Product Details

• Actors: Lee Majors, Richard Anderson
• Format: Full Screen
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 6
• Studio: Universal
• Run Time: 919 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000LVFDOG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,509 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

When astronaut and Air Force Colonel Steve Austin is almost killed in a horrific plane crash, the US Government decides to rebuild him with experimental cybernetic parts which give him superhuman strength, speed, agility and the ability to see considerable distances. To pay the Government back the $6,000,000 it cost to rebuild him, Austin becomes a secret operative for the Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI), using his superpowers to investigate crime, espionage, space aliens and fight injustice wherever it is found.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Hello Steve Austin", September 11, 2011

By 

Terry Richard "Terry Richard" (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Six Million Dollar Man: Season 1 (DVD)

In 1973 ABC debut a television series that would become a pop culture phenomenon of the 1970's, "The Six Million Dollar Man". That series would propel Lee Majors into superstardom, lead to a successful spin-off called "The Bionic Woman", huge merchandising sales with dolls and board games, and become one of the network's biggest prime time hits.

For years "The Six Million Dollar Man" did not see a DVD release due to licensing issues with Universal and its original creators, but in 2010 the entire series was released through "Time-Life". Now, if people couldn't afford the complete box set or couldn't buy directly through "Time-Life" all seasons of "The Six Million Dollar Man" will become available for purchase individually.

On November 29, 2011 season one arrives in stores. This 6 disc collection contains all 13 season one shows, the very first three telefilms that launched the series, and a slew of bonuses including the featurettes "How Science Fiction Is Becoming Science Fact" and "An Iconic Opening: The Six Million Dollar Man Show Never Disappointed", season 1 VIP's: A Celebration of The Six Million Dollar Man Guest Stars, an interview with executive producer Harve Bennett, and Interactive Bonus Feature: "Bionic Breakdown".

The video is Full Frame (1.33:1), the audio is English-Mono, and subtitles are in English SDH.

All three telefilms have been fully restored from their original broadcasts with their original openings and the episodes look impeccable.

The following is a list of the three television films of "The Six Million Dollar Man", all 13 episodes, and their original airdates:

1."The Six Million Dollar Man", March 7, 1973
2 "Wine, Women, and War", October 20, 1973
3."The Solid Gold Kidnapping", November 17, 1973

Episode 1. "Population:Zero", January 18, 1974
2. "Survival of the Fittest", January 25, 1974
3. "Operation Firefly", February 1, 1974
4. "Day of the Robot", February 8, 1974
5. "Little Orphaned Airplane", February 22, 1974
6. "Doomsday, and Counting", March 1, 1974
7. "Eyewitness To Murder", March 8, 1974
8. "The Rescue of Athena One", March 15, 1974
9. "Dr. Wells Is Missing", March 29, 1974
10. "The Last of the Fourth of Julys", April 5, 1974
11. "Burning Bright", April 12, 1974
12. "The Coward", April 19, 1974
13. "Run, Steve, Run", April 26, 1974

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Iconic American Series -- only available outside of the USA?, November 29, 2008

By 

Ryk E. Spoor "Author, Gamer, Geek God" (Troy, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Six Million Dollar Man: Complete Season One [Region 2] (DVD)

There are many things American companies do that puzzle me, but this has to be one of the top 5: Why would you (as a company) have a show that is so iconic that people who have never SEEN it would still recognize references to it, and NEVER release it to DVD -- even in the year when you attempt to revive the concept franchise by re-making the spinoff "Bionic Woman"? (I won't even discuss the incomprehensible decisionmaking process that decides to utterly change the entire basis of THAT show...).

When I purchased the first season of The Six Million Dollar Man, I expected it to be a purchase purely for nostalgia. In fact, I was braced to end up being UNABLE to watch the show (I've found it hard, for example, to watch MacGyver or Kung Fu, two other nostalgia favorites of mine).

To my utter surprise, in some ways this is a BETTER show than I remembered. The writing is tight, often clever, and LESS stereotyped than I was prepared for. (For example, the first major appearance by the Soviet Union's forces is not as adversaries!) Oh, there's stereotyping and events-of-convenience galore, but they're worked into the plots which are less simplistic than many of the follow-on TV action-adventure shows, and overall better acted. (The early movies are not entirely consistent with the series -- besides a change in some actors, the nature of Steve's relationship with Goldman and the OSI undergoes a fairly radical shift; for that reason I am focusing here on the actual TV first season rather than the movies)

It's clear that the producers, actors, and writers were still trying to "work into" the overall concept and try to figure out a way of keeping the action and the characters balanced. The actors -- specifically Lee Majors and Richard Anderson -- make it work. Steve is a man who has, with great difficulty, overcome the shock of becoming part man, part machine, something he had not asked for and not been prepared for, and has come to accept that he's been given a gift that carries terrible responsibility with it as well. Oscar Goldman is a quintessential spymaster who has, through his interaction with Steve, found himself forced to become more human than is, perhaps, encouraged in his field, in order to keep the friendship and loyalty Steve offers.

One very nice touch is that Steve Austin's background as an astronaut is, surprisingly, at least as important as his bionic secret for many of his missions. The "superstar" nature of astronauts, especially in the era of this show, is recognized and used appropriately. Being one of the astronauts who actually walked on the moon makes Steve special in a number of ways, including the ability (in what was a more relaxed era, surprisingly) to sometimes just gain access to locations and the confidence of people who would otherwise be terribly suspicious.

The adversarial relationship of the United States and the Soviet Union, as I mentioned, is present, yet is not overblown. Given the era and the setting, it would have been trivially easy and even understandable to demonize them, make the Soviet Union behind almost every plot, providing Steve with ready-made villains to trash. Instead, the worst enemies are invariably rogue organizations -- terrorists, obsessive scientists, conscienceless weapons dealers, spies with their own agendas -- and, often, simple nature and human error.

This is a world in which it's assumed that people are, at heart, not only mostly alike, but mostly preferring to get along. It's the exceptions, the men and women who don't CARE about other people at all, who cause most of the trouble in the world, and one man with dedication, a clear vision ...and perhaps some nuclear-powered additions... can often triumph and make the world a better place.

The bionics themselves are more carefully worked out than I had expected. While certain limitations are clearly originally intended purely for story-opportunity purposes, they're generally used consistently. Moreover, the classic opening animation can now be stop-framed and examined carefull, as we could never have done in the old broadcast days, revealing that the producers/designers had put a great deal of thought into the bionic capabilities. The numbers don't *quite* add up accurately, but they're not all that far off compared to what a slapdash and handwavy approach to the technology would have produced.

In the first season, many of the iconic features are still being "worked out". Occasionally we see Steve running, not in the classic slow-motion bionic run, but at the actual speed his running would require. These scenes merely reinforce the CORRECTNESS of the decision to make the 60mph running sequences slow-mo; in slow motion, Steve running looks dramatic. At what would be actual 60mph speed, he looks SILLY.

Similarly, the classic "bionic sound" is missing in most of the first season episodes, and in fact is first heard as a sound accompanying a humanoid robot, rather than one from Steve's bionics. It isn't until the second season that the standard sound effects (bionic strength use, "bionic jump" sound, and bionic eye) came to be regularly used.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good series even today. I really wish that we'd get a USA release of this -- especially for the WHOLE SERIES, as apparently even overseas only seasons 1 and 2 have been released. This means that many of the classic later episodes are STILL unavailable on DVD no matter where you order from.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nostaglia At It Purest!, December 4, 2011

By 

Mariner "7" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Six Million Dollar Man: Season 1 (DVD)

I really despise the greed that permeates so much of our society today. I realise I should not be venting it all out on this one boxed distribution, but I am going to anyway.

Why did we have to wait so long for this to become available in the USA - Region 1 format? Then they tried to get us to buy the whole tomb for a couple hundred bucks. Their always finding new ways to get you to buy items you DON'T want, to get to the items you DO want. GREED!

As to "The Six Million Dollar Man".......I am @ 50 years old, what can I say. I won't sit here and explain what happens, that's for other reviewers. What I will say is that I was 13 years old when this came out and it blew me and my buddies away.

Is it a good story? Obviously if I look at it through 50-something eyes, after experiancing everything I have since then, of course it can't compete. But if I allow myself to go back to 1973, a time of neighborhood sports, comic books, "Spider" bikes, making models and mowing lawns.....when there was no internet, no cable TV, no iPhone and iPad and iCrap-Whats-Next, no Xbox, and no Playstation, and no Attari.....simply watch these with "13 year old eyes"....ITS FANTASTIC!!!

This was cutting edge science fiction to the gang of 10 - 13 year olds that used to gather to watch an old TV with "rabbit ears", on a weekend night in the summer out in my parent's garage. We had no clue that experiances like "Star Wars" and "Alien" were coming to completely change our worlds.

What a great time for television and being a teenager. The "Made-For-TV-Movie". The "ABC Movie of the Week". "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies". The "Sunday Night Mystery" movie..... "The Questor Tapes". "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". "Night of the Scarecrow". "Duel" (With that new director what's-his-name.)"Brian's Song". "Night Gallery".

Younger readers are probably mourning my stunted childhood right now....and though I enjoy so many of these newer aformentioned pleasures today, I would not trade any of these treasured memories for anything. These are the shows of "Tweens & Teens" that shape you and later console you years down the road when the world seems so much more complicated and severe.

Truly nostalgia at its purest.

I look forward to the release of the ensuing seasons, and will probably now pick up "The Bionic Woman" sets....seeing as how they have been out so long.