Customer Reviews

The Six Million Dollar Man - Season One - 6-DVD Box Set ( The Six Million Dollar Man - Season 1 ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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

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.

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.

All good fun of course, I can't imagine many people that buy this DVD are new to the adventures of The Bionic Man.

The big downer with this season is the poor colour balance and rendering to digital. On my big LCD screen its muddiness is apparent.

I'll wait until Universal gives this show the technical technical attention it deserves.Until then it remains a pricey DVD.

Being 40ish the SMDM was THE SHOW to watch when I was a teenager. There were Hot Wheels and Sizzlers (remember those?) Ah, the good 'ole days...! Well, Steve Austin was just plain COOL! I never missed a show and my classmates didn't either!
SMDM was one of my best experiences growing up.
This DVD set is already SOLD in the hearts of millions of fans.
What the heck is taking them so long to release it?

I was not privileged to grow up during the original run of this show but I would also take The Six Million Dollar Man any day. I love TV shows that are honestly worth my time. I get really ticked off when a good show does finally surface on TV and it is canned within a season. We need GOOD, CLEAN shows like this that the WHOLE FAMILY can sit down and watch without having to worry whether or not they are going to see or hear something they don't want to. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE SHOWS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. Now release the rest of them Universal!!!

Compared to the Universal UK version out there, this new set from Universal looks really good! The picture looks to have been remastered in some way. For '70s TV, this is a good looking picture and sound. I have had the UK DVDs for years and now glad I can replace those ugly discs with these newer ones.
Come on Universal! Where are the rest of the seasons?
Can't believe it took this long to get this series on DVD here in the states.
But the wait was well worth it!

Having not seen reruns of this show in over 30 years, the show feels brand new in a lot of respects.

I'd found Season 1 and 2 of the Bionic Woman right before Christmas and was enjoying it so much, then on Christmas I found season one of TSMDM under my tree. How cool is that? Especially since my 8 year old is discovering these shows for the first time and think that they are totally awesome.

This is a pretty good set and contains several early episodes, and the original TV Movie. I am not sure if it is they way it was, or if it was editing, but the BIONIC RUNNING SOUND is not on this product. It could be that the SHOW added sounds in later episodes, but it is definitely missed. I will say the episodes get better each time, and I can't wait for Season 2 & Season 3 to become available as well. If you are NOSTALGIC, like me, and want to relive your childhood, you should purchase this!

This really isn't a review but more of a shout out. I love reading reviews but I've never written any. If you remember the show, then you've made up your mind if you enjoy this or not. If you had been waiting until an affordable, single season release like I had been, then your wait is over. Buying an entire set might be cheaper in the long run but for those of us who can not afford that investment at one time this is a great option. Get it with confidence as it is produced beautifully. I was surprised to see the first three pilot movies as I don't recall there being more than the first. I forgot that Darren McGavin was the "Oscar Goldman" type character in the first telefilm.
The bonus features are on a separate disc and my favorite was the feature on the show opening sequence.
I hadn't seen these probably since they first aired but remember the show fondly. It will be fun to see how the series evolved over the course of its run. I look forward to getting all the DVD sets as they are released. Thank you Universal Studios!