The Six Million Dollar Man / The Bionic Woman
Dir various, US 1973-1978
Fabulous Films, £249.99/£149.99
A casual visit to schools of the mid-1970s may have prompted alarm. Kids had started running and jumping in fake slow motion while staring at each other, through one eye and making ‘dit-dit-dit’ sounds. Was it mass hysteria? In some ways, yes. They were playing The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman off the telly. This was an actual cultural phenomenon, spawning a spin-off series, three TV movies, tons of toys and merchandise and a generation of kids whose weedy playground athleticism turned instantly epic through a few funny noises and some weird crouching on low walls.
Now Fabulous Films have unleashed it all in two heaving collections so exhaustive I half expected Lindsay Wagner’s home address is the biggest set, clocking in at a thumping 34 discs… though if the action sequences weren’t in slow-motion, it’d be 21 discs or less. I’m a tad too young to have seen any of it (to me, Lee Majors is ), but even fresh eyes found both sets a delight.
