YMMV / The Bionic Woman

• Adaptation Displacement: Each episode credits the show as being based upon Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg. But you'll never find Jaime Sommers in any of Caidin's books, as she was created by Kenneth Johnson. The credit for Caidin was mandated by the use of Oscar Goldman, Rudy Wells and the occasional appearance by Steve Austin, plus the fact the series continued the concept of bionics as established by Caidin in his original novel.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Many, such as the episode in which she outruns a 100 MPH race car, and another in which she tears a phone book in half to intimidate a group of unruly students.
  • Max has one when he stops an out-of-control car with a child inside from crashing.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Fembots were quite freaky-looking when their faces got ripped off (which was often).
  • The "Deadly Ringer" two-parter is perhaps the show at its darkest, with Jaime's impostor Lisa Galloway taking several levels in Not-So-Harmless Villain (especially with her sanity deteriorating) and trapping Jaime in a prison where several members of the staff have been paid off to gaslight Jaime into believing she's Lisa. When Jaime escapes, she's hounded by half the police in the state, and ultimately becomes desperate enough to take an innocent bystander hostage just to buy herself some breathing room.
• Older Than They Think: When did Tom's Restaurant first pop-up on popular culture? Of course, it wasn't as the exterior of "Monk's Café" on Seinfeld (1989—1997). It also wasn't the next best answer, Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" (1987). The correct answer would be a brief on an episode of this very series! (1978's "Long Live the King", around the 27 minute mark, to be exact.)
  • Fun fact: both Seinfeld and Bionic Woman only used the exterior to establish a setting, as both shows were shot in studio in Los Angeles.
• Retroactive Recognition: A young Helen Hunt as an alien girl.
• She Really Can Act: While most episodes showed Lindsay Wagner in revealing outfits or some comedic timing, the two-part "Deadly Ringer" offered her some amazing material as Jamie is replaced by lookalike Lisa. From Jamie's desperation to convince Oscar who she really is to Lisa having a total breakdown going too deep into Jamie's life, the performance earned Wagner the Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama, the first time a sci-fi series earned such a high honor.

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