anatomists.

Opening sequence The opening sequence featured NASA's 1967 footage of a real-life accident of the Northrop M2-F2 lifting body tumbling end for end down the runway caused by Pilot-induced oscillation. The pilot, Bruce Peterson actually survived reasonably unscathed, although he lost an eye due to an infection acquired while in the hospital.

The opening credits actually used footage of two different lifting bodies; the HL-10, shown dropping away from its carry plane, and the M2-F2 shown in the unstable flight/crash sequence. (The aircraft was actually referred to as being an “HL-10” in the series, and the real HL-10 was used in a later episode; however, in the 1987 TV film The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman Austin refers to it as the "M3F5", which is the name used for the aircraft that crashes in the original Cyborg novel.)

Dusty Springfield originally sang a theme song, "He's The Man", which was used in the opening credits for the "Wine Women & War" telefilm. The song was also used in the promotion of the series, but when the weekly series began the song was replaced by the instrumental theme.

Main characters

Parts

The implants have a major flaw in that extreme cold interferes with their functions and can disable them given sufficient exposure. However, when Austin returns to a warmer temperature, the implants quickly regain full functionality.

The Charlton Comics comic book spin-off from the series also established that Austin's bionic eye could shoot a laser beam and also worked as a miniature camera (these abilities were demonstrated in the first issues of the color comic and black-and-white illustrated magazine, respectively), but neither function was shown on television and are not considered canonical.

The series became known for how Austin's bionic abilities were presented. When running or using his bionic arm, Austin was usually presented in slow-motion, accompanied by an electronic grinding-like sound effect. When the bionic eye was used, the camera would zoom in on Austin's face, followed by an extreme close-up of his eye; his point-of-view usually included a crosshair motif accompanied by a beeping sound-effect. In early episodes, different ways of presenting Austin's powers were tested, including a heartbeat sound effect that predated the electronic sound, and in the three original made-for-TV movies, no sound effects or slow-motion were used at all, with Austin's actions shown at normal speed (except for his running which utilized trick photography); the slow-motion portrayal was introduced with the first hour-long episode, "Population: Zero."

Changes for television A number of changes had to be made to Caidin’s version of the character to make him work for television. In the original novels, Austin was a cold-blooded killer, while the TV version rarely killed after his status as a childhood hero had been realized, and in fact Austin explicitly states his opposition to killing in the pilot film.

A number of changes to Austin’s bionics were also made. In the novel, Austin’s left arm, not his right, was the bionic one. Also, the arm was little more than a superpowered battering ram and not as complex as the TV version. Austin was blind in his bionic eye in the books, which was simply used as alternately a camera or a laser, and was removable. The book version of Steve Austin had some abilities the TV version lacked, such as a radio transmitter contained within a rib, a steel-reinforced skull that made it impossible for him to be knocked out with a blow to the head, and a Carbon dioxide-powered poison dart gun in one of his bionic fingers which the literary version of Austin often used to eliminate bad guys.

Another minor change was a matter of spelling: in the original novels, the term “bionics” was always used in its pure Greek form, e.g. “bionics limbs,” rather than the backformed adjective "bionic" (a formation based on the incorrect perception, which Caidin points out in the novel, that the Greek "-ics" suffix is plural). Perhaps to make it easier to say in dialogue, this was changed to “bionic limbs” et al. for the television series. The word “bionics” is never actually uttered during the first pilot film.

One character name was also initially changed. In the original novel Austin’s superior is Oscar Goldman, as he is in the series; however, in the pilot film the name was changed to Oliver Spencer. The opening credits of the second pilot film, Wine, Women and War, performs retconning to eliminate Spencer and reinstate Goldman as the government chief who authorizes Austin’s conversion; Goldman is also portrayed as a friendlier and more sympathetic character than Spencer, whom Austin accuses of being little more than a robot. In Caidin’s novel, Austin is recruited by the Office of Strategic Operations (OSO). In the TV pilot, it is still referred to verbally as the OSO, but door labels are OSI. Later TV episodes completed the change to OSI, and the first season episode Operation Firefly identified this as the Office of Scientific Intelligence (shown on Steve Austin's ID card).

The pilot film changed Austin’s character, making him a civilian member of NASA, rather than the Air Force colonel he was in the original novel; his military rank and background was restored for the TV series and no further reference was made to him being a civilian astronaut.

Novels Martin Caidin wrote four novels featuring his original version of Steve Austin beginning in 1972 with Cyborg (novel). Although several other writers such as Mike Jahn would later write a number of novelizations based upon the TV series, in most cases these writers chose to base their character upon the literary version of Austin rather than the TV show version. As a result, several of the novelizations have entire scenes and in one case an ending that differed from the original episodes, as the cold-blooded killer of Caidin’s novels handled things somewhat differently than his watered-down TV counterpart. For example, the Jahn book International Incidents, an adaptation of the episode “Love Song for Tanya”, ends with Austin using the poison dart gun in his bionic hand to kill an enemy agent; since the TV version of the character lacked this weapon, the villain was simply captured in the episode as broadcast.

Original novels (all by Martin Caidin)

(Of the above, only Cyborg was adapted for television.)

Novelizations

Other adaptations Charlton Comics published both a color comic book and a black and white, illustrated magazine, featuring original adventures as well as differing adaptations of the original TV movie. While the comic book was closely based upon the series, the magazine was darker and more violent and seemed to be based more upon the literary version of the character. Both magazines were cancelled around the same time the TV series ended. Artists Howard Chaykin and Neal Adams were frequent contributors to both publications.

A British comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus P. Allan, drawn by Martin Asbury and printed in TV comic Look-In. A series of standalone comic strips was printed on the packaging of a series of model kits by Fundimensions based upon the series. In Colombia, a black and white comic book series was published in the late 70s, with art and stories by Jorge Peña. This series was licensed by Universal studios to Greco (Grupo Editorial Colombiano), then kwown as Editora Cinco, now part of Grupo Editorial Televisa. In France, Télé-Junior, a magazine devoted to comic book adaptations of all sorts of TV series and cartoons also featured a Six Million Dollar Man comic (under its French title, L'Homme qui valait trois milliards) with art by Pierre Le Goff and stories by P. Tabet and Bodis. A tradepaperback reprinting several episodes from the magazine was released in October, 1980. Publishing details about "L'Homme qui valait trois milliards" French comic (In French)

Peter Pan Records and its sister company Power Records published several vinyl records albums featuring original dramatized stories (including an adaptation of the pilot film), several of which were also adapted as comic books designed to be read along with the recording.

In 1996, a new comic book series entitled Bionix was announced, to be published by Maximum Press. The comic was to have been an updated version of both the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and feature new renditions of the two characters. Although the magazine was advertised in comic book trade publications, it was ultimately never published.

Merchandise The Six Million Dollar Man spawned a number of toys and other licensed merchandise. Everything from lunch boxes and running shoes to children’s eyeglasses and bedsheets all carried images of Steve Austin. The 12-inch tall Steve Austin action figure marketed by Kenner in the mid-1970s was particularly popular and intact Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman toys continue to attract premium prices on the collector’s market. Besides the lead characters, 12-inch scale action figures were also produced of Oscar Goldman (with an "exploding" briefcase similar to the type used by James Bond in From Russia with Love (film)), "Maskatron" (an android character based upon a cyborg played by John Saxon in several episodes), a Fembot (from a Bionic Woman episode) and the recurring character of Bigfoot (the Bigfoot doll was more than 12 inches high). Associated merchandise for use with the action figures included a rocketship that could transform into a bionic repair station, an inflatable command base, auxiliary bionic arms (critical assignment arms) with different features (such as one that included a flashlight), auxiliary bionic legs (critical assignment legs) with different features.

Fully intact Steve Austin action figures are rare. The bionic right arms of the dolls were covered in an elastic, skin-like material (intended to be rolled back to reveal bionic modules underneath) and this material tended to deteriorate over time. Early versions of the arms also included removable bionic modules that could be easily lost; later versions of the action figured included modules that could not be removed.

DVD releases Universal Playback has released the first 2 Seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man on DVD in Region 2 for the very first time. It has yet to be released in Region 1 for unconfirmed reasons.

{] 2005 [2006|}

Trivia

References in pop culture

Notes and references Episodes

External links





 

The Six Million Dollar Man



 
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