The Six Million Dollar Man
The Madonna Caper
TV Flash files “The Madonna Caper” as hour 97 of 101 in the TV Flash guide — The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–1978) on ABC, season 5, episode 17, aired 1978-02-06, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E17: listed hour 97 of 101 in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide, hour 17 of 21 in season 5. It aired 1978-02-06 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Lost Island” (S05E16). Next is “Dead Ringer” (S05E18).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Oscar sends Steve to the National Gallery of Art to assist a Countess in stealing The Madonna painting in order to obtain a secret microdot that contains details of the Warsaw Missile Pact. Steve unknowingly is then duped in the theft by the Countess as she switches the painting for a fake one. As Oscar and Steve are tipped off of the fake in the Gallery by the Museum Director, the Countess sells the original for 5 million dollars to an art collector. Then Steve poses as a rich Texas oilman and art collector in order to purchase the original Madonna for 8 million "counterfeit" dollars. As the microdot is now in the OSI, Steve, with the help of the Countess, returns to the Gallery to remove the fake Madonna and replace it with the real one. All is revealed as Steve further assists the Countess on a plane headed to Geneva, Switzerland so she can pay a 5 million dollar ransom to free political prisoners from her country.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Madonna Caper sit in the The Six Million Dollar Man guide?
S05E17 is listed hour 97 of 101 — hour 17 of 21 in season 5, season 5 episode 17.
When did The Six Million Dollar Man S05E17 air?
The Madonna Caper aired 1978-02-06 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…