Now that the re-imagined “Bionic Woman” has hit the airwaves, you’d think that getting the original series onto store shelves might seem like a good idea. So why isn’t the show out on DVD yet? Well, it seems that the show hasn’t seen the light of day yet due to a conflict over the licenses for the original show. And not just the licenses for “The Bionic Woman” but also the show that spawned it, “The Six Million Dollar Man” according to TV Guide On-Line.
The original bionic concept comes from a novel called “Cyborg” by Martin Caidin. During the NBC/Universal merger, the rights to the concept of Steve Austin and the original Jamie Sommers came up for renewal. Universal didn’t pursue renewing the rights at the time. However, Dimension Studios did purchase the rights.
Why you ask? It seems Dimension thought that a big-screen remake of “The Six Million Dollar Man” would be a good idea. In the vein of such popular movies as “The Brady Bunch Movie” that took beloved small-screen shows and poked fun at them, this version would star Jim Carey as Steve Austin and be a send-up for the 70’s show. A ground-swell of negative publicity led Carey to (wisely) leave the project and it’s gone back into limbo.
So, as of now, Dimension owns the rights to the rights to the original property, concept and characters while Universal owns the shows. In order for the shows to see the light of day on DVD, there would have to be some kind of settlement worked out between the two parties. And since that would involve lawyers, we all know how long that can take. Also, the price of such a settlement would be passed along to the end-consumer, which could make the price-tag for season sets of the show too high in the end.
But how did the new “Bionic Woman” show get to the air then, you ask?
Well, seems that producers are being very careful to not use any of the technological, “bionic” concepts from the original shows. Also, this explains why there is no mention of Steve Austin in the show and why there probably won’t be in the near future.
Of course, “The Six Million Dollar Man” is available on DVD in other regions. We’ll keep our eyes on this story to see if there are any updates for American fans who might want to see both shows again on DVD.
Here I was thinking it was because no one cared.
Could “we” please settle this idiotic greed fight so that the world can enjoy these two great shows on DVD?! PLEASE!!!!