Oliver Nelson -- The Six Million Dollar Man

 

Steve Austin, astronaut: a man barely alive

Gentlemen we can rebuild him

We have the technology

We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man

Steve Austin will be that man

Better than he was before

Better, Stronger, Faster

Yup, this is a special ROY article today and not because there has been another death in the music world or it's a national holiday. I did notice though that over the last 24 hours, our humble 11-year-and-change blog exceeded six million pageviews, so let's give a mild Yay on that. Yay! Well, y'know, when "Plastic Love" could get seven million views within a few months...

Of course, when a lot of my generation think of six million dollars outside of the weekly lotteries, we usually think of "The Six Million Dollar Man" (1973-1978), the American ABC sci-fi series starring Lee Majors as astronaut-turned-bionic special agent Steve Austin who thrilled us with his telescopic eye, superpowered right arm and legs and super speed. It was amazing (and borderline hilarious) watching Austin going at 60 mph while running in slow motion, especially when we have various versions of The Flash racing around us in pop culture nowadays (hey, his movie is coming out this Friday).

The episode in the video above is one that I remember distinctly for scaring the beejeebers out of me when I first saw it decades ago. Veteran character actor John Saxon was playing the robot. I also remember the time that Austin fought Bigfoot.

Of course, everyone knows the above narration and the opening credits consisting of how Steve ended up a cyborg. The computer graphics of showing all of those special implants in his body always wowed me. And then of course, there was the famous theme song by jazz musician and arranger Oliver Nelson which had the requisite feeling of power, speed and intrigue.

Japan actually landed "The Six Million Dollar Man" through TV Asahi and its affiliates beginning from the summer of 1974 where the title was a direct translation: "Roppyaku-man Doru no Otoko"（600万ドルの男）. I had always thought that its spinoff "The Bionic Woman" starring Lindsay Wagner as Steve's soulmate Jaime Sommers was the only bionic-based series that made it out there. It was known as "Bionic Jaime" on Japanese television sets.

I've kinda wondered how "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" fared over in Japan, the land of tokusatsu heroes with their special powers. Steve and Jaime looked like regular folks without needing to transform into costumes and yet they could go through a concrete wall as if it were paper. 

Anyways, years ago I heard that Hollywood had been trying to an epic movie version of "The Six Million Dollar Man" starring Eddie Murphy but that idea fell by the wayside. People probably snickered at the realization that in contemporary times, six million dollars could only afford perhaps a lug nut in the elbow. The title alone would have to be upgraded to "The Six Billion Dollar Man". I actually checked Google to see how much $6,000,000 in 1973 dollars would be worth today. The answer I got was $49,995,000. Maybe to reach a round fifty million dollars, the scientists could throw in a bionic manicure.

"The Six Million Dollar Man" made its debut in April 1973, so what Japanese singles were doing the same?

Mari Amachi -- Wakaba no Sasayaki （若葉のささやき）

Pedro & Capricious -- Johnny e no Dengon （ジョニイへの伝言）

Kenji Sawada -- Kiken na Futari （危険なふたり）