January 18, 1974
Based on the novel “Cyborg” by Martin Caidin, The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors as Col. Steve Austin, premiered on this day. The show centered on Austin, an astronaut and pilot who was brought back from the dead after a terrible crash by becoming a cyborg (part man, part machine). Cybernetic replicas replaced his left eye, right arm, and both legs. They functioned better than his original parts, giving him unheard of strength, vision, and speed. The world’s first bionic man inspired a superhero trend in the late 1970s. The show’s influence was felt in several other programs like
