You may have noticed that, because I’ve got such hardy self-esteem, I have no problems confessing to the occasional foible or idiosyncrasy. (Then again, there’s also my leaning towards self-deprecation…!)
Either way, as a result, I have no problems admitting to addictions. I’ve confessed to binge reading, binge tweeting, and the fact I am a television addict. Indeed the latter goes WAAAAY back. It’s not just the likes of Buffy and The West Wing which have tickled my fancy. No sirreee… I was addicted way back in the day of the Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, Chips, Starsky and Hutch and Charlie’s Angels – to name just a few of my childhood faves.
But, by far the shows which I loved the most were The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
Already a fan of Steve Austin, I was thrilled when (in 1975) Jaime Sommers appeared in The Six Million Dollar Man double episode as his love interest and – after a parachuting accident – received bionic legs, a bionic arm and ear.
However… former fans of the show may recall that Jaime’s body rejected her bionic bits and she died.
I was devastated. I’m talking… Offspring*-fans-when-Patrick-died devastated. I’m talking killing-off-Molly-in-A Country Practice*-devastated.
I was still in tears days later, my parents powerless to comfort me, when after dinner one night they told me to go and check under their bed for something. And there, in a box (I assume, cos I can’t remember that bit!) was my very own SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN doll!
I suspect I still mourned for the loss of Jaime, but my Steve Austin doll pretty much made up for any real sense of devastation (see… I was fickle and all about instant gratification even then!).
I’ve still got Steve… and you can still open the bionic peepholes in his legs, but you can’t roll the skin up off his arm to check his bionic bits cos it sort of melted on there sometime in the last 35ish years. You can also mostly see through his bionic eye, but it’s a bit foggy.
Of course what I didn’t know was that – behind the scenes, Jaime’s character had become so popular they brought her back to life and gave star Lindsay Wagner her own TV show, The Bionic Woman (which ran from 1976 – 1978).
I later got a Bionic Woman doll as well – which I still have and also in a state of dishevelment and now living happily ever after with Steve in a carton somewhere.
I’m not sure what it was about the whole thing which upset me so much. I suspect it was the perfect love story and the fact that Jaime stood for the empowerment of women before I even knew what that was or what it meant. Like most superheros, Jaime was smart and strong and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. (Though all I really mastered as a kid was her hair flick!)
PS. As an adult I appreciate my parents’ gesture even more because we weren’t particularly well off and they weren’t prone to buying us whatever we wanted. (We were spoilt with their love but not endowed with every toy or game we wanted.)
What was your first TV obsession?
Did you ever watch the recent remake of The Bionic Woman? If not, don’t worry cos it was crap!
* Aussie TV shows – for my overseas readers.
Linking up again today with Kerri Sackville and her #MyFirsts, today’s topic being… My First Obsession.
November 25, 2013
Oh yes, I had a Bionic Man doll as well… I believe he dies a grizly death on a back-yard BBQ one day…
Also, in retrospect, don’t you think The Bionic Woman was a heaps better show than The 6 Million Dollar man?
November 25, 2013
John I’d
googledresearched the shows before I did the post and discovered that The Bionic Woman outrated The Six Million Dollar Man in the first year or so, but then the Six Million Dollar Man bounced back (probably literally as well! 😉 )Of course I don’t think I could watch either nowadays as the cringe factor would be too great!
November 25, 2013
Oh GOD I remember those shows! I had no idea she originally died before being reborn in her own show. Learn something new every day!
November 25, 2013
Oh yes. In my little mind it felt like Jaime had been around for ages when she died (given how invested I was in her death) but yesterday’s research showed she appeared, became bionic and died all in a double episode of The Six Million Dollar Man!
November 25, 2013
Your post triggered my own memory of Jaimie – she was great, I thought much cooler than her (slightly dorky) counterpart, Steve. I never had the dolls though, (your parents were so sensitive, cushioning your grief with that doll 🙂
November 25, 2013
I loved her hair. I had long hair with a middle part at the time and used to toss my head forward and back to mimic hers and liked the way her part disappeared when she did it. (So much for me thinking my adoration was about women’s empowerment!)
I recall she cut her hair off later – perhaps it was like the Felicity / Samson and Delilah thing… the show lost its impetus when that happened!?!
November 25, 2013
Ace that you still have the dolls (and handy that you can still see through that bionic eye).
I loved CHiPs and Bionic Woman but my very, very, very favourites were Little House on the Prairie (cried every week and my mum threatened that I wouldn’t be able to watch anymore because it made me so upset); Charlie’s Angels and The Love Boat. I was allowed to stay up for Charlie’s Angels and The Love Boat is I’d had my bath and was basically ready for bed 😉
November 25, 2013
Oh yes, I loved Little House on the Prairie as well AND The Love Boat. Julie was my favourite. I see it on TV every so often now and laugh at how formulaic it was!
PS. Re Little House… did the older sister die? Am trying to remember. She was my fave. And of course I hated spoiled Nellie!
November 26, 2013
Ah those were the days. Watching them fake-run in slow motion to that weird sound. I must admit that I loved both series too.
November 26, 2013
I used to get my dad to run our home movies (on a reel) in slow motion so I looked like the Bionic Woman!
November 26, 2013
It once occurred to me that it’s a sign of being an adult if you’re aren’t overly upset if a favorite character in tv/book dies or if the ending is open. 🙂 I don’t know if it’s true or not, maybe it’s just a sign of alienation?
I’ve never been a tv addict, I’m more of a book girl so I have to say books have been more influential in my life than tv programs (except for the Angelique series).
The Bionic Woman or the Six Million Dollar Men weren’t aired in Finland (to my knowledge) but I loved Charlie’s Angels and I remember watching Starsky and Hutch too.
And I LOVED Cheryl Ladd but despised Farrah Fawcett because FF had those ugly corkscrew curls, unlike Cheryl who was pretty. 😛
November 26, 2013
I actually have the Charlie’s Angels dolls (4 of them cos I have Farrah and Cheryl). I think I liked Farrah but Cheryl kinda made up for her so I wasn’t too devastated at her disappearance.
I have to admit now I find it hard to understand how adults can get so invested in a show that they’d be devastated by the loss of a character but it happened here recently with a TV show (Offspring) and the online world became a tad divided between those which made fun of others etc.
PS. Haven’t heard of Angelique. Will google it.
November 27, 2013
What, you had Charlie’s Angels dolls too?! I don’t think they were sold in Finland..
The Angelique movie series is French and consists of 5 movies, based on Sergeanne Golon’s historical novels. The heroine is very beautiful (of course) and has a very dramatic and adventurous life.
November 26, 2013
Wow, the bionic love pair! I LOVED these shows too. I don’t remember Jaime DYING though. What a cruel twist. I remember enormous envy at anyone who had a Bionic Man Action Figure…so impressed you still have yours. Also remember wishing I could write on a blackboard as fast as Jaime and it did wonders for my handwriting practise! You also remind me of my slight overappreciation of Linda Carter’s Wonderwoman. I used to stand in front of the TV and twirl when she did. Happy days!
November 26, 2013
Yes, see Jaime died before the Bionic Woman show even started…
I actually googled Wonder Woman cos I was trying to find out if the Bionic Woman was the first female ‘superhero’ I could recall, or if WW aired before. Bizarrely they were actually around the same time. I also liked WW but watched a movie recently which was a precursor to the TV series and I’d forgotten what a wooden actor Linda Carter was!!! She was beautiful and could pull off that leotard, but… hmm….
November 26, 2013
Ha loved this post! My first obsession was watching Golden Girls I think!
November 26, 2013
The Golden Girls?! I can’t quite understand that obsession but it was pretty dry and raunchy humour I recall!
November 26, 2013
I’ve never seen these shows! We had limited tv coverage growing up – But I did love Astro boy!
November 27, 2013
I don’t think I watched Astro Boy. LIke you we had limited TV coverage – ABC and one commercial station which (back then) started after in the afternoons. I mostly remember ABC cartoons from my younger years – Mighty Mouse, Catanooga Cats etc…
May 15, 2017
Oh this is going to be long! Believe it or not I found your post whilst attempting to find a large (life sized if possible), image of Steve Austin (a man barely alive…), hopefully in mid bionic sprint, to print out in multiple pieces and plaster on my wall. I thought it would be fun to have such a handsome icon of the 70s featuring in my home. Not to mention I was COMPLETELY in love with him and the show. I promise I saw every episode and even had a childhood dream I married him. I was totally in love. And yet… strangely, when Jaime came on the scene, I became so totally in love with their love affair. I was TOTALLY obsessed with them as a couple. I thought I was the only one! Like you, I was DEVASTATED (am I yelling too much?), when there was the huge storm and Jaime’s bionic ear malfunctioned and instead of letting Steve help her she ran away and was ultimately killed. I also cried for days. I was caught up in some weird, voyeuristic, grief-driven funk. And I promise I didn’t google any of that recollection of that ep… but it’s probably half wrong, now partly made up by my brain. Having said that, these days I remember more from those TV shows than I do about what I did yesterday. I think I have finally found my soul mate in you Debbish! But only if you can answer this question. Actually you would have to send me an audio file of you singing to completely answer it but here goes. How did the alternate theme song to the Six Million Dollar Man go? Here’s a hint. They only used it for a few weeks and I think my theory, even at the ripe old age of about eight or nine, was that the rating must have dropped so they changed it back. Honestly, there was uproar in our house. Thank god they changed it back. Do you think we could go on one of those quiz shows together: and their specialty subject is… (drum roll) ‘The love affair between Steven Austin, the man barely alive, and his bionic ear, German Shepard loving girlfriend Jaime Sommers.’
Adrienne x
p.s. You know I think we had the SA doll in our house too… but I reckon my mum gave it to my brother. After I read your article I had this visceral memory of the rubber that rolled up on his arm and of looking through the eye. Now I’m gonna have to have a word to my mother, who at 87 still claims herself to be a post-modernist feminist!
May 16, 2017
I have to admit I can’t (now) remember an alternate theme for Six Million Dollar Man.
I actually just saw both of the dolls the other day as my mum was going through suitcases looking for something. I recall the button on Steve’s back – which moved his arm up and down with a clicking noise – was broken.
If I remember I’ll also check to see if I’ve still got my old Bionic Woman ‘Annual’… some book that came out with some comics and short stories, and…. some secrets re how they tricked viewers in the days before computer graphics!
On the subject of quizzes I’d probably suck cos I find I misremember stuff! I’m sure I saw an oldish episode of one of the shows a few years ago and I was aghast at the wooden acting and it all seemed a bit naff. (Not as bad as the original Womder Woman, but almost!) 😉