episode #04 - Day of the Robot

Air Date:2/8/74    written by Del Reisman, story by Harold Livingston,Lionel Siegel; Directed by Leslie Martinson

A rather famous early episode which introduced a devilish robot maker played by old-time actor Henry Jones. Does this take its cue from Westworld (73)? Possibly. Austin's friend (played by another well known actor, John Saxon) has been replaced by a robot and the episode culminates with a huge battle between cyborg and robot. Which has the better warranty? Lloyd Bochner also appears as a sleazeball. Jones would return later in the 1st season in Run, Steve, Run and then with another robot in a 2nd season episode, Return of the Robot Maker.
This one also reminded me of several storylines from the Spider-Man comic book series in the sixties; there were several issues which pitted the hero against a robot designed by a half-crazed robotics expert (helped by J.Jonah Jameson) - issues #25 and #58 were the early ones. There's also some suspense in this episode; Austin and his buddy are on a road trip and during most of it, Austin doesn't know that his friend has been replaced. Besides the climactic battle, this has some of the  more entertaining moments in the series: Jones & Bochner are able to see through the robot's artificial eyes and, at one point, they gape as Austin lifts the front end of an automobile, something they thought only their robot could do. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: first use of the bionic sound effect during the battle at the end, though it seemed to apply to the robot in this case; it was used with Austin next in Dr. Wells is Missing. Saxon also starred in PLANET EARTH that year. The actor would return to this series as another character, an alien, at the start of the 4th season in The Return of Bigfoot.
Memories of the director, Martinson:

It was a very interesting episode where John Saxon played a robot with bionic strength. There's an 8-minute fight in slow motion at the end. The episode got the highest rating of the season. Some months later, I was in a theater and there was a tap on my shoulder. It was John Saxon. "Thank you, Leslie," he said, "for destroying my career. Here I've done all this theater and for the last two months, everyone refers to me as being the robot on The Six Million Dollar Man!"