Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6176 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-26
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 914 minutes

Synopsis
Steve Austin is an astronaut and Colonel in the Air Force who barely survives a terrible air crash. The Government use experimental bionic surgery to re-build him and he becomes 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and an agent for the Office Of Scientific Investigations (OSI). This box set includes all 13 episodes from Season One as well as the three pilot episodes.

Customer Reviews

Universal Slumps on Six Million Dollar Man
Universal's DVD release of Season One of "The Six Million Dollar Man"(1973-74), starring Lee Majors is about average with Universal's other boxsets of their catalog pieces from the 1970's. Obviously, no restoration work has been done, much like "The Incredible Hulk" and "Kolchak-The Night Stalker". The six, single-sided discs, includes the original 13 episodes plus 3 two-part episodes, which were tele-plays/pilots that were converted into 2 part episodes for syndication. The digi-pack case has a glossy finish with various photos from the series and a brief description for each story. Video quality is superior to a VHS cassette or what you'd expect from the Sci-Fi Channel, but little more. Yes, there are film defects, blurry shots, some dirt and noise at times, but it is typical of something from this period and is not too distracting, once you are absorbed by each scintilating plot, including guest appearances by John Saxon, Lindsay Wagner and Farrah Fawcett. Audio is a typical mono track, nothing to write home about, but clear. Each disc has an animated menu, displaying a montage of Steve Austin, doing his schtick, while an EKG monitor line bounces in the background, giving you the option to play an individual episode or "Play All". There are NO extras whatsoever, except for a paper insert advertising other releases. With few exceptions, this is a typical Universal Studios(Care of Playback) release. Could it be better? Certainly. Are we likely to see a restoration job? Doubtful. So, in the mean time, with a anniversary/special edition set seeming far in the distance, if ever,(rumor has it, that a better release will occur side by side the release of the tentative theatrical spoof, now in planning) this set is acceptable for the nostalgic.

Pilot stores look uncut to me!
So I received the first season DVD boxed set today and I can confirm for a fact that the 3 pilot movies are UNCUT on DVD!!! I double checked side by side with my Universal Playback PAL VHS copies purchased during 1999 and 2000 just to be sure.

VHS tape #1 contains "Cy'borg" the Six Million Dollar Man (Pilot) which cuts out Steve Austin's first mission on the Moon and starts instead with animated text with the definition of what a "cy'borg" is. The opening credits are totally different. The pilot episode's original first 20 minutes are mostly butchered out on VHS. This tape also includes "Wine, Women and War" the second pilot move. Running time for both pilots in movie format on one tape are 2 hours 21 minutes. Two 90 minutes movies should add up to 3 hours but it doesn't.

Well the first DVD has "The Moon and The Desert Pt 1 & 2" correctly named instead of "Cy'borg" which makes so much more sense now because you didn't even see him on the "moon" in the butchered VHS version, it starts on the "desert" where he has his accident. Each pilot is in episodic format with the proper opening sequence and opening credits. Running time for both double length episodes on DVD are 3 hours and 7 minutes. If you do the math you'll see these are both 90 minute stories uncut. So the first DVD has an extra 46 minutes! Yes I was shocked when I watched all this new footage I had never seen before.

VHS tape #2 contains "Solid Gold Kidnapping Part 1 & 2" which runs for 1 hour 35 minutes unedited.

The second DVD has "The Solid Gold Kidnapping Pt 1 & 2" and Population Zero (the first episode) which adds up to 2 hours and 23 minutes. If you subtract 95 minutes, you have 48 minutes which is the standard length of a regular episode. So this story was uncut on both VHS and DVD.

The original pilot is a surprisingly dark character story with Steve Austin feeling so depressed and inhuman after the operation that he would rather die or commit suicide than live as part robot. I was very impressed to see Darren McGavin's performance especially after the original Night Stalker pilot but before he was given his own series as Kolchack: The Night Stalker. William Shatner (Star Trek), Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels), Greg Morris (Mission Impossible), John Saxon (Nightmare on Elm Street films, various TV shows) and George Takei (Star Trek) all make guest appearances.

"Run, Steve Run!" features a return villain who makes the bionic robots first seen in "Day of the Robot" which are both good. Some of the episodes are little slow at times and they didn't use the now famous slow motion sounds for the bionic effects yet. Dr. Rudy Wells is played by a different actor and there are no DVD extras but the episodes look great, amazing amount of detail and color never seen before when compared to the VHS tapes.

Anyway since Amazon just dropped the price from £26 to only £13.97 now (almost half) I have to recommend it. 4 out of 5 stars only because there are no bonus features.

No digital restoration or clean up
I am disappointed that Universal just dumped the episodes onto DVD without digitally restoring them and cleaning them up of dirt. What you get is all episodes having constant dirt and dust flashing onto the screen and dull picture quality.

Universal digitally restored and cleaned up of dirt ALL the episodes in The Bionic Woman Season 1 DVD but why not for The Six Million Dollar Man Season 1 DVD ??