Bottom line: A sure-fire fan-pleaser.
Ratings: 5/5.
Cast: Lindsay Wagner, Richard Anderson, Martin E. Brooks.
Release Date: 14th August.
Format: Blu-ray.
Certificate: PG.
Run Time: 2867 minutes.
RRP: £149.99.
Released back-to-back with their Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Series, Fabulous Films’ The Bionic Woman: The Complete Collection blu-ray box set hits the shelves this August.
Featuring all 58 episodes —digitally re-mastered and restored—plus 699 minutes of extra features, this Emmy Award winning series brings the much-loved show back for a new generation to enjoy.
Premiering in January 1976, The Bionic Woman became the fifth most-watched television show of the season—even beating The Six Million Dollar Man in the ratings game.
Adapted by Harve Bennett from Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg, the show dealt with Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) as a pro-tennis player who is ‘rebuilt’ after a skydiving accident, using top secret cybernetics known as bionics.
As the world’s first bionic woman, Jaime is equipped with bionic legs, capable of running over 60 miles-per-hour, a bionic arm that can lift a car, and a bionic ear that can detect the slightest of sounds. With her tennis career over, Jaime returns to her hometown of Ojai, California, to start life a new as a school teacher at a U.S. Air Force base. Between her classroom duties, Jaime moonlights as a secret agent for OSI Director Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson), taking on highly-classified—and usually dangerous—missions, to satisfy a debt she feels is owed to the government for making her whole again.
Wagner’s role as Jamie Sommers in a two-part episode of The Six Million Dollar Man was supposed to be her last role, honouring a contract with Universal with whom she was working as a contract player in shows such as The Rockford Files and Night Gallery). However, public reaction to her character was so strong that she was offered her own spin-off series.
Wagner went on to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1977—the first ever Emmy awarded for a weekly science-fiction TV series. The show was also the first weekly TV series to feature a female superhero as the lead character, premiering three months before Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman.
Guest appearances include Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man, Fall Guy) Stefanie Powers (Dynasty), Julie Newmar (Catwoman in the Batman TV series) and stunt cyclist Evil Knievel.
As with all vintage shows, the SFX and pacing can see a little slow for modern tastes but The Bionic Woman is still capable of engaging and entertaining, almost 50 years after it was first released. And, with hours and hours of extras, this box set is a sure-fire fan-pleaser.
Extras:
- All 4 Six Million Dollar Man episodes explain the origins of The Bionic Woman.
- Audio commentary with writer Kenneth Johnson on “Six Million Dollar Man: Bionic Woman” Part 1 and Part 2, “The Ghost Hunter”, “Doomsday Is Tomorrow” Part 1 and Part 2.
- Audio Commentary with Director Alan J Levi and Writer James D Parriott on “Mirror Image”.
- Gag Reel.
- Featurette: Bionic Beginnings.
- Audio Commentary with Lindsay Wagner on “Road To Nashville” and “Biofeedback”.
- Audio Commentary with Writer James D Parriott on “The Bionic Dog” Part 1.
- Audio Commentary with Steven E. De Souza on “On The Run”.
- Featurette: Bionic Blast.
- Q&A with Series Star Lindsay Wagner.
- All three reunion movies: The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Bionic Showdown, Bionic Ever After?.
- Bionic Reunion Gallery.
- Printed Episode Guide Booklets.
- Audio Commentary With Author Herbie J. Pilato on “Welcome Home, Jaime: Part 1,” “A Thing Of The Past,” “Claws,” “The Deadly Missiles,” “Bionic Beauty,” “Canyon Of Death”, “The Return Of Bigfoot: Part 1”, “The Return Of Bigfoot: Part 2”.
- Audio Commentary With Director Alan J. Levi on “The Deadly Missiles”, “Road To Nashville” and “Once A Thief”.
- Audio Commentary With Bionic Woman Fan/Collector/Webmaster James Sherrard on “On The Run” and “Fembots in Las Vegas”.
- Bryan Cranston gives it to us straight-0The actor talks about his time on The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman.
- Bionic Ever After? (1994 Reunion Film)—Featuring a NEW 2K scan of the interpositive.
- “Brain Wash” Podcast with Bionic Fan and Collector James Sherrard.
- Bionic Woman Scripts (BD-ROM) for “The Jailing of Jaime”, “Assault on the Princess”, “Motorcycle Boogie” and scripts for unfilmed episodes “Clownaround”, “Rollercoaster Ride”, “Starman”, “Starman Part II”,
”The Wind Devil”. - All News Season Galleries.
- Bionic Woman Promos.
- Bionic Woman Files Declassified.
- Toy Still Gallery.
- Bionic Testing Center Still Gallery.
- Next Time on Bionic Woman.
- TV Spots.
- Photos from Bionicon.
- Kenneth Johnson recording Commentary Tracks Gallery.