The Six Million Dollar Man
Just a Matter of Time
TV Flash files “Just a Matter of Time” as hour 93 of 101 in the TV Flash guide — The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–1978) on ABC, season 5, episode 13, aired 1978-01-08, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E13: listed hour 93 of 101 in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide, hour 13 of 21 in season 5. It aired 1978-01-08 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Walk a Deadly Wing” (S05E12). Next is “Return of the Deathprobe (1)” (S05E14).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
While testing a new fuel aboard an experimental space craft, Col. Steve Austin experiences difficulties while preparing to land and is pulled off course to splash down near a remote island in the Pacific. There, he attempts to contact Oscar at OSI to inform him of his whereabouts, but when another government agent shows up and identifies himself as Oscar's replacement, the Colonel is shocked to learn that 6 years have supposedly passed, Oscar is dead and he has been declared a traitor after supposedly defecting to the Soviet Union
Viewer FAQ
Where does Just a Matter of Time sit in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide?
S05E13 is listed hour 93 of 101 — hour 13 of 21 in season 5, season 5 episode 13.
When did The Six Million Dollar Man S05E13 air?
Just a Matter of Time aired 1978-01-08 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…