Okay, let's forget for a moment that the show degraded to cybernetic Sasquaches, Astral Projection and a Death Probe that looked like a cross between a Dalek and an SUV. The first three seasons of this series, and the pilot movie in particular were truly engaging and well written. Lee Majors, who had previously starred in The Big Valley and the movie Will Penny with Charleton Heston, got his big break in 1973 with a TV adaptation of Martin Caidin's ground-breaking novel, Cyborg. It was his first starring role, and as far as television was concerned, one of the most unique characters ever to grace the screen. Broken down to its most simple (bionic?) components, it was James Bond meets Frankenstein's Monster. The film did so well that ABC green-lighted a series of TV movies, that, in turn, garnered enough support to make a series. That's a monumental feat, considering that at that same time, Gene Roddenberry was enduring multiple failures with Questor (who, one might say. later evolved into commander Data), Earth II and a revival of Star Trek. Ironically, the series started off slow, with a minimal budget and a shifting schedule. By the time "Six Mil" found it's niche, the good writing was being rejected in favor of grabbing ratings by signing B-list guest starts like Sonny Bono and George Foreman. The rest... unfortunately, is TV In-Joke history... not too unlike Knight Rider and Quantum Leap. Let's hope Stargate SG1 and Angel fare better in the annals of TV History.
Review of The Six Million Dollar Man
