“Aim high and serve nothing but aces”: (Re)-watching The Bionic Woman

[Mel O'Drama]

That gave me imagery I could have done without

Oops. I couldn't think of another way to describe it. It does make me wonder what the manufacturers were thinking.

Not to derail your specific topic about general observations about older TV dramas -- especially since I haven't seen the BW/SMDM since I was probably 5.

Oh, I wouldn't worry at all. I'd far prefer to take a few little organic detours than post in a vacuum.

When I think of pre-2000 dramas I think of them mostly as what a former poster here used to call grind-it-out television: endlessly repetitive plotlines and characters/relationships that remain static. Plus dialogue that usually seems like daytime soap stalling tactics: something happened! let's talk about it endlessly. I'm sure it's an unfair assessment to paint all older TV dramas with that same brush, and that overall style of TV remains prominent with network procedurals.

Yes. I know what you mean, and I'm guilty of doing something similar with post-2000 series, where I can feel weary at the thought of quick cuts to editing, fast talking and short scenes, which is a sweeping generalisation but does kind of cover why I frequently lean more towards older stuff.

TBW is possibly guilty of some of the tropes you mention. It's primarily episodic and now that I'm past the introductory story arcs I suspect there'll be a degree of syndication-friendly static, where the reset button is hit in time for the obligatory denouement.

Because of the nature of the series, my biggest gripe is with the SFX. Fortunately, they're not being used too liberally and there's a lot of enjoyable character stuff which has made it worth watching for me.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Angel Of Mercy / A Thing Of The Past / Claws

​

There’s no rest for the bionic, it seems. As well as teaching on what looks like a full time basis, Jaime’s weekends are spent either on OSI rescue missions to war torn South America or volunteering to look after big cats and elephants on a nearby ranch.

Something else is clear from these three episodes: Jaime hasn’t yet got the hang of keeping her bionics under wraps. Each of the episodes has a minimum of one other person witnessing Jaime in top secret action.

Angel Of Mercy is the obligatory South American episode that series of this era seemed to put out. And it’s done very well. Andy Griffith did a nice bit as Jack Starkey the gruff helicopter pilot who objected to taking “a girl” on a mission but ended up respecting her. Some of the aerial camera work as the helicopter flew over dense forests, its shadow moving this way or that way, felt quite exhilarating. I loved his aviators with lilac lenses as well.

Along the way, they met a war orphan Juan who naturally bonded with Jack in anticipation of the happy ending where he is brought to North America to be given shelter. Jack and Juan both got in on the bionic knowledge along the way.

There were some nice character moments for Jaime here. In particular, her few moments o reticence when Oscar phoned her to offer her an assignment was a terrific touch. Having watched her just finish a class, knowing she had work to mark and possibly a few moments of free time to look forward to, I could really get a sense of her conflict. There was no dialogue around it, but Lindsay Wagner did a great job at getting Jaime’s feelings across while saying nothing. There was also a nice light touch with Jaime - disguised as a nurse - practically swooning at the thought of blood or needles, and doing a terrible job at applying bandages. All to Jack’s bewilderment when they came across a genuine medical crisis. Likewise, Jaime’s aversion to snakes pipped Indiana Jones to the post by half a decade. It stayed the right side of broad and showed a welcome chink in Jaime’s armour.

The atmosphere felt convincingly different, and there was a tension in the air that felt as though violence could potentially erupt at any moment. Their preparations to escape while guerrilla soldiers are in the area had a genuine suspense to them.

And on a shallower note, Lindsay looks pretty as a picture in khakis with a side ponytail.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Angel Of Mercy / A Thing Of The Past / Claws



(continued)​

Back in Ojai, Jaime has to protect the loveable-but-grouchy bus driver Harry Anderson who has changed identities after witnessing a murder, in a story that’s somewhere between The Seven Year Itch and Knots Landing’s Sollars family.

By episode’s end, Harry is in on Jaime’s secret and has been offered a new life arranged by Oscar and OSI. This leads to the series’ first informal crossover, as Steve Austin comes to whisk Harry away. I really enjoyed the lack of event around Steve’s brief appearance. It wasn’t a story that really required him to be presence, but it got across the connection between the two characters

The mob element brings a genuine darkness and threat to this episode. Certainly more than I’d expect from a series that I think of as being aimed at a young audience. Balancing this out is a great deal of focus on Jaime’s class of children on their picnic outing.

The kids mostly seem well-cast. With them being so numerous, we don’t get to spend much time with each, meaning they can blend together. All the same, they do have some personality and even a little attitude that keeps them from feeling like generically bland TV kids.

Of the regular bunch, the one that’s stood out for me has been Christian Juttner as Teddy, mostly on the basis that he is frequently given more lines than the others, but also because I know him from his episode of Wonder Woman which came along very shortly after these episodes. If there were to be a Bionic Boy at this stage, he seems the most likely contender. While not quite “gee ma, apple pie” enough to be called something like “Bud” or “Chip”, he’s does have that fair-haired all-American milk and cookies kind of look, but with a little attitude. His IMDb page shows a very extensive CV, albeit restricted almost exclusively to the Seventies, so he apparently took a different path once adulthood arrived.

Claws had what I believe is a new kid on the block in Katie. I wonder if this will be a thing: bringing in random child actors for episodes on the pretext that they’ve been part of the class all along. Her being known as “quiet Katie” went some way to explaining why she wasn’t seen before.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Angel Of Mercy / A Thing Of The Past / Claws



(continued)​

Claws was a delight for its complete lack of any kind of health and safety panic. Where else but the Seventies could one see an entire classroom of child actors piling upon a live lion that had been brought into the classroom for show and tell. Not to mention numerous scenes of the leading actress nuzzling into the lion’s face while sitting next to it. The poor lion, by the way, was named Neil. While I have nothing against the name, it just doesn’t say “king of the beasts” to me, somehow.

Where I did feel concern was around the poor animals involved in filming, most of which I’m assuming are captive and trained. The sight of the poor elephant wandering round with a chain around its ankle is something that disturbs me.

However, to distract from that, the series gave us its biggest guest-star to date - or at least the first that I’ve recognised with some excitement - in Tippi Hedren. Already at this point, Tippi was an animal activist for real, so she’s playing a character who could be viewed as an analogous version of herself. I like to think this also means she checked out the treatment of the animals on set before taking part.

This episode’s “in on the secret” character was Jim Elgin’s brother (and so Jaime’s de facto step-uncle) Bill. It appears he was lurking round the whole time, unseen. And apparently he will continue to lurk without ever being seen again. Shame, really, as he was nicely played by William Schallert.

There were a couple of very noticeable continuity glitches in Claws, most notably during the hunt for Neil where it alternated between the pink sky of dusk and broad daylight.

Claws also featured the first moment where I laughed out loud at its ridiculousness, as Neil the lion was shown to open a door with his paw. And it wasn’t just a push, or a knock of the handle. This was a little doorknob that required dextrous turning. For an episode whose title and, occasionally, soundtrack is a nod to a certain Spielberg film from the previous year (which is also obliquely referenced when a kid asks Tippi’s character if she “train[ed] the shark”), it seems wholly appropriate that it should contain something of a jump the shark moment. Or, to be more accurate, "paw the door".

In good news, having her own series Jaime's now a capable agent who gets the job done. In Welcome Home, Jaime Part II she even commented to Oscar that it was the first assignment she hadn't blown, which was a nice touch.

And in random motor thoughts, I adore Jaime's Datsun 280Z.

​

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Well, Kenneth Johnson has said varying contradictory things about Welcome Home, Jaime part 1. I kind of like the one where he suggested that Lee Majors was not too happy at there being an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man where Steve Austin hardly appeared, so the episode got shifted to the other show. That story made it into the Pittsburgh Press, which described Lindsay Wagner as “TV’s new Wonder Woman”. And suggested that a feud saw Lindsay shifted out of Lee’s prime time.

Alan Oppenheimer has said he had other tv series commitments. His Rudy is in about nine appearances in total. Martin E. Brooks said he was told when he started that Rudy was going to appear in maybe one more story and then not appear again. Alan Oppenheimer had previously replaced Martin E. Brooks in a play. Martin E. Brooks had done movies with Martin Balsam.

Oh, I was reading an interview with Richard Anderson, where he talked of having to finish filming scenes on one show, then get driven over to the other show. I also read an interview with Lee Majors where he said that despite the guest appearances, the shows aren’t really connected.

I love old tv shows. Late 1950s William Tell is dramatic and fun. Tense with World War Two parallels. And a villain who will chop off Wilfrid Brambell’s finger to collect his ring for tax purposes. Yes, you can see the wire along which he shoots the apple off his son’s head. But characters regularly expire by crossbow bolts and fall off mountain ledges. Which is hugely enjoyable.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Kenneth Johnson has said varying contradictory things about Welcome Home, Jaime part 1. I kind of like the one where he suggested that Lee Majors was not too happy at there being an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man where Steve Austin hardly appeared, so the episode got shifted to the other show.

It does make sense to me. WHJ-P1 just feels like a BW episode to me.

The only reasoning I can think of behind it being a SMDM episode would be for the "to be continued..." angle to ensure SMDM viewers had an extra reason to watch the first episode of the new series.

“TV’s new Wonder Woman”.

Oh, I can imagine this comparison followed Lindsay all the way through the series.

I find the overlapping milestones quite fun to explore. Technically, the Bionic Woman was around (on SMDM) before Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman (if not Cathy Lee Crosby's version, which I think has even more similarities to BW).

Lynda had her own WW film before Lindsay headlined a BW episode. But then BW apparently got a full series order before WW.

Then there were the network changes, with neither getting renewed by ABC after the 1976-77 season, and both then getting picked up by different networks.

As I understand it, Lindsay and Lynda were and are good friends.

And then, of course, there's now this....

And suggested that a feud saw Lindsay shifted out of Lee’s prime t

Oh interesting. Who was the feud said to be with?

I was reading an interview with Richard Anderson, where he talked of having to finish filming scenes on one show, then get driven over to the other show.

With Oscar appearing on both shows I had wondered how the scheduling worked. Likewise, I imagine the crossovers added some time pressure for Lee or Lindsay.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Deadly Missiles / Bionic Beauty

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It’s with some interest that I’ve clocked the juxtaposition between the pseudo-feminism of Jaime’s go-getting, kick-arse bravery and her interactions with men.

These two episodes have seen her kissed, pawed and at times downright patronised by a series of men ranging from Oscar and Steve to her old tennis sponsor and various nasties.

To be expected, perhaps. But it’s easy to imagine feminist hackles rising as Jaime’s reactions are frequently somewhere between tolerance and enjoyment. What’s more, as Oscar arrives to plant a big smacker on Jaime’s face, she’s using her bionic arm to aid in whipping up a lemon meringue pie, which is perhaps a delicately ladylike demonstration of pocket bionics in the series.

These are also two consecutive episodes in which Jaime has been drugged. Not only do we see her chloroformed and then injected with sedative by the beauty pageant crooks (the latter of which was unsuccessful due to being administered to Jaime’s bionic arm), she was also given a Mickey Finn by her old friend and sponsor, J.T. Connors, who stood over her as she drank it while on her bed.

Connors proved to be a very watchable character. A powerful Texan who Jaime is persuaded to check out when missiles are thought to have launched from his expansive estate. He seems like someone with very dark secrets, as shown by the secret base he refuses to let Jaime see, in which she later finds jamming technology.

Forrest Tucker makes J.T. an imposing presence, and also - against the odds - a charismatic and likeable one. He’s like the Bioniverse’s very own Paul Galveston, complete with his own Empire Valley.

J.T.’s son is said to have been killed a year earlier in an accident in an aviation accident about which J.T. is clearly furious. Could this be his motive?

It’s also worth noting that J.T.’s political leanings are made explicit - Jaime comments that he’s “about this far to the right of Attila the Hun”, and J.T. agrees, responding that he doesn’t even put out his arm to signal a left turn. And he makes a comment about the current (Republican) government being too left wing. All of which serves to make him seem more threatening. Almost universally, “far right” is code for “dangerous”. And perhaps nowhere more than in Hollywood. Can Jaime save the world from such a threat?

Well, no, as it turns out. She doesn’t need to. Because J.T. isn’t the threat. His second-in-command is ole Walt Driscoll from Dallas. Ben Piazza’s fairly low key presence was a bit of a red flag to me, and rightly so since he ended up putting not only J.T.’s and Jaime’s lives in jeopardy, but also Steve’s. Threatening the whole bionic franchise this way is the only thing that could possibly be more terrifying than a right wing Texan.

It’s to the series’ credit that neither J.T.’s son’s death nor his political leanings are Chekhov’s gun elements. I was awaiting the revelation that J.T.’s son wasn’t dead after all, but simply dead in the same way as Jaime. By episode’s end, I expected him to appear, having been missing or hidden somewhere on J.T.’s estate or on a secret mission somewhere. But no. The story would work fine without these two elements. They add substance and flesh out the character. They tell us a little about his motives. And then they play against expectations.

continued...
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[Mel O'Drama]

The Deadly Missiles / Bionic Beauty

continued​

J.T. turns out to be a noble, quietly heroic character. So much so that he’s privileged with Jaime revealing her bionics to him. In fact, he’s the first person outside of the Elgins to be given this information voluntarily rather than stumbling upon it.

The scene in which Jaime tells him appears to be the first in which there’s “coming out” dialogue around it. Back in the SMDM episode The Bionic Woman Part II, Steve telling Helen about his bionics was done very effectively by alternating flashbacks to Steve’s accident with Helen’s reaction, all of which was free of dialogue, with dramatic music playing over the scene. So when in this episode Jaime takes a deep breath before asking J.T. if he’s heard of bionics it feels very exciting and a little dangerous.


Jaime being compromised by her malfunctioning bionic leg after taking an electric shock was a nice touch. This kind of technology having limitations which can cause difficulty at crucial times has so much more dramatic potential than 100% reliability, and I love that consideration is given to this.

This malfunction gave us the first look at the chips and wires in her leg (albeit we never saw Jaime and the gaping bionic leg in the same shot). And it was J.T. who got to work soldering away. It seems risky, to say the least. But needs must.

While Steve appeared a fair bit in The Deadly Missiles, they were compartmentalised, with each doing their thing in different places. No doubt this was partially to entice viewers to watch until the very end to see them together.

While some may be disappointed that there was no real bionic team up with them working together (a trend of all the crossovers since this series got underway), their eventual scenes together in the denouement were worth sticking around for on the bionic romance front. As I remember it, their romance had fizzled out into friendship in Welcome Home Jaime. But here they were straight back into romance without any kind of awkwardness. This is the most smoochy they’ve been since The Bionic Woman two-parter that introduced Jaime. It almost felt like a retcon. Or at the very least as though I’d missed a significant turning point in their relationship along the way.

Still, not was worth it for some nice bionic innuendo from Steve to Jaime:

You know… I’m pretty good with bionic parts. Yeah, you’d be amazed to see what I can do with ‘em.

And that’s just the beginning. In Bionic Beauty, we get to see just how good a job has been done with Jaime’s bionic parts as she wears a swimsuit without so much as a seam showing.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Deadly Missiles / Bionic Beauty

continued​

By their nature, beauty pageants are something I find very vacuous and shallow (and the jingoistic all-American version with references to the flag and God perhaps even more so). This seems to extend to the perfunctory episode of many female-led TV series in which the character “needs” to go undercover at such an event. Like the events themselves, the episodes frequently seem a curious combination of vanity and objectification.

There’s a little of this in Bionic Beauty. And the clichés are hit here: the mandatory bitchy competitor who gives the protagonist a hard time (Dynasty’s future Sarah Curtis, no less); the corrupt controlling compère with whom bitchy competitor is in league; the old maid who is there to keep the girls in line; the lead actor showing off their multi-talents by performing; and so on.

However it’s worth noting that this episode preceded similar episodes in Wonder Woman and Charlie’s Angels. Which perhaps means that the clichés only seem that way in retrospect. I’m not sure, but it’s quite possible that this was the first of its kind, in which case it’s more original than it may appear.

There’s also a reasonably earthy approach to the business. Jaime is shown to have no interest in the pageant, and very resistant to the idea. Once there, she’s more concerned about the assignment. She wins the competition not because she’s the most beautiful and talented, but because the villains arrange it to ensure she’s kept in the spotlight and unable to pursue her mission. Indeed, we learn that bitchy Sally - for all her behind-the-scenes machinations - had won the competition fair and square. Nobody is more delighted than Jaime who can’t hand over her crown quickly enough. And, rather than getting her comeuppance, Sally is shown to be regretful over her actions and all too human.

There are some more dodgy aspects to the episode. Like how Jaime - already internationally famous as a tennis pro who is believed by some to be dead - can appear in a national, televised event using her own name with no raised eyebrows. And how does this fit in with her employment as a schoolteacher. Wouldn’t her employers take a dim view of her entering a beauty pageant, even if it didn’t interfere with her working hours.


The “vanity project for an actress to show off hitherto unseen talents” is also questionable. I don’t know if Lindsay requested to sing or if it was forced on her, but it comes across like an actress doing what she’s asked because it’s on the page. In much the same way that Kate Mulgrew gamely massacred Never Ending Song Of Love, while all present acted as though their senses weren't being violently assaulted.

The song choice is an interesting one: Morris Albert’s Feelings. For as long as I can remember it’s a track that’s had a bland MOR image with almost laughably self-pitiful lyrics. And Jaime sings it for Steve.

Lindsay is rather obviously ip-syncing rather badly, prompting me to check if it was her or a vocal double. And it turns out it is Lindsay. I’m not clear if she was meant to be amazing (the reactions of others seemed to suggest this) but in the days before autotune, it’s so-so. Not bad, and probably no worse than Lee Majors singing Jaime. But it’s a little weak and shaky at times. Which is fine with me as it seems wholly appropriate for the situation of a tennis player/schoolteacher/OSI agent doing karaoke.

​

However, Joe Harnell, whose work on the series began with arranging Lindsay’s song here, has a rather scathing memory of the situation:

Lindsay was a nice lady but not much of a singer—we recorded all night, did thirty-eight takes, and were saved by a brilliant editor who combined them into an acceptable performance.

Ouch!

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Feud? Oh, Lee Majors has said that he became a little difficult after he heard that Lindsay was going to be paid more than he was, until that situation was sorted out. Although he says that that wasn’t in any way personal.

Yes. I’ve seen several pics of Lindsay Wagner and Lynda Carter together.

60-something super heroines! Wonder Woman Lynda Carter plays sidekick to the Bionic Woman as Lindsay Wagner gets a Hollywood star

It's not every day that you see two superheroes walk down a street in full plain view, even in this age of the Avengers.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I’ll dig out that interview with Richard Anderson.

Before The Deadly Missiles, Jaime had recently spent time together with Steve in SMDM: Love Song For Tanya. Then just days after The Deadly Missiles, they were together making plans in SMDM: Big Brother.

Pics from those appearances here:

The Secret Of Bigfoot Part I

Love Song For Tanya

Big Brother

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Lee Majors has said that he became a little difficult after he heard that Lindsay was going to be paid more than he was, until that situation was sorted out. Although he says that that wasn’t in any way personal.

Ah, I see, and I can understand why he'd be peeved.

I'm quite surprised that Lindsay would have been offered a higher salary than Lee, even overlooking the gender pay gap that I thought would have been prevalent at the time.

Not only does he seem to have had a longer screen than Lindsay before the series, there's the small matter of him being more established in the context of the bionic series.

I wonder what the reasoning was behind Lindsay's salary being higher than his.

Yes. I’ve seen several pics of Lindsay Wagner and Lynda Carter together.

It's lovely to see, and I was grabbed by this part:

Wagner, who won an Emmy for her role in 1977 spoke at a convention recently about playing her.

She said: 'I took it very seriously. That was one of the things, when I accepted the role as an ongoing thing, I had to contractually be able to be involved in the development.'

The Emmy feels like news to me. I either didn't know or (more likely) had well and truly forgotten.

Interesting, too, to see how seriously she took the role. This ties in with something I seem to remember @James from London saying about Lindsay having a bit of a moment when she was asked to hold up the Mini with her non-bionic arm for a UK press call.

I’ll dig out that interview with Richard Anderson.

Oh, yes please.

Before The Deadly Missiles, Jaime had recently spent time together with Steve in SMDM: Love Song For Tanya. Then just days after The Deadly Missiles, they were together making plans in SMDM: Big Brother.

Pics from those appearances here

Ah - so I did miss something. I feel a bit better that the continuity is right. But I also feel a little disappointed that these crossovers aren't in the set which includes most of the main crossovers. Even the scenes in isolation as bonus features would have been good.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Lindsay had just been dropped from Universal, after her first two-part appearance as Jaime. She had been under contract since 1971. Which, as they wanted her to return, put her in a strong negotiating position. Otherwise they could have had her work much more cheaply. She has said that her mother and younger sister (14 years younger) loved The Six Million Dollar Man. And her sister wanted her to do it.

I too think it would have been nice to have included SMDM: The Secret of Bigfoot parts 1 and 2, Love Song For Tanya and Big Brother in the DVD set too. And to include A Thing of the Past and The Deadly Missiles in the SMDM set.

Lee Majors in 1976: “Lindsay is a fine actress but I don’t want people to think our shows are related. I’m doing my series and she is doing hers.”

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Lindsay had just been dropped from Universal, after her first two-part appearance as Jaime. She had been under contract since 1971. Which, as they wanted her to return, put her in a strong negotiating position. Otherwise they could have had her work much more cheaply.

This is fascinating, and it all makes sense now. Thanks for these nuggets.

I too think it would have been nice to have included SMDM: The Secret of Bigfoot parts 1 and 2, Love Song For Tanya and Big Brother in the DVD set too. And to include A Thing of the Past and The Deadly Missiles in the SMDM set.

It would be great, since they're otherwise so comprehensive with a the crossovers.

Lee Majors in 1976: “Lindsay is a fine actress but I don’t want people to think our shows are related. I’m doing my series and she is doing hers.”

I'm always curious about actors' responses to spin-offs from their series. Like Joan Collins being very vocal about her view that The Colbys would siphon money and energy that could have been invested in Dynasty. And Barbara Bel Geddes - for whatever reason - not wishing to appear on Knots Landing.

If this was around the time the spin-off began (which the year 1976 suggests) I imagine Lee might have been concerned either that the spin-off would be more popular or that it would flop and reflect badly on SMDM. Which makes me think his appearances on BW might have been because his contract mandated it. After all, if he felt they weren't related, why appear at all.

Unless he was suggesting that they exist in different universes. Which I imagine he might have felt differently about after the crossovers the following year.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Well, after Jim Elgin appears in the opening third season story on The Bionic Woman, over on The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve says his parents are dead ( his biological father’s death was covered in SMDM season 1) and we never see Jim or Helen again. Fortunately Jamie’s most frequent love interest in the third season is dead by the time of the reunion movies. Played by Christopher Stone, who appeared on Dallas. The Bionic Woman does have a proper concluding episode, which has been said to have similarities to aspects of The Prisoner. So the ending of the show and Lee Majors no longer appearing has plot strands in the first reunion movie.

I do wonder if Lee Majors’ comment might have been damage limitation or fears. Like The Man from UNCLE/Girl from UNCLE situation, where Leo G. Carroll was a regular on both shows. With Robert Vaughn and Noel Harrison making crossover appearances. But the influence of Batman and the lightness of the spin-off show are suggested to have contributed to the demise of The Man from UNCLE. The Man from UNCLE became a lot less serious because of Batman. The spin-off was cancelled and in it’s final episodes, it became more serious again. Richard Anderson mentioned Leo G. Carroll in an interview I read.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Well, after Jim Elgin appears in the opening third season story on The Bionic Woman, over on The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve says his parents are dead ( his biological father’s death was covered in SMDM season 1) and we never see Jim or Helen again.

I can't remember how, but I was reading about that just today.

Fortunately Jamie’s most frequent love interest in the third season is dead by the time of the reunion movies. Played by Christopher Stone, who appeared on Dallas.

Well I'll look forward to seeing him for as long as he's alive.

The Bionic Woman does have a proper concluding episode, which has been said to have similarities to aspects of The Prisoner.

Oh good. I kind of assumed it wouldn't, and wasn't too worried because of the reunion films. But it's good to know the series has a proper ending. I'm looking forward to a surprise or two along the way.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Oh - I missed this before. It looks like my BW boxset has different packaging from yours. Mine has three chunky amaray cases (one per season) within a cardboard slipcase, like a smaller version of your SMDM set.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Jaime’s Mother​

If the title doesn’t give away the tone of this episode, the guest-star will: Peyton Place’s Barbara Rush.

The back from the dead is just the beginning of the many twists. There’s Oscar’s revelation that Jaime’s parents were spies for the government. This is huge news to Jaime, but is palatable to the audience because we knew next to nothing about Jaime’s folks.

Then there’s the doppelgänger aspect where we learn that Chris Stuart - a woman who looked like Ann Sommers - was given plastic surgery to make her a double. And so a question hangs over the episode: is this Ann or Chris?

The writing appears to be quite up-front about this from the cold opening in which two men have shot a woman in the arm, with her escaping and heading for Ojai. They make a comment that she’s going to try and persuade Jaime that she’s her mother, heavily implying that the woman is Chris.

Meanwhile, Jaime is having timely dreams about her mother giving her a locket on the day of Ann’s death.

There’s an element of conspiracy in the air, and a disbelief that starts to paint Jaime as paranoid. She gets a phone call and hears her mother’s voice. She sees someone watching from a distance. Her parents’ graves are visited. Her childhood dog appears.

Helen Elgin is the perfect character to embody the voice of doubt about Jaime’s wellbeing. Not only does Martha Scott play her as a repressed WASP whose tendency is to shush emotional outbursts and try to paper over the cracks, there’s also the history. When Jaime reveals that she things her mother is back, Helen quite logically points out that Jaime has had “memory problems” around Steve, thus subtly calling Jaime’s sanity into question. If someone was into gaslighting, Helen’s the person they’d want to have around to unwittingly aid them.

However, Jaime does catch up with the woman and takes her to see Helen, who knew Ann well, but who isn’t sure whether this is Ann or Chris. Jaime, however, is eventually convinced due to Ann talking about the locket she gave Jaime on the day she died, and the mother-daughter bonding commences.

Jaime’s history is well-used in other areas. For most of the episode, I thought it would make a nice bit of continuity if Jaime referenced her own back from the dead. And then she did.

continued....
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[Mel O'Drama]

Jaime’s Mother​

continued​

There’s a satisfying coldness to Oscar’s involvement. He’s called in by Martha when she fears Jaime is paranoid; then he shows Jaime the top secret file on her parents (to be fair, he suspected she knew). His top priority is to ensure secrets stay secret. Jaime and Ann’s bonding is a threat to this and he fears Jaime will reveal her bionics (which she has) which is valuable information that could be sold to the wrong people.

Throughout the episode, her parents’ graveside has been shown to be a place of peace for Jaime, and it’s here that she was reunited with Ann. And so th most brutal example of OSI’s cold efficiency is when Oscar takes it upon himself to exhume these graves without her permission in order to ensure that it was Chris Stuart who was buried. There’s a scene where he phones Jaime and casually drops this into the conversation as we see diggers going to work behind him.

The body is confirmed to be Ann Sommers, which means Jaime is now helping Chris Stuart escape the country believing her to be her mother. There’s an interesting little touch that Jaime has saved some money from her tennis career, but deposited it in numerous banks, apparently for fear that one or another would go bust. So she plans to drive from bank to bank, collecting the money.

There’s a sweet little moment for both women when Jaime has been to the first bank. Chris is clearly feeling very guilty at taking money and insists that this is all the money she’ll need. Jaime is keen to go on to the other banks, but talked out of it. She looks at Chris with such adoration that it really gives us a sense of Jaime as a daughter. She’s almost childlike.

When the hitmen catch up with them, Chris is shown to be noble, speaking to them out of earshot and persuading them to let Jaime go, asking only that they don’t kill her in front of Jaime. It’s a “have your cake and eat it” scene thanks to the bionics. Chris doesn’t know about Jaime’s bionic hearing, and so Jaime learns that “Ann” is really Chris, but is also able to recognise her sacrifice. Jaime saves Chris, naturally, but not before Chris is shot.

With minimal bionics this episode (always a good thing in my book), the final scenes with Jaime and her mother figures are enjoyably human. First she visits Chris in hospital, and Barbara Rush gives a terrific performance as Chris admits she returned to Ojai because of the happy times she’d spent with Ann, James and Jaime, and she wanted the chance to be a mother to Jaime if only briefly.

Chris’s fate seems to be left unclear. Jaime tells her she could receive a lesser prison sentence in exchange for information, but it’s not really about that. Chris already has her redemption through Jaime’s forgiveness.

Then Jaime goes to see Helen who admits she was jealous when she thought Ann had returned. It’s a delightful bionic soap.

​

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Oh - I missed this before. It looks like my BW boxset has different packaging from yours. Mine has three chunky amaray cases (one per season) within a cardboard slipcase, like a smaller version of your SMDM set.

I’d had some previous releases of the series before and off-air copies acquired elsewhere. I’ve now ended up with three different versions of The Six Million Dollar Man episode, Kill Oscar part 2. A syndicated one on an official DVD release with The Bionic Woman titles on and Lee Majors credited as guesting. Another syndicated one with TBW titles, where Lee Majors isn’t credited as guesting and thus receives no credit on the show he stars in. And a third (the DVD sets in the picture). with the original SMDM titles, where Lindsay Wagner is guesting.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I’ve now ended up with three different versions of The Six Million Dollar Man episode, Kill Oscar part 2. A syndicated one on an official DVD release with The Bionic Woman titles on and Lee Majors credited as guesting. Another syndicated one with TBW titles, where Lee Majors isn’t credited as guesting and thus receives no credit on the show he stars in. And a third (the DVD sets in the picture). with the original SMDM titles, where Lindsay Wagner is guesting.

Wow. That's a little mind-blowing. But I love that there are these hidden treasures and alternative versions.

I wonder which version will appear in my set.