Retro Toons: Bionic Six
Today I start a new section. A look at some not quite as well known cartoons of the 80's that I grew up with.
The first installment brings us The Bionic Six.
Who as a kid didn't imagine Lee Majors' The Six Million Dollar Man hooking up with Lindsay Wagner's Bionic Woman? And who didn't expect a new show with both of them after their respective shows ended and even bionic kiddies. Sadly they wouldn't really get together until 1994 in the TV Movie "Bionic Ever After".
But prior to that in 1987 TMS decided that a cartoon was in order. Now the cartoon isn't technically based on either character, but at the very least one can say its inspired by them.
The cartoon premise is that a diverse family is exposed to some type of alien radiation on a ski trip and goes into a comma. The father which was already a bionic secret agent prior to this event, is the only one unaffected. The people at the Special Projects Lab conclude (don't ask me how they conclude this though) that the bionic implants given to the father by them are the reason he is unaffected. So what do they do, they start chopping off limbs and give the entire family a set of bionic implants. O.k. so the don't really chop off limbs they tend to be more like enhancements but still "lets turn this family into super beings to test a theory".
They get the standard accoutrement of super powers. super strength, super speed, super hearing, super sight, super suits etc... They get code names too, because what secret super hero family is complete with out spiffy code names.
So we get Bionic-1: The Father and original Bionic Agent Jack Bennett. His special enhancements are his bionic eyes and ears. He has X-Ray, vision, telescopic vision, and super hearing beyond even that of the other family members which have regular super hearing. So he has super-super hearing? Jack Bennett is totally a "cartoonified" Lee Majors in his better days. Just look at that grin there to the left.
Helen Bennett a.k.a Mother-1 is yes Jacks bride, and mother to the bionic children. Get it the mother is Mother-1? Yeah I know, not clever in the least but hey it was the 80's it was full of bad puns like that. she's got mental powers and some type of ESP, which I have no idea how you get from bionic implants.
Then we have the eldest son Erick Bennett. He's you're typical high school jock with a big bat. His code name is Sport-1 because well he's sporty. You know being a baseball player and all. The name puns will get increasingly bad as we go along though so just enjoy this one. In addition to the standard super enhancements Erick can manipulate attraction and repulsion so he gets a power swing that any major league baseball player would wish for. Its like they took Griff Tannen and turned him into a super hero.
Next in line is Rock-1, Meg Bennett the music loving teenage daughter of the Bennetts. (Yeesh these puns are really getting thin). Anyway she gets a couple of wrist mounted sonic blasters, and the ability to run faster than the other bionic members.
Finally we get to the required minorities for 80's cartoons. Since they needed to be a family the writers made the Bennets adopt two children.
And African American teenager named J.D. He is Super-super strong, and super-super smart. His code name is... IQ. Yes the guy with the highest IQ is IQ. Anyway he's the only one that doesn't get a spiffy number 1 after his code name.
The last member of the family, is Bunjiro "Bunji" a.k.a Karate-1. Yes Karate was all the rage back then after the Karate Kid movies so they had to include it. Now Bunji doesn't get an extra power, he just has his Karate expertise, which gets enhanced by the bionics, so basically he's Bruce Lee on steroids.
The Family gets a house on a cliff just above the ocean, with a secret base underneath that has a extremely modern jet/submarine called the Sky Dancer, and has a runway strip at the bottom of the ocean. Sky Dancer can transport the family and their vehicles on lon range missions. One of these vehicles is a souped up futuristic family Winnebago. Yes they get a flying Winnebago. Because what 80's family is complete without the family van. It reminds me a little of the Roundabout from Star Trek though.
They also have a robotic Gorilla housekeeper named F.L.U.F.F.I.. Yup, he helps them out around the house, and even goes on missions with them.
The Bionic Six fight Dr. Scarab a fat, bald, stereotypical evil doctor, complete with lab coat and head light. He is Dr. Sharps' brother and is partially responsible for the technology that gave the family their super powers. He has a number of henchmen at his service who'm he's apparently given bionic enhancements as well though not on par with the Bennetts.
The minions included Glove; Purple skinned soldier with a power glove (ooh so bad) that can fire energy bolts amongst other abilities, and Madame O, a mysterious woman with a face plate and a harp that shoots sonic vibrations.
The Family embarked on adventures facing off against Dr. Scarab and his minions eveyr week.
Like with any other 80's cartoon the Bionic 6 had transformation sequences where upon punching a watch like device on the bottom of their wrists they would activate the bionics in a flash of light as they all shouted out: "Bionics... On!"
At first you'll think well the show is just somewhat similar in concept to the 6 Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, but its such a generic concept that it can't be anything but coincidence, the fact Bionic-1 a.k.a Jack Bennet looks a lot like Lee Majors doesn't really add that much. However there's more there that cements that connection. See the German title for the show was "Die sechs Millionen Dollar Familie": The Six Million Dollar Family". Clearly and easily marketable title in English which would have connected it to the show.
But there's one last thing that totally makes me think this was meant to be a spin-off of the TV series but something happened before it was released. Possibly some rights issues to the characters.
Yu see there's one more important character in this show, Professor Amadeus Sharp. He's the scientific mind behind the bionic implants, brother to Dr. Scarab, and the main connection between the Bionic Six and their adventures. You may be wondering how that is in any way related to the 70's Tv shows. Well Prof. Sharp is played by none other than the great Allan Oppenheimer. He's the man that played Dr. Rudy Wells in the series. Dr Wells was the scientist that had "the technology" and could "rebuild" Col. Steve Austin and Tennis Pro Jamie Sommers into the title characters.
So you see at some point the cartoon was most probably going to have Allan Oppenheimer reprise his role as Dr. Rudy Wells and rebuild the rest of the family like they did with their parents. However at this point there's no way to know what happened that made the show move away from that concept. My guess is some issue with securing the rights to the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman characters.
Sadly there are no DVD's available for this show at this time, but there are a few episodes you can catch on Youtube.
The first installment brings us The Bionic Six.
Who as a kid didn't imagine Lee Majors' The Six Million Dollar Man hooking up with Lindsay Wagner's Bionic Woman? And who didn't expect a new show with both of them after their respective shows ended and even bionic kiddies. Sadly they wouldn't really get together until 1994 in the TV Movie "Bionic Ever After".
But prior to that in 1987 TMS decided that a cartoon was in order. Now the cartoon isn't technically based on either character, but at the very least one can say its inspired by them.
The cartoon premise is that a diverse family is exposed to some type of alien radiation on a ski trip and goes into a comma. The father which was already a bionic secret agent prior to this event, is the only one unaffected. The people at the Special Projects Lab conclude (don't ask me how they conclude this though) that the bionic implants given to the father by them are the reason he is unaffected. So what do they do, they start chopping off limbs and give the entire family a set of bionic implants. O.k. so the don't really chop off limbs they tend to be more like enhancements but still "lets turn this family into super beings to test a theory".They get the standard accoutrement of super powers. super strength, super speed, super hearing, super sight, super suits etc... They get code names too, because what secret super hero family is complete with out spiffy code names.
So we get Bionic-1: The Father and original Bionic Agent Jack Bennett. His special enhancements are his bionic eyes and ears. He has X-Ray, vision, telescopic vision, and super hearing beyond even that of the other family members which have regular super hearing. So he has super-super hearing? Jack Bennett is totally a "cartoonified" Lee Majors in his better days. Just look at that grin there to the left.Helen Bennett a.k.a Mother-1 is yes Jacks bride, and mother to the bionic children. Get it the mother is Mother-1? Yeah I know, not clever in the least but hey it was the 80's it was full of bad puns like that. she's got mental powers and some type of ESP, which I have no idea how you get from bionic implants.
Then we have the eldest son Erick Bennett. He's you're typical high school jock with a big bat. His code name is Sport-1 because well he's sporty. You know being a baseball player and all. The name puns will get increasingly bad as we go along though so just enjoy this one. In addition to the standard super enhancements Erick can manipulate attraction and repulsion so he gets a power swing that any major league baseball player would wish for. Its like they took Griff Tannen and turned him into a super hero.
Next in line is Rock-1, Meg Bennett the music loving teenage daughter of the Bennetts. (Yeesh these puns are really getting thin). Anyway she gets a couple of wrist mounted sonic blasters, and the ability to run faster than the other bionic members.
Finally we get to the required minorities for 80's cartoons. Since they needed to be a family the writers made the Bennets adopt two children.
And African American teenager named J.D. He is Super-super strong, and super-super smart. His code name is... IQ. Yes the guy with the highest IQ is IQ. Anyway he's the only one that doesn't get a spiffy number 1 after his code name.
The last member of the family, is Bunjiro "Bunji" a.k.a Karate-1. Yes Karate was all the rage back then after the Karate Kid movies so they had to include it. Now Bunji doesn't get an extra power, he just has his Karate expertise, which gets enhanced by the bionics, so basically he's Bruce Lee on steroids.
The Family gets a house on a cliff just above the ocean, with a secret base underneath that has a extremely modern jet/submarine called the Sky Dancer, and has a runway strip at the bottom of the ocean. Sky Dancer can transport the family and their vehicles on lon range missions. One of these vehicles is a souped up futuristic family Winnebago. Yes they get a flying Winnebago. Because what 80's family is complete without the family van. It reminds me a little of the Roundabout from Star Trek though. 
They also have a robotic Gorilla housekeeper named F.L.U.F.F.I.. Yup, he helps them out around the house, and even goes on missions with them. The Bionic Six fight Dr. Scarab a fat, bald, stereotypical evil doctor, complete with lab coat and head light. He is Dr. Sharps' brother and is partially responsible for the technology that gave the family their super powers. He has a number of henchmen at his service who'm he's apparently given bionic enhancements as well though not on par with the Bennetts.
The minions included Glove; Purple skinned soldier with a power glove (ooh so bad) that can fire energy bolts amongst other abilities, and Madame O, a mysterious woman with a face plate and a harp that shoots sonic vibrations.
The Family embarked on adventures facing off against Dr. Scarab and his minions eveyr week.
Like with any other 80's cartoon the Bionic 6 had transformation sequences where upon punching a watch like device on the bottom of their wrists they would activate the bionics in a flash of light as they all shouted out: "Bionics... On!"
At first you'll think well the show is just somewhat similar in concept to the 6 Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, but its such a generic concept that it can't be anything but coincidence, the fact Bionic-1 a.k.a Jack Bennet looks a lot like Lee Majors doesn't really add that much. However there's more there that cements that connection. See the German title for the show was "Die sechs Millionen Dollar Familie": The Six Million Dollar Family". Clearly and easily marketable title in English which would have connected it to the show.
But there's one last thing that totally makes me think this was meant to be a spin-off of the TV series but something happened before it was released. Possibly some rights issues to the characters.
Yu see there's one more important character in this show, Professor Amadeus Sharp. He's the scientific mind behind the bionic implants, brother to Dr. Scarab, and the main connection between the Bionic Six and their adventures. You may be wondering how that is in any way related to the 70's Tv shows. Well Prof. Sharp is played by none other than the great Allan Oppenheimer. He's the man that played Dr. Rudy Wells in the series. Dr Wells was the scientist that had "the technology" and could "rebuild" Col. Steve Austin and Tennis Pro Jamie Sommers into the title characters.
So you see at some point the cartoon was most probably going to have Allan Oppenheimer reprise his role as Dr. Rudy Wells and rebuild the rest of the family like they did with their parents. However at this point there's no way to know what happened that made the show move away from that concept. My guess is some issue with securing the rights to the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman characters.
Sadly there are no DVD's available for this show at this time, but there are a few episodes you can catch on Youtube.
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