Tag: ABC

Oscar is unusually tense about a routine flight to Washington with Steve Austin in tow. Their car has a blowout on the way to the airport, and he has to wait for another flight, one carrying military passengers and cargo. Once the plane’s in the air, Steve learns that, due to Oscar’s participation in top-secret negotiations with Russia, he may have assassins on his tail. The plane encounters a severe storm and is damaged, forcing the pilots to ditch the plane at sea near an isolated island; Steve quickly organizes the survivors into a camp that can hold its own until rescue arrives. But it quickly becomes apparent that Oscar’s would-be assassins are on the island with them, which means they were aboard the plane all along…and help may not arrive in time.

written by Mann Rubin
directed by Leslie H. Martinson
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Wells), James McEachin (Maj. Cromwell), Christine Belford (Lt. Colby), William Smith (Cmdr. Maxwell), Jo Anne Worley (Mona), Laurette Spang (Helen [Wave]), Randall Carver (PFC Barris), Reid Smith (Navy Lt.), W.T. Zacha (A.F. Sgt. Roberts), Dick Valentine (1st Pilot), Jim Raymond (1st Co-Pilot)

Notes: Glen A. Larson’s “Battlestar Galactica rep” continues to take shape with the appearance of Laurette Spang in this episode, who would play the part of Cassiopeia in Larson’s later, Star Wars-inspired series. She would also go on to appear in Gemini Man, Man From Atlantis, and Project UFO.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The OSI calls Steve Austin into action when a weapons designer, who has access to top secret information, goes missing. No trace can be found of him anywhere, though there are records of the man having ESP contact with his daughter, so finding her becomes Steve’s top priority. Getting her to talk about either her father or her unique link with him is difficult, but eventually Steve convinces her that her father is in danger, and she tags along with him, providing what may be clues from “visions” she receives. These clues lead them to the Florida Everglades, where they find a small army guarding her father…and his kidnappers demand that he build them a powerful laser weapon.

written by Sy Salkowitz
directed by Reza Badiyi
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Wells), Pamela Franklin (Susan Abbott), Simon Scott (Dr. Abbott), Jack Hogan (John Belson), Joe Kapp (Frank), Vic Mohica (Eddie), Joseph Ruskin (Le Duc), Erik Holland (Ed Rawlins), Bill Conklin (Hobbs), Margarita Cordova (Desk Clerk)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Steve and his old friend and colleague Major Fred Sloane are tasked with the delivery of an activation device to a top-secret weapons test, something that cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands.  But plans are already afoot to steal the activator, plans that involve replacing Sloane with a robot duplicate so perfect that even Austin can’t tell it from the real thing.  But when the robot Sloane demonstrates strength equal to Steve’s bionic limbs, it’s clear that this isn’t the real Sloane – and that, for once, Steve will be fighting an adversary with the same powers that he has.

teleplay by Del Reisman
story by Harold Livingston
directed by Leslie H. Martinson
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Wells), John Saxon (Fred Sloane), Henry Jones (Dr. Dolenz), Lloyd Bochner (Wilson), Charles W. Bateman (Master Sgt. Parnell), Noah Keen (General Tanhill), Robert Rothwell (Al), Martin Speer (Neil), Buster jones (Captain), Michael Alaimo (Bread Truck Driver)

Notes: Ironically, this episode marks the debut of the “bionic sound” that would come to be heard frequently in later seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman…but it isn’t used for Steve Austin here, but rather for the robot Sloane clone.  Writer Del Reisman was the showrunner of The Lieutenant, the first television series created by a young Gene Roddenberry (later of Star Trek fame), while Harold Livingston later locked horns with Roddenberry many times over the screenplay of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  Livingston also wrote numerous episodes of the 1977 series Future Cop – somewhere between robo-Sloane, Future Cop, and V’Ger, his work history is jam-packed with robots.  Dr. Dolenz resurfaces to cause more trouble for Steve and the OSI in the first season’s finale.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A plane photographing contested weapons on the border between Africa and the Middle East goes down. The pilot sends a coded message before parachuting out, with the message informing western intelligence that he’s photographed an illegal arms buildup. Now the race is on to see who can reach the pilot (and his film) first: Steve Austin, or a government that would rather not tip its hand about an arms buildup. Steve finds his rescue mission under fire even before he gets off the ground, and has to parachute down behind enemy lines. Steve has to save the pilot and reveal his discovery to the world…or he’ll be as trapped as the man for whom he’s searching.

written by Elroy Schwartz
directed by Reza Badiyi
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Wells), Scoey Mitchell (Major Chooka), Marge Redmond (Sister Annett), Lincoln Kirkpatrick (Captain Braco), Greg Morris (Josh Perkins), Stack Pierce (Bajad), Tierre Turner (Jajamin), Dave Turner (Farmer), Ji-Tu Cumbuka (Soldier), Arnold Turner (Sergeant), Donald Mantooth (1st Radio Operator), Reb Brown (2nd Radio Operator), Susan Gay Powell (Sister Teresa)

Notes: Reb Brown, star of the two late ’70s Captain America movies, is seen here in a small role. Greg Morris was one of the stars of the original Mission: Impossible.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Steve and Oscar are invited to view an energy project on Kamkov Island in the Soviet Union, headed up by Steve’s old friend, retired cosmonaut Vasily Zhukov. But a massive earthquake shakes the island before the OSI delegation even leaves the ground in the U.S., trapping Vasily’s research partner (who also happens to be his fiance) underground. Steve insists on going to Kamkov Island despite the danger, but when another quake strikes, he saves Zhukov by using his bionic strength, revealing his secret in the process. Other secrets are revealed as well: to prevent western sabotage, an automatic defense system was rigged to detonate a nuclear bomb at the heart of Zhukov’s project. Defusing the bomb may be beyond even Steve’s abilities.

teleplay by Larry Brody
story by Larry Brody and Jim Sangster
directed by Jerry Jameson
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Wells), Gary Collins (Colonel Vasily Zhukov), Jane Merrow (Irina Leonova), William Smithers (General Koslenko), Bruce Glover (Capt. Voda), William Boyett (Air Force General), Walker Edmiston (Russian Operator), Anne Newman (Female Technician), Rico Cattani (Male Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Waiting for a taxi after dark, Steve is present when a shot rings out, killing a member of the legal team of a prosecutor who is mere hours away from seeking a grand jury indictment against a major criminal figure who no one has been able to prosecute. The OSI is brought in to help provide security for Sandusky, the prosecutor, and his surviving staff members. What Steve can’t divulge, however, is that he got a good look at the shooter with his bionic vision. When he spots the shooter again, Steve apprehends him, but under police interrogation the man seems to have an airtight alibi. How can the assassin have been in two places at the same time, and with his own credibility in question, how can Steve stop him from striking again?

written by William Driskill
directed by Alf Kjellin
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Gary Lockwood (Hopper), William Schallert (Lorin Sandusky), Ivor Barry (Mr. Hanley), Regis J. Cordic (Host), Leonard Stone (Lt. Tanner), Allen Joseph (Dorsey), Lew Palter (Cab Driver), Donna Mantoan (Hotel Clerk), Al Dunlap (Doorman), Marilyn J. Hassett (Car Rental Girl)

Notes: Guest star Gary Lockwood was one of the stars of 2001: a space odyssey, and prior to that, the star of The Lieutenant, the first television series created and produced by a rising young writer named Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry cast Lockwood in the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, a few years later. William Schallert also appeared in Star Trek, guest starring in two different incarnations of the franchise (TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles, DS9: Sanctuary).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

All eyes are on NASA’s next mission, Athena One, the first flight of a female astronaut. Steve Austin has been recruited to help train Major Kelly Wood for her flight, but their personalities clash on the ground. When her mission finally takes to the sky, an accident renders her co-pilot unconscious, necessitating a rescue mission involving the Skylab space station. Over Oscar’s objections, Steve himself volunteers to pilot the rescue vehicle, transporting a surgeon to Skylab to save the injured co-pilot while he and Major Wood conduct a risky spacewalk to repair a malfunctioning solar panel on Skylab itself. But exposure to the radiation of space may be causing Steve’s bionic implants to malfunction – and the lives of three people now depend on him flying a manual re-entry.

written by D.C. Fontana
directed by Lawrence Doheny
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman), Farrah Fawcett Majors (Maj. Kelly Wood), Paul Kent (Flight Surgeon Wolf), John S. Ragin (Flight Director), Quinn Redeker (Capcom), Dean Smith (Major Osterman), Jules Bergman (himself), Patsy Sabline (1st Secretary), Toni Jannotta (2nd Secretary)

Notes: Call it stunt casting or nepotism, but Farrah Fawcett Majors was married to series star Lee Majors at the time this episode was filmed; they’d star together again in the premiere episode of Majors’ post-bionic hit series The Fall Guy. She would reprise this episode’s role in a later Six Million Dollar Man episode, in addition to guest starring in two completely different roles, all within the show’s first four seasons. Her other genre credits include Logan’s Run and Saturn 3. Bringing significantly more genre cred to this episode is writer D.C. Fontana, who was the story editor and a frequent writer on the original Star Trek and its animated revival, as well as stints on later shows like The Fantastic Journey and Logan’s Run. In other “inside baseball” casting, Jules Bergman was the science editor in the news department of ABC (the network which aired Six Million Dillar Man); among other things, he was heavily involved in ABC’s coverage of real space missions, including Apollo 13 (whose story would seem to be an inspiration for this episode). Austin’s moonwalk is described as having happened in January 1972. Stock footage from Apollo 9 and Apollo 15 are used in the spacewalk sequence (despite a mismatch in the spacesuits and helmets used in those missions), but the model sequences of Skylab apparently pre-date the launch of the actual Skylab station, which lost an entire “solar wing” during launch. Some footage from actual Skylab spacewalks appears during the second spacewalk sequence, as well as a famous photo of the heavily damaged Apollo 13 command module take in 1970 after the service module had separated for re-entry.

LogBook entry by Earl Green