The Bionic Woman (episode)

The Six Million Dollar Man	“The Bionic Woman” S2 E19
Production 41244; Original Airdate: 16 March 1975
	Jaime's first bionic run.
	Produced by; Lionel E. Siegel; Joe L. Cramer
	Written by; Kenneth Johnson
	Directed by; Richard Moder
Guest Cast
	Guest Star(s); Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers; Malachi Throne as Joseph Wrona;
	Special Guest Star(s); Martha Scott as Helen Elgin; Alan Oppenheimer as Rudy Wells;
	With; Ford Rainey as Jim Elgin; Paul Carr as Timberlake; Harry Hickox as John Ellerton; Scott B. Wells as Doctor; Jeremy Robert Brown as Boy; Dana Plato as Girl;
	Uncredited; Unknown actor as David Welsh;
Broadcast Order
Season 2
"The E.S.P. Spy"	"The Bionic Woman (Part II)"
	Related episodes; "The Bionic Woman (Part II)"; "The Return of the Bionic Woman"; "The Return of the Bionic Woman (Part II); "Welcome Home, Jaime"; "Welcome Home, Jaime (Part II)"

for other uses, see Bionic Woman (disambiguation)

"The Bionic Woman" is a two-part episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. It marks the debut of the Jaime Sommers character.

Summary[]

Having completed a mission in Europe to retrieve a stolen $20 bill printing plate, Steve Austin takes some well-earned leave and returns to his hometown of Ojai, California to buy a ranch and to visit his mother, Helen, and step-father, Jim. Whilst there he is reunited with his high-school sweetheart, tennis-pro Jaime Sommers. After years of not seeing each other Steve and Jaime discover they have strong feelings for each other and quickly fall in love. Following a tragic sky-diving accident that leaves Jaime near death, Steve pleads with Oscar Goldman of the OSI to save her life by replacing her shattered legs, her right arm and inner right ear with Bionic replacements. Oscar reluctantly agrees on the understanding that Jaime will have to do work for the OSI in the future. Jaime makes an excellent recovery following surgery and Steve asks her to marry him.

Notable Quotes[]

Joseph Wrona: I saw his face...
Timberlake: Who is he? How could he have gotten into the truck?
Joseph Wrona: I don't know. But if it takes me the rest of my life, I'll find him. And when I do, he's a dead man.

Steve Austin: What kind of cake is this? (tastes the contents of the bowl) Oh! It's terrible!
Helen Elgin: (laughs) Of course it is, it's wallpaper paste.
Steve Austin: It's not bad for wallpaper paste. (laughs)

Girl: Boy, Jaime's the most important person that ever came out of our town. Except for that astronaut guy.

Jaime Sommers: What kind of a life are we going to have with each other?
Steve Austin: What kind of a life are we going to have without each other?

Steve Austin: You have the power to put her back together again just like you did me!
Oscar Goldman: Bionic limbs cost millions of dollars, you understand? Millions of dollars! I got to get Rudy Wells and a whole bionic team up here, how am I going to justify the expense?
Steve: Well, how did you justify me!?
Oscar: That was different! There was a need!
Steve: (hopeful) Well, there still is, Oscar. You know how they're always looking for a new angle, a new device. I mean, think of what an asset Jaime could be to us. And her cover as a tennis pro, I mean it's perfect.
Oscar: Steve—
Steve: I mean, there are places she could get into that I could never get into. And she's got the head for it. She's well-adjusted, she's clever, she's bright—
Oscar: Steve, you're in love with her!
Steve: What's that got to do with it?
Oscar: Everything! You'd sell your soul for her! You'd do anything, you'd commit yourself to her. But someday, someday I'm going to say that I need her. I'm going to need her for a job and you know what you're doing to do, pal? You're going to change your mind.
Steve: No, I wo—I won't change my mind, Oscar, I swear it!
Oscar: (long pause) Well, what about, uh... Jaime? What does she say?
Steve: (tearful) She's dying Oscar. She put her life into my hands. I'm putting into yours. You're the only one that can help. Will you help me? Please.

Jaime Sommers: What did you let them do to me?
Steve Austin: Look, I know how you feel.
Jaime: No you don't. Why did you let them do that?
Steve: Jaime, trust me, please trust me.
Jaime: I don't want to be a freak!

Jaime Sommers: (having taken her first bionic step) That's one small step for Jaime.
Steve Austin: Don't kid yourself, that was a giant leap.

Jaime Sommers: Steve, do you think I'll be able to play the violin when my hand gets better?
Steve Austin: Well sure.
Jaime Sommers: Oh, that's so great, because I have never been able to play it before.

Steve Austin: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Jaime Sommers: And Rudy Wells and those bionic men put Jaime and Steve back together again.

Jaime Sommers: You know, it might not be so bad being the bride of Frankenstein.
Steve Austin: You thinking about getting married?
Jaime Sommers: No, actually, I was thinking eh, it might be kind of nice being bionic.

Trivia[]

Story[]

In his DVD commentary, Kenneth Johnson reveals a few facts about how this episode, and the character of Jaime Sommers, were created:

Working titles for the episode included "Homecoming" and "Mrs. Steve Austin."
The story was inspired by The Bride of Frankenstein.
In the first version of the story, Jaime is a woman with psychic abilities who Austin is assigned to protect. She is made bionic after an accident. In the second version, Jaime is a businesswoman. Only in the third version did Jaime become a tennis player and Steve Austin's childhood sweetheart (the first two concepts included a third-party boyfriend).
Jaime was always intended to die at the end of the story, though Johnson initially pushed for the story to end with Jaime left in a coma with the potential of being rejuvenated later. According to Johnson, the then-popular Love Story was the network's motivator in initially demanding that Jaime be killed off.

Production[]

SMDM 219 BW Newspaper Ventura County Star filming composite — Ventura County Star spotlight, January 19, 1975.

Portions of the two-parter were filmed on location in Ojai and vicinity, including tennis courts and the Ojai Valley Inn which doubled for the Ventura USAF Hospital. On January 19, 1975, the Ventura County Star published a brief write-up with photos of the episode's filming.
The sequence in which Steve and Jaime run along a fence is a callback to a similar run from the original Six Million Dollar Man pilot (and featured weekly in the main title). In this episode Steve wears a similar jogger and his footwear is identical to the shoes on his action figure. Steve has also worn this suit in "Burning Bright."
Most of The Bionic Woman's main title sequence will be comprised of scenes from this episode and "Welcome Home, Jaime" — from Steve's POV of Jaime's parachute accident with eye reticle effect, to her bionic operation and initial tests.

Characters[]

As Steve drives into Ojai, he passes a sign that reads: "Welcome to Ojai, Home of American Astronaut, Steven Austin." This is a rare "Steven" reference, but it would be used again in part two, as Joseph Wrona addresses him as "Colonel Steven Austin." Rescued scientist Dr. Losey also addresses him as "Steven" in "The Winning Smile."
Austin's desire to buy property in a small town was foreshadowed in the epilogue of "Taneha" a few weeks earlier.
While this story is famed for the debut of Jaime Sommers, it also marks the return of Steve's mother, Helen Elgin and introduces Jim Elgin — Steve's step-father — who was only mentioned in "The Coward."
Helen and Jim's status as Jaime's legal guardians is hinted at when Jaime selects Jim as the man who'll give her away. The guardianship of the Elgins is revealed in "Welcome Home, Jaime."

Music[]

Lee Majors recorded two original songs for the soundtrack of this episode: "Got to Get Loose" and "Sweet Jaime." The latter incorporates the theme music as a counter melody. "Sweet Jaime" as sung by Majors would be heard again in "The Return of the Bionic Woman" and "Welcome Home, Jaime." And we'll hear an instrumental version in season four's "Kill Oscar (Part II)."

Bionics[]

As discussed in the DVD commentary and The Bionic Book, Kenneth Johnson coined the term "pocket bionics" to describe non-mission related, every day actions viewers could identify with. In this episode Steve mows the lawn, cleans a window, and moves a refrigerator (Johnson says a scene showing Steve pulling out a tree stump was written but not filmed). However, pocket bionics weren't new to the series; Steve's very first use of strength on the weekly series was to bend a roll bar for his dune buggy in "Population: Zero." In the second episode, "Survival of the Fittest," he would serve as a human jack while Oscar fixed a flat tire. But under Johnson's watch they would become more frequent, especially on The Bionic Woman.

Gaffes[]

Continuity[]

The infamous Jaime or Jamie continuity error starts here when Jaime's name is misspelled "Jamie" in a yearbook inscription after it is initially revealed as "Jaime" in a newspaper article. In his audio commentary Kenneth Johnson reveals that the inscription was a production error by associate producer Arnold F. Turner. Johnson explains that he named Jaime after a water-skier he once worked with at Sea World.
When Jaime departs the tennis court to join Steve, a close-up shot shows her sliding her racquet into a leather carrying bag. When she embraces Steve, however, the bag is completely different.

Nitpicks[]

Continuity[]

Only a couple of months earlier, we saw Steve fawning over the love of his life in "Lost Love". Yet here he is doing so again, this time with Jaime.
The fact Steve doesn't mention Barney Miller when Jaime asks Steve if there are any other bionic people is sometimes identified as a continuity error. In fact, however, at this point Steve's understanding is that Barney's bionics have been permanently tuned down to human strength. So assuming the context of Jaime's question is whether there are more like Steve who can bend steel bars and run 60 MPH, Steve is being truthful.
The lyrics of "Sweet Jaime" when the song is first heard make reference to their relationship going "flat" and how Steve doesn't like seeing her "now and then" and, most noticeably, that their friendship has ended. None of this actually reflects the rekindled romance seen on screen as the song plays out.

Bionics[]

When Steve paddles his canoe on the lake, he at first paddles to his left and to his right, as would be normal. After he spots Jaime, he paddles bionically to get to her, but only on one side. This should have made his canoe go in circles.

DVD Commentary[]

Kenneth Johnson's commentary for the 2010 DVD release of this episode (in the Bionic Woman: Season 1 set) contains some factual errors. He states that this was the first two-parter in episodic television. In fact, numerous other series had aired two-parters previous to this, including the original Star Trek (coincidentally, an episode that also guest-starred Malachi Thorne), and Mission: Impossible. Johnson also claims this was the only time Lee Majors sang on television; discounting his reprise of "Sweet Jaime" in "The Return of the Bionic Woman," Majors, of course, also famously sang his own theme song on The Fall Guy.

Novelization[]

Plot elements from this episode were incorporated into the novelization Welcome Home, Jaime by Eileen Lottman (published in the UK under the title Double Identity and credited to "Maud Willis").

Home Video[]

Main article: Home Video Releases

"The Bionic Woman" two-parter holds the distinction of being one of only three stories from either series to be released on home video in the 1970s. The other two: the original Six Million Dollar Man pilot movie and the two-part "The Secret of Bigfoot." Released on MCA DiscoVision (later renamed LaserDisc), they remained the only episodes on home video until 1986 when MCA again released "The Bionic Woman" two-parter — this time on VHS. As with the laserdisc before it, the package design boasted only one title: The Bionic Woman, which invited ambiguity as to its contents.

A year later in 1987 German company CIC released their own VHS for the two-parter, titled Das 6 Million Dollar-Girl. And in 1996 MCA reissued their US VHS with virtually the same package design as the 1986 version.

In the years that followed, episodes of Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman would see release internationally on VHS and then DVD. "The Bionic Woman" two-parter was released on PAL-VHS in the UK by Universal Playback in 1999 followed by complete season one and complete series releases on DVD in other international markets. But there would be no further North American home video releases for either show until 2010 when Universal released The Bionic Woman Season 1 on DVD.

Promoted as "bonus features" and described as "The Six Million Dollar Man Crossover Episodes," the set included "The Bionic Woman" two-parter, "The Return of the Bionic Woman" two-parter, and "Welcome Home, Jaime Part I." Back in 1976 Part I was indeed intended to air on Six Mill, accompanied with promotional material and TV listings. But an 11th hour switch turned it into the first episode of The Bionic Woman. So it's an understandable error. Kenneth Johnson provides a robust audio commentary for both parts.

Just one month later "The Bionic Woman" two-parter would pop up again on North American DVD when Time Life released The Six Million Dollar Man The Complete Collection box set. International box sets would follow. And in 2018 German company Turbine would release Der Sechs Millionen Dollar Mann Die Komplette Serie (The Six Million Dollar Man The complete series) on Blu-ray, featuring both episode parts of "The Bionic Woman" plus a "movie" version.

In the summer of 2022 both Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman complete series sets were released on Blu-ray in North America by Shout Factory. "The Bionic Woman" two-parter appears as a bonus feature on The Bionic Woman set and Johnson's audio commentary is ported over. International Blu-ray releases followed.