The Six Million Dollar Man

(The Six Million Dollar Man)

Steve Austin, astronaut, a man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him, we have the technology. We have the capability to make the worlds first Bionic Man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better... Stronger... Faster...

DoctorSF's Words

Air Force Colonel Steve Austin, a test pilot, an astronaut who walked on the moon, is badly injured in the crash of the prototype of a stratospheric plane. Possessing the necessary technology, the government of the United States decides to reconstruct him by replacing the limbs that were too damaged to save with experimental cybernetic elements. His new bionic members, his right arm and his two legs, make him an extraordinary being endowed with speed and superhuman force enhancement. The replacement of his left eye by a bionic eye also allows him to see very long distance. The cost of the operation : 6 million dollars...

In exchange for the efforts of the government to restore his chances to the Colonel Steve Austin, he has to work for the OSI, the Office of Scientific Intelligence with Oscar Goldman as direct chief. During his different missions, Steve is going to intervene where his new bionic capacities are going lead him and when his girlfriend Jaimie Sommers is victim of a serious accident of parachute, he is the witness of the birth of the first "Bionic Woman" with whom he will share some missions.

The series is composed of 109 episodes and 5 seasons. It was first aired on ABC channel on the 18th January 1974 with the episode "Population: Zero" that can be assimilated as number seven. But the series really begins in 1973 with three tv movies (in fact the first six episodes) based on the novel "Cyborg" by Martin Caidin. These three 90 minutes tv movies also aired by ABC are the premice of the series. CYBORG: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN was first aired by the channel on March, 7th 1973. Later, those six episodes will be integrated to the series as episodes 1 to 6 for a best comprehension by Syndication.

Later, three 90 minutes compilation tv movies were realized: THE RETURN OF THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN AND BIONIC WOMAN, BIONIC SHOWDOWN and BIONIC EVER AFTER?. Although aged, the series still delight fans all over the world.

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE BIONIC WOMAN are series extremely difficult to document because of the original broadcast order of the episodes that crosses from a series to the other. Several stories have been fractioned and alternated to appear in the two bionic series. For instance, "Kill Oscar" had parts one and three shown on THE BIONIC WOMAN, while two appeared on THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. To make matters even more confusing, these cross-over shows that continued from one to another have all been lumped together in syndication, with two and three part episodes being shown entirely in one series or another, but not both...