The return of the Bionic Woman.

If you came of age in my day, there was a certain quality to television that is long since absent. I found an old newspaper when I was cleaning out things the other day and it was interesting just to look at it as a bit of a curio – if only to get a sense of how much the world has changed on so many different levels.

The paper was from ’81 or thereabouts which doesn’t seem too long ago until I realize it’s over 25 years!

Looking through the TV listings you see the choices were much more limited than they are now. Now, TV is a 24/7 cacophony of information and mindlessness attacking the senses constantly but, even as recently as 1981 that wasn’t the case. There weren’t three cable news channels and there wasn’t even much in the way of cable. MTV was still just a heartbeat away and still hadn’t pervaded society as it would a few years later. Most of TV was just broadcast and while NY had a bigger selection of channels (a whopping 7), most of them went off the air sometime between 1 and 3am.

There wasn’t a 24-hour news cycle, there weren’t cellphones, faxes, email. People just weren’t that connected constantly.

Anyway, what bought the time to mind was seeing how TV is recycling another one of its old ideas. This time they are bringing back the Bionic Woman that at the time of original broadcast was a pretty big deal (along with The Six Million Dollar Man). It makes me wonder what other ideas TV might regurgitate on today’s audience.

TV runs in cycles though and I was thinking about that period from 1970 to 1980 when I did some exploring on YouTube and came across some of those old shows. Shows that were fairly popular in their day but, shows now largely forgotten. There were a bunch of SciFi imports from England:

Space 1999:

Eight years past 1999 and the moon is still fixed in orbit. Plus, we sure don’t seem to be conquering space’s vistas the way we envisioned.


UFO:

Funny if only one can explain why all the woman in the space station needed to wear purple wigs.


The Six Million Dollar Man:

What would the price be when adjusted for inflation?


Love American Style featuring the pilot for what would become Happy Days:

I actually remember this episode in particular for very specific reasons that have nothing to do with TV.


Room 222:

A favorite of mine when I was a kid. Plus it had Karen Valentine in it (who is 60?!?!?!).


The Mod Squad:

Too funny to watch in retrospect.


It Takes A Thief:

Robert Wagner’s take on Cary Grant.


Mannix:

This was on every Saturday night when I was over my grandparents. I remember it as being progressive because of the dynamic between Mannix and Peggy Fair.


Cannon:

A Quinn Martin production!


The Mystery Movie:

There was a time when these filled up NBC’s broadcast schedule.

As a matter of fact, a lot of the seventies were taken up by ‘cop shows.’ It was the wave of the seventies that makes me wonder if it will ever have a big comeback and take over the TV schedule the way reality programming or game shows have over the last few years.

There were a few other shows like The Name of The Game and another show which though it ran briefly is interesting in the way it presents technology: