The Six Million Dollar Blog - The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman
| Starring: |
Lee Majors as Steve Austin |
| |
Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman |
| |
Alan Oppenheimer as Dr. Rudy Wells |
| Guest Starring: |
John Van Dreelen as Alfredo Tucelli |
| |
Than Wyenn as Desk Clerk |
| |
Jim Shane as Yamo |
| |
Michael Dante as Julio Tucelli |
| |
Curt Lowens as Anton Brandt |
| |
Norbert Schiller as Porter |
| |
Cynthia Lynn as Fraulein Krueger |
| |
Ynes Van Holt as Switchboard Operator |
| |
|
| Written by: |
Elroy Schwartz, Krishna Shan, William Keenan |
| Produced by: |
Sam Strangis and Donald R. Boyle |
| Directed by: |
Virgil W. Vogel |
Plot in a Nutshell: Rudy is kidnapped in Austria and Steve must rescue him.
Story Summary: Rudy is in Austria to receive an honorary doctorate from his unnamed alma mater when he is kidnapped in the lobby of his hotel.
His hotel's idea of hospitality.
Steve and Oscar, unaware of Rudy's predicament but uneasy about Rudy being off alone, decide it would be a good time for Steve to take a vacation to Austria.
Steve arrives at Rudy's hotel but the desk clerk tells him Rudy has checked out. Steve talks to the maintenance man out front and discovers that Rudy was carried out unconscious by two men and placed in a Logonda '36.
Rudy has been kidnapped by a rich criminal named Alfredo who wants to use him to build a bionic man for use in various crimes. Rudy denies having anything to do with bionics and refuses to cooperate.
"Well now, how about a nice big bear hug for our cute little kidnap victim?"
Alfredo gets a call from the hotel desk clerk telling him about Steve, so he sends his goons, Guido and Carl, to intercept and stop him.
A classic car chase ensues that ends when Steve reaches over and rips the other car's steering wheel off, sending Guido and Carl careening off the road.
This amuses Steve, eliciting a smirk.
"Ha ha. You guys won't bother me anymore."
Later, Steve stops at a car repair shop to ask about the Logonda, but the proprietor brushes him off. Steve parks his car not far away and watches the proprietor make a phone call. Steve smirks at this.
"Ha ha. I see you making that phone call."
And Now a Word from our Sponsors
Steve stops at a streetside cafe and has the waitress teach him a little German so he can fake out the car shop proprietor. Using his new language skills, Steve calls the proprietor and tells him to drive to the kidnappers lair. The proprietor falls for it, hops in his car, and speeds on his way. Steve's stuntman jumps out of the phone booth and chases after the car in slow motion.
This is so obviously a stuntman I don't know whether to be amused, distracted or insulted.
Steve infiltrates the Chateau de Kidnappeur (yes, I know that's French, but it reads funnier then "Chateau des Entführer") but is easily captured thanks to Rudy screaming "STEVE!" at the top of his lungs.
Worried for Steve's safety, Rudy admits he can build a bionic man, but concocts a ruse where Steve is an agent of a pharmaceutical company that also wants him to build them a bionic operative.
"Why...uhhh...he's my hairdresser. Yeah, my hairdresser. That's it. That's the ticket."
Rudy thinks he's convinced them to let Steve go, but instead they put Steve in a cell and chain him up. Steve smirks at the chains.
"Ha, ha. Your feeble chains amuse me."
Honestly, what is it with all the smirking in this episode?
Naturally, Steve escapes. Unfortunately, the kidnappers are watching the whole thing on closed-circuit TV and threaten to kill Rudy if Steve doesn't give up. Steve capitulates.
The next morning, they put Steve's bionics to the test.
Steve tosses this guy around.
So they call in a guy wearing the killer toupee from The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode:
The hair makes him do it.
Steve's bionic arm is injured in the melee, the toupee wins.
Alfredo decides to kill Steve as Steve is of no use to him, but Rudy convinces them to keep Steve alive. Alfredo inexplicably believes Rudy and he and Steve escape in a jeep.
Steve decoys the guys chasing them and gets them to follow him instead of Rudy. He then kills two of them by knocking their car over a cliff.
Apparently after filling the trunk with dynamite.
He then beats up the third guy and escapes.
The End.
Overall Grade: 
Final Thoughts: This one gets three Steves for the plot but minus one Steve for all the reused footage. The show up to this point hasn't exactly been shy about reusing footage from previous episodes, but this one reuses footage from ITSELF. Between that and the obvious stuntman, this episode is lucky I didn't knock it down to one Steve.
Listen to the Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast for this episode at chronicrift.com
This episode's Bionic Wiki Page
This episode's IMDB Page
Comments
Laughing
These episode guides are totally funny. I just burted into laughter, which I don't normally do. great stuff!
Allan Oppenheimer at His Peak
Here is one of the few times that Allan Oppenheimer surpasses Martin Brooks in his portrayal of Dr. Rudy Wells. For example, I was more drawn in with Steve saving Dr. Wells in this episode than in, say, Bigfoot V. The kung fu fighting in the snow was also pretty cool, smirking aside!
JayManiac