Six Millian Dollar Man ? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Himes]

Somehow my Six Million Dollar Man doll and my sister's Bionic Woman doll that we had as kids remained 100% complete. I ended up with both of them, so I had to go to eBay and get an Ocsar Goldman doll to go with them. All three of them are prominently displayed in my 70's collection room. They look just great.

 

[Radioman970]

Awesome! I don't even want to know what you had to pay.

I have the blow up lab set. Also this rocket thing. Unfortunately not all of that is complete. I had the robot Steve Austin too with the claw hand and all. That's not complete anymore either. :frowning: Oscar may be the only complete thing I have from that. I need to take a look again.

My sister wasn't into these but she sold a bunch of her old Barbies for peanuts at a yard sale in the early 80s. She definitely wishes she'd not done that.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Ever since the DVD format came out, the Six Million Dollar Man has been one of the most requested DVD titles of all time and with the Blu Ray format already out, don't go looking for this series to be released anytime soon.

The way the format of tomorrow is looking, I think the studios are waiting for online distribution where fans of a particular show will no longer be able to own a physical copy of a television series or movie and only be able to either view it or download it as a limited rental version just so studios can control their titles.

 

[Radioman970]

They won't get any money out of me that way.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

But, I think it may very well be the final outcome as to why studios aren't releasing these shows ... it would make sense actually.

 

[RickER]

Nope. Its not death to DVD thats keeping this show off the shelf in the US. Its because Universal let the licence for the rights to Cyborg laps. Dimension, i belive snapped them right up. With the hopes of making a movie...a comedy movie.
Its a situation not unlike why we dont see batman 66 on DVD. One studio owns the characters, the other owns the film prints of the show.
Been discussed in a few of the 6MDM threads, like this one.

 

[Brian Himes]

Actually, Oscar didn't cost me all that much. I think I paid no more than $60.00 for him and he was still in the box. Granted the box was totally trashed (really ripped up) and I threw it out, but he was 100% complete. I'd love to have all of the other dolls that go with the collection (Maskatron, Bigfoot, Fembot) but those are WAY too expensive. Bigfoot is very hard to find still in the box or even complete. He tends to run into the $100 to $300 range. Too pricey for me. I'm happy just to have Steve, Oscar and Jamie.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Ricker, it's actually what I said. Only a very small percentage of TV Shows has been released to DVD and with the blu ray format, the industry will start that process all over again, the same titles being released to blu ray, and the situation will be back at the beginning when a new physical format is announced.

The concepts of the original Six Million Dollar Man where based on the Martin Caidin novel Cyborg, which is where Steve Austin comes from. So Universal had to get the rights to that book in order to make the show in the first place. But licenses like that periodically come up for renewal, and one such time happened back a few years ago, when all of Uni's lawyers were distracted with the then-impending buy-out by NBC (when Vivendi was still trying to sell them off). Uni really ought to have been paying attention to that license expiration, because then they could simply have renewed it, and that would have been that. But they overlooked it in the confusion, apparently.


This implies that different characteristics of the show belong to both companies and that neither studio can release the television series without consent of the other.

 

[DeWilson]

But what I find ironic is the Mexican DVD releases are R1 (&4) with both English and Spanish tracks!

 

[DeWilson]

or SALVAGE I

(which is a CPT/Sony show like "Fantastic Journey" and "Quark")

 

[SilverWook]

Universal needs to send some Fembots over to Dimension Films to get the rights back.

 

[Radioman970]

Seems like if The Voyagers comes out they can give us Salvage I too. I used to love that old show.

 

[David Lambert]

I can guarantee you beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the hold-up for Six Million Dollar Man has nothing whatsoever to do with DVD vs. Blu-ray format.

If the rights became available to do so tomorrow, or next month, or next year, the release would cheerfully happen on DVD.

 

[David Lambert]

Me, too.

I posted a rumor earlier this year that it was in the works. The same day I posted a similar rumor about Tales of the Gold Monkey. We've since found out that Monkey was tabled due to high costs. I wonder if Salvage was also judged the same. I don't know, though.

 

[Joseph Burns]

MattHR: I knew it! I was looking at the covers, and looking over at my copy of The Bionic Book and going waaait a second... Great stuff on all fronts.
Thanks for the font tip, some work I've been doing was held up on that.

Bring on the back covers! here's the other forum thread:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...9-26-05-a.html
My post is on page 9, post 248. Mostly, just being clear about reversing the 1978 changes for syndication, although I have a few more ideas about Oscar Goldman's Bionic File than I've let on in terms of packaging.

For those who are unaware, some of Joe Harnell's work for The Bionic Woman has recently been released (go to http://joeharnell.com). This minds me that iso music tracks are in order, certainly for key Nelson or Harnell work, like The Seven Million Dollar Man or Kill Oscar, respectively. Wouldn't that be sweet?

DeWilson: can you point to an online vendor for the Mexican release?

Radioman: really lucky about the briefcase: those tended to "blow out" permanently.

On the whole Blu-Ray - DVD - digital downloads thing: true about the industry's desire to lock down their content more. Microsoft has always been a proponent of the approach as well (which they'd naturally like to become the dominant provider of), which caused many to distrust the motives of their support for HD-DVD. Quite a few online pundits are pumping this "Blu-Ray is DOA" line, but notice that few seem to be speaking from grassroots outlets.
We consumers don't want to be that locked down. Wal-Mart is closing down their DRM servers, making who knows how many files unplayable. Want that to happen to your movie collection someday? Me neither. I'd like to have less intimate relations with my content providers, truth be told, and I'd like to be able to play my disks the day after World War III, even if I have to find a generator. < /rant >

 

[MattHR]

Joseph: I misunderstood when you said you had posted your own "scheme" regarding the releases, thinking you had posted your own cover art ideas, which is why I couldn't find such a post. Yes, I did read your idea about the releases, and it's just about exactly the way I'd like to see it done.

 

[Radioman970]

It does seem flimsy. But mine always works. I just remembered about the file folder on the inside the case. I believe I still have that too.

 

[Joseph Burns]

RadioMan: Would it be possible for you to snap a pic or two? Particularly the file folder. There are pictures online, of course - they seldom are "clean" images, though.

MattHR: Yes, aside from working on the Bionic File concept, I spent a lot of time on the content, particularly over at The Bionic Wiki, which has a long way to go before it's a Wikipedia-level resource, but it'll get there. It's only been around since Jan '07.

I did develop menus for the original cut of The Six Million Dollar Man (1973), perhaps I'll Youtube that.

Silence is deafening on the Mexican DVD release. Bueller?

 

[MattHR]

Joseph: A good friend of mine started the Bionic Wiki. I was heavily involved in the beginning, but had to shift my time to work on The Bionic Book.

I still have my Oscar Goldman and his briefcase. I always thought it was more of a suitcase, since it was so large. I remember, as a kid, thinking poor Oscar had to lug that heavy suitcase around everywhere. So I gave him a "bionic" arm from the SMDM Critical Assignment Arms accessory kit.

 

[Joseph Burns]

LOL, that thing was big. Part of the reason why I thought it could contain all the "Bionic Materials." I guess doubling as an exploder pushed the limit of 70s miniaturization. I assume the toy was riffing the exploding suitcase in "Return of the Robot Maker", even though Oscar never had it.

I goofed on the Mexico thing, that was the other SMDM thread - but since I brought it up: anybody looked at the Mexican "El Hombre Nuclear" DVD's? It seems from the running times that they have the original pilot films.