X-Mas gift: Six Million Dollar Man DVDs

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Kit Sullivan

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I am a fan of the old, cheesy and goofy TV shows from my youth, and I have quite a few old TV show series.

My wife knows I was a fan of the SMDM as a kid, so she bought me all 5 seasons onDVD for Christmas.

I loaded up the first disc and as soon as that cool opening credit sequence started, I started to get a little excited ( just like a kid, I suppose):

"We have separation", "looks good, Victor"..."got a blowout, damper three", "get your pitch to zero!", "pitch is out, I can't hold altitude, she's breaking up, she's break..."

It was even more cool than I remembered from 40 years ago!

"Steve Austin...astronaut. A man barely alive....we have the technology to make him better... stronger...faster...we can make the world's first bionic man."

Oh man, I couldn't wait...it was gonna be great to watch these old shows again!

The opening credits ends with that cool thumping, driving music and shows Steve Austin in the groovy 70s-era red track suit running 60mph, freeze-framing on Austin's face with a convenient lense-flare centered right on his bionic right eye...

And then, all pumped up from watching that iconic opening credit sequence I started watching the episodes.

And I discovered something I NEVER noticed about this show as a kid:

It Sucks!

My god, this show is F'n terrible! How stupid could I have possibly been as a kid to think this show was any good?

Lee Majors has less acting ability than the SMDM "action figure" dolls they sold in toy stores back then.

And his "amazing" feats of bionic strength and ability are...well, pretty lame. Gingerly hopping over a small stream that is about 2-3 feet across hardly requires any "bionic" agility, even if they did use slow-mo and sound effects to "punch up" the visuals.

All in all...much better left as a solid memory from my youth than to try and relive it now.

Still...has one of the best opening credits ever!

 
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they started running it on a local cable station from time to time, and for me, like you it was a go to show as a kid. I came to the same conclusions for the most part and think that the problem is we now have such great special effects that even crappy shows are better visually. Lee Majors acting really was terrible, but being married to Farrah, he did get some good looking women to appear on the show.

 
I never really liked SMDM but I loved "the Fall Guy" as a kid. I remember that when you missed the show on Monday night you did not need to show up at school the next morning because you were the only one who did not know what the others were talking about. :)

So I recently watched it on dvd and I can't decide whether it was cool or sucked big time.

I still understand though why Heather Thomas in her bikini during the opening credits made my adolescent hormones go nuts at the time.

:)

I must say it still had the same effect. :)

 
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The Fall Guy. ::thumb:: (Aw yeah, on Heather Thomas... Markie Post wasn't exactly chopped liver, either :D )

SMDM... :dodgy:

For those same reasons you mentioned, Kit, are why I refuse to watch anything but comedies from back then - they never disappoint. I recently watched a favorite movie again - The Wraith. Boy, did it suck, and yet I remember it being so cool when I first saw it. I did watch most of the first season of Magnum P.I., and it didn't totally suck, but I don't know if I want to risk watching Knight Rider, Miami Vice, or my beloved Airwolf. I had also put up the original Battlestar Galactica movie right after I'd gotten a 60" HD, and was not disappointed... still a bit campy, but it didn't suck. The original Star Trek is timeless even with it's campiness... but I don't think it'll ever "suck" like SMDM or Bionic Woman.

Now... M*A*S*H & Hogan's Heroes... you simply cannot go wrong.

 
I remember a lot of what I thought were cool shows back from my youth... not sure how they'd hold up today with my kids.

I loved...

The Odd Couple

The Honeymooners

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Benny Hill

M.A.S.H

Mutual of Omahas Wild Kindgon

The Wonderful World of Disney

The Love Boat

Fantasy Island

I don't think my kids would spend 5 minutes watching any of them, except for making fun of them.

Times do change... and we're old!!

 
You are correct: For the most part, old comedies have held up better than old dramas or "action" shows.

However, there are a few old drama shows I still love:

Star Trek ( Kirk era)

Starsky & Hutch

Baretta

Columbo

Emergency!

I can watch those non-stop...especially Columbo.

 
You are correct: For the most part, old comedies have held up better than old dramas or "action" shows.

However, there are a few old drama shows I still love:

Star Trek ( Kirk era)

Starsky & Hutch

Baretta

Columbo

Emergency!

I can watch those non-stop...especially Columbo.
I've loved Star Trek since the original series and most, but not all the more recent versions... I think they did a great job casting the latest movies.

I was also a big fan of Colombo and Baretta... do you remember Kojak?

Cool shows...

 
I've got the entire series of Sky King on DVD. As Kit noted, it was much better when I was six.
"Out of the clear blue of the western sky comes... Sky King!"

oh, the wayback machine is ON! LOL

BTW: Peabody's wayback machine, for the younger gen.

 
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It was a such a weird show, especially the first season, that it took a long time for it to 'age'. Not a great show, but certainly better than many that were hits. Season One had one of the best opening themes ever! Never missed an episode and I have remastered box set....because I am a geek.

[video=youtube]


 
^

That's the first time I've ever heard the Space: 1999 S1 theme. That is fantastic. Disco-era themes at their best.

Depends which season you're watching, in some cases.

The first season of Starsky & Hutch is well done, as are any episode directed by Paul Michael Glaser himself. Season 3 is uneven, and Season 4 is peppered with crap.

Knight Rider had a few decent episodes, but the great majority of it is laughable cheese - as much as we may try to love it. The writing is reminiscent of Charlie's Angels - the script is driven by plot points hammered into our face by the dialogue.

Six Million, on the other hand, doesn't go anywhere. Would have probably been a lot better as a 30-minute show, as there's way too much padding in these.

It Takes a Thief suffered badly from similar padding in the 3rd season (and I'm not talking about the first six Euro episodes, which were downright TERRIBLE), but seasons one and two pulled it off, oozing campy coolness in their wake. (Unfortunately, just like Starsky and Hutch, the worst season of the show had the best opening theme).

It's surprising how well Adam-12 has held up though; even Dragnet's oft-satirized format remains strong.

Strangely enough, T.J. Hooker (I regard it as a Hollywoodized Adam-12) should really be a lot more cringe-worthy than it is, but Will Shatner's charisma holds it together, in spite of the ridiculously non-realistic police work, Adrian Zmed's acting, and countless "let's rescue Heather Locklear" scripts.

-Kut

 
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It was a such a weird show, especially the first season, that it took a long time for it to 'age'. Not a great show, but certainly better than many that were hits. Season One had one of the best opening themes ever! Never missed an episode and I have remastered box set....because I am a geek.

[video=youtube]


 
I like how it changes the tone of the opening to something more epic and cinematic.

Rumor has it that Abrams or Moore (can't remember which) copied the first season Space opening style when they did Battlestar. Basic set of visuals showing what happened and then quick cut edit of scenes from 'this episode'. And I like that music too.

[video=youtube]


And then there is ...Sanford and Son....it never gets old!

 
Oh, man! That's great, but I keep picturing Roger Moore as Bond while it was playing!

 
Oh, man! That's great, but I keep picturing Roger Moore as Bond while it was playing!
It does have that special John Barry string sound to it, doesn't it?

Curiously, his Moonraker score was quite subdued in comparison to his others. Three other composers worked on Moore-era Bond films other than Barry though - Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, and For Your Eyes Only all have scores completely unique to their composers. These scores were also funk/disco oriented while Barry's scores were far less induced to pop trends.

-Kurt

 
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Oh ya..That is a classic;)

And thanks!! I usually don't like rehashing stuff either, but for some reason i was revisiting my megadvd set and thought, mmm how much would it change space 1999 just to replace the music with a much more darker " epic" fitting music? I love the original disco stuff, but i just wanted to see how it would change the flavor of it..lol

 
Sometimes being too 'of the moment' with music can make it date really fast. You can almost pinpoint the year it was done just by hearing the music. Most sitcoms are that way.

I've often thought that Tangerine Dreams synthesizer soundtrack for Sorcerer would have made good music for 1999 without being disco/funk.

So we don't get too far from Steve Austin...I read the book CYBORG by Martin Caidin when I was a kid. The book was good, showed much more promise than the show. Although, I do wonder who was a worse actor, Lee Majors or Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers)?

 
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