Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Cyborgs returns with an ALL-NEW episode review! Host, Paul K. Bisson invites longtime Bionic fan, Rod De Luca, Jr. back to the podcast to take a swing at the fourth episode of the Bionic Woman: "A Thing of the Past." Originally broadcast on February 18, 1976, and guest-starring the legendary Donald O'Connor ("Singing in the Rain") as an Ojai school bus driver with a mysterious past. BONUS: James Sherrard of The Bionic Woman Files fan site stops by to "Declassify" some cool "behind-the-scenes" information about the episode! Listen NOW!

Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast returns with ALL-NEW episodes — starting with our Case File interview with veteran TV director Alan J. Levi (The Invisible Man, Battlestar Galactica, The Incredible Hulk, Airwolf, Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, ER, JAG, NCIS, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Paul K. Bisson talks with Alan about his life, career, and directing some of most memorable episodes of THE BIONIC WOMAN — including Angel of Mercy, The Deadly Missiles, Mirror Image, Road to Nashville, Sister Jaime, Biofeedback, Deadly Ringer, Beyond the Call, The Night Demon, Once a Thief, African Connection, and Escape to Love.

00:00:00  SHOW OPEN

00:01:15  Paul introduces Alan

00:04:25  Alan's beginnings

00:06:00  "Good News" / "Keep Your Spirits High"

00:10:20  Dick Powell / Seven Week Education / Dumbest Answer

00:15:35  June Allyson / Dick’s Death / Interesting Chain of Events

00:18:00  Stubborn / Richard Powell, Jr. / “I Have A Story to Tell You”

00:19:20  BREAK / Kenneth Johnson Bumper / Forgotten TV Promo

00:20:20  Heeding Dick’s — and Dad’s — Advice / Engineering First / Full Scholarship

00:23:10  Back to Saint Louis / Building a Car From Scratch / 2000 Hours of Live TV

00:25:15  “National Velvet” & “Father of the Bride” / Inventing VidiFilm / NASA

00:32:00  Leslie Stevens / Harve Bennett / “The Invisible Man” / “Gemini Man”

00:35:30  BREAK / Robbie Rist Bumper / Bionic Woman on DVD Promo

00:36:35  Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman / Steve vs. Jaime

00:39:45  Let’s Talk About the Bionic Woman / “Angel of Mercy” / Working with Lindsay Wagner / Holy Trio with Kenny Johnson, and James D. Parriot / Bringing in Enzo A. Martinelli

00:44:25  “The Deadly Missiles” / Lindsay’s Aches and Pains / Forrest Tucker: “I drink all day long.”

00:46:50  “Mirror Image,” “Deadly Ringer” / Screaming at Lindsay

00:51:35  “Road to Nashville” / No Lip-sync — Lindsay Sings Live

00:54:25  “Sister Jaime” / Out of Habit — Alan’s Faux Pas / “Flock Out of Here”

00:56:30  “Biofeedback” / Lindsay’s Transition / Lindsay’s Input

00:58:35  “Beyond the Call” / Lindsay’s Finesse / “The Night Demon” / Night Filming

01:01:20  “Once A Thief” / Crew Names / One of Alan’s Biggest Compliments / Style

01:05:20  “African Connection” / Inferior ‘Angel of Mercy’

01:07:35  “Escape to Love” / . . .

01:08:35  BREAK / Lee Majors Bumper / “Sharks” ABC Promo

01:09:10  “Sharks” (Six Million Dollar Man) / Lindsay’s Permission

01:11:15  “The Return of the Incredible Hulk” / Kenny Asks Alan to Direct

01:13:55  “Scruples” / Lindsay Gets Alan to Direct / Lindsay Goes to Bat

01:17:30  “The Last Song” / ‘Lynda Carter Is Terrific But Not My Best Work’

01:19:46  IMDb Roll-Call / “Bionic Showdown” / Sandra Bullock / The Kiss

01:24:55  IMDb Roll-Call Continues / Donald Bellsisario / “Quantum Leap”

01:25:30  The “J” in Alan J. Levi / “J-Gate”

01:27:00  Thank you, Alan J. Levi / SHOW OUTRO / Alan J. Levi Bumper

For more information about Alan J. Levi, visit his official website at alanjlevi.com.

Clips of Bionic Woman promos provided by James Sherrard. Watch them at his website, BionicWomanFiles.com. It's the longest-running fan site devoted to the Bionic Woman chock-full of Top Secret information about the show.

The “Escape to Love” cover music was performed by composer, Dimitri Dodoras.

All other non-original music and clips are copyright their respective owners and used in this podcast for criticism, comment, and review purposes.

Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast is a production of the Bionic Fan Network. Visit us at BIONICFANS.NET.

"The Six MIllion Dollar Man was my favorite show." -- Tom Schanley during our Case File interview. Here are more highlights with the actor who played Michael Austin - Steve Austin's son in the 1987 reunion movie, The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman.

Listen to the full podcast review here:

DIRECT MP3 LINK: http://traffic.libsyn.com/cyborgs/Cyborgs_Case_Files_05_-_Tom_Schanley.mp3

READ OUR SHOW NOTES: http://abionicpodcast.wix.com/cyborgs#!case-file-05---tom-schanley/cs0o

iTUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/id695405811

STITCHER: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/chronic-rift-network/cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/e/case-file-05-tom-schanley-34270811

TOM SCHANLEY OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.tomschanley.com/

TOM SCHANLEY FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TomSchanleyActor

TOM SCHANLEY TWITTER: https://twitter.com/TheTomSchanley

"Lee Majors has the most manly running stride in the history of running men." -- Dayton Ward during our podcast review of the five Bionic limb-rated episode, "Population: Zero" from The Six Million Dollar Man.

PLAY BIONIC BYTE: http://traffic.libsyn.com/cyborgs/bionicbytes_dayton_runnnig.mp3

Listen to the full podcast review here:

FULL SHOW DIRECT MP3 LINK: http://traffic.libsyn.com/cyborgs/004_-_Cyborgs-Population_Zero.mp3

READ SHOW NOTES: http://abionicpodcast.wix.com/cyborgs#!population-zero/cxo7

iTUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/id695405811

STITCHER: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/chronic-rift-network/cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/e/population-zero-30336938

DAYTON WARD'S BLOG: https://daytonward.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/population-zero-on-cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/

Bionic Bytes are short clips from the regular Cyborgs podcast. In this clip, Robbie Rist talks about his Saturday Morning TV show, "BIg John, Little John," in which he played "Little John, the 12 year-old version of Herb Edelman's "Big John." You can listen to the full Case File interview in which John and Paul discuss Rist's career at length.

Website: http://abionicpodcast.wix.com/cyborgs#!case-file-04---robbie-rist/c1wx

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/id695405811

Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/chronic-rift-network/cyborgs-a-bionic-podcast/e/case-file-04-robbie-rist-34099001

Robbie Lee (Big Bad Mama, Rainbow Brite, The Get Along Gang) reprises her role asAudrey Moss, last seen in "The E.S.P. Spy" and returns to help Steve Austin go undercover as a magician in order to retrieve a stolen Navy code book. Other guest stars include, Jack Colvin (The Incredible Hulk) and Pernell Roberts(Bonanza, Trapper John MD). John's favorite Bionic actor, William T. Zacha also makes an appearance. "Good eats."

Paxton Holley (of the Cavalcade of Awesome and the Nerd Lunch Podcast) helps us review this very magical episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Robbie Lee was gracious enough to record our lead-in bumper. And we also offer a sneak-peek at our Case File interview with writer Bob McCullough ("In This Corner, Jaime Sommers," "Jaime and the King")  who recalls how he wrote the original story treatment for "Hocus-Pocus" but never got credit!

Additional music provided by Robin Spanell.

"Lady Killer," Carlton Harris is back! But this time Jaime Sommers is ready for him! Devising a plan to expose his evil deeds once and for all, she must pretend to be his loyal ally, even if it means going deep undercover and severing her OSI lifeline. It's the Bionic Woman's first solo mission in "Welcome Home, Jaime Part II." Hosts John S. Drew and Paul K. Bisson welcome back Betsy Dodd of BionicBlonde.com and James Sherrard of BionicWomanFiles.com.

Jaime Sommers is back! And this time she's comig home to rebuild her life. After a sky-diving accident dropped her into a futuristic world of Bionics, and then a brain hemmorage left her dead, she was brought back to life through a revolutionary cryogenic procedure. But her memory was gone and with it her love for Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. But now, after one final operation, who will she wake up to be? What kind of life will she have? And will Steve be a part of it?

Lifelong Bionic fans, John S. Drew and Paul K. Bisson open the Top Secret file on the Bionic Woman's debut episode, "Welcome Home, Jaime." Joining them for for this special extended podcast (over two hours!) are two powerhouses in Bionic Woman fandom: first is James Sherrard, webmaster of The Bionic Woman Files and Betsy Dodd, webmaster of Bionic Blonde. If you love Jaime Sommers, this is duo to listen to.

As always, we've got lots to share as we explore this episode. Trivia, behind-the-scenes information, fashion breakdowns, and our ever popular rating system of 1 to 5 Bionic limbs. We've even got singing! So grab a phone book and some tuna salad, things are about to get wild. Thanks to the amazing Lindsay Wagner for giving us a breat send-off at the start of the show!

The "Darling Effect" is in full effect as Jennifer Darling returns to guest star in a new adventure.  Callahan has been accused of given OSI secrets to enemy agents, placing a noted scientist in danger.  Is Callahan a spy or a a pawn in a bigger game?  What ever else you can say, at least you know she has "The Winning Smile".  Joining John and Paul to discuss this winning episode is thesix1973.com's webmaster, Joe Burns and Six Million Dollar Man Time Life DVD Collection chief consultant Matt Hankinson.

Purchase the season three Universal DVD release of The Six Million Dollar Man. In doing so, you help support the podcast.

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Growing up in a one-TV household, I had 3 brothers who surrounded me in age—who often teased me for being a “sissy”—and who usually controlled the voting majority for which channel to watch. Back in the 70s, our whirling TV dial was pretty much destroyed because we fought over it so often. One night while the substitute pliers were pointed to their choice of The Six Million Dollar Man(again), suddenly there was OMG ...cue angelic chorus... Jaime Sommers, the world’s first Bionic Woman. Yes!!! Score one for us sissies! I was totally hooked. And the love story between Jaime and Steve was the best. Ever. But then they killed her the following week.

Why did I idolize Jaime Sommers so much? Just as the final season was being released on DVD in the fall of 2011, I stumbled onto some internet bionic fan forums and started posting these offbeat episode reviews.