Talk:The Bionic Woman

Trivial

Including an article about The Bionic Woman is absurd. Trivial in the extreme.

No more so than the million articles about other TV shows. Or the article on George Washington, for that matter. Everything is relative. 23skidoo 04:17, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

And, according to Wikipedia's "notability" standard, TBW is notable for being the first science fiction/super hero genre show to garner its lead an Emmy for Best Actor or Best Actress in a Drama Series.CzechOut

Didn't Nimoy win one for Star Trek? 23skidoo 20:53, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Nope. He was nominated, though.CzechOut 16:04, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

"Boinic Woman" redirect

"Bionic Woman" redirects here, surely since the name of the new show is "Bionic Woman" (without "the") it should redirect there, wih a little note at the top saying "this article is about the 2007 Televieion series, for the original see......." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.148.209.217 (talk) 13:16, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Cost

In the Wiki article, there's some discussion about how much Jamie's bionics cost. There's evidence that her bionics cost the same amount as Steve's. In Season 1 Episode 11, when Jamie and Rudy are stranded on an island after their charter plane crashes, Oscar drops some supplies by parachute. Rudy and Jamie go to open one of the boxes, but Rudy finds that the box was bent when it landed. Jamie says to Rudy, "Would you like to make way for the six million dollar can opener?" --Crazyivan 06:18, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Although I clearly recall a reference to her costing less in an early episode, it's worth noting this line of dialogue, too. 23skidoo 14:29, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe in the opening credits, there is information presented about the bionic parts. The cost of the parts, however, is "classified." 4.243.152.165 02:18, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

The exact line is spoken by Oscar to Jaime: "Not quite six million. Your parts were smaller."THD3 (talk) 18:42, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Bionic "bridge" page

(cross-posted to The Six Million Dollar Man)
I am considering doing a page that will bridge the bionic series together. The page would contain general information about the entire series (the shows and the movies) with links to the separate shows. This would make alleviate any duplication between The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Does this sound good?

Lady Aleena 18:29, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

If you decide to do this, I recommend making it part of an article on Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg as it was the base material for both series. 23skidoo 22:00, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

"Jamie" or "Jaime"

Both are used in the article, which is it? --Awiseman 19:22, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah it's easy to be confused. It's supposed to be "Jaime" (according to IMDb and the novelisation Welcome Home Jaime). 23skidoo 21:35, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

The problem is that the producers spelled it both ways. When crediting Wagner for her work (usually on SMDM), they would typically write, "Special Guest Appearance by Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers". However, in the opening montage, the computer graphic was spelled, very clearly, J-a-m-i-e. It's a trippy thing when you watch the pilot episode repackaged under TBW title sequence. Because the title sequence tells you her name is Jamie, but the episode title is "Welcome Home, Jaime". CzechOut

In France she was Super Jaimie.Dogru144 15:16, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

In one episode, she gets a job working on a construction project. The foreman, expecting a male Mexican, is surprised that Jaime is a woman. (J-a-i-m-e [pronounced /'hai me/] is the spelling of a Hispanic man's name.) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.243.152.165 (talk) 02:21, 30 December 2006 (UTC).

I was actually born in 1976 and my mother named me after "The Bionic Woman". My name is spelled J-A-I-M-I-E. When I was little, I had trading cards with her name spelled this way. - Unsigned comment by 71.124.113.102 (talk)

I was born in 1968 and was named Jamie Sommers BEFORE the Bionic Woman! I grew up thinking our names were the SAME. Was VERY confused when I saw this Jaime spelling! LOVE the history here - I never knew all this stuff about the Bionic Woman! What did we ever do prior to the web?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.101.15.5 (talk) 05:59, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Separate Jaime Sommers article

A new editor has written a long biography of Jaime Sommers as a separate article. A couple of editors (me included) have redirected it here, and the author keeps reverting back to the separate article. I've now added a merge tag to the Jaime Sommers article. Please comment here. NawlinWiki 15:47, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Do not merge, just format the character article so it is easier to read. Let The Bionic Woman be series centric, and Jaime Sommers be character centric. So, leave them separate. Steve Austin has his own article.
—Lady Aleena talk/contribs 19:43, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree, do not merge. There is plenty of precedent for major TV characters (and even minor characters) to have their own articles. Besides Austin, see, for example, Doctor Who, NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, etc. The article does need clean-up and wikifying, but otherwise it has every right to be here. 23skidoo 04:32, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is inconsistent on this, however; Lucy and Ricky Ricardo redirect to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Jlittlet 17:51, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Then Lucy and Ricky Ricardo should be divorced from Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. However, that's a different situation than what we have here. There, we're talking about the actor being confused with the character. Here we're talking about the show being confused with its main character. I think it does make sense to keep them separate. Not all of Sommer's continuity exists within the confines of The Bionic Woman. I think some of The Bionic Woman's material on Jaime should be grafted onto the Sommers page. This one should clearly be about the show. That one, the character. I'm putting up a counter-merger tag on this page. The PLOT section here is way too long and involved on details about Jaime's life. I'm honestly not even convinced you need the section at all here. Again the focus of this article should be, I think, the television show, not the details of what happens to characters in that show. Details about the plot are only necessary as they are relevant to the history of the television program, but they should be mentioned as briefly as is possible to make the point. For instance, "When audience reaction to Wagner's first appearance as Sommers proved popular, producers soon knew that they would have to somehow bring Jaime back to life, after her apparent death on The Six Million Dollar Man. In other words, this article currently doesn't have what I would consider to be enough of a "behind-the-scenes" feel to it. It's much more about trying to chronicle the adventures of Jaime Sommers, rather than the Hollywood journey of The Bionic Woman. CzechOut 23:51, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Just to echo a bit of what CzechOut says, the fact Lucy and Ricky Ricardo redirect is probably an error that needs to be corrected by somebody writing a pair of articles. Both characters are iconic -- and in the case of Ricky being a successful Hispanic, something of a rarity in 1950s TV, landmark. They should definitely have their own articles so thanks for pointing that out. More to the overall point, minor characters generally shouldn't rate articles per WP:FICTION, so there is also some inconsistency in Wikipedia there, too, as I've seen, for example, single-appearance Star Trek characters given articles from time to time (usually to see them deleted by AFD soon after). 23skidoo 16:34, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

If they do continue to exist as separate articles, the Plot section here needs to be drastically cut back. CovenantD 03:40, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

OSI meaning

As I said over at the SMDM article, there is nothing to support that OSI stood for anything other than Office of Strategic Intelligence. In fact on-screen dialogue supports this as do novels based upon SMDM and Bionic Woman. For some reason a user has been stating that OSI stood for Office of Scientific Intelligence or Information, but that is incorrect. 23skidoo 18:42, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I am not that user, but I agree with him or her: the Office of Scientific Intelligence was a branch of the CIA in real life (it appears in the organization diagram in the book "The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence", by Victor Marchetti, former special assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence. In The Six Million Dollar Man show, this wording can be seen on Oscar Goldman's door. See "Changes for television" in that article. Excelsior f 05:01, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Venus Prime

"[It can be argued that The Bionic Woman was 'inspired' by Arthur C. Clarke & Paul Preuss' Venus Prime series of six science fiction novels, which deal with a woman whose body is rebuilt after a near-fatal accident, and she is given a new identity and begins to work as a special government operative; it is worthy of further speculation that because the original inspiration was a female character, The Bionic Woman should have logically preceded The Six Million Dollar Man. However at the time when the project was being considered, it is rumored that the producers believed that the American public would not receive a female android super hero character, and so they changed her to a male; once the project was a runaway hit, the original female character was introduced, and a spin-off was born.]" I pulled this section out of the main article as it seems to be speculative and original research without any support. Bionic Woman was based off the Six Million Dollar Man which was based off the book Cyborg. If there is some evidence of Cyborg's author Martin Caidin being inspired by Clarke's work, then it would be a better fit in Caidin's article. I'm not familiar with Clarke's short stories, but the Venus Prime series appears to be published in the 80's, well after the TV series.RepSchnell 05:16, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Good call. Complete speculation, not to mention incorrect as the earliest date I can find for Venus Prime is 1987, so if anything the Bionic Woman more likely inspired it not the other way around. Most certainly I can't see it predating Martin Caidin's creation of Cyborg in 1972 or the first Bionic Woman SMDM episode in 1975. 23skidoo 05:52, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Why did ABC cancel Bionic Woman in 1977?

I was hoping the article would explain that strange decision, but it's never mentioned. If someone knows the answer, it would be worth adding IMHO. - Theaveng 16:46, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

• We'd need a source, but my understanding is it was tied with the decision by Universal to cease production of The Six Million Dollar Man. For more detailed information I would suggest you check out some of the SMDM/BW fan sites as it's probably covered there. A book was recently published on the 2 shows as well. 23skidoo 04:23, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Bzzzz. The Bionic Woman was continued on NBC even after ABC pulled the plug. ----- My question of why *ABC* canceled the show still remains. - Theaveng 14:38, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

It was cancelled because of lower-than-expected ratings. 23skidoo 16:09, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

The introduction says it was #14 on ABC. So why was it canceled? - Theaveng 13:13, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I am not convinced that ABC actually cancelled The Bionic Woman after its second season in 1977. It finished 14th for the year which is still huge and by no means a reason to cancel a series. I suspect that NBC probably offered Universal a better offer for the series. Perhaps it was similar to the way that Buffy switched from The WB to UPN in 2001 whilst Angel remained on The WB - something related more to internal company politics and business deals. To be honest, I think all references to ABC cancelling the series should be removed from the article until a valid source can be found to verify the story behind the move. 79.66.52.173 (talk) 23:10, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I've taken the statement out - No.14 was a very good rating for the whole year. I agree, I think it was fought over - after 2 very successful seasons. No citation available - so I've taken the whole statement out.--Tuzapicabit (talk) 22:52, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm reinstating it with a citation. According to The Bionic Book it was cancelled because ABC felt it wasn't attracting the right demographics and was fading. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me, either. 23skidoo (talk) 03:18, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

That sounds like it wasn't getting the relevant target audience for the adverts running during it. For some companies the demographics are as much if not more important than the raw viewing figures. Timrollpickering (talk) 12:24, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Exhausted Lindsay Wagner

I've seen a few interviews with Lindsay Wagner on YouTube, where she openly admits that the reason the show was cancelled, was because of her gruelling filming schedule, particularly during the third season. She says she was exhausted, and wanted to spend time with her husband and raise a family - which she did right after she left! If I can find a clip or article, i will post it. Also, it's highly unlikely that the network would cancel the show when it was rating at 14. When the show stopped production in 1978, it was still massively popular, and earned Wagner an Emmy Award. Cattona (talk) 10:07, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Although it was still big when it switched networks, I dont think the show was still massively popular by its third season as it wasn't even in the top 30.79.66.118.175 (talk) 12:14, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

The No.14 placing and Emmy award you're referring to were for season 2. I think it was a joint case of cancelling the show due to falling ratings and the fact that Wagner didn't want to do a 4th. Still, would need a citation for it.--Tuzapicabit (talk) 22:09, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

The show was cancelled by ABC not because it had low ratings, but because it's then head of the neywork Fred Silverman was a real prick, and did not like the show, or Lindsay from what i remember, so he cancelled it, then when it was picked up by NBC it was given a death time slot of Saturday night, and not alot of people knew it was on and it had 2 other very strong shows against it, then before the season ended, Silverman switched networks and went to NBC so you know why NBC did not keep it, the show was extremely popular with all ages, but thanks to idiots at networks ..they ruined what should have been a long running series! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.37.209.197 (talk) 04:23, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I've reformatted your comment for clarity (please refer to WP:MOS. The reference work The Bionic Book goes into detail on this; much of what you've said here fails WP:NOR unless a source is provided. 23skidoo (talk) 22:14, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes i too remember this Fred Silverman was very hard to deal with, and did not like female lead TV shows,and he created problems where ever he went, much of this info was always in the TV Guides back in the day,as i clearly remember reading it there! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.37.167.100 (talk) 05:02, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Affected

Doesn't the use of the word "affected" imply that the British actress's American accent is unconvincing? It's better to reserve value judgments.81.178.149.234 (talk) 19:14, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

No, to "affect" means to pretend or feign, which in this case is entirely true. 88.104.4.60 (talk) 13:24, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

New Comic

Since there are some folks who automatically revert IP edits without checking, I just added a bit about the new comic book starting in March. Source is here if my edit gets removed if anyone wants to put it back in. 68.146.72.113 (talk) 16:02, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

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