episode #52 - The Secret of Bigfoot
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episode #52 - The Secret of Bigfoot
BoG Sat Jun 04, 2011 6:22 pm
episode #17 of 3rd season / Air Date: 2/1/76 
written by Kenneth Johnson Directed by Alan Crosland
This was a big ratings grabber back in the seventies and remains one of the most memorable 2-part episodes. I still remember the preview for this episode, probably watched by me just before the actual episode aired; the sight of the huge Bigfoot creature swinging a tree trunk at Austin just amazed me and I couldn't wait to watch the full episode. This 2-parter also jumped on the brief fascination with Bigfoot in the seventies; there were several films, some of a semi-documentary nature, released about the mythical beastman or beastmen in that decade, mostly in the early to mid-seventies.
This takes place in the great outdoors - Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman and a small army unit are aiding a couple of scientists with earthquake sensors in the CA mountains. But, something is moving in the woods - something with big hairy feet. Soon enough, the two scientists are missing. One of the military guys, a full-blooded American Indian, notes the tracks and opines that this is Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot. Goldman is skeptical but then a huge creature wrecks the army camp during the night. Austin finally tracks it down - an 8-foot tall beastman - and they have a huge tussle. Bigfoot (wrestler Andre the Giant) in this depiction is like a huge, hairy bionic version of Austin - and therefore as proportionally powerful and able to leap around even better than Austin does. But, their meeting was planned by others; Bigfoot has masters - that is his secret.
This episode also added on the whole visiting aliens from another planet angle; it's one of the more straight-out science fiction episodes of the series. Of course, it strains credibility when these aliens are shown to be exactly like humans (see the episode Straight On 'til Morning, where there are at least superficial differences). I wonder now if the aliens were fibbing and were actually humans from the future - they do show an ability to manipulate the progress of time to some extent. As it is, this was an opportunity for Austin to relate to a pretty alien (Stephanie Powers), much like Capt. Kirk on Star Trek TOS. A couple of other aliens were portrayed by Severn Darden as the leader and Charles Cyphers as a disgruntled one. Continued in part 2. BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10
Here's a computer animated version of a portion of this episode (last act):
written by Kenneth Johnson Directed by Alan Crosland This was a big ratings grabber back in the seventies and remains one of the most memorable 2-part episodes. I still remember the preview for this episode, probably watched by me just before the actual episode aired; the sight of the huge Bigfoot creature swinging a tree trunk at Austin just amazed me and I couldn't wait to watch the full episode. This 2-parter also jumped on the brief fascination with Bigfoot in the seventies; there were several films, some of a semi-documentary nature, released about the mythical beastman or beastmen in that decade, mostly in the early to mid-seventies.
This episode also added on the whole visiting aliens from another planet angle; it's one of the more straight-out science fiction episodes of the series. Of course, it strains credibility when these aliens are shown to be exactly like humans (see the episode Straight On 'til Morning, where there are at least superficial differences). I wonder now if the aliens were fibbing and were actually humans from the future - they do show an ability to manipulate the progress of time to some extent. As it is, this was an opportunity for Austin to relate to a pretty alien (Stephanie Powers), much like Capt. Kirk on Star Trek TOS. A couple of other aliens were portrayed by Severn Darden as the leader and Charles Cyphers as a disgruntled one. Continued in part 2. BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10
Here's a computer animated version of a portion of this episode (last act):