The Six Million Dollar Man

The Six Million Dollar Man is a show that puts the cheese back into cheesy puffs. Steve Austin, played by the 70s pop culture icon Lee Majors, is an Astronaut for the US Air Force and is almost fatally injured when his plane unexpectedly crashes damaging vital parts of his body. To restore Steve back to a kind of normality, the government decides to replace the damages with experimental bionic limbs that in effect give him superpowers - heightened eye sight, amplified speed, agility and strength. As payment for the $6 million the government spent on recreating him, Austin finds himself working for the Office of Scientific Intelligence as a secret agent.

Well, what is not to love about this cheesy 70s series with its bad hair dos, dated clothing and naff acting styles. It’s enough to have a good laugh about. With Steve having bionic organs he is able to bend metal with his bare hands and run faster than a car, not to mention his terminator like eye gadget. For its contemporary viewer it was all very exciting, but maybe dated for a more modern audience.

One can see the heavy influence of the early James Bond films, with a similar array of gadgets and the comparable characteristics of Bond and Austin. Austin is not quite as smooth with the ladies but unlike his counterpart he is able to hold a long term relationship. His relationship with Jamie Sommers causes controversy when she gets injured in a sky diving accident and he begs the government to rebuild her with bionic limbs, which conveniently lead to a spin off show called The Bionic Woman.

If you are a fan of the television series of Charlie‘s Angels then you will definitely appreciate this series with its similar content, kitsch style, funky music and colourful mise en scène. Why watch The Six Million Dollar Man? It can be very intelligent when it wants to be, funny when it needs to be and maintains a level of excitement and fun, possibly offering a more insightful way to spend an afternoon, where we think back to a time when six million dollars was a lot of money and American technology could produce wonders like a functional cyborg.

Andrew Stafford