We Need The Bionic Woman Now More Than Ever
Who needs The Six Million Dollar Man?
Today, the idea of secret cyborgs may sound like the set-up for the villains in a sci-fi show or movie, but in the 1970s, secret cyborgs were superheroes. Starting in 1973 with The Six Million Dollar Man, the titular hero was rebuilt with cyber-strength following a near-fatal NASA flight test crash. As former astronaut Steven Austin, Lee Majors starred as the titular man who was now worth $6 million thanks to all of his bionic enhancements. Based on the 1972 Martin Caidin novel Cyborg, the series was a hit for ABC. But, arguably, its best development didn’t come until two years later, when The Six Million Dollar Man launched a backdoor pilot for an even better cyborg show: The Bionic Woman.
Fifty years ago, on March 16, 1975, The Six Million Dollar Man dropped a two-parter called “The Bionic Woman,” which was destined to be its own ongoing sci-fi TV series. And, in terms of quality and staying power, the eponymous Bionic Woman herself, Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) became, over the decades, a much bigger deal. Mild spoilers ahead.
Just like her high school sweetheart Steve, Jamie also suffers a huge accident, this time involving skydiving, which leads to her bionic enhancements. Although these kinds of ‘70s and ‘80s soft sci-fi shows might seem fairly wholesome now, nearly all of them (like Knight Rider) had grisly origin stories for their heroes, which again, feels closer to supervillain origin stories in other contexts. Arguably, all of these tropes are deeply ableist now, but what made Jamie Sommers so important was that unlike other female-led action shows of the era (Charlie’s Angels debuted in 1976) she wasn’t a seductress, or scantily clad in order to be awesome.
In short, the Bionic Woman was a ‘70s sci-fi feminist icon, a character with much more agency than many of her prime-time TV contemporaries. David Greven, professor at the University of South Carolina told The Advocate in 2020, “...it was a trailblazer in female-centered science fiction and other kinds of TV genre drama,” paving the way for Dark Angel, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Witchblade, Alias, and even Homeland. And of course Buffy Summers.”
Jamie, The Bionic Woman, on her own in her own show in 1976.
Without The Bionic Woman, is it really conceivable that Buffy would have never existed? It may sound a little far-fetched, but the reality is, after her introduction in The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman became, for a short time, one of the most popular science fiction shows ever. Like its predecessor, The Bionic Woman was a ratings hit, both in the U.S. and in the U.K. (According to some metrics it was the only Number 1 rated sci-fi show in the U.K. in the 20th century.)
Obviously, The Bionic Woman couldn’t have existed without her being spun off from The Six Million Dollar Man first. And, looking back to Jamie’s debut episode on that series hasn’t aged the best. Making the only other major cyborg hero on prime-time TV the literal ex-girlfriend of the male cyborg hero is, well, a bit much. And yet, after this two-parter episode aired, and proved to be extremely popular, it opened the door for The Bionic Woman to become its own show, and a much more fulfilling one at that.
Why reboots of The Bionic Woman haven’t been as successful as the original is somewhat mysterious. There was a 2007 version starring Michelle Ryan and Katee Sackhoff, which even Wagner criticized as “angry and dark.” She may have had a point. Because for all the dark origins and sexist tropes which pervaded the origin of the character, the true power of the show was its buoyancy and optimism. Perhaps now, more than ever, we’re ready for a Bionic comeback.
