The Six Million Dollar Man
Population: Zero
TV Flash files “Population: Zero” as a desk essential hour — The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–1978) on ABC, season 1, episode 1, aired 1974-01-18, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 101 in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1974-01-18 (60 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Survival of the Fittest” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “Population: Zero”. Population: Zero opens Caidin's Cyborg as ABC family-hour adventure. Majors already rebuilt; slow-motion sound design is loading into a national language, Oscar Goldman handing missions.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Steve and Oscar investigate the deaths of the entire population of a small town . Soon they are contacted by a scientist once employed by the Government, and now set on revenge for the way he was treated.USD 10 million is demanded or he will strike again.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Population: Zero sit in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 101 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did The Six Million Dollar Man S01E01 air?
Population: Zero aired 1974-01-18 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need the Cyborg novel first?
No. The ABC series is the pop version of Martin Caidin's book. The rebuild monologue and slow-mo action are the television language.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Lee Majors's Steve Austin gets rebuilt better, stronger, faster, and slow-motion sound design becomes a national language. Martin Caidin's Cyborg as ABC family-hour cyborg adventure, Oscar Goldman handing missions, Jaime Sommers waiting in the wings. Bionic franchise origin, merch included.
We can rebuild him — better, stronger, faster — and the rebuild monologue is still the series' real opening credit. Lee Majors's Steve Austin, a barely surviving astronaut turned bionic federal operative, slow-mo'd through ABC's The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–1978), from Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg, for five seasons and 101 hours. Kenneth Johnson's high-concept action made telescopic zoom vision and distinctive sound design a kids' gateway. Richard Anderson's Oscar Goldman handed OSI missions; Martin E.…
Filed against
- Lee Majors as Col. Steve Austin
Lee Majors’s Col. Steve Austin made The Six Million Dollar Man a national slow-motion language — 1970s catalog cyborg adventure, better-stronger-faster as a family-hour religion. The Bionic Woman and The Fall Guy kept the jawline in…
- Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman
Richard Anderson’s Oscar Goldman handed the missions on The Six Million Dollar Man and kept the clipboard when The Bionic Woman stood alone — OSI as a two-show office, slow-mo as a national language. Lee Majors rebuilt; Lindsay Wagner…
- Martin E. Brooks as Dr. Rudy Wells
Martin E. Brooks’s Dr. Rudy Wells rebuilt the franchise from the lab bench — Steve Austin’s slow-mo origin on The Six Million Dollar Man, then Jaime Sommers’s stand-alone Bionic Woman hour. Oscar Goldman hands the missions; Wells hands…
- Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers
Lindsay Wagner’s Jaime Sommers flipped The Six Million Dollar Man’s template into The Bionic Woman — tennis pro, federal agent, slow-mo franchise that stood alone in ratings and merch. Warmth, steel, family-hour cyborg adventure with its…