The Six Million Dollar Man
The Return of Bigfoot - Part 1
TV Flash files “The Return of Bigfoot - Part 1” as a desk essential hour — The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–1978) on ABC, season 4, episode 1, aired 1976-09-19, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E01: listed hour 58 of 101 in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide, first listed hour of season 4. It aired 1976-09-19 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Big Brother” (S03E23). Next is “The Return of Bigfoot - Part 2” (S04E02).
Essential hour: “The Return of Bigfoot - Part 1”. The Return of Bigfoot - Part 1 is family-hour crypto-spectacle. Slow-mo franchise at merch altitude: the series admitting Saturday-morning myth while keeping Majors as the government instrument.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Steve Austin becomes a suspect after series of burglaries that can only be accomplished with bionic strength are committed. As Austin begins to have vague memories of his encounter with Bigfoot, he is approached by Gillian, one of the alien travelers. She explains that one of her own, Nedlick, has formed a splinter group intend on world domination and is now using Sasquash to commit robberies in order to gain wealth.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Return of Bigfoot - Part 1 sit in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide?
S04E01 is listed hour 58 of 101 — first listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 1.
When did The Six Million Dollar Man S04E01 air?
The Return of Bigfoot - Part 1 aired 1976-09-19 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…