The first season was...okay. It was too much about Jaime's personal life: at her apartment, with Steve's parents, teaching at the school, etc. The only really good ones from that season were when she was in a beauty pagent, when she played a stewardess and the plane crashed, and the first Lisa Galloway (the woman who had plastic surgery to look just like Jaime) episode. The first also had a shit ton of guest stars! Andy Griffith, Donald O'Conner, Tippi Hedren, Berk Parks, Gary Collins, and Kristi McNichol. I was frankly surprised how a show about a woman cyborg, in it's first season, could get so many famous people. Even if the stories weren't that great.
Then I got to the Second Season. Now THIS, this is what I remembered! This season had the vast majority of the great episodes: Jaime as a female wrestler; the "Iceman" on the yacht; the one with Vincent Price, Julie Newmar, Hermoine Baddeley, and Abe Vigoda as an insane family trying to find an inheritance in an old mansion; Jaime as a nun; the meteorite that turns people into zombies with sound: Jaime becomes a cop; Jaime taking on the HAL from 2001 A Space Odyssey clone; the second Lisa Galloway two-parter; Jaime and the art forger (played by DS9s Odo, Rene Auberjonois); and of course, THE BEST Bionic Woman episodes: Kill Oscar! The three part crossover with the Six Million Dollar Man starring the fembots!
Now if you're never watched the Bionic Woman, this will all mean nothing to you. But to me, Damn, just those short descriptions bring it all back to me! How much FUN!
In real life, after the second season, ABC canceled the show. But, NBC picked it up and it ran for another season. Which is very unfortunate. Because, frankly, the third season was just...horrid. What a stinker of a season. The only high light was the second fembots two-parter: Fembots In Vegas. Honestly, that's the title and that's pretty much the episode. And it wasn't even that great. But this season also brought us the....*ahem* awesomeness that was: Max A Million, the bionic German Shepard; Rodeo Jaime; the beauty salon with the hypnotizing shampoo that gets top secrets to be revealed (named "Brain Wash"...I shit you not); rescuing the East German boy violinist who falls in love with Jaime; Jaime goes to college; Jaime vs Aztec-ish aliens in a pyramid; Jaime gets poisoned and needs saved by Max and her friends; Jaime fights a fake UFO; Jaime protects an alien princess (a young Helen Hunt) from identical twin alien bounty hunters: Jaime vs sharks; Jaime and the American Indian friendly ghost; among others. But it also has THE worst episode of the series...which is saying a lot considering just how bad all those above were.
It's titled "Motorcycle Boogie" and stars....wait for it....Evil Knievel. Honest to God. I couldn't make this shit up. And it was just as horrible as it sounds.
I was honestly a struggle to get through the third season. I almost gave up halfway through, but through sheer determination, I did watch them all....somehow.
So really, if anyone else reading this wants to relieve their youth and the fun of the Bionic Woman, just get the second season. It really has all you need, or could want.
POLT
