In honor of and gratitude for all the GAs for Bionic Commando lately, I want to see if this community remembers the American TV show from the 1970's that I grew up watching, The Six Million Dollar Man. I wonder if you all can complete the narrator intro-setup from memory, without googling. I'll get the ball rolling:

"Houston, I can't hold it, she's breaking up, she's break" CRASH
"Steve Austin, astronaut, a man barely alive"
"..." [next line, please]

Or, just recount one of your memories of the show.
And if I've misquoted, corrections are welcome.

2 years ago

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sorry being in the UK i didn't even think it was shown over here it's funny though for a while i thought that because he was called Steve Austin - it had something to do with the stone cold wrestler from WWE

2 years ago
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The show came before that wrestler. I think the wrestler was purposely using the fame of the name from the beloved character.

2 years ago
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well and i don't know how much you know or don't know about wrestling but i can't think it's as much as me but Stone cold who's really name is Steve Williams could not use the name where he was working at the time because of "dr death" Steve Williams and so the booker Dusty Rhodes said because he's from Texas he said Austin after the place in Texas - not to do with the tv show

2 years ago
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That makes sense...
But it also makes sense that, if they copped to getting the name from the popular TV show character, the copyright-holder could demand licensing fees. It's just cheaper to claim to have a different 'legit' origin for this name that already has a ring to it.
Let's just say "Steve Austin" can be taken as two very different pop culture references.

2 years ago
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The Six Million Dollar Man was definitely shown over here in the UK, I used to watch it every time it was on. There was also The Bionic Woman :)

2 years ago
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The show was popular about 15-20 years before the wrestler became famous.

2 years ago
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It was shown in the UK, I even had a book from the show as a kid.
I personally either saw it on BFBS or german TV, possibly both.

2 years ago
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It was definately on BFBS, watched it on there when my Dad was based in Cyprus 😀👍

2 years ago
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Ah, a fellow army brat? 😉
We spent our time here in Germany and stayed here. Loads of time spent in camp even as a civvie as a Scout and because my dad had his office in one.
If it wasn't for BFBS and english videorental shops life would have been much more boring 😁

2 years ago
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Just checked, I still have The Secret of Bigfoot from 1977 on my bookshelf!

One of the highlights of the week for me as a teenager here in Scotland was watching The Six Million Dollar Man (along with The Bionic Woman and other stuff like Starsky & Hutch) with my gran and a packet of Barbecue Beef Wotsits (provided by said gran)!

I wish we could rebuild Barbecue Beef Wotsits. :-(

2 years ago
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Bigger, faster stronger! Words to live by!

2 years ago
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That's the stuff!!! ... but I think that line comes in later.
I'm glad someone else remembers!

2 years ago
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I remember watching it as a kid in Australia, my parents loved it and never missed an episode. They also loved the Bionic Woman. All I remember from the intro is "we have the technology" and "we can rebuild him" and "better, stronger faster". I can barely remember much of the episodes though except the NANANANAA whenever they used the bionics hahaha Although I do remember her bionic ear where she always had to move her hair out of the way before using it. :p

2 years ago
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HA! Yes!

Those stupid villains only needed bushy mustaches to keep Jamie from overhearing their despicable plans.

and thanks for these bits:
"we have the technology" and "we can rebuild him" and "better, stronger faster"
I distinctly remember "Gentlemen" being in there somewhere. [Sorry, gentle readers, it was the 70's]

2 years ago*
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I remember it but only saw maybe two or three episodes. If it had been my choice as a kid, I'd certainly have seen more. ;)

2 years ago
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Without looking anything up. I can only remember one scene.

Steve is with a buddy and they go off the road. He tells his buddy not to tell anyone and then picks up one end of the car and moves it. His buddy then picks up the other end and moves it. The buddy was a robot spy and it was still in learning mode so it was copying stuff it saw humans do. I don't remember any of the context behind the scene.

Was it a buddy who was replaced by a robot? Did Steve know it was a robot? Was it some other situation? This part is hazy. I only remember them picking up a car end each and something about the bot being in learning mode.

2 years ago
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Ah, you've reminded me of an episode...

His boss Mr. Goldman was replaced by a robot duplicate. The robot was pacing the room in imitation of Goldman's habit. Steve's bionic eye noted the footprints in the carpet were too deep, and he slyly put a pencil on the floor in the path of the pacing robot. The pencil was ground to splinters by the robot's next pass, and Steve knew with certainty this wasn't Goldman.

I think someone-replaced-by-a-robot was a recurring plot device in the series.

2 years ago
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I remember something else. I don't remember if it was Bionic man or Woman. They had something that looked like play doh in one ep. Eating it gave you super strength but it did not last long. I don't remember it being a thing so it was likely just the one ep.

2 years ago
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Fun fact: DARPA funds projects aiming at bionic augmentation since the 1960's.
Z-man: The aim: to allow soldiers to scale vertical walls without ropes or ladders at a rate of 0.5 metres a second. The solution: mimic the microscopic hairs, or “setae”, that allow geckos to stroll up walls and across ceilings. Small robots that climb using synthetic setae have already been demonstrated, but DARPA hopes to extend this technology to humans.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13907-fifty-years-of-darpa-hits-misses-and-ones-to-watch/

2 years ago
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Okay, now I'm imagining a show about bionic hair... but I feel it should be set in the 1980's just for the hairstyles.

2 years ago
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We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.

I remember watching it with my grandfather. I so wanted to be part cyborg lol

2 years ago
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YES, but...

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.
We have the technology.
We can make him better than he was before.
Better, stronger, faster.

... and then I'd run around the house and jump over the hassock.

2 years ago
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Ah damn, I forgot the gentlemen!

It was such a fun popcorn show.

2 years ago
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Thanks, everyone. Mission accomplished.

2 years ago
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I grew up on The Six Million Dollar Man, I used to watch it every time it was on, and The Bionic Woman.
How many times did you run in slow motion making those sounds as though you were running at 70 mph?? lol

2 years ago
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I remember at the beach on summer holiday, I'd make the sounds while pushing my big brothers, and they'd obligingly throw themselves backwards, landing in the sand.

2 years ago
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I watched it as a kid when it was originally airing. Aside from him bending/breaking things that weren't really made of steel/concrete, the show made extensive use of slow motion and sound effects to make up for the missing/poor special effects. They also recycled footage a LOT.

The Bigfoot episodes were a big thing. The "action figure" was actually pretty awesome. I had one of those. I also had a figure they invented for the toys that wasn't based on anyone for the show, "Maskotron." He was a robot/android with three different switchable faces. One of them was Steve's OSI boss, Oscar Goldman. I think another was Steven, and a third random iguy face.

I think the femmebots were the Bionic Woman's arch-eneimes? They popped up every so often, I vaguely recall. I didn't watch her show as avidly because cooties.

2 years ago
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We had the Steve Austin action figure, and on one of the arms you could roll the 'skin' up to reveal the circuitry underneath. Also, one of his eyes was clear and you could look through it from the back of his head.

Yes, I remember the bigfoot sequence, too, although I think they used the term Sasquatch. If memory serves, Steve said "easy big fella" more than once.

2 years ago
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If I'm not mistaken the sasquatch was played by Andre the Giant. Which I guess was his first acting role (fake wrestling pitches aside).

2 years ago
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2 years ago
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Every time I see one of these I think of the show's opening. ...because he crashed one

And there was that weird tank thing.

View attached image.
View attached image.
2 years ago
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For a while now I've been aware of an IMDB page for The Six Billion Dollar Man starring Mark Wahlberg as Steve Austin. Doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I think I'm okay with that.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4180298/

2 years ago
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I think it would depend on whether they played it straight, or did it as a campy parody.
Thanks for the link!

2 years ago
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Ah, yes, the Venus Space Probe!
It was supposed to land on and then explore Venus, but NASA missed, to put it mildly. The probe then did a Trek-style 'slingshot' rebound and landed on Earth, wreaking havoc.
I remember it showing up twice, and the method for defeating it that worked the first time didn't work the second time.

2 years ago
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The show was popular before my time (I was born in 1990) but it still aired occasionally so I'm familiar with it, although I think they changed the name when dubbing it. I remember that my grandma really liked it.

2 years ago
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Wow. I wonder if they changed the name because of the wrester.
Or was the change to a more typical name in your local language/culture?

2 years ago
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It was pretty common for names to be changed to something they considered more marketable at the time, sometimes just to then revert back to a more faithful translation later, I still remember how when the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out they dropped the "Pirates of the Caribbean" part from the title and only left the subtitle.
In the case of this show I think they just called it the Bionic Man, but maybe I'm getting it mixed with the other show.

Edit: did a bit of googling and it was renamed "El Hombre Nuclear" (the nuclear man) in Latin America, I knew the title was different to the original.

2 years ago*
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It was bananas how often the Bionic Man &/or Bionic Woman seemed to be fighting Bigfoot. I think he got his own action figure.

Only tangentially related: when I was maybe 5 - 7 years old, they had a bionic-themed show at Universal Studios. I was picked as the kid to do a jump pose in front of a blue screen (yeah, they were blue before green) so the show could play back a kid doing a crazy high bionic jump. In my memory (grain of salt?) I was wearing a lot of long-sleeved denim & a pair of cowboy boots.

2 years ago
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Wow, such old memories. Here in France, he was called "The 3 Billion Man". I guess 6 millions were not enough :-)
I remember a few flashes, introduction music, and a scene where he lifted a bad guy with his arms, leaving the guy's shoes on the floor (as a small kid, it was funny !).
Thanks for reminding me that I'm too old for my own good :-)

2 years ago
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This comment was deleted 1 year ago.

2 years ago
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