episode #54 - The Golden Pharoah

episode #19 of 3rd season / Air Date: 2/8/76 written by Margaret & Paul Schneider Directed by Cliff Bole

Farrah-Fawcett returns for the 3rd time on the show, playing yet another different character. This time, she's a manipulating woman with a gambling problem. She likes to live in style and usually finds a sugar daddy to help her out into this lifestyle. What's all this have to do with Steve Austin and OSI? The object of the title is what draws them together. It's a one-foot tall priceless Egyptian artifact - solid gold . Goldman wants Austin to help guard it, but Austin, with his keen bionic eye, finds out that it's too late; it's already stolen - the object in the museum is a fake. They figure the probable time it was made away with and detect it in a foreign embassy. The culprit is an official (Joe Maross) in this embassy who has decided to get rich quick. He's Farrah's latest sugar daddy. Get the picture?
This episode was more interesting than the average because Austin gets set down a very winding path to finally retrieve the precious object of the title. Besides contending with the main villain and his henchman, Austin finds out that Farrah's character has.. very little character and she herself turns out to be a problem for him when he enlists her help to get the statuette to avoid a diplomatic incident. On top of this, a local gambling kingpin then gets involved, also out to obtain the golden pharoah - and maybe just melt it down for the basic worth. This becomes like a modernized version of The Maltese Falcon story, with Austin getting sidelighted or bushwacked every time he's on the verge of success. Lee Majors & Farrah appear to enjoy working together - they were still married at the time. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

Bionic Trivia: only a few months later, the first season of Charlie's Angels would begin, and Farrah would become even more famous than her then-hubby, Majors. For a time, the two were Hollywood's big power couple. Farrah would make one more appearance on her husband's show early in the 4th season, about the same time as her own series began.