BIONIC WOMAN (original series) COMING TO DVD (Kenneth johnson announces) (1 Viewer)

[bionicbear]

 

[bionicbear]

Can't believe I spelled Jaime wrong!

 

[MBrousseau]

Bionic Bear, your audio document is an irrefutable proof! Good quality audio too! I wish my audio tapes from 1976 sounded like this. I used to record on audio tapes every Bionic Woman episodes but those in reruns which started in june 1976.

 

[MattHR]

Originally Posted by bionicbear
This explains why Universal could not find a copy with Six Mil credits...it never existed! I will digitize the episode for the world to hear soon!

In all possible fairness and disclosure, there is only one possibility that I am wrong. While I have no recollection of doing it, I could have taped WHJ1 when it was rerun that same year. I would only have done this if something went wrong during the original taping and I would have redone it...on the same tape. Again I have NO memory of doing this, there is no evidence of doing that on the tape, and I believe it HIGHLY unlikely. AND it would mean that Universal changed the credits that year for the first rerun and not for syndication. Would they have even gone to the expense of doing this for a first rerun?

Hey Scott,

Thanks for taking the time to upload your audio recording. It's definitely from the original broadcast—and not a later rerun. The promo/synopsis for both Streets of San Fransisco and Harry-O during the end titles confirms it (they were both aired on Thursday, January 15, 1976).

I, too, recorded the eps on audiotape back in the day. I would eventually record over them when I began to videotape the eps when they started in syndication.

Hearing Lindsay Wagner's "Next On..." promo makes me wish they were included on the DVD set.

 

[bionicbear]

Originally Posted by MattHR

Hey Scott,

Thanks for taking the time to upload your audio recording. It's definitely from the original broadcast—and not a later rerun. The promo/synopsis for both Streets of San Fransisco and Harry-O during the end titles confirms it (they were both aired on Thursday, January 15, 1976).

I, too, recorded the eps on audiotape back in the day. I would eventually record over them when I began to videotape the eps when they started in syndication.

Hearing Lindsay Wagner's "Next On..." promo makes me wish they were included on the DVD set.

Well thanks to great research by our very own, JohnMor, this is actually the rerun of Welcome Home Jaime that aired later that summer. He figured it out by looking up The Streets of San Francisco and Harry O episodes and found that the particular episodes mentioned at the end did not air on that next Thursday. I went over the tape again and found a small piece left from the original, so I did in fact retape over the original! I was using 60 minute tapes at the time and I must not have flipped it over very well on January 14th. So the mystery continues.

 

[bionicbear]

I updated the video to reflect that it is in fact the audio to the 1st repeat of Welcome Home Jaime in 1976.

 

[JohnMor]

Yes, the Harry O episode described was "One For The Road" which aired on 9/18/75, and the The Streets of San Francisco episode was "School of Fear" and it aired 10/9/75. So those were obviously aired back-to-back only during the summer repeats. The eps that actually aired on 1/15/76 were "Book of Changes" (Harry O) about a gambling club owner, and "The Honorable Profession" (The Streets of San Francisco) about a shot policeman.

But I still distinctly recall WHJ 1 being a TBW episode when it first aired. I also vividly remember how weird I thought it was to have the "Bigfoot" eps begin on one series and conclude on the other. And that would not have been the case if there had already been a crossover.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by MattHR


Hearing Lindsay Wagner's "Next On..." promo makes me wish they were included on the DVD set.

Me too. I specifically remember the one that aired at the end of "Kill Oscar, Pt. 3": "This is Lindsay Wagner. Join me and my special guest stars Julie Newmar, Abe Vigoda, Hermoine Baddley and William Windom as we take on... Vincent Price!" Sigh. Those were fun days seeing all these eps for the very first time.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Im still undecided if I should get this or not. I havent watched an episode since reruns in the early 80s. Does it hold up well like Kenneth Johnson"s Incredible Hulk ?

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

Originally Posted by JohnMor
Me too. I specifically remember the one that aired at the end of "Kill Oscar, Pt. 3": "This is Lindsay Wagner. Join me and my special guest stars Julie Newmar, Abe Vigoda, Hermoine Baddley and William Windom as we take on... Vincent Price!" Sigh. Those were fun days seeing all these eps for the very first time.

Are you sure the audio is from the repeated telecast? Normally during summer reruns, the networks would skip the "next week preview" so they could promo their new fall shows. This practice has been going on since the early 1970's.

 

[MattHR]

Originally Posted by JohnMor
But I still distinctly recall WHJ 1 being a TBW episode when it first aired. I also vividly remember how weird I thought it was to have the "Bigfoot" eps begin on one series and conclude on the other. And that would not have been the case if there had already been a crossover.

"The Return of Bigfoot" and "Kill Oscar" are better examples of cross-overs, in that Steve and Jaime appear prominently throughout all episodes. In "Welcome Home, Jaime", Steve appears only briefly in three scenes in Part 1, and not at all in Part 2. "Bigfoot" and "Kill Oscar" were both conceived to be cross-overs, whereas "WHJ" was temporarily considered to become one.

I have a 7/21/76 Daily Variety piece about ABC's then-president Fred Silverman's big plans for SMDM and BW's upcoming season to feature several cross-overs and two-part stories (specifically citing "Bigfoot" and "Kill Oscar"). He was pleased with SMDM's huge ratings for previous two-parters and the first "Bigfoot" story, so was eager to see more of the same.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by Greg Chenoweth
Are you sure the audio is from the repeated telecast? Normally during summer reruns, the networks would skip the "next week preview" so they could promo their new fall shows. This practice has been going on since the early 1970's.

Yes, TBW always used the next episode preview, even in repeats. And the network didn't usually preview fall shows that early in the summer anyway, as most didn't even start production until mid-to-late July. At that point they'd have nothing in the can to preview except possibly a pilot that may or may not be meant for air. The big preview push usually started in August.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by MattHR
"The Return of Bigfoot" and "Kill Oscar" are better examples of cross-overs, in that Steve and Jaime appear prominently throughout all episodes. In "Welcome Home, Jaime", Steve appears only briefly in three scenes in Part 1, and not at all in Part 2. "Bigfoot" and "Kill Oscar" were both conceived to be cross-overs, whereas "WHJ" was temporarily considered to become one.

True, but that's not what was weird to me. It was to have one series start a story and another finish it. We as a family never watched The Six Million Dollar Man each week, so it was a big thing for us to have to tune into it. Plus, remember there were no crossovers back then. It was unheard of. After "Bigfoot" and "Kill Oscar" we all got used to the concept, but that was not the case when TBW debuted. So when "Bigfoot" first aired it was very unique. It was the talk of the schoolyard that Monday.

 

[Joseph Burns]

I'm so glad to see the two major crossover epics handled properly on the Time-Life release. This WHJ thing is frustrating, but really it always was. Unlike the true crossovers, WHJ was really a BW story, and if a Six version was seen (or a hybrid Woman with Six supers), it was replaced no later than that same June, unlike the others which were changed for syndication.

There were crossovers of a sort on other series - Rhoda's wedding with the MTM folks comes to mind, but the full "start on one show, finish on another" was, IIRC, strictly in comics at that point (Team-Ups).

I remember that when Jaime appeared in "The Secret of Bigfoot," with Oscar telling her not to come, then Part II airing on Wednesday instead of Sunday, I can tell you that I expected Jaime in Part II, especially after the WHJ debacle.

In a sense, "The Return of Bigfoot" was a payoff for that tease.

 

[bionicbear]

Well here are audio excerpts from Welcome Home Jaime Part 2 that definitely aired on January 21, 1976. This one has an ad for Donny and Marie with Lee Majors that aired on the following Friday, January 23. I am now totally convinced that WHJ part one aired on January 14th as The Bionic Woman. After listening to my tape, I heard myself reading what was printed during the opening credits. The memory came back to me that I wanted to preserve them after seeing them on the previous week! I hope that databases around the web will eventually update their info. The Bionic Woman premiered on January 14, 1976 with the episode, Welcome Home Jaime.

http://bionicbear.com/bionicfiles/whjp2.mp3

 

[bionicbear]

The case is building! As you may have read in a previous post, I taped all The Bionic Woman's and some Six Million Dollar Man's when they first aired. When I read that there was controversy over whether Welcome Home Jaime was on Six Mil I decided to digitize my cassette tape to see what the credits sounded like. If you have been following this, you know that my tape is of the repeat of the summer of 1976. I know that I taped over the original with the same cassette because there is a remnant of the original on side one. I was 12 when The Bionic Woman premiered and tapes were expensive for me so if I didn't like how something was recorded, I just reused the same tape. Looking back now I am saying to myself what was I thinking? That was way to risky! I hadn't really looked at the tape, or compared it to other tapes in my collection, but since there seems to still be some doubt that they might have changed it for the rerun, I decided to look at the original tape for any other clues. Here is what I can tell you! The tape is labeled Bionic Woman and not Six Million Dollar Man. All my Six Million Dollar Man tapes are labeled as such. I also labeled all my episodes by a number in the corner and WHJ Part 1 is labeled as number 1! Not definitive sure, but something on the tape made me yell Eureka! Next to the title is a date! 1/14. In all this research we have found out that January 14. 1976 was a Wednesday. WHJ Part One aired on the 14th of Jan, that I am sure of now, could it have been a Six Mil, I guess it is still possible, but I think that evidence is fading.
PS. I didn't really yell Eureka.

 

[JohnMor]

Scott, I somehow knew you'd be one of the key people to put this to rest.

BTW, don't know if you still have Lindsay's preview from the end of "Kill Oscar, Pt. 3" (first run), but if you do, I'd love to hear it again. I've always remembered it: it's for "Black Magic."

 

[Sam Favate]

One good thing about the long delay for this title that I thought of when I opened the package: It came after Universal stopped use of those horrible double-sided discs they used 5 or 6 years ago. Ugh. Glad this was spared that kind of existence.

 

[derosa]

I wonder if kids are keeping copies of their favourite TV shows today? (doubt it)
Guess the internet is supposed to save everything for us these days,
we don't need to think about preserving our own memories for the future,
there is the assumption we'll just be able to look it up later, if it even
occurs to us...

Somehow, I think the influence of television has wained on the generations that followed.
It's really interesting to see the impact shows like Bionic Woman had on the kids
who grew up with them, creating cherished moments on young formative minds.

Good times.

 

[bionicbear]

Originally Posted by JohnMor
Scott, I somehow knew you'd be one of the key people to put this to rest.

BTW, don't know if you still have Lindsay's preview from the end of "Kill Oscar, Pt. 3" (first run), but if you do, I'd love to hear it again. I've always remembered it: it's for "Black Magic."

I will look for that one next! My goal is to digitize all titles, previews, and end credits. I also have interviews that Lindsay did at the time somewhere I think!