Wednesday 28 October 2015

263 The Bionic Woman


First  watched  :  1976

The  Bionic  Woman  was  a  successful  spin-off  from  The  Six  Million  Dollar  Man. The  character  of  Jaime  Sommers  was  first  introduced  as  the  tennis-playing  girlfriend  of  Steve  Austin  who  needs  reconstruction  after  a  parachuting  accident. She  had  the  same  abilities  as  Steve  save  for  a  bionic  ear  instead  of  a  bionic  eye. She  was  actually  killed  off  but  the  character  was  so  popular  it  was  decided  to  bring  her  back  in  her  own  series  with  the  catch  that  her  memory  was  damaged  so  she  couldn't  rekindle  the  affair  with  Steve.

Despite  this  the  pair  continued  to  work  together  and  for  a  couple  of  years  the  two  series   were   intertwined. Then  the  network  decided  to  drop  TBW and  another  one  picked  it  up  which  meant  Jaime  and  Steve  had  to  stay  apart  although  some  of  the  supporting  players  continued  to  appear  in  both  series.

Lindsay  Wagner, a  moderately  successful  film  actress  played Jaime. What  was  most  surprising  about  her  was  that , despite  being  very  pretty,  she  didn't  have  bionic  boobs  and  it  was  unusual  to  see  a  flat-chested  actress  playing  a  glamorous  role  in  the  era  of  so-called  "jiggle  TV". During  the  series  some  episodes  featured  Jaime's  modified  Alsatian  but  thankfully  plans  for  a  third  series,  The  Bionic  Dog,  fell  through.

The  series  ended  in  1978  although  three  TV  movies  kept  the  story  going  until  1994. Wagner  has  continued  to  act  mainly  on  TV  and  has  given  some  lectures  on  self-help  and  meditation. She  was  not  involved  in  the  2007  revival  which  was  halted  by  a  strike.

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