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

[MattHR]

Originally Posted by bionicbear
Yes I am so confused. And it is apparent that I have a mix of original air and summer tapes, which is making finding things difficult. They would change the order move the previews around to accommodate the next episode. Because of this I don't think I am gonna get them all.

Before anyone gets too worked up over this, I should confess: I was only joking about the "Kill Oscar" trilogy being switched for its summer repeats.

And, speaking of "Kill Oscar", I do have another interesting tidbit. Most people are familiar with KO2 being switched from its original SMDM state to become BW in syndication. That change required the on-screen credit for "Special Guest Star Lindsay Wagner" to become "Special Guest Star Lee Majors" (along with replacing the opening and closing title sequences with those of BW). For later syndication (and foreign video versions) the opening title was replaced, the closing titles simply (albeit incorrectly) duplicated Part 1's BW sequence, but no Lee Majors credit was created, so he goes uncredited in that version of the episode! However, I have a 1979 syndication recording from my local market (Minneapolis) that does have a Lee Majors credit—something I've never seen on any version since. Here's a screen cap:

And, on a related note: My 1979 syndication recording of "The Return of Bigfoot—Part II" has the entire opening supers recreated to appear in SMDM font—complete with "Special Guest Star..." reconfigured to credit Lindsay Wagner! However, the supers that appear throughout the rest of the ep are in their original BW form, as are the closing titles (I'll post a screen cap soon).

In short, all versions of both sets of cross-overs ("Kill Oscar"; "Return of Bigfoot") have always appeared—in syndication and video—in some sort of half-ass/hybrid incarnation. With the upcoming Time Life SMDM Complete Collection, these wrongs will finally be made right. I know, because I've seen them myself.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by bionicbear
John! Unfortunately Bad News. My Kill Oscar Pt 3 has "The Vega Influence" Preview. It must have been a repeat that I taped.

NOOOOO!!!! Damn those summer repeats!! LOL. Ah well.

 

With all of the talk about the BW "Black Magic" trailer, I decided to add it to the Series Promotions section at www.bionicwomanfiles.com. The trailers are pretty cool. I just wish that I had all of them!

 

[bionicbear]

Originally Posted by James Sherrard
With all of the talk about the BW "Black Magic" trailer, I decided to add it to the Series Promotions section at www.bionicwomanfiles.com. The trailers are pretty cool. I just wish that I had all of them!

Thank You! John will be so happy as am I! I am still getting a lot of the audio trailers digitized! Great that you have the video!

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by James Sherrard
With all of the talk about the BW "Black Magic" trailer, I decided to add it to the Series Promotions section at www.bionicwomanfiles.com. The trailers are pretty cool. I just wish that I had all of them!

Thank you James! That was very cool! I haven't seen that since 1976!!

 

[derosa]

Originally Posted by James Sherrard
With all of the talk about the BW "Black Magic" trailer, I decided to add it to the Series Promotions section at www.bionicwomanfiles.com.

Nice website! I hadn't visited it before,
those trailers are fun to watch.

 

[Joseph Burns]

The WMV format is my only complaint, Jim. As a webmaster myself, I'm all too familiar with the challenges of delivering video that is platform agnostic. So I know it's not a trivial thing to fix. Just remember that Mac people have to buy a paid plugin to see WMV (which I refuse to pay for), or try to download locally (which you aren't coding for) to view it with VLC.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

nothing to see here! (post edited)

 

[derosa]

Originally Posted by Joseph Burns
The WMV format is my only complaint, Jim. As a webmaster myself, I'm all too familiar with the challenges of delivering video that is platform agnostic. So I know it's not a trivial thing to fix. Just remember that Mac people have to buy a paid plugin to see WMV (which I refuse to pay for), or try to download locally (which you aren't coding for) to view it with VLC.

I had a problem viewing the videos on my visit.
After a google search, I found a Flip4mac download.
This is on my new mac, I had it on my older machine,
and didn't realize that my macbook pro didn't have it
installed.

 

[JohnHopper]

Let's focus on the "Bionic Woman" music issue.

I just watched "Welcome Home, Jaime" from the DVD bonus features

and Jerry Fielding is credited at the end but the episode is filled with Oliver Nelson's season 3 scores.

I would say 60% are Nelson (action cues and Sweet Jaime theme) and 40% are Fielding (bionic woman theme and intimistic cues).

Now the questions that come to mind are:

did this version and its music broadcast that way during the first airing?

It is the real McCoy or another truncated version with a different music mix?



One more thing: how many original scores did Jerry Fielding compose for season 1?

I read somewhere that he managed to write four scores: "Welcome Home, Jaime", "Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II", "Angel of Mercy" and "Claws".

Can you confirm please?

 

[Sam Favate]

Finally had time to start watching this set. Thoroughly enjoyed the episodes I have seen so far. Many of them I haven't seen in nearly 35 years, so it's a real pleasure to see them again, and appreciate them as an adult.

 

[younger1968]

i have watched a few episodes as well and it has been years since i seen the original show. I did watch few minutes of the re-make and then shut it down, because i had little interest in the show. I guess i like Lindsay Wagner as the bionic women more.

 

[Joseph Burns]

Fantastic picture quality on the episodes of The Bionic Woman itself. Too bad the Six episodes didn't fare so well.

"Welcome Home, Jaime" has always had a touch of the hybrid. It did pass through a period as a Six episode during post production (when the music work is done), and may have had some slight credit differences between the version we have and the original debut.

Jerry Fielding left the show shortly after getting the job. In addition to the episodes that John Hopper mentions, "The Deadly Missiles" received a Fielding score, and he is also credited with "Jaime's Mother," "Fly Jaime," "The Jailing of Jaime" and "Mirror Image." These later episodes, however, were tracked, and not just from Fielding; substantial Oliver Nelson and Joe Harnell material are in these episodes. Interestingly, for the uneven suntan scene in "Mirror Image," a bit of Nelson's score for "The Return of the Bionic Woman, Part II" which covered the same position in the post-intro supers in that episode, was recorded in a new performance (obviously without the late Mr. Nelson's participation).

This late Season 1 period is quite analogous to the same period on Six (late Season 3), as both shows struggled to replace their original composers, discovering the permanent replacements in the episodes "Bionic Beauty," which Joe Harnell scored before becoming the show's main composer in Season 2, and "The Golden Pharaoh," for which J. J. Johnson would compose the score that led to his permanent position in Season 4 of Six.

 

[JohnHopper]

Originally Posted by Joseph Burns
Fantastic picture quality on the episodes of The Bionic Woman itself. Too bad the Six episodes didn't fare so well.

"Welcome Home, Jaime" has always had a touch of the hybrid. It did pass through a period as a Six episode during post production (when the music work is done), and may have had some slight credit differences between the version we have and the original debut.

Jerry Fielding left the show shortly after getting the job. In addition to the episodes that John Hopper mentions, "The Deadly Missiles" received a Fielding score, and he is also credited with "Jaime's Mother," "Fly Jaime," "The Jailing of Jaime" and "Mirror Image." These later episodes, however, were tracked, and not just from Fielding; substantial Oliver Nelson and Joe Harnell material are in these episodes. Interestingly, for the uneven suntan scene in "Mirror Image," a bit of Nelson's score for "The Return of the Bionic Woman, Part II" which covered the same position in the post-intro supers in that episode, was recorded in a new performance (obviously without the late Mr. Nelson's participation).

This late Season 1 period is quite analogous to the same period on Six (late Season 3), as both shows struggled to replace their original composers, discovering the permanent replacements in the episodes "Bionic Beauty," which Joe Harnell scored before becoming the show's main composer in Season 2, and "The Golden Pharaoh," for which J. J. Johnson would compose the score that led to his permanent position in Season 4 of Six.

So according to you, Fielding composed a total of five scores which were

"Welcome Home, Jaime"

"Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II"

"Angel of Mercy"

"Claws"

"The Deadly Missiles"



The other episodes with the Fielding credits are simply stock music by Fielding first and additional materials by other composers.



So far, I watched

"Welcome Home, Jaime"

"Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II"

"Angel of Mercy"

"Claws"

The last one was a very pedestrian zoo plot that blends "Daktari" and into a western series.



Scores-wise, here is what I have recognized from Fielding' scores:

"Welcome Home, Jaime"

60% of the score is tracked with Oliver Nelson's music from the third season 3 of "The Six Million Dollar Man" (see "The Return of the Bionic Woman", "Hocus-Pocus").

"Hocus-Pocus" is tracked when Jaime is quickly cleaning up the room of the barn.

Most of the 40% cues by Fielding are derived from "The Getaway", "Junior Bonner", including a love theme when Jaime and Steve are mentioning their past romance next to the love tree.



"Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II"

The score is derived from "The Outfit" and "Scorpio".



"Angel of Mercy"

The score is derived from "Hunters are for Killing" for the military dreambeats and again "The Outfit".



"Claws"

The score is derived from "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia", "The Wild Bunch", "McMillan & Wife".

 

[Hank E]

I saw a few pages back that someone listed the running times of the episodes and they seem to all be uncut. Has anyone found anything to contradict this? Any edited scenes, cut songs, etc? TV shows on DVD have become notorious for editing things out, but I'm hoping that's not the case here.

 

[JohnHopper]

Fielding only composed a total of 4 scores which were

"Welcome Home, Jaime"

"Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II"

"Angel of Mercy"

"Claws"



"The Deadly Missiles" is merely stock music from Jerry Fielding's "Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II" and John Cacavas' "A Thing of the Past".



For the fans of Lindsay Wagner, you can hear her performing a song in "Bionic Beauty".

Her voice is similar to Shirley Bassey.



Four composers wrote scores for a single episode:

1. John Cacavas for "A Thing of the Past"

despite the original material, the score includes stock music from Jerry Fielding's "Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II" during the climax of Act 4.

2. Joe Harnell for "Bionic Beauty": fully original.

3. Richard Clements for "Canyon of Death"

despite the original material, contains stock music from "Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II" at the end of Act 1 when shady John Mallory stops his jeep and walks to the cavern. "Angel of Mercy" at the start of Act 3 when Paco rides his horse to flee the silver man. "Bionic Beauty" is tracked during Act 3 when the silver man is sat on the jeep and transported by his accomplice as well as in Act 4 when Paco returns to the school of the base. Oliver Nelson's season 3 score for the outcome of Act 4 when Jaime jumps to grab and stop the flying silver man.

4. Luchi de Jesus for "The Ghosthunter":

despite the original material, contains stock music from Jerry Fielding's "Welcome Home, Jaime" when she lifts up the bookcase and puts away the books and the objects back during Act 1 and from Jerry Fielding's "Welcome Home, Jaime, Part II" after Jaime received a bottle of acid and washed her foot and then when Jaime lifts up the bookcase to help Emil Laslo during Act 3.

 

[Jeff*H]

Season 2 of THE BIONIC WOMAN has apparently been announced by USHE for release on May 17, 2011. I would imagine TV Shows on DVD should have a news item very soon on this. Cover art can be viewed here:

http://www.bionicwomanfiles.com/ (Scroll down the page)

 

[Bryan^H]

Great news!!! Thanks Jeff. I just finished season one and was wondering if we would see season two this year. I'm so happy....I love this show.

 

[Sam Favate]

Glad to see this on track. Looking forward to seeing season 2 treated with the care and attention that went into the season 1 release.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by Sam Favate
Glad to see this on track. Looking forward to seeing season 2 treated with the care and attention that went into the season 1 release.

Hopefully, with a bit more care and attention, given the mix-up on opening titles in season one. I don't know whether there were any variations in the pictures of the season 2 titles, but I'm pretty sure the theme music got changed around several times by then (according to Joe Harnell, Fielding was livid about his theme music being replaced, telling Joe 'you're taking money out my hand' or something, alluding to the residuals, and Joe went to Kenneth Johnson saying that Fielding was a friend of his, that it wasn't right, and they finally worked out a compromise at some point that year where Fielding's theme would be used on the opening titles, and Harnell's on the closing titles).