The Six Million Dollar Man 100 episodes (1973-78) 60m
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Badly-injured Steve Austin (Lee Majors) gets some 'bionic' body parts and sets about carrying out impossible missions for yet another clandestine government agency. Scientifically implausible feats of strength and some terrific action sequences sustained the show for several seasons. Based on a 1972 Michael Caidin novel.
Kolchak - The Night Stalker 20 episodes (1974-75) 60m
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At best, a half-dozen of these episodes have enough genre content to be classified as sci-fi. A newspaper journalist with a nose for the extraordinary tracks all sorts of monsters, demons, aliens and other problematic creatures. Somehow he keeps working even though he always gets the villain, but never gets the scoop. Fun stuff.
Steve Austin's childhood girlfriend doesn't fare much better when she too has a serious accident and needs some bionic implants. Lindsay Wagner starred with the standard array of enhanced limbs and a bionic ear. A bionic dog and a the occasional alien spiced things up a bit, but for the most part we'd seen it all before.
Logan's Run 13 episodes (1977-78) 60m
Despite the fact the 1976 feature film seemed to have already said it all, television had another crack at this story of the inhabitants of a futuristic city who unwittingly face euthanasia while young adults. A man and a woman go in search of a better deal and tackle the outside world for thirteen episodes. It was lucky to go for that long.
Classic 80s kitsch with star David Hasselhoff proving just how cool bad hairdos can be. After being shot in the face a police detective gets some plastic surgery and a new name courtesy of a crime-crusading philanthropic billionaire. A flashy car armed with an AI computer comes with gig, as Michael Knight sets about doing the bidding of the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG).
A reclusive combat pilot is sent by a mysterious division of the CIA to steal-back a high-tech assault helicopter that has ended up in Libya. With the help of a close friend he himself swipes the chopper to use it as a bargaining tool to find out info about his MIA brother - coming out occasionally to take on a mission for 'The Firm'.
Max Headroom - The Series 14 episodes (1987-88) 60m
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British phenomenon that started out as a rock video show featuring a computer-generated head, which we later find out is an electronic incarnation of a human investigative journalist. The 1987-88 US television series has the wise-cracking Max getting some flesh and blood help to investigate a seedy collection of cyberpunk ills.
War of the Worlds 43 episodes (1988-90) 50m
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Clever 'sequel' to the 1953 film has alien invaders we all thought were dead resurrected by a terrorist attack on a nuclear waste dump. Irradiation forces them to constantly take over new human bodies while attempting to revive others of their kind. Season two saw cast changes, new aliens and a slightly different premise.