My 50 Favorite Classic TV Characters: Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers

 

In 1977, Lindsay Wagner received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Dramatic Role, causing many eyebrows to be raised – especially among her fellow nominees. Family star Sada Thompson in particular did not hide her umbrage over the selection.

 

 

Did Wagner deserve to win? How should one answer that? Emmy categories will always be apples-to-oranges comparisons, even within the same genre.

 

On Family, Thompson’s Kate Lawrence coped with a cancer scare, an ailing parent, a daughter with a broken marriage and a son who dropped out of high school – all rich dramatic material, which she navigated brilliantly.

 

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the same network, Jaime was chasing Bigfoot, going undercover as a lady wrestler, and fighting Fembots. 

 

What’s worse, the Bionic Woman episode that won her the Emmy (“Deadly Ringer”) revived the hackneyed soap opera trope of an evil twin.

 

So if we were assessing based only on IMDB plot synopses, you can perhaps understand Thompson’s resentment. Thankfully, she would take home the Emmy in the same category the following year.

 

Personally, I’m fine with Wagner’s win. Television shows with a sci-fi or fantasy element are typically overlooked completely in the major award categories. This was the first time an actress won for a series in this genre, and would be the last time until Gillian Anderson’s win for The X-Files in 1997.

 

And if you watched and enjoyed The Bionic Woman, as I did, you know this was not a series that leaned on Jaime’s superhuman abilities to tell good stories. That was fine for Wonder Woman over on CBS – viewers (especially males) counted the minutes until Lynda Carter twirled into a costume that was super in more ways than one. But she was Diana Prince for more than half of most episodes, and let’s face it – Diana was kind of boring.

 

Not so Jaime Sommers. She was a captivating character and a woman of accomplishment even before the skydiving accident that changed her life. Her status as a top-ranked professional tennis player allowed her to travel the world, though it left little time for romance with Col. Steve Austin. But after the accident it was Austin who persuaded the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) to give her the same bionic makeover that saved his life.

 

The procedure gave Jaime two bionic legs that allowed her to run 100 miles per hour and jump hundreds of feet. Her bionic right arm had super-strength, and her right ear could pick up sounds at great distances – but only, apparently, if she first moved her hair out of the way. 

 

 

Seeking some return on its investment, the OSI sends Jaime on a mission, hoping perhaps her special abilities would compensate for her lack of espionage training. She does well – until her bionics began to fail. Surgery is attempted to repair the damage but it’s too late – Jaime dies.

 

Wait, what? That was the original plan, until audience response demanded a different outcome. When viewers spoke the networks listened, and in a subsequent episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, it was revealed that Jaime was kept alive in suspended animation until her condition could be stabilized.

 

Did she deserve the Emmy? Imagine creating a character that was so quickly embraced by millions of fans that they refused to let her die? Does that not speak to something in Lindsay Wagner’s talent and charisma? That she could put an audience on her side to the extent that they demanded to see her again and let ABC know it? 

 

 

That’s another difference between the classic TV era and whatever we’ve got now. Back then there wasn’t as big a disparity between what Emmy voters liked and viewers at home supported. Besides Wagner and Sada Thompson, other nominees in her category included Angie Dickinson in Police Woman and Kate Jackson in Charlie’s Angels. If their shows were so popular, surely they had to be doing something right, and that deserved to be recognized by those that honor television excellence.

 

Contrast that situation with the Emmys just a few days ago, in which the Best Actress – Drama winner appears on a series watched by about 500,000 people, or 0.15% of the US population.

 

So, yes, Lindsay Wagner deserved her Emmy Award. Because of the many beguiling, sympathetic and endearing qualities she brought to Jaime Sommers, she rescued the character from death and then headlined her own series for three seasons – two on ABC, one on NBC (even her original network couldn’t shut her down without a fight). The show was a global hit, and for a time even became the top-rated series in the United Kingdom.

 

Most episodes range from good to excellent, including several mentioned on this blog before: “Kill Oscar” was an epic three-part story that introduced the Fembots and their sinister creator, played by John Houseman; “Doomsday is Tomorrow,” covered in detail in my “Unshakeables” series; “A Thing of the Past,” from early in the first season that sets the tone for much that follows. This was never an action show centered on Jaime’s unique abilities, but a character study of a kind, compassionate school teacher who moonlights as a government agent. 

 

 

“The Jailing of Jaime” spotlights her resourcefulness, as well as her affectionate father-daughter-like relationship with Oscar Goldman, wonderfully played by Richard Anderson. And “Sister Jaime,” in which she goes undercover in a convent, is delightful from start to finish.

 

A few were not as good – generally any episode with a heavy focus on kids (“Beyond the Call”) or Indians (“Canyon of Death,” “The Night Demon”) ranked lower with me, but even here Lindsay Wagner maintained her capability to hold your attention, not with histrionics or heroics but with a kind of quiet gentleness and class that has almost disappeared from contemporary television.

 

There was one other issue that had to be addressed before spinning off The Bionic Woman – a side effect of Jaime’s life-saving surgery was partial amnesia that erased her memories of being in love with Steve Austin. It was another dumb soap opera cliché, but a necessary one to free up Jaime for romances on her own series.

 

She seemed to have plenty of those, though given Wagner's chemistry with costars like Ed Nelson in “Assault on the Princess” and George Maharis in “Jaime’s Shield” it would be easy to see how any of these flings and flirtations might evolve into something more permanent.  She even coaxed more than one expression out of Evel Knievel in “Motorcycle Boogie.” 

 

 

 

She did, of course, wind up with Steve Austin, but the marriage would not take place until 1994, in the TV movie Bionic Ever After.

 

 

I’ll end this piece with praise for the show’s final episode, which ventured into some darker, uncharted territory. “On the Run” begins when Jaime rescues a little girl, who recoils from her when the wiring in her bionic arm is exposed. Later, the girl refers to Jaime as “the robot lady.” Already burned out from too many missions, and questioning her own humanity, she resigns from the OSI. Easier said than done, when Oscar’s higher-ups worry that her bionics and her knowledge of OSI missions could make her a security threat. Like Number 6 in The Prisoner, their plan is to put her into a community where she can live a “normal” life, as long as she doesn’t stray too far outside the security fence. 

 

 

The story wraps a little too neatly, perhaps necessitating a return to the status quo in case the series returned for another season, but before that “On the Run” asked some challenging questions about what makes a person a person, and whether a manufactured arm, ear and two legs qualifies a woman as government property. It also pulls powerful performances from Wagner and Richard Anderson. If the series had to end, it did with remarkable grace – just like its leading lady.

The Challenge of Three-Part Stories

 

I’ve done a few pieces about two-part episodes of classic shows and how, when they’re done right, they often rank among the most memorable entries from their respective series.

 

But it doesn’t happen all the time. Looking back it seems that for every successful two-part tale there is one that did not merit the extra running time, resulting in a story with superfluous subplots stretched with stock footage and other filler.

 

So if the track record for two-part stories is spotty, what must the verdict be for those with three parts?

 

Not as bad as you’d think, surprisingly. The reason, perhaps, being that many two-part shows start out as single episodes that get expanded somewhere along the way, while three-part stories are plotted from the beginning to fill a feature-length running time. The risk is in hoping viewers will return for all three installments. Today with DVRs that’s not an issue; but in the Comfort TV era before the VCR audiences had to watch the show when it was scheduled, so part one and part two better be intriguing enough to bring everyone back for the finale.

 

Here are six examples of shows that pulled it off – and one that did not.

 

The Hawaii Trilogy

The Brady Bunch

Travel is a common theme in these super-sized stories, and the Brady Bunch’s fourth season trip to Hawaii offers a prime example of how to do it right. From the beautiful beaches to the Pearl Harbor memorial, viewers enjoyed a virtual tropical vacation as the story unfolds. 

 

The final installment was certainly over-the-top for this series, with Vincent Price hamming it up as a paranoid archaeologist, but all is forgiven when he joins the family at the luau that ends their eventful trip. Replicas of the “tabu” idol Bobby finds at the construction site have become popular collectibles among Brady fans. 

 

 

Batman Vs. Lord Ffogg

Batman

Another travel adventure, as the Dynamic Duo visit “Londinium” after the mysterious thefts of historic treasures. But in this case there was no actual visit to London, which almost becomes a running joke within the story – witness the barely redressed set for Commissioner Gordon’s office serving as the office of Gordon’s British counterpart.

 

Batman deduces the guilty party within minutes of his arrival, suggesting the Londinium police are no more capable than those in Gotham City. It’s the infamous Lord Ffogg (Rudy Vallee) and Lady Penelope Peasoup (Glynis Johns), who run a school for shoplifters in training. This is one of the better third-season stories, and provides a better-than-usual showcase for Yvonne Craig’s Batgirl.  

 

 

“Lost in Spain”

Family Affair

One more travel story, as the Davis clan visits Spain, where a bus mix-up separates Buffy and Jody from Mr. French. It’s all shot on the studio backlot but it feels more authentic than many Europe-set shows, especially as the twins wander through the rural countryside while the rest of the family continue their desperate search. Eventually they find their way to a farmhouse, where the couple inside feeds them but is wary of reporting their location to the police. As always, Family Affair takes a more grounded and realistic approach to plots that have played out on dozens of other sitcoms, resulting in a story in which everyone’s fears feel more genuine, even though we know everything will end happily.

 

“Kill Oscar”

The Bionic Woman

This was the story that introduced the Fembots, which in the 1970s were popular enough to inspire their own action figures. No one who watched these shows first-run could forget when the Fembot’s face plate was removed, revealing electronics circuits and wires surrounding two creepy bulging eyes. 

 

 

The female robots were created by Dr. Franklin, a slightly mad scientist with a secret island base who plots to steal a device that can control the weather. That’s the kind of role that screams for a veteran scenery-chewer like Ross Martin – but instead they brought in the great John Houseman to give the part more gravitas –and it works. 

 

 

“Gold Train: The Bullet”

Gunsmoke

Matt has a bullet lodged near his spine, and Doc doesn’t want to risk performing an operation to remove it. They put the marshal on a train so he can see a specialist, and the train is held up by a gang led by guest star Eric Braeden. It took 17 seasons for this venerable western to serve up a three-part story, so no one should be surprised that it delivered plenty of action, drama and romance. Fans were delighted to see Milburn Stone return as Doc, after an extended absence following the actor’s bypass surgery. But the most memorable moment featured Amanda Blake, as Kitty (finally!) talks to Matt about the love she felt for him throughout the years.

 

 

A Man Called Smart

Get Smart

Of course you’ll want to watch all three parts of this story, which was originally intended for theatrical release. But it’s the first installment that features a masterpiece of slapstick comedy starring Don Adams, a stretcher and a revolving door. Adams, whose distinct voice and catchphrases were a big part of the show’s success, never utters a word throughout the sequence, and still earns huge laughs. There is also an innovative opening chase scene that portends Adams’ association with Inspector Gadget. 

 

The Falcon

Mission Impossible

Here’s the one that didn’t work, which isn’t surprising as Mission: Impossible also struggled with two-part stories. Fans already missing Martin Landau and Barbara Bain would have their patience with the series further tested by this bloated assignment: the team must stop a usurper’s plot to steal the throne of a princess. When M:I starts lifting plots from Disney, it’s not a good sign. 

 

 

The Unshakeables: The Bionic Woman Saves the World

 

A television show succeeds if it holds your attention for the time it’s on. But some episodes stay with you long after the credits roll. The emotions they generate do not dissipate for several minutes – sometimes several hours. And when you think about them months or even years later, you find the imprint they left on your mind remains as formidable as ever.

 

These are the “Unshakeables.”

 

A great twist ending is tough to pull off, but so satisfying when it works. The Twilight Zone was a master of these compelling climaxes, and over the years we’ve seen other memorable examples ranging from the last episode of St. Elsewhere to Bob Hartley waking up from his dream of being a Vermont innkeeper at the end of Newhart. 

 

When they work – and even when they don’t – they stick in our minds.

 

Not sure if I’ll be alone in this memory, but the ending of the two-part Bionic Woman episode “Doomsday is Tomorrow” made a profound impact on me when I watched it back in 1977. And it’s returned to my memory many times since, especially after the series was released on DVD. Even now, watching it again when I know what’s coming, the “reveal” has lost none of its potency. 

 

 

The story begins when eminent nuclear scientist Dr. Elijah Cooper (Lew Ayres), announces that he has created “the most diabolical instrument of destruction ever conceived by man,” a bomb that would “render the entire world lifeless.” The United Nations takes the threat seriously, though it can’t understand why a gentle, soft-spoken, elderly man would make such a terrifying revelation.

 

Turns out he did it because he’s fed up with all the war talk constantly emerging from different countries, so he hopes to blackmail the world into peace: his doomsday device will trigger only in the event of a nuclear detonation anywhere in the world. When one nation thinks he’s bluffing and explodes a nuke over the ocean, the countdown to the end of life on earth begins.

 

Jaime Sommers tries to talk Dr. Cooper out of his plan, bur he dies soon after and control of the bomb is turned over to ALEX 7000, a super-computer that controls the huge underground facility where the device is kept. Series creator Kenneth Johnson, who wrote, produced and directed this episode, clearly modeled ALEX after the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, right down to its mannerly but menacing voice. “So it’s a duel between you and me,” Jaime says. And that’s where part two begins.

 

The set-up is right out of a James Bond movie: Jaime must reach the lowest level of the facility, one mile below the surface, to deactivate the device, while ALEX launches floor after floor of lethal automated defenses to stop her.

 

Kenneth Johnson’s DVD commentary track on this episode reveals that the episode was mainly shot at the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant in Los Angeles. While that setting sounds like it would be more smelly than scary, Johnson creates a sinister mood through the use of lighting, and by shooting Lindsay Wagner from a distance as one woman surrounded by huge industrial equipment that can be programmed to attack her.

 

It’s a memorable and entertaining episode even before we get to the final twist. While her bionic enhancements give Jaime advantages that ALEX could not have anticipated, the computer’s defenses were designed to hold off an army. But as we learned from Lord of the Rings, sometimes a single determined individual can access places where a legion might fail.

 

The only misstep for me was making ALEX too chatty. Since most of part two is the confrontation between Jaime and the computer I understand Johnson’s desire to have more dialogue as the story plays out, but this was a case where less would have been more. As Mission: Impossible proved, long stretches of silence can heighten dramatic tension.

 

How does it end? It wouldn’t be a spoiler to reveal that all life on earth was not extinguished, especially as The Bionic Woman returned with a new adventure the following week. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Jaime was successful in her mission.

 

And now here’s my dilemma – to divulge that memorable twist ending, or to refrain from spoiling its surprise, even if this is a show that aired 43 years ago. In my previous “Unshakeables” pieces on episodes of Lou Grant and The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, I left my readers unspoiled – and I think that is the best course of action here as well. Perhaps that way you’ll appreciate the profundity of how the story ends as much as I did – and still do.

Still More Two-Part Episode Hits and Misses

I haven’t done one of these for a while, so let’s take another look at a grab bag of Comfort TV-era two-part episodes and separate the hits from the misses.

As I previously wrote, two-parters should be utilized only for major series milestones or when a writer comes up with an idea that is so good, it deserves a little extra breathing room to be fully explored.

But that doesn’t always happen.

Since we all have more time at home these days, it seems like an ideal opportunity to find some great shows that will help kill an evening – as well as some to avoid.

Good: That Girl: “It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod World”

Ann meets the famed British fashion photographer Noel Prince, who brings her to Los Angeles as part of a pictorial on the mod, modern woman. Of course he falls for her, much to Donald’s jealous dismay:

Noel: “I once knew a soccer player named Hollinger.”

Donald: “I once knew a dog named Prince.”

The photo shoot scenes are just the sort Mike Myers sent up as Austin Powers, but

Gary Marshal is really good in this as Noel Prince.

It's a shame he had such a short career – his last IMDB credit was in 1971. And while the ‘60s vibe is fun, I was surprised the first time I saw the opening scene, which took place in an automat. I hadn’t seen one of those on TV outside of Agent Carter, which was set in the 1940s. I didn’t know they still had them in New York 20 years later.

Bad: Bewitched: “George Washington Zapped Here”

This was a lightly rewritten version of an earlier (and much better) Bewitched two-parter, in which Aunt Clara zaps up Benjamin Franklin. Here we get George Washington (convincingly played by Will Geer) instead of Franklin, and the drippy Esmerelda instead of Aunt Clara. It’s still sad to me that such a great series ended with a such a dreadful final season.

Good: Dynasty: “Royal Wedding”/ “The Aftermath”

Better known among fans as the Moldavian Massacre, the first half of this two-parter ended with a scene that apparently wiped out the show’s entire cast. 

Measured by ratings and water-cooler buzz, this was a cliffhanger to rival J.R. getting shot and Picard becoming Locutus. Of course, when the next season began we found that the terrorists who sprayed that hail of bullets were about as good at hitting their targets as the bad guys on The A-Team.

Bad: Dallas: “Return to Camelot”

Dallas opened its tenth season by explaining how Bobby Ewing could appear in Pam’s shower after being killed at the end of season eight. Say it with me: Bobby’s not dead – it was all a dream! 

“I thought they had written themselves into a corner,” Charlene Tilton told me when I interviewed her on the occasion of the series’ 25^th anniversary. “Everyone criticized the shower scene, but I never heard anyone come up with a better idea.” She’s got a point.

“Return to Camelot” felt entitled to the special status of a two-parter, but that was hard to maintain with its undercurrent of “nothing to see here, move along,” so no one would linger over such an audacious reboot.

Good: Harry O: “Forty Reasons to Kill”

In addition to featuring two actresses I’m always happy to watch in anything, Joanna Pettet and Hillary Thompson, this is one of those stories that definitely merits the added time.

You’ve seen variations on this plot before: Harry’s case takes him to a small rural town run by corrupt power brokers that have the local law enforcement under their thumb. Of course, hard-luck Harry is going to run afoul of those folks and will take a few beatings and spend some time in jail before he finds what he needs to bring them down.

Bad: Family: “Taking Chances”

I don’t know if there really are any bad episodes of Family. At least until Quinn Cummings shows up. But this show is on such a high pedestal with me that I’m disappointed when it indulges in a drama trope that’s right out of a soap opera. In “Taking Chances,” family patriarch Doug (James Broderick, excellent as always) is hit by a car and loses his sight. It might be restored with surgery, but the operation is risky and could also kill him.

The performances are always perfect, so I can’t not like this show. But the whole conceit of a tragic life-changing event that is conveniently erased in the last scene feels beneath the standards of this Emmy-winning series.

Good: The Bionic Woman: “Jaime’s Shield”

You know how a good whodunit is set up so that the last person you’d suspect is the guilty party? “Jaime’s Shield” got me with its reveal. And all the other business along the way is fun as well, with Jaime going to the police academy and hiding her special abilities from an obnoxious instructor – until that moment she decides to put him in his place. 

Bad: The Wild Wild West: “The Night of the Winged Terror”

This was a barely serviceable single show that got stretched into a mess. Hypnotism stories rarely work for me, except for that Dick Van Dyke Show episode in which Rob acts drunk every time a bell rings.

This one further suffers from the absence of Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon, who was sidelined with health issues for several shows in the series’ final season. Only the genuninely hypnotic close-ups of the divine Michele Carey made this tolerable. 

Good: The Secrets of Isis: “Now You See It…And Now You Don’t”

Every so often I have to throw a bouquet at my favorite Saturday morning series, so I hope you’ll indulge me.

These were the show’s final two episodes, and they were used in an attempt to launch a spinoff series called “The Super-Sleuths.” After teacher Rick Mason is arrested for stealing government secrets, four of his friends and students set out to prove his innocence: series regular Rennie Carol (Ronalda Douglas), Asian kung-fu expert C.J. (Evan Kim), street-smart Feather (Craig Wasson!) and an magician of Indian descent named (and billed as) Ranji. 

Throw in a guest spot from Captain Marvel (John Davey) and some wonderful scenes set in the dearly-missed Busch Gardens theme park, and you’ve got a great way to send off a beloved series.

Bad: The Facts of Life: “Out of Peekskill”

It’s hard to find anything to celebrate about a story that removes a beloved character from a series canvas, and replaces that character with one that never really clicked. Sure, this show had already passed its sell-by date at the start of its eighth season. But it was still sad to lose Charlotte Rae and the familial connection she had to the kids in her care. 

Cloris Leachman’s ditzy den mother didn’t get a great introduction, and it was the beginning of the end for Facts of Life.

Starter Sets: The Bionic Woman

One of the pleasures of being a classic TV lover is sharing a favorite show with someone who has never watched it. 

Unfortunately, most people do not put much thought into this process.

I had a friend introduce someone to The Bionic Woman with “Bionic Beauty.” The outcome was sadly predictable. After this virgin viewer listened to Lindsay Wagner’s regrettable rendition of one of the cheesiest songs of the 1970s, there was no going back.

The most commonly employed method of introducing a series to a prospective convert is to just simply hand them the season one DVD set. 

While there’s certain logic in experiencing a series from the beginning, a lot of classic shows did not come out of the gate with their best stuff. For every “Fear in a Desert City” (The Fugitive) there is an “Encounter at Farpoint” (Star Trek: The Next Generation). And if your potential convert is a millennial with the short attention span typical of that generation, your show may not get more than one episode to make a positive impression. 

So you should begin with a classic episode, right? Wrong.

Imagine starting a Next Generation newbie with “The Measure of a Man” from season two. He or she will almost certainly be impressed by the writing and performances, but with no prior exposure to the characters, the challenging situation the characters contend with will not resonate as deeply. One needs to become acquainted with Picard, Data, Riker and Guinan to fully appreciate their response to a unique dilemma. Coming in cold to one of the show’s best moments can short-change the experience.

I believe the best approach is to select 3-4 episodes from the first third of the series that feature stories emblematic of the entire run. These shows should establish a foundation for the genre, the characters, the setting and the era, one that will generate interest in the rest of the series.

“Starter Sets,” my choices for the best episodes to accomplish this goal, will be another occasional feature here. Since I mentioned The Bionic Woman, let’s go there first, especially as it’s another series where starting at the beginning is problematic. The first appearances of Jaime Sommers were in two feature-length episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man.   

Both are flawed, albeit serviceable as origin stories, but are not representative of the show that would follow.

If I wanted to create a new Bionic Woman fan, I’d start with these episodes.

“A Thing of the Past”

This early season-one show offers an ideal introduction to the character of Jaime Sommers and the community of Ojai, California where she resides. A new viewer will discover that this isn’t an action show centered on Jaime’s unique abilities. Instead it’s more of a character study of Jaime herself – a kind, compassionate schoolteacher who moonlights as a government agent. 

“Sister Jaime”

This wonderful episode is an outstanding example of the Jaime-undercover stories, in which she assumes another identity to uncover some bit of criminal wrongdoing. Here, she joins a convent, one of the last places you’d expect nefarious activity. “Sister Jaime” features some wonderfully humorous moments that are another series staple.

“The Jailing of Jaime”

What happens when a mission goes wrong? “The Jailing of Jaime” spotlights Jaime’s resourcefulness, as well as her affectionate father-daughter-like relationship with Oscar Goldman, wonderfully played by Richard Anderson. 

“Jaime’s Shield”

Jaime joins the police force. This two-part episode will acclimate your new viewer to the fact that The Bionic Woman frequently employed multi-part episodes. But where this is a practice to be dreaded on other shows where story padding is obvious, here it is something to treasure. The series was always at its best in these longer adventures, and “Jamie’s Shield” provides the perfect appetizer for such classics as “Doomsday is Tomorrow,” “Deadly Ringer” and “Fembots in Las Vegas.” 

Bigfoot: Big in the 1970s

Monsters and strange creatures are intrinsic to Halloween, so this seems a fitting time to blog about Bigfoot.

The legends date back centuries though few believers remain in our skeptical times. But the name still resonates – Animal Planet is currently airing a series called Finding Bigfoot, and we’ve all seen those “Messin’ with Sasquatch” beef jerky commercials.

Bigfoot was biggest in the 1970s, a time when hairy dudes were everywhere, from Burt Reynolds and Barry Gibb to Billy Preston and Grizzly Adams. The phenomenon was likely launched by what is known as the Patterson/Gimlin film, shot in 1967 in Bluff Creek, California. It purported to be the first footage ever captured of the “real” Bigfoot, and it made frequent rounds on various news shows, talk shows and documentaries for years. 

Having thus captured the public’s imagination, it was inevitable that versions of Bigfoot would start turning up in several TV series, perhaps most memorably in The Six Million Dollar Man. “The Secret of Bigfoot” was a two-part episode from the show’s third season that is probably the most famous story they ever tried. 

The high point was a mano a mano throwdown between Col. Steve Austin, then one of the coolest dudes on the planet, and Bigfoot, played here by wrestler Andre the Giant. It was difficult to find believable opponents for someone with Austin’s bionic upgrades, so this was a rare opportunity for the show to cut loose with a full-out, slow motion slugfest, that ends shockingly when Austin rips the creature’s arm off.

Before the PETA folks could start writing angry letters, it’s revealed that the secret alluded to in the episode’s title is that Bigfoot was a robot, created by an alien race who were living inside a mountain, observing humanity. Fortunately they’re friendly visitors, especially the hottie scientist played by Stefanie Powers who asks Steve, “What makes a woman attractive in your world?”

The episodes were so popular that Bigfoot even got his own action figure.

I'd rather have had one of Stefanie Powers.

Bigfoot was quickly brought back for a crossover story between The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. In “The Return of Bigfoot” the aliens have split into two camps: an evil ring led by John Saxon and the original “we come in peace” group, featuring Powers and Sandy Duncan ("We need someone to play a strange visitor from another world. Quick - get me Sandy Duncan!"). 

Unfortunately the nasty ones control Bigfoot (now played by Ted Cassidy), and it’s up to Steve and Jaime to set things right.

Episodes like these exemplify ‘70s adventure TV: slightly silly but good-natured fun, with unambiguous heroes, action, suspense and a positive message that doesn’t pound you into submission.

It’s probably not surprising that Bigfoot was especially popular among children, hence his appearances in several Saturday morning shows.

Of course, you’d expect the meddling kids at Mystery Inc. to run into him eventually, and it happened in 1972 on The New Scooby Doo Movies. In “The Ghost of Bigfoot,” the Scooby gang find their vacation at the MacKinac Lodge interrupted by the spirit of Bigfoot. They solve the case with help from bellhops Laurel & Hardy. It was one of the better shows of the run. 

Over on The Krofft Supershow, “Bigfoot and Wildboy” featured a Bigfoot (Ray Young) whose existence was known at the local ranger station. As with many Krofft series the opening theme/narration tells you everything you need to know:

Out of the Great Northwest comes the legendary Bigfoot

who, eight years ago, saved a young child lost in the vast wilderness

and raised that child until he grew up to be Wildboy

Bigfoot – hero and single parent – took on aliens, poachers, vampires, mummies and mad scientists. The series lasted 20 episodes, which is about the average run for a Krofft show. It wasn’t one of my favorites, mainly because I always hated the escalating, cacophonous electronic sound effect that accompanied Bigfoot’s running and leaping. Seemed totally out of place. 

I’ll mention one more ‘70s Bigfoot story here, though I’m sure I’ve missed a few others. Isis was and remains my favorite Comfort TV kids show, and the episode “Bigfoot” is an example of this kindhearted, uplifting series at its best.  

A high school field trip ends after two students spot a huge, shadowy figure in the mountains. One of them, Lee, wonders if it might be Bigfoot, and the next day suggests getting a group together to hunt it down. 

"Why?" asks Dr. Barnes, the principal.

Lee: "Why? Because that thing is dangerous!"

Dr. Barnes: "Why?"

Lee: "Well…it’s big, and we don’t know what it is."

Dr. Barnes: "So it must be dangerous…too many people think that anything they don’t understand is dangerous. That’s wrong. If you don’t know what something is you should be cautious but not afraid, not set out to hunt it down."

There’s a show that laid down some knowledge and lessons in tolerance to go with our Frosted Flakes and Fruity Pebbles. But some of the kids do head back to the mountains, where Lee meets not Bigfoot but a long-bearded hermit named Richard, who turns out to be the gentlest of giants. 

Isis invites him to come back with them, but Richard has been told he’s big and ugly all his life and is still too afraid to return to civilization. 

“Sometimes people are very cruel to those who seem different,” Isis says. “But it’s worth giving them a chance.”

Seems like a graceful note on which to end. Let's all keep that in mind as we head toward an election year. Happy Halloween.