The Six Million Dollar Man & The Bionic Woman DVD reviews and comments (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

I've watched the First two Movies (What were they thinking with the theme song and Intro on the 2nd? Wow.) and the 1st episode. The Set looks great and the episodes are nicely remastered. Great job

 

[bionicsuomi]

Ah finally got my SMDM box set. I must say I'm thrilled about the care that was put into this. The menus are nice, and most importantly, the transfers appear to be excellent (considering the age of the material). I have watchedonly "POP ZERO" so far. I'm glad to see that there are blacks between the chapters of the episodes (I know that the BW double episode misses some). There is a part in the music (around the 2/3 of the episode when steve waits for the bad guy's car) that is usually cut. It is smoth here...

I also briefly checked the "Return of bigfoot" 2 to see what many have described as a soundtrack problem (music being too low). I'll have to watch the episode fully but my first impresssion is that the episode is normal. I'll compare with the french release from last year. I think perhaps now that we have this soundtrack on CD, we can notice how much of the original score fades into the background. But so far, I don't think there is anything wrong in the transfer of that episode, other than the alteration of the Martin E. Brooks picture, in the opening.


More later...

 

[Jeff Willis]

I watched the first 2 pilots this week. I didn't remember "Wine Women and War" at all from years ago. I liked that episde. It's interesting to see how 'Oscar" acted towards Steve in the early pilots.


I barely recall the 1st pilot. I liked that one as well.


I didn't have any complaints with the transfer Q etc, with the 1st 2 pilots.


"Solid Gold Kidnapping" is next on the viewing list.

 

[Kevin L McCorry]

Some observations on this set. On receiving the box set on Friday, I have watched "Death Probe" (both parts), "Danny's Inferno", "The Most Dangerous Enemy", the first of the pilot movies, "The Return of Bigfoot" (both parts), "The Dark Side of the Moon" (both parts), most of the bonus features, and portions of "The Bionic Woman" and "Kill Oscar".


It's great stuff, but picture quality is, admittedly, underwhelming. I don't know if it just because my eyes have become accustomed to Blu-Ray resolution, but I found myself straining to see detail while watching episodes like "Death Probe: Part 2" which looks particularly blurry and washed out. "The Bionic Woman" doesn't look very much better to my eyes than it does on the Region 2 DVDs. So far, the only episodes that look noticably better are parts 1 and 2 of "Kill Oscar". The first pilot movie does look quite sharp and colorful, but it did look fairly crisp and vibrant on the Region 2s (one of the few SMDM episodes that did). The documentaries for Season 4 look very blurry, almost as though someone forgot to high-res them before converting them from Avid to digital tape.


But all in all I suppose this is the best SMDM can possibly look. And it is great to see many of the Season 4 and 5 episodes again for the first time in decades. The documentaries, although repetitive at times, are very informative and entertaining (however, I have to admit I'm not fond of using cutaways to hands and profile shots).


I can confirm that the three parts of "Kill Oscar" have intros specific to the show on which they were originally presented. And correct "To Be Continued on..." tags also. "Kill Oscar: Part 1" has that unusual epic Joe Harnell intro music (same as on the Region 2), which I recall someone saying won't be on that episode when it's released in Bionic Woman Season 2 in Region 1.

 

I hope they ondalay with releasing season 2 of the bionic woman

 

[Kevin EK]

I finished going through the set late last night. My review will be up today.


This is actually a pretty simple affair, when you break it down.

Picture quality varies between episodes, and many times, within the episodes - which is to be expected from a show of this age. On the other hand, the remastering done for this set reveals many things - like how old the stock footage of Washington DC and other places really is. One shot of Red Square for the final episode of the series, "The Moving Mountain", is clearly from the late 1940s or early 1950s. Another shot, from the beginning of "Kill Oscar", clearly has a dark-haired woman in a dark outfit driving a little tan car past the White House, and then when we go to the shot of Jaime Sommers pulling into OSI in that car, we now have a lighter-haired woman in a white outfit!


Audio quality also goes up and down. The beginning of "Kill Oscar" with John Houseman and Jack Colvin introducing the Fembots has a strange problem, where the sound effects overwhelm the dialogue all the way to the end of the teaser. And yes, that beginning does have the Joe Harnell music over the titles, which to my ear isn't as effective as the Jerry Fielding titles.


The longer versions of the interviews have a few hidden gems in them, but if you're looking for really in-depth discussions of how the series was made, or how the show developed, particularly over the final two seasons, there really isn't anything here to address it. Strangely enough, the disappearance of Alan Oppenheimer as Rudy Wells is mentioned in multiple interviews, but never definitively explained. And given that the DVD producers did an extensive interview with Harve Bennett, one would think this would be a simple matter. The only thing we hear is "we wanted to go in a different direction" but that really doesn't say anything. And the reappearance by Oppenheimer in "The Bionic Criminal" makes the scenario even stranger. (If the issue was continuity with the earlier Barney Miller/Hiller episode, then why isn't Oppenheimer in "The Return of the Bionic Woman"?


I'm also shocked that there is not a single mention of Westworld, even though the production of that film was concurrent with the making of the original TV movie, and even though multiple visual aspects of that film found their way into both Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman.


My review will reflect that this is a really nice set for fans of the series, and I will recommend it for them - but it's a pretty steep price point for somebody looking for an introduction to the series.

 

[Jack P]

Some good points, and on the stock footage issue, I have noticed that as a repetitive problem on many shows (not just SMDM) that used the stock library for establishing shots of cities that were incredibly out of date. In SMDM there are shots of the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument vantage point that reveal on either side of the Reflecting Pool, the WW2 era government buildings that were torn down around 1970. Many establishing shots of Manhattan from shows in the late 70s use images of downtown that predate the construction of the World Trade Center. Of course the ultimate example was "Ironside" that used as its setting for police HQ and Ironside's office a building that was torn down a year before the show got on the air!


On the matter of Oppenheimer's departure, I think the forgotten element is that as the 1975-76 season started, he landed a regular role on a short-lived sitcom "Big Eddie" that starred Sheldon Leonard and this I think is the reason why he was not available for the season opener of "Return Of Bionic Woman". But "Big Eddie" came and went fast, which would have meant he could be available again for the "Bionic Criminal" episode, and given how it was important to use him to match the earlier footage from the first "Barney Miller" episode it wouldn't surprise me all along if his return was strictly understood by all parties, including Martin Brooks as a one-shot deal only and that Brooks would have the role from that point onward.


I also agree that the Harnell BW theme for the titles is not as good as Fielding's. Frankly I don't see how Kenneth Johnson could say in his commentary that Fielding didn't come up with something that could be easily quoted in episodes themself when there isn't anything in Harnell that sounds quotable to me.

 

[Kevin EK]

At long last, the review is posted!

 

[bionicsuomi]

Continuing with our reviews of the DVDs...


I checked the sound quality for "Return of Bigfoot 2" as many people have metnioned inother forums a sound problem especially around the last "action sequence". I initially though we were used to the quality of the recent release of the soundtrack of the episode by Mark Banning (Joe Harnell estate). But after comparing with the french release from 2.5 years ago (a release without any restoration done), it is clear that something happened in the process for the region 1 release. The sound is indeed very bad, not clear/cryspy as it should be.


I contacted Kenneth Johnson to see if there was any chance to correct this for the up-coming season 2 release of BW. He confirmed what I expected: the deals are done...


Too bad they had to damage a good episode. Bigfoot Return has never been a favorite for me, except for the soundtrack. Still, I can't understand how a studio ingeneer can miss something that obvious...

 

[Tony J Case]

So I just watched Dr Wells is Missing - going through an episode a day - did anyone notice the missing ADR when Steve asks the Austrian waitress how to say "Leave your post" in German? She delivers the line and then there's this kind of muffled response that sounds like a stagehand feeding her lines from off camera.


Also - when did they start using the bionic sounds regularly? They've been doing the "doot-doot-doot" for the eye for a while now, but only twice did they do the "chachachachacha" for the leg and arms. Its strange, but I really miss that sound when Steve's running and whatnot. The action seems so empty otherwise.

 

[MattHR]

Originally Posted by Tony J Case

So I just watched Dr Wells is Missing - going through an episode a day - did anyone notice the missing ADR when Steve asks the Austrian waitress how to say "Leave your post" in German? She delivers the line and then there's this kind of muffled response that sounds like a stagehand feeding her lines from off camera.


Also - when did they start using the bionic sounds regularly? They've been doing the "doot-doot-doot" for the eye for a while now, but only twice did they do the "chachachachacha" for the leg and arms. Its strange, but I really miss that sound when Steve's running and whatnot. The action seems so empty otherwise.

That's exactly what's happening during that scene in "Dr. Wells is Missing". The voice heard from Steve Austin is not Lee Majors'. It's no doubt an un-mic'ed crew member reading the lines to the actress playing the waitress. I checked my copies of the ep from the previous NTSC Mexican and PAL U.K. releases, and they both have the same problem. I then checked my VHS copy of the old Sci-Fi Channel broadcast, but that entire scene was cut out. I highly doubt it was that way for its original network broadcast. Most likely an error when the ep was prepped for the archives/syndication prints.


The bionic sound effect was first used in S1's "Day of the Robot"—but only when the robot performed feats of strength. The effect would later be used for other non-bionic villains, such as the main thug in "Dr. Wells is Missing" and Mike Farrell's character in "The Pioneers", and then randomly applied to Steve thereafter. The effect became exclusively "bionic" in S2's "The Seven Million Dollar Man"—but even then a bit sparingly. It wasn't until S3 that all the various effects had become standard (and some might even say overused).

 

[younger1968]

i have watched a few episodes and the show has held up very well. My focused earlier on with the set was with the bigfoot episodes, because i remember them most when i was a kid.


I have watched a few episodes and it is always funny looking at the clothes and watching Steve Austin disobey orders. Steve Austin reminds me kind of Captain Kirk. Steve does whatever he wants. Oscar's character is very well scripted in the show. There is just enough of Oscar that adds to the plot lines.


I have no watched the reunion movies. I am not big on the love interest plots between bionic woman and bionic man.

 

[bionicsuomi]

Origiinally, Tony, I felt like you: the bionic actions withoutthebionic sounds... not as good. That's because I discovered the series around the 4th season.

Later on, as today, I much prefer without the bionic sound. The show is a bit more serious - dramatic - without the bionic sound. The music composer has a bigger job to do then and both Oliver Jones and Fielding (BW) did great jobs there. (Harell over did, at times).

 

[mark40511]

I just say something interesting that has bothered me over the years of seeing different bootleg copies. In the episode of BW Vega Influence, when she runs out of the building screaming from the noise, she runs into these hypnotized locals and tried to talk to them, then realized they are under the spell of the rock, so she runs away. The ENTIRE part of her running into the locals and realizing they were under the spell of the rock was completely cut out in all bootlegs I have seen. It goes from her running out of the building screaming and cuts to her running away from them. You never actually see her trying to talk to them. I'm not sure if I caught that particular episode on Sci-Fi so not sure if they cut that part out as well.