I loved watching this show when I was a kid and was thinking about revisiting it on DVD. Obviously special effects will leave room for improvement, but how would you rate the writing, production values, and overall entertainment factor?
shareI still enjoy and it's still one of my top ten favorite shows. The opening is still the greatest and probably will always be so.
"Italy invented the pizza, took it to New York...but Chicago perfected it.".share
To be completely honest, The Six Million Dollar Man doesn't hold up tremendously well. It's passable, but everything is really dated. But at the time, a lot of the stuff you see on the show was on the cutting edge of technology. As mentioned the Special Effects were pretty unimpressive, but that's part of its charm. Watching this show is always a reminder of how things have changed since the 70's.
The strength of the show has always been some strong storytelling, but sometimes the production values weren't up to par mostly because of the limitations of the day. The show spent a lot of film time on mundane details like focusing on the blinking lights of huge computers the size of a refrigerator. And I've always enjoyed the relationship between Austin and Goldman...they are the nucleus that really drive the show.
I can overlook a lot of things because of the sheer entertainment value of the show. It's pure nostalgia for me and if you loved watching this show as a kid, then I think you will love the trip down memory lane. You'll be grinning from ear to ear watching some of the stuff you thought was so cool like Austin running slo-mo and jumping over a picket fence with that familiar bionic sound effects. Just can't beat it.
I believe the first pilot movie and the entire first season holds up well today and most of the second season.
I didn't watch the Six Million Dollar Man as much as a kid when it moved to Sundays, plus I remember being rather turned off by Lee Majors wooden acting and there was a bit of an ego there with him as well, which was a total turnoff.
I also recall he grew that moustache to try to give himself personality. Funny how this was a time when if they were gay, they grew a moustache and I think Majors must have been one of the few heteros to grow one.
But that's beside the point.
I'm watching this two-parter with soap actors Robin Mattson, Anthony Geary in a very small part and Jared Martin as an evil alien in some of the most comical makeup I've ever seen, but it really does not look like him at all.
I recall Helen Hunt on Bionic Woman as an alien, but I really thought the show was more sci than fi and this is one of the worst stories I've ever seen. I don't know how many episodes of the Bionic Man there were like this, but I'm hoping not a lot.
I do recall the alien dimensional family one, but that one was good compared to this one.
You know Richard I am so sick of people like you. I am sorry you don't like Lee and of course you know nothing about him. First Lee grew a mustache because he like mustaches and liked to change his appearances in different shows.Lee did not an ego he just want to work gave it everything he had and quite truthfully it was not his favorite show it is just the show that made him a star.Doing his own stunts and the tremendous physical toll of this show has resulted in physical problems for the rest of his life. If you are going to criticize someone at least know who the heck the person is you are talking about and don't be a troll as people do not respect trolls
shareSigned,
Lee's mother.
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I'd say the first 2 seasons hold up pretty well, as sci-fi or character-driven stories, then it gets a bit shaky. The last season is pretty weak.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
The pilot movie is phenomenal, and most closely follows Caidin's novel. Even the effects were more realistic as they under-cranked the film to show high speed running etc. (that slow motion crap they went to later was not nearly as effective IMO.)
In the two subsequent tele-films they went to a more James Bond type of theme(as those films were very popular at the time). When it was picked up as a series i agree that the first season was great. Plotlines were not far fetched and the bionic effects were used sparingly.
Storywise, I think it does rather well. I know when I was doing Netflicks, I would order a disk or two. My kids enjoyed watching SMDM, Bionic Woman, Kolchak, Emergency, and Wonder Woman from the 70's more than the stuff they put on TV in the late 90's and 00's. As my kids noticed, there was a story being told that was interesting. Yes, they were all cheesy in one way or another, but the characters and relationships were more substantial.
We went through 2 dvd players when they were younger because the things were constantly playing.
It still holds up very well, especially the better episodes. Yes some of the special effects are a little out of date and if the show started in 2014, they would have to call it the 6 BILLION Dollar Man (6 million wouldn't get you much these days lol), but the show holds up well.
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