episode #55 - Love Song for Tanya

episode #20 of 3rd season / Air Date: 2/15/76 written by David Balkan, Alan Folsom Directed by Phil Bondelli

We're into matters of detente and the political climate, and how unpredictable yet natural human feelings might impact against such a large canvass. Austin is picked to be the official escort (bodyguard) to a visiting gymnast from the Soviet Union, Tanya (real life Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby, trying a Russian accent). She quickly develops a crush on Austin, to the point that she considers defecting. Meanwhile, a defunct secret Soviet spy agency plans their own mischief against detente, while Tanya's security chief (Terry Kiser) frets about all the people involved in this growing mess.

The focus of this episode was a character study of the Russian girl, Tanya, and where her life was going to take her. It was risky to cast a non-actress in the role, seeming to just try to play off the real gymnastic talents of Rigby, but she does OK in the role. There is one gimmicky moment towards the end, during a climactic fight, in which Austin jumps onto a seesaw to send Tanya into the air - I rolled my eyes at this, even if it was innovative in a cutesy way. Overall, it's disposable. BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: Lindsay Wagner has another cameo as Jaime Sommers the Bionic Woman in the first scene, following her cameo in The Secret of Bigfoot; this time, she's credited and she's actually in the same scene with Lee Majors and Richard Anderson as Oscar, not 'phoning it in' from another location. There didn't seem to be much purpose to this scene, but it created a nice continuity and a connection between this series and The Bionic Woman.