TV Episode Blogathon 2024: The Bionic Woman

Vincent Price & Lindsay Wagner

The 1970s was the "bionic era" on ABC. In 1973, the network premiered The Six Million Dollar Man, first as a trio of made for TV movies, and later as an ongoing series. Based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, the novel, movies and ongoing series tell the story of Steve Austin, played by Lee Majors, who was given bionic enhancements after he was seriously injured in a crash while testing an experimental aircraft. Austin ends up working as an agent for the the Office of Scientific Investigation, aka the OSI, taking on enemies like aliens, robots, and nefarious enemy spies. The series was a ratings success, and a spinoff, The Bionic Woman, was launched in 1976.

The Bionic Woman is the tale of  Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner), a tennis pro and old flame of Steve's,  who is seriously injured in a skydiving accident. Steve asks his OSI boss, Oscar Goldman, to give Jaime bionic upgrades in order to save her life. The character was first introduced during the second season of The Six Million Dollar Man, in a two-part episode, in which Jaime dies after her body rejects her bionics. The character proved so popular that she was brought back the following season, and it was revealed she had been saved using an experimental procedure which preserved her life, but affected her memory. She doesn't recall her past romance with Steve. Jaime ends up returning to her hometown of Ojai (where she and Steve grew up) working as a teacher, while also moonlighting as an OSI agent.

During the three season run of her series, The Bionic Woman battled the Fembots, mad scientists, enemy agents and her murderous doppleganger, Lisa Galloway, often teaming up with Steve Austin for multi-part crossover adventures. But did you know she also faced off against a  rogues gallery featuring Vincent Price, Julie Newmar, Abe Vigoda, Hermione Baddeley and William Windom. They all appeared in “Black Magic," which originally aired on November 10, 1976, as part of the series' 2nd season. Although there's no actual black magic featured in the episode, it's a spooky adventure with Jaime encountering a gallery of much beloved character actors.

After a briefing by Oscar Goldman, Jaime goes undercover to infiltrate the Carstairs family, a group of con artists, tricksters and ne’er do wells. Cyrus, the clan’s patriarch, has passed away, and the clan is coming together for reading of his will. Jaime poses as Tracy, a member of the family who no one has seen since she ran away to join the circus (to become a fortune teller, no less!) years ago. Among Cyrus’s possessions is a highly coveted formula for a new alloy that will be used in the manufacture of jet fighters.Oscar has inside intel which reveals it's going to be sold to the highest bidder, and it's Jaime’s objective to obtain the formula before it falls into the wrong hands.

The family gathers for the reading of the will, which was videotaped by Cyrus prior to his death. The larcenous assembly instantly begins bickering, sniping and trying to one up each other. It turns out the late patriarch isn’t going to make it easy for anyone to claim his fortune. On the videotape, Cyrus delivers a riddle inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll. The riddle contains clues to the whereabouts of his riches, which are hidden in a box somewhere in the house. The first person to find the treasure gets everything. The scavenger hunt is on, and it's every man or woman for themselves. When the family members split up to locate the box, everyone starts to mysteriously disappear! Soon only Manfred and Jamie remain. He and Jaime team up to locate the box. But is Manfred going to double cross her and keep the treasure (and the formula) for himself?

 “Black Magic,” is a lot of fun. The cast of veteran actors all have a good time tossing off the snarky dialogue in Arthur Rowe's script. That master of menace,Vincent Price, plays a dual role as both Cyrus and the wily Manfred, while Julie Newmar, aka Catwoman on the 1960s Batman series, is slinky and sinister as Claudette. Abe Vigoda, (Tessio in The Godfather and Sgt. Fish on Barney Miller) is Barlow, the double-crossing butler. Also on hand are Hermione Baddley of Mary Poppins and Maude, and William Windom, who has a ton of TV credits to his name, including a memorable appearance as Commodore Decker in the original Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" and a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote. "Black Magic" was helmed by prolific TV director Barry Crane, who also was behind the camera for episodes of Mission: Impossible and Hawaii Five-O.

The Bionic Woman was in some ways the kindler, gentler side of the two bionic shows, which perfectly suited Wagner's personality and charisma. She won an Emmy for the role of Jaime in 1977. The series had its share of dramatic and intense episodes during its run, including the two-parters "Doomsday is Tomorrow" and "Deadly Ringer." "Black Magic" is definitely more of a lark, and Wagner has fun interacting with Price and the other veteran scene stealers, while trading quips (and silly code names) with Richard Anderson's Oscar Goldman. This is the sort of gathering that could only have happened on 1970s television! The Bionic Woman ran for two years on ABC, then moved over to NBC for its final season. Wagner, Majors, Anderson, and Martin E. Brooks, who played scientist Rudy Wells, reprised their roles in three TV movie reunions in the 1980s and 90s.

This post is part of the Favourite TV Episode Blogathon, hosted by Terence over at his blog, A Shroud of Thoughts. I'd like to thank him for allowing me to join in on the vintage TV fun. For more information on the blogathon, and to check out the other entries, please follow this link: https://mercurie.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-10th-annual-favourite-tv-show.html.