The SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN STORY – Dandy Fun House episode 60

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In the 1970’s there was an astronaut. A man barely alive. We rebuilt him. We had the technology to make the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin was that man. We made him better than he was before. Better… Stronger… Faster. And in this big episode number 60 of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to take you along for the ride as we go back in time for the story of the man, the icon, the legend, Lee Majors, how he became the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, what he did after the show’s conclusion and where he is now! If you’re ready to get your OSI on, then it’s time to step into the FUN HOUSE!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog. I’m your host Neil Dandy and THIS is where we weild our metal lunchboxes like the schoolyard recess weapons they are to bring you the bionic best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff!

I want to give a special shout out to KC for supporting the show through a patronage platform called BUY ME A COFFEE. KC bought me not one, not two but THREE COFFEES! So expect this show to be extra jittery! Thanks JC and glad you’re enjoying the show.

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And while you’re there, be sure to grab some of our other amazing designs like SHART TANK, LED ROBSTER, BODY BY DONUTS, MAYPOP TIRES and much, much more. That’s the Dandy Fun Shop located inside the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com or visit our miniature fun shop inside our YouTube channel if that’s your thing.

OK! THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN starring Lee Majors was an enormous smash hit tv show in the 70s that was what we used to call “appointment television” every single week. It was everywhere. It had toys, lunchboxes, costumes. Every boy in America wanted to be the Six Million Dollar Man and every girl in America wanted to be THE BIONIC WOMAN! But to really get the full story of how all this came about, we need to go back farther… MUCH FARTHER!

The year: 1939 on April 23rd in the town of Wyandotte, Michigan, Harvey Lee Yeary was born to a widowed mother because his father had passed away in a work accident 5 months before his birth. Sadly, just 17 months later, he would lose his mother to an automobile accident leaving the child the world would someday know as Lee Majors, an orphan before the age of two. He was then adopted by his aunt and uncle, Mildred and Harvey Yeary who brought young Harvey to their home in Middlesboro, Kentucky where they raised him as their own.

Harvey took an interest in athletics at a young age pursuing track and football at Middlesboro High School, graduating in 1957 and immediately going on to play football for Indiana University. One year later, he would transfer to Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky where he suffered a back injury which paralyzed him for two weeks. He recovered but this also ended his personal aspirations for professional athletics. Even so, he DID receive an offer to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals football team after graduating college which he declined as he planned to pursue coaching.

Harvey Lee Yeary moved to Los Angeles, California taking a job as recreation director for the local Parks and Rec. During his time there, he befriended a man named Dick Clayton who was the agent for James Dean. Clayton convinced him to take acting lessons at his own acting school. Harvey also studied at Estelle Harman’s acting school at MGM and adopted the stage name Lee Majors in honor of a childhood hero of his; University of Tennessee player and coach, Johnny Majors.

Lee Majors began landing bit parts in television and film through the mid-1960s including the Joan Crawford film “Straightjacket”, a 1965 episode of “Gunsmoke” and on the Alfred Hitchcock hour in an episode called “The Monkey’s Paw – A Retelling.”

His first big role however came when in 1965 he was chosen out of nearly 400 other actors for the part of Heath Barkley in the classic western series “The Big Valley” co-starring alongside Barbara Stanwyck and Linda Evans.

Next thing you knew, Lee Majors was a well-known leading man in Hollywood.

While working on The Big Valley, Lee Majors was having coffee with his publicist, Dave Gershenson who happened to have a portfolio of a new model and actress in town recently relocated from Texas, 21-year-old Farrah Fawcett. Dave felt the two of them should meet, Lee agreed and left Farrah a message at the all-girls boarding house she was staying at simply stating “Please tell her that Lee Majors will be by at eight o’clock to pick her up.” Farrah thought the message was rude since the two had never even met. Regardless, she agreed to go on the date and reportedly it was extremely awkward. Majors stated he did apologize and his intention was simply for her to not make other plans because he could be difficult to reach on the set of The Big Valley with their 14 hour shoot days.

The next day, Lee Majors made a more formal apology by sending her a bouquet of 13 yellow roses, (the state flower of Texas where she was from) and from that moment forward Lee and Farrah were almost inseparable.

They married on July 28, 1973 at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

During the early days of their relationship, Farrah shied away from big productions, movies and television series, preferring instead to do commercials and special guest roles as she wanted to spend as much time as possible with Lee.

Did you know that the Gladys Knight and the Pips hugemongous hit song “Midnight Train To Georgia” was actually inspired by the relationship between Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett? That’s right! The author of the song, Jim Weatherly called his good friend Lee Majors on the phone one day but the call was intercepted instead by Farrah who revealed to him that she was about to take a midnight plane to Houston to visit her mother. Weatherly liked the ring of the phrase and penned the original lyrics as a story about an actress who gives up her dreams and leaves Tinseltown only to be followed by her boyfriend who can’t bear to be without her. The song underwent a few rewrites along the way, plane was changed to train, Houston was changed to Georgia and the girl was rewritten to chase the guy instead. Gladys Knight and the Pips recorded and released “Midnight Train To Georgia” and the song went straight to Number One in 1973. And now you know.

When The Big Valley was ultimately cancelled in 1969, Universal Studios signed Lee Majors to a long-term contract and placed him into some interim parts in shows such as “The Liberation of L.B. Jones”, “The Men from Shiloh” and “Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law.” I guess they didn’t want him getting rusty while they figured out what they wanted to do with him. And figure out what to do with Lee Majors they did!

For then came the role that would define Lee Majors for generations to come and place him into the Pantheon of American pop culture (PAPCULT?) for all time:

In 1973, ABC tapped Majors for the lead in a television film as United States Air Force Colonel and astronaut, Steve Austin in the “Six Million Dollar Man”, based on the 1972 novel, Cyborg by author Martin Caidin.The synopsis? While flying, Steve Austin experiences an aviation malfunction resulting in a horrific, near-fatal accident leaving him with critical injuries so severe that while in a coma, the U.S. government decides to rebuild him using bionics. Kind of like Robocop. Except in this case, the bionics consist of one arm, both legs and an eye. All of his humanity remains intact. Steve Austin then chooses to become a super secret government agent for the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) and the rest as they say is history. The Nielson ratings come back positive, ABC picks up the Six Million Dollar Man as a weekly series in 1974. It absolutely explodes across the globe and Mr. Lee Majors is an instant household name in 71 countries. Yeah. Just like that.

But Lee had some “major” help courtesy of an amazing support cast such as:

Richard Anderson who portrayed OSCAR GOLDMAN, Director of OSI. Who in real life was a World War II veteran having served in the United States Army.

Martin E. Brooks, as Doctor Rudy Wells who oversaw the integration of Steve Austin’s bionics and the ongoing repairs, maintenance and upgrades.

But Martin wasn’t the only actor to play this role. Alan Oppenheimer  began with the show for the first 9 episodes before Martin E. Brooks assumed the part. Even so, the role of Doctor Rudy Wells only appeared in 54 of the 99 total episodes of the Six Million Dollar Man.

The theme song for the show was created by jazz musician, Oliver Nelson who began scoring tv shows in 1967. Nelson was brought onboard for the Six Million Dollar when it became a series and composed the iconic theme music we all associate with the show to this day.

Prior to Nelson, the pilots used a different song by a composer named Glen A. Larson with vocals by the legendary Dusty Springfield. The song was awful and they made the right choice going with a cool instrumental that included a voice over explaining the synopsis of the show in my opinion.

Oliver Nelson continued scoring for the show until his sudden passing in 1975 from a heart attack at the age of 42. But his work had become so ingrained to the fabric of the show that all following composers were compelled to mimic his style. Oliver Nelson was laid to rest at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

As all true fans of the show know, the action sequences were famous for being slow motion and were referred to by the creators as “Kung Fu Slow Motion” referring to the popular television show “Kung Fu” starring David Carradine and how they used slow motion in their action sequences.

There are a few different stories about how the bionic sound (you know the one) was created.

According to Paul Van Scott over at Retro Rules, that bionic sound was supposedly created by rubbing a comb against a metal ashtray. I’m having trouble believing this one.

Bionic.fandom.com suggests that Charles E. King, the show’s sound designer created the bionic sound by bracing a metal ruler or yardstick on the edge of a table, pulling it back and releasing it. Then slowing the recording of it down to 25 percent. I find this theory to be more feasible.

But the Google Assistant A.I. Internet robot says quite authoritatively that the sound was created using a Yamaha YC-45D organ and a Morley Electrostatic Delay to create the repetitive pulse with the attack removed for a smoother sound.

What’s the real answer? I’m not sure anybody knows for sure. That is except for the person or persons who created it and it appears they have decided to keep this one a mystery and us eternally guessing. If you think you know, please let us know.

Jaime Sommers otherwise known as the BIONIC WOMAN (played by Lindsay Wagner) was introduced in 1975 for a two-part episode in which a former girlfriend of Steve Austin who was a professional tennis player, experiences a tragic parachuting accident and receives her own bionics which her body rejects and she dies at the end of her two-episode debut. However, the character proved to be so popular that the very next season she was miraculously revived by a process called cryogenics, returned as a recurring character and even received her own spinoff series in 1976 called “The Bionic Woman” in which she becomes a school teacher. Her role as the Bionic Woman landed her not one but two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress In A Television Series in 1977 and 1978.

With the success of the show also came the opportunity for merchandising. And merchandise they did! Beginning in 1975 Kenner toys began releasing action figures including 3 different versions of Steve Austin through 1978 all with different features like telescoping eyes, bionic sounds, bionic grip, biosonic arm, accessories like an engine block, steel i-beam and cinder blocks with a wooden cross-beam for karate chopping.

There were also playsets like a rocket ship that converted to an operating room, mission control center and O.S.I. headquarters.

The other characters had action figures too. Like Oscar Goldman with his exploding briefcase, Bionic Bigfoot and Maskatron with interchangeable faces,

The Bionic Woman also had her own toy line with 3 different action figures as well as a villian figure called the Fembot. Most of her accessories consisted of fashion outfits and playsets like the Bionic Beauty Salon, Carriage House, Dome House and Classroom. She also had her own awesome sports car, Styling Boutique and a whole lot more!

Lunch boxes, t-shirts, Halloween costumes. To say this franchise made major bank capitalizing on it’s popularity would be a “major” understatement! It could be realistically argued that the merchandising juggernaut of the Six Million Dollar Man blazed the trail at least in scale for other tv and movie franchises such as HAPPY DAYS and STAR WARS.

The spacecraft crash footage at the beginning of the opening credits for the Six Million Dollar Man is actually real. It’s footage of a test pilot named Bruce Peterson crashing an M2-F2 aircraft on May 10th, 1967. Hitting the ground at approximately 260 mph, Peterson survived the crash losing only an eye.

That was the name of a two-part episode where Steve Austin battles a bionic bigfoot only to discover it’s purpose was to protect a group of space aliens that the Six Million Dollar Man actually ends up helping. The robotic sasquatch was portrayed by none other than wrestling legend, Andre the Giant and this ended up being one of the most well-remembered episodes of the series which was so popular that Kenner toys even included a Bionic Bigfoot action figure in it’s product line!

By the final season, writers for the show found themselves running out of ideas for things they could do with the character of Steve Austin and in one of the last episodes they even placed him into a nationally televised dating show of all things which Steve Austin naturally won. But what was no longer winning were the ratings so on March 6, 1978 with the airing of the final final episode entitled “The Moving Mountain”, ABC pulled the plug on the Six Million Dollar Man and that was that!

And speaking of that being that, let’s get back to Farrah Fawcett for a moment shall we? Farrah was cast in the tv series Charlie’s Angels in 1976 and was catapulted into absolute superstardom almost overnight as soon as the show launched.

But with both the husband and wife superstars being super-busy with their respective careers a heavy toll was taken on their marriage simply because they just never saw each other.

Farrah and Lee separated in 1979 and finalized their divorce in 1982.

Which was right around the time Lee Majors was just beginning a new television series called THE FALL GUY which would also become a hit, nowhere near the popularity of the Six Million Dollar Man, but a big hit nonetheless!

On The Fall Guy, Lee Majors starred as Colt Seavers, a Hollywood Stuntman who also happens to be a bounty hunter on the side. Lee Majors also sang the show’s theme song “The Unknown Stuntman” which was actually pretty fun and memorable.

Majors did many of his own stunts on the series and invited a lot of his old friends from television past to guest star on the show, like Linda Evans, Lindsay Wagner, Lou Rawls and yes, even Farrah Fawcett appeared on the show while their divorce was being finalized.

The Fall guy had merchandising as well with action figures, t-shirts, the truck from the tv show and even a board game. But still nowhere near as big as The Six Million Dollar Man, but honestly what could ever be that big ever again?

The Fall Guy’s fantastic and successful run concluded in 1986 when the series met the merciless axe of network cancelation.

After the series ended, Lee Majors teamed up with Lindsay Wagner once again for three more bites at the bionic apple with 1987’s “THE RETURN OF THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN AND THE BIONIC WOMAN”, 1989’s “BIONIC SHOWDOWN: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN AND THE BIONIC WOMAN” which also featured a very young Sandra Bullock.

And then much later, they attempted to milk the bionic cow one final time for 1994’s “BIONIC EVER AFTER” in which Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers finally marry.

In 2003 Lee Majors was honored with TV Land’s “Viewers Choice – Superest Superhero” award.

2016 Lee Majors is nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television for his role as Brock Williams on the TV show “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”

Lee Majors has been keeping himself busy with voice and acting roles too extensive to start listing here but seems to simply be enjoying being Lee Majors and continuing to have the time of his life doing what Lee Majors does. Does it get any better than that?

And THAT’S the 4-1-1 on the Six Million Dollar Man and the incredible life (thus far) of one Mr. Lee Majors.

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Ok, well THAT’S OUR BIG 60th EPISODE! It’s a bigger milestone here than it would be for most shows because we simply don’t have the capacity to crank these episodes out as quickly and as often as we would like due to other things in our lives. Does that mean that the Dandy Fun House is fading away? or “Podfading” which is a podcasting industry term for when a content producer begins to wane interest and produce their episodes less often. Heck no! We love doing this show and have no plans to stop. There’s just a lot of work that goes into each episode to make them the best they can be and that takes time. Time to research, create a cohesive script, record, edit and publish. Then after publishing, going through the episode for the next few weeks and producing short-form clips for daily release on the various socials. This is something we don’t like trusting to A.I. so it’s all done by hand. Then… once short form videos have been exhausted after releasing them one at a time over the course of a couple of weeks, we take a breather for a week or so and think about what the next episode should be. Then once decided, the process starts all over again. This is why you don’t see brand new full-length episodes coming out on a weekly basis. This show right here is spun by hand! Love, patience and support is all we ask. Ok, I lied. We also ask that you come back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!