Six Million Dollar Man

The Six Million Dollar Man was an American television series about a cyborg working for a U.S. secret service called OSI. The show was based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, and aired on the ABC network from 1973 to 1978. more...

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The title role of Steve Austin was played by Lee Majors, who subsequently became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. A spin-off of the show was produced called The Bionic Woman.

Overview

The background story of the original novel and the later series is the crash of former astronaut Steve Austin in an M2-F2 “lifting body,” shown in the opening credits of the show. Austin is severely injured in the crash and is “rebuilt” in a title-giving operation that costs six million dollars. His right arm, both legs and the left eye are replaced by bionic (cybernetic) implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norm. He uses his enhanced abilities to work for the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) as a secret agent (and as a guinea pig for bionics).

Caidin’s novel was a best-seller when it was published in 1972 and was followed by three sequels. In the spring of 1973, Cyborg was loosely adapted as a made-for-TV movie starring Majors as Austin (although usually referred to by the title The Six Million Dollar Man, this film is often cited by the longer title Cyborg: Six Million Dollar Man). The adaptation was done by writer Howard Rodman working under the pseudonym of Henri Simoun. The film abandoned much of the plotline of the original novel in favor of a more TV-friendly script, and did not include many of the standard features of the later series; absent were the electronic sound effects, the slow motion running, and the character of Oscar Goldman (instead, another character named Oliver Spencer, played by Darren McGavin, was the leader.) The OSI had been the OSO. Austin also does not use the enhanced capabilities of his bionic eye at any time during the film.

The first film was a major ratings success and was followed by two more made-for-TV films that fall—Wine, Women and War and Solid Gold Kidnapping (which were original stories not based upon Caidin’s writings), followed by the debut, in January 1974, of The Six Million Dollar Man as a weekly hour-long series.

The show was very popular during its run and introduced many pop culture elements of the 1970s, such as the show’s opening catch-phrase and the slow-motion action sequences and the accompanying “electronic” sound effects.

For many years, attempts have been made to bring the story of Steve Austin to the movie screen. In the mid-1990s, noted director Kevin Smith wrote a screenplay (which he talks about on the DVD "An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder" from 2006), and there were reports later that comedian Chris Rock was being considered for the role. In 2003, an announcement was made to film the story as a full-out comedy starring Jim Carrey but that project appears to be on hold. In a July 2006 interview at Comic Con, Richard Anderson (who played Oscar Goldman in the series) stated that he is involved with producing a movie of the series but the rights are in litigation between Miramax and Universal. A post on writer Kenneth Johnson's website, indicates there are similar problems with a TV DVD release.

Read more at Wikipedia.org