6 Million Dollar Man

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"Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we tin rebuild him. We have the applied science. We have the capability to make the globe's first bionic human. Steve Austin volition be that human. Amend than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."

The Six One thousand thousand Dollar Man — the show that put "bionic" into the pop dictionary. More than importantly, information technology set the phase for the Super Hero genre to exist taken seriously in popular amusement.

Lee Majors starred as Col. Steve Austin (no, non that one) in this sci-fi action-adventure series that ran from 1973 to 1978. Seriously injured in a test flying, old astronaut Austin is given bogus ("bionic") replacements for his legs, his correct arm, and left centre, leaving him with superhuman speed and force and telescopic vision. He tin run more than 60 MPH, leap several stories, see objects from miles away and in the nighttime, and lift impossible weights. Upon his recovery, he goes to piece of work for Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson), head of the Office of Scientific Investigations (in that location are many other definitions for OSI out there — this is the i really seen on TV). Other regular or recurring characters includes:

• Dr. Rudy Wells (Martin Brooks), the inventor of the bionic technology.
• Barney Hiller, some other bionic agent who went rogue (originally named Barney Miller in his first appearance, only his name was changed due to the success of the Hal Linden sitcom).

In a spring 1975 episode, Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner), a lawn tennis pro and Austin'southward dearest interest, is injured in a skydiving accident. Austin pleads with Goldman to salvage her life, and she too is fitted with bionic parts (legs, ane arm, and an ear). Eventually her trunk rejects her implants, and she dies, at least as far as Austin is concerned. Fan outcry was so not bad, ABC demanded the series reorganize the beginning of the tertiary season and run a two-parter bringing her back to life. So after Jaime is rescued past a radical medical procedure, she goes to work for the OSI in her own spinoff series, The Bionic Woman (1976-1978), living undercover every bit a schoolteacher on an Air Forcefulness base of operations when not on missions for the OSI. And Jaime herself became a recurring character on Half dozen Mil during its third and fourth seasons, taking part in a number of crossover stories until Bionic Adult female was cancelled past ABC in 1977 and moved to NBC, catastrophe these crossovers for good.

The Half-dozen Million Dollar Human was based upon the science fiction novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, and the original pilot Tv set movie, aired in 1973, was written by Henri Simoun and an uncredited Steven Bochco (NYPD Bluish). It was followed by two more Idiot box movies produced by Glen Larson (Battlestar Galactica (1978)) that attempted, without success, to recast Austin as a James Bail-like character. When the series returned as a weekly hour-long show in January 1974, it was now produced by Harve Bennett (Star Trek), who restored much of Caidin's original characterization to Austin (though Caidin's version of the graphic symbol was rather different — he was more of an assassin, carried a toxicant sprint gun in a bionic finger, and his non-seeing bionic eye was a miniature camera). Later on, Kenneth Johnson, who later went on to be involved with The Incredible Hulk (1977), Alien Nation, and V (1983), joined as a writer and went on to create the graphic symbol of Jaime Sommers and produce the spin-off. Johnson advocated a somewhat "kindler, gentler" show, and information technology was in a two-parter he wrote that the show's virtually iconic recurring character, Bigfoot, kickoff appeared.

The series was followed past made-for-TV movies in the tardily 1980s and early 1990s. In the last of these, Bionic Always After? (1994), Steve and Jaime finally got married. Every bit for bionic kids — Austin'due south estranged son by a pre-series marriage, Michael, appears in The Return of the Half-dozen-One thousand thousand-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1987), where he is fitted with bionics far, far exceeding those possessed by his father. In the second film, Bionic Showdown (1989), a new bionic woman named Kate Mason is introduced, played by Sandra Bullock in one of her offset roles.

The serial is known for its tedious-motion special effects which, while often derided past some modern-twenty-four hours viewers, were in fact based upon like slow-motion furnishings used by NFL Films in its acclaimed series of sports archive films (and fifty-fifty before that, films like Olympia had besides used the technique). The slow-motion action actually wasn't consistently used until midway through the 2d flavour, but information technology was decided that speeding up the action usually didn't piece of work, with Lee Majors on the 2010 DVD release of the series, saying, information technology looks like something out of the Keystone Cops. With CG furnishings still years away, wearisome-move was the merely applied selection.

Majors, an acclaimed actor from such films equally The Ballad of Andy Crocker and The Francis Gary Powers Story, simply best known for his work in westerns like The Large Valley, was chosen because of his stoic demeanor, although episodes such as "The Coward" (in which Austin discovers the fate of his long-lost father), and "The Bionic Adult female" showed that he had the range if he required it. His co-star, Richard Anderson (Forbidden Planet), played Oscar Goldman and provided a fatherly figure to both Steve and, later, Jaime. Three actors played Dr. Rudy Wells: Oscar-winner Martin Balsam in the first pilot, noted vocalisation thespian Alan Oppenheimer for the starting time 2 seasons, and Martin E. Brooks thereafter. In 1977, Anderson and Brooks made The states Television receiver history by becoming the first lead actors to play the aforementioned roles in two ongoing series on two competing networks, when they were allowed to appear on both Half dozen Mil on ABC and Bionic Woman on NBC. They also reprised their roles for the later reunion films.

Two accolade-winning episodes were written by Star Trek veteran DC Fontana — "The Rescue of Athena One", starring a pre-stardom Farrah Fawcett (then Mrs. Lee Majors) as America's first female astronaut, and "Straight on 'Til Morning" starring Meg Foster (Cagney & Lacey) as a stranded space explorer. Monte Markham, who was Caidin'due south starting time choice to play Austin, portrayed Barney Hiller (aka Miller), the Seven Meg Dollar Man.

The show was immensely popular and served every bit a template for later sci-fi activity-take chances shows that leaned more toward action-take a chance than sci-fi. Glen Larson's Knight Rider, for case, is bandage from the same mold, although some elements were changed: the mortally-injured Michael Knight was given a talking supercar rather than superhuman abilities, and fought law-breaking for a foundation rather than for the authorities. Jake 2.0 is a more than recent homage, with Lee Majors actually appearing in an episode (and the "bionic sound" is heard more than than once in the episode just to bulldoze the point home).

In the 1970s, the utterly exorbitant $6 million seemed about the right cost to create a bionic human being. ^note You might say information technology cost an arm and a leg. Oddly enough, due to the quickly-falling costs of engineering, information technology however seems virtually right, despite aggrandizement. A proposed picture remake starring Mark Wahlberg volition be heavily inflation-adapted with the proper noun, "The 6 Billion Dollar Human".

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The Six Million Dollar Man provides examples of the post-obit tropes:

• Achilles' Heel
  • Extreme cold could make the bionic heroes' parts stop working until they warm up.
  • In "The Rescue of Athena One", Steve discovers that the normal catholic radiations in space interferes with his bionics, effectively reducing him to the strength of a normal human being (or worse).
  • Steve's natural arm is vulnerable and oftentimes injured.
  • He seems to also accept the skull equivalent of a glass jaw (which is in contrast to the original novels in which his skull was also replaced).
  • Several episodes likewise establish that if you take out Steve's legs, information technology leaves him at death'due south door.
  • There are limitations to how far down Austin and Sommers can fall safely—in 1 episode, Jaime is forced to jump downward from a very high rooftop. She knows it's too high ("I'm non that bionic"), but has no other choice. Upon landing, her legs basically explode on bear upon; she suffers severe injuries, and severe radiation poisoning from her ruptured power cells equally a event.
  • His bionic parts are powered by miniature nuclear fuel cells. In one of the Bigfoot 2-parters, the cells burst when his legs are damaged, exposing him to lethal levels of radiations (this is likely why Austin was incapacitated in "Return of the Bionic Woman" as well). An early on episode also referenced the dangers of radiation leaking from his limbs.
• Anchored Ship: Jaime Sommers, due to her losing all memory of Steve, including being in honey with him afterwards being brought dorsum to life and (briefly) falling in love with her doctor. Although Steve attempts to weigh anchor, and the two become close friends, information technology is not until the reunion Television receiver movies - by which time Jaime's memories of being in love with Steve have returned - that the ship set sail once again. Real Life Writes the Plot also applies here due to The Bionic Adult female changing networks for the 1977-78 TV flavor, which prevented any farther interaction between Jaime and Steve.
• Backdoor Pilot: An uncommon example of an unintended pilot. The two-parter that introduced Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman, was only ever intended and commissioned every bit a 1-off story, but information technology proved to be then popular that it ended upwards acting (in tandem with the quickly deputed "The Return of the Bionic Woman" follow-up) as a backstairs pilot for the eventual spin-off series (forcing the producers into some very creative thinking because the first story killed the character off).
  • "The Bionic Boy" is sometimes cited as a backdoor pilot, though watching the actual episode reveals this to be unlikely given its resolution.
  • "The Ultimate Imposter", unlike "The Bionic Woman" and "The Bionic Boy", was conceived as a backdoor for a potential spin-off.
• Backwards-Firing Gun: "Wine, Women and War" has Steve Austin crimp the barrel of a mook's gun closed with his bionic fingers. The mook doesn't discover this and, despite Austin alarm him not to fire, he shoots and nails himself (though it's unclear whether he actually shoots himself or gets knocked out by backfire).
• Better Than New: Austin is given bionic replacements for his legs, his correct arm, and one heart, leaving him with superhuman speed and strength and telescopic vision. The iconic opening credits come close to citing the trope by proper noun.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch and Yeti: A recurring "guest star". Bigfoot'south actually a cyborg like Steve, built past aliens hiding in the forest to proceed people away, though he appears to be more cybernetic than human.
• Brought Downward to Normal: Happens to Barney Hiller/Miller when information technology is adamant that he cannot handle existence bionically powered.
  • Happens occasionally to Austin when his bionics malfunction or are exposed to extreme cold.
• Bullet Time: The series made iconic early on use of this to illustrate bionic superspeed.
• Carpet of Virility: Lee Majors had this, and the wardrobe department took every opportunity to let the viewers know.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Charlton Comics published both a colour comic book and a black and white illustrated mag aimed at developed readers during the run of the serial. In the 2010s, Dynamite Comics launched The Bionic Human being, a reimagined version of the story based upon an unproduced Kevin Smith script for an SMDM movie. In 2014, Dynamite dropped the reimagined Bionic Human in favor of The Six Million Dollar Man Season half-dozen, a direct continuation of the Television receiver series; it has since published several more titles fix in the TV continuity, including a crossover with, of all things, G.I. Joe. In the UK, the mag Look-In published a weekly comic strip titled Bionic Action in the 1970s that featured both Steve and Jaime. In the mid-1990s a new US comic book series titled Bionix was appear, again to feature both Steve and Jaime, just it was cancelled despite beingness promoted in various magazines, though a few pages of sample art were published.
• Contrived Coincidence: Not in one case, but twice, injuries similar to Austin'southward are inflicted on people close to him. Jaime loses her correct arm and both legs, while in the Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Adult female reunion flick, Austin's son suffers the exact same injuries as his father, except he loses his right heart instead of his left.
  • Fortunately for Steve Austin, his personal physician and close friend, Dr. Rudy Wells, is also the creator of bionics. (This is in the original TV movie; the series proper subtly retcons this away over time every bit it establishes that Rudy was involved with the OSI (and bionics) well earlier meeting Austin.)
• Conveniently Shut Planet - In the two-parter with the Venus Probe, nosotros're told that we sent an unmanned space probe to Venus, it grazed the Venusian atmosphere (thus activating its internal pressurization), then it accidentally missed Venus and, after hurtling blindly through interplanetary space, crash-landed back on Earth. While information technology'south true that a transfer orbit that takes you from World to Venus will eventually accept you back to the Earth's orbital distance from the sun, the Earth won't be anywhere nearby when you lot get there.
• Cryptid Episode: The infamous episode where Steve Austin fights with Bigfoot.
• Cybernetics Consume Your Soul: Barney Miller (later renamed Hiller) narrowly misses this trope in his first appearance.
• Cyborg
• Cyberpunk: the show itself isn't Cyberpunk, but most every cybered-upwards "Street Samurai" looks to Steve Austin as inspiration. Many a Cyberpunk novel, anime, comic, and film volition utilise some variant of the line 'Nosotros can rebuild him. Faster. Stronger. Better.' in homage to the prove
• Does Not Know His Ain Strength: Austin makes a few clumsy mistakes in the early on episodes, such as hit a golf brawl besides far in "Wine, Women and War" and throwing a heavy door open up besides fast in "The Rescue of Athena One".
  • Jaime Sommers' iconic accidental tennis brawl shell takes place during her original two-parter on 6MDM.
  • And the 1994 reunion movie is even more vicious: Steve lands in the drink after an attempt to deal with Jaime's poorly operation arm doesn't go as hoped (he responds past shoving h2o at her). Their racquetball match starts off innocently enough, but so their bionics kick in without them realizing it.
• Early Installment Weirdness: The pilot episode has Austin working for the OSO, non the OSI, and his dominate is Oliver Spencer, not Oscar Goldman. Subsequent episodes retconned Spencer out of existence, except for the syndicated episodic version of the airplane pilot, which had to brand practice (it wasn't until Dynamite Comics' Half dozen Million Dollar Man comic series in 2022 that an attempt was made to incorporate Spencer into the overall continuity).
  • Many of the famous tropes of this series - the tedious-motion running, the "na-na-na-naaa" audio event and the procedure for depicting the bionic eye at work - were not finalized until the second season. In fact, the first time we see the bionic eye piece of work (in the second Goggle box movie), information technology glows green! (And the bionic centre surprisingly is non used at all in the outset Television pic, other than the implication that Austin's sight is restored by it.)
  • The second and third Idiot box movies that launched the series depicted Austin as a Bond-like secret agent, a womanizer with something of a licence to impale and a knack for wearing rather ridiculous tuxedoes. The third pilot film also attempts to introduce a SPECTRE-similar large bad. Much of this was dropped when the weekly series began, and past the third flavour Austin was almost never shown killing anyone. Or wearing a tux. And the SPECTRE expy was never heard from again, although a like organization would be featured in the first reunion motion picture.
• Easy Amnesia: In "Stranger at Broken Fork", Steve finds himself in a strange town and can't retrieve who he is or how he got at that place. Or that he's a super-powered cyborg.
• Eye Scream: A pocket-sized example in the opening credits with a brief shot (taken from the pilot movie) of a physician holding onto part of Austin'southward bionic eye. Nevertheless, the series omitted an aspect of the original novels in which Austin'southward eye, as it was initially a camouflaged film camera, had to be removed whenever the time came to develop the film.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: The fact three different actors played Rudy Wells becomes axiomatic on numerous occasions: by the time of the episode "Return of the Bionic Woman", Martin E. Brooks had taken over the role from Alan Oppenheimer, but flashbacks to the kickoff Bionic Adult female episode were required, which featured footage of Oppenheimer. The syndicated version of the pilot, aired as "The Moon and the Desert", featured Martin Balsam every bit Wells, and Balsam recorded new dialogue for the syndicated version. All the same the opening credits still credited Martin E. Brooks. One later episode of SMDM featured a number of key flashbacks to an Oppenheimer episode, resulting in the actor returning for a ane-off guest advent and substituting for Brooks.
• Flawed Epitome: Barney Miller/Hiller, the Vii Meg Dollar Man—More than powerful than Steve, with both legs and both arms replaced by bionics, he was carried away by the power of what he'd get, while also coming to detest himself for what he'd become.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Steve Austin never lost his bionic capabilities, but the "bionic boy" who appeared in one of the early episodes (no relation to Steve Austin'south long lost son in one of the later Tv set movies, who too got bionic parts) lost his bionic legs again by the stop of the episode.
  • Likewise Barney Miller/Hiller, who afterward proving himself incapable of handling his bionic powers has his bionics "tuned down" to human capabilities.
• Glasses Pull: Oscar Goldman seemed to love these.
• Authorities Agency of Fiction: The O.Due south.I. (Office of Scientific Information)
• The Great Repair: "Little Orphan Airplane"
• Heroic BSoD: Steve, after the apparent decease of Jaime.
• Iconic Outfit: Steve'south Captain Ersatzes that appeared on The Venture Bros. and Duck Dodgers were both wearing the ruby tracksuit seen above. (They're also both on at least friendly terms with Bigfoot.)
  • The tracksuit sported by the Kenner action figure is based upon the outfit Steve is shown running in during the pilot motion picture (footage later featured in the opening credits — the high-speed run forth a contend). In "The Seven Million Dollar Man", "The Bionic Adult female" and at least a couple other episodes, Steve wears a version of the tracksuit that is fifty-fifty closer to the activeness figure.
• Innate Night Vision: In add-on to a 20-to-i zoom, Steve's bionic eye can meet in the thermal infrared.
• Photographer Arms Race: While Steve and Jamie'due south bionic legs could propel them at 60 miles per hour ^note An early on episode of The Bionic Adult female actually shows Jaime outrunning a race car going 100 MPH, just this may take been due to Early Installment Weirdness., the bionic legs given to Steve's long-lost son in the later Idiot box movie could brand him run at 300 miles per 60 minutes.
• Licensed Pinball Table: Produced past Bally in 1978. Click here for details.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: "The Secret of Bigfoot," which has Steve run into a ring of aliens living in a secluded woodland. They have a huge android called Sasquatch, whose force keeps Colonel Austin in check. Sasquatch's chief controller is Shalon, an alien humanoid female with a device on her Utility Chugalug that allows her warp fourth dimension around herself, an effect that mimics teleportation. Merely Steve's bionic eye can runway Shalon in this accelerated mode.
• Manipulative Bastard
  • Oscar falls into this category in the early episodes.
  • His predecessor, Oliver Spencer (featured in the pilot Television set picture) is the epitome of this trope as he orchestrates a unsafe mission for Steve simply to see if he would survive; if he hadn't, Spencer was prepared to simply build another bionic man and endeavor again. He also asks Rudy if information technology's possible to "plow off" Austin like a robot when he wasn't needed for missions.
• Market-Based Title: "Welcome Home, Jaime - Part ane" and "Kill Oscar, Function 2" were shown in the UK equally function of The Bionic Woman.
• Mind Reading: In 1 episode, a psychic human was captured by the Bad Guys and forcibly hooked up to a psychic-amplifying auto. The O.S.I. used some other psychic (a plucky teenage girl) to track him down. Her mind reading abilities provided Oscar with an excuse to do some other Spectacles Pull.
• Mission Control: Oscar, in many episodes.
• Mood Whiplash: A rather odd case in the original Bionic Adult female two-parter. Several scenes showing Jaime and Steve romancing and enjoying themselves - conspicuously getting on well - are accompanied past a vocal called "Sweetness Jaime" sung past none other than Lee Majors (pregnant it wasn't an off-the-shelf track, but written and recorded specifically for the episode). The lyrics heard are all about the romance breaking down and things going "flat" fifty-fifty though what we come across on screen indicates zero of the sort! (This does not include the verse heard playing later Jaime's "death", of class.)
• Named After Somebody Famous: Stephen F. Austin (1793 – 1836) was the man after whom the city of Austin, Texas was named.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Occurred occasionally with Steve, often involving his bionic heart. Although its best-known functionality, telescopic zoom and night vision, were established from the start, other functions were revealed in subsequently episodes including the power to see people rendered invisible and, in the final TV movie, information technology was of a sudden given a targeting adequacy. In the Charlton comic books, one story randomly gave Steve the power to shoot a powerful light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beam out of the eye, while the very next outcome gave the eye the ability to receive transmissions from a tiny bionic eye inside a Steve Austin doll. One episode also randomly gave Steve's bionic arm the one-off ability to act equally a Geiger counter. It could be argued that almost of Steve'south powers count every bit this if 1 bases things on Martin Caidin's original novel in which Steve'southward bionics were nowhere near as powerful or flexible as they became on TV (but they had gadgets added for mission-specific situations, like popular-out fins for an underwater raid).
• Non-Man Sidekick: Bigfoot, afterwards Steve becomes the Sasquatch's BFF.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Other than the failed experiment with Barney Hiller, and the fact Jaime was rebuilt simply after Steve's urging, at that place is no indication of another bionic person beingness created until the reunion movies. In "The Secret of Bigfoot", Austin makes the imitation claim that at that place is an entire army of bionic men. The possible reasons why there isn't:
  • Candidates for bionic implantation need to exist missing limbs. In that location are plenty of amputees among the general population, but since the engineering science is peak secret, you have to find an amputee with a security clearance who is willing to put himself into danger after he's been modified. At that place isn't a very big recruiting puddle to choose from. (That said, it should be noted that Jaime Sommers was a civilian lawn tennis player with no security clearance and that didn't disqualify her from not only being implanted, but becoming an agile field agent inside weeks of the surgery.)
  • Also, we should notation that the engineering science didn't e'er work right. In the case of Steve Austin, it worked spectacularly, his trunk adapted superbly, and so did his mind. He was able to control his power and his temper, he continued to call up of himself as a "normal man" for most purposes, etc. He was the exception. Jaime Sommers was able to handle the power all right, only her body kept trying to decline the bionics and this brought her close to death on several occasions. Barney Miller/Hiller had non been able to handle the temptations of power, and some of the other instances of bionic implementation also went incorrect in various ways. Steve Austin was both lucky and an exceptional man earlier he was fabricated bionic.
  • Farther complicating development of the technology in-story was that there had been a prototype before Barney, a lovable German language Shepherd canis familiaris. Audience reaction to dwelling on the fact the dog was implanted after being horribly injured in a lab burn wouldn't have helped.
  • A possible real-life contributing gene is the economical downturn that was underway through much of the 1970s might have made the notion of spending another $6 million (or more) politically undesirable. Of annotation is the fact the opening credits to The Bionic Woman bespeak out explicitly that her cost is classified, whereas Austin'south price seems to be widely known in government circles.
    • Nevertheless, these rationalizations aside, there is an episode of The Bionic Adult female titled "Doomsday is Tomorrow" in which a Russian character confirms that the USSR is attempting to create its ain bionic men; although he states they have thus far been unsuccessful, this puts into question the wisdom of having only iii (two active, one not) bionic people, particularly towards the end of the serial. Fifty-fifty by the time of the commencement reunion Television pic, set nearly a decade afterwards both Austin and Sommers accept ceased to exist active field agents no indication is given of whatever more American bionic operatives being created until Michael Austin has his accident.
• Not Wearing Tights: Despite being a superhero, Austin doesn't have a stock outfit. The closest he came to 1 was the red tracksuit he's seen wearing in the opening credits, which came from footage from the pilot TV motion picture; he wore the aforementioned outfit again a few times in later on episodes (most notably The Bionic Woman) and Kenner'southward best-selling action figure depicted him in the same outfit.
• Novelization: Several episodes were adapted into novels, including one book, International Incidents by Mike Jahn, that combined several storylines into i narrative. The books are notable for having the writers attempt to follow Martin Caidin'southward original Cyborg continuity with regards to Austin's bionic abilities and his demeanor. Several novelizations, for example, have Austin killing people who remain live in the episodes and using bionic capabilities not shown on TV.
• Older Than Dirt: Well, peradventure not that old, but creator Martin Caidin was writing near bionics equally early on as the 1960s; it wasn't a concept created for his novel or the show (encounter, for instance, The God Machine). And the concept of "cyborgs" or machine-augmented humans dates back fifty-fifty farther, possibly all the manner to the original Frankenstein tale.
  • Or older. In Irish mythology, the pre-Christian Celtic god/king Nuada received a working argent arm fashioned by the medico Dian Cecht and the wright Creidhne, after losing his arm in battle.
• I-Eyed Shot: Steve's bionic left centre is given a closeup whenever he sees something that is far away.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: the episode "The Ultimate Imposter" barely featured Steve at all. The hero was an OSI agent who had skills directly uploaded to his brain; this was an instance of a Backdoor Pilot.
  • "The Return of the Bionic Woman" turns into this towards the end; it was not widely known at the time of broadcast that a Bionic Woman series was coming.
  • The first two reunion films were pilots for potential revival serial, the second of which (Bionic Showdown) introduced Sandra Bullock every bit a adjacent-generation bionic adult female.
• Required Secondary Powers: As noted in Headscratchers, the non-bionic parts of his body would have trouble handling the forces created by his bionic limbs (the pilot pic is i of the only places where something related to this is addressed, where information technology's mentioned that Austin's centre and lungs are only responsible for taking care of his natural arm, allowing in increased stamina). He's also discipline to the Super Strength issues of this trope. When later adapted as a comic book in the early 2010s, this was lampshaded by having nigh all of Austin's body replaced by bionics, except his encephalon, substantially making him a variant of Robocop.
• Signature Audio Event:
  • All together at present... WHIRRRRR... CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CHH!
  • When he used his bionic eye: Doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot...
  • When he threw something: Feweweweweweweweweweeeeeewooo
  • When he jumped: Booooooooooooooooooooing!
  • When he landed after a loftier leap, or punched somebody, we hear a sound reminiscent of the flapping of a high-dive springboard.
  • When he bent something fabricated of metal, there was a sound like an enormous plumbing valve beingness turned.
• Spin-Off: The Bionic Woman.
• Stock Footage: Most notably the footage of a real-life test flight crash that opens every episode (though the pilot in that crash wasn't virtually equally desperately hurt... he did lose vision in his right eye) and numerous episodes using NASA spaceflight and moon walk footage.
  • Combines with Special Furnishings Failure whenever Steve takes off in ane model of plane... and lands in a completely different plane.
• Stock Sound Effects: The Venus probe sounds suspiciously like your Kenmore washing car....
• Sudden Proper noun Change: Barney Miller, "The Vii Million Dollar Man" suddenly becomes Barney Hiller for his 2d appearance, with no reason given. Backside the scenes, the producers were forced to modify the name considering in the interim between the ii episodes the pop Barney Miller sitcom had debuted. Lampshaded (and poked fun at) in the 2014 Half dozen Million Dollar Man Season Six comic book.
• Super Hero
• Super Soldier: Although downplayed as the series went on, and almost not-existent in the Bionic Woman spin-off, the original pilot film has the concept of a rebuilt bionic homo described in all just name as a super soldier, and it is made clear that this is what Oliver Spencer has in mind for Austin.
• Tap on the Head: Steve may be the most powerful human being alive, but his caput is fabricated of eggshells equally he's knocked unconscious from behind on many, many occasions. (Martin Caidin actually lampshaded this in his original novel by giving Steve a steel-reinforced skull every bit part of his bionic replacements, but the writers chose not to incorporate this into the TV graphic symbol.) Not that the steel skull would really help. Unconsciousness results from the shock wave disrupting the role of a structure chosen the Reticular Formation. Hit too hard, and the shock wave is still stiff enough to disrupt function when information technology reaches the brainstem and the person dies instantly.
• "Test Your Forcefulness" Game: Steve Austin tries this at a carnival. Using his bionic powers, he knocks the bell off the hook, freaking out the barker.
• Theme Tune: Recognizable even today, as well as its SFX sounds.
  • Yet the 2nd and third pilot films did not have the recognizable music. Instead, they featured a theme song performed past Dusty Springfield. (You lot can nonetheless hear information technology at the end of the syndicated version of the films.)
• There Is Another: For the first season, Steve Austin thought he was the only Bionic man ever made. So he came beyond OSI'south little skeleton in the cupboard, Barney Miller/Hiller, whom it turned out had been given Bionic limbs before Steve.
• 1000 Shalt Not Impale: In the pilot, Austin directly states that he doesn't want to kill anyone if he works for the OSI. By the end of the pilot, still, he's actually done so a couple of times (once with a grenade), and in the other pilot movies and during the first season, he uses deadly force a number of times. By the second season onwards, however, the show adopts a general "no kill" rule, with Austin rarely using deadly force. Averted in the novelizations, withal, that added violence to the storylines, with 1 novel, International Incidents (which adjusted several episodes into ane storyline) actually changing the catastrophe of the episode "Beloved Vocal for Tanya" and then that Austin kills the villain.
• We Tin Rebuild Him: The Trope Namer.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Austin's son is introduced in the first reunion TV movie and made bionic; a new bionic woman is introduced in the second film; the third and final picture show makes no reference to either character.
• Bike Programme: The original intent for the series, until the network decided it would work better every bit a weekly serial. Only two "wheel" installments were produced.
• Winds Are Ghosts: In the episode "Straight On 'til Morning", a group of aliens crashlands on Earth. When they die, their bodies disappear and a wind blows through the area.
• Wrote the Book: In "The Return of Bigfoot":

  Steve: I don't know. It's... information technology's like there's something there. I can almost remember, merely non quite... it's frustrating.
  Jaime: Tell me about it. I'k the one who wrote the volume on partial retentivity, remember?

• Yous Remind Me of X: Austin keeps running into different women who look similar Farrah Fawcett (to whom Majors was married at the fourth dimension). Lampshaded in 1 episode where Steve and Oscar are shown looking at photographs of the real Farrah.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan

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