Hey Scippy, I was just thinking about you last night, what with the Buck Rogers and all... I came across this, you know, I've been a longtime fan of Steve Austin, the Six million dollar man, and thought you might get a kick out of this trivia...
* The aircraft seen crashing in the opening sequence of the show is real and the dialogue spoken by actor Lee Majors during the opening credits is reportedly based upon communication prior to the crash that occurred on May 10, 1967: ("I can't hold her, she's breaking up! She's breaking--"). Test pilot Bruce Peterson lost an eye in the crash, but likewise also miraculously survived what appeared to be a fatal accident even though his lifting body aircraft hit the ground at approximately 250 mph (400 km/h) and tumbled six times.
* The character of Steve Austin underwent retconning during the early episodes of the series. In the first pilot film, he was described as being a civilian who nonetheless served as an astronaut. In the series, he was given the United States Air Force rank of Colonel and was no longer referred to as a civilian.
* Caidin's original novel, Cyborg was not his first work to make mention of bionics. His 1968 novel The God Machine also made reference to this science, and his later work Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future had the titular character given bionic body parts in an intentional nod to Steve Austin.
* One of the show's most famous set pieces was a rotating ice tunnel that appeared in several episodes featuring Bigfoot (who, in this series, was the guardian for a group of aliens observing earth; the tunnel was a line of defence intended to disorient and knock out intruders). This tunnel was for many years a popular part of the Universal Studios Tour, and tourists still pass through the tunnel today on the tour, though as of 2003 it had been redesigned to resemble the entrance to The Mummy's Tomb (look for the rotating wall).
* One Christmas-themed episode of the series demonstrated an unexpected bit of product placement when Austin visits a toy store where Six Million Dollar Man action figures are visible in the background.
* A Christmas themed episode featured actor Ray Walston as Budge, a scrooge-like character whose company has the contract to develop a life-support system for a NASA manned flight to Mars, but under Budge, the contractor is only barely complying with specifications. Austin, there to investigate frequent equipment failures, dresses up as Santa to make Budge think he's dreaming. Austin takes Budge on a midnight walk (as per doctor's orders) to see the results of his chintziness, then encourage him to be more generous with compliance, as well as be nicer in the holiday season (he refused to have a Christmas tree contributed by employees). There's a chamber marked "Artifical Martian atmosphere" used to test the life support system, a nice reference to Walston's famous role in "My Favorite Martian".
* During filming of the 1977 episode "Carnival of Spies", which was shot at a real-life carnival, a crewmember was moving what was thought to be a wax mannequin. When the mannequin's arm broke, it was discovered that it was in fact the mummified remains of a man. Researchers discovered that the body was that of one Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw who had died in a gunfight in 1911.
* DVD release of the series has been delayed for unconfirmed reasons (it is rumored a royalties issue might be the cause of the delay; it has also been suggested that the studio is waiting for production of a new Six Million Dollar Man movie to be confirmed). However, in November 2004, Universal Studios announced that it will release both series to DVD in North America in 2005. As of August 2005, however, no release dates had been announced.
* In September of 2005, the first season of both the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman was released on DVD in the UK.
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I thought that was kinda neat, as I had never read that by Caiden. I still have your book though, but I need an addy to send it back.
Stephen
Topic: Hollywood agrees to burning DVD issue (Read 2256 times)