episode #58 - The Return of Bigfoot

episode #1 of 4th season / Air Date: 9/19/76 written by Kenneth Johnson Directed by Barry Crane

The producers of the show decided to start off the new season with a guaranteed ratings bonanza, a 2-part spectacular which would continue in the sister show, The Bionic Woman; yes, they pulled out all stops on this one, returning to the characters of the most successful episode of the previous season (this type of crowd-pleasing gimmickry was copied by later sf shows like Star Trek TNG, which started ending seasons with cliffhangers in its 3rd season). In the previous Bigfoot 2-parter, Steve Austin had his memory of events wiped clean by the aliens who reside inside a CA mountain. Bigfoot (now played by Ted Cassidy) is back, now stealing gold and jewelry. It turns out that a subset of the aliens led by a power-hungry member, Nedlick (John Saxon), have broken away from the main group with plans to set themselves up as Earth's rulers or something. Nedlick controls the Bigfoot, a.k.a. Sasquatch, by threatening to harm fellow alien Shalon (Stephanie Powers, back in a smaller role); Nedlick also uses some kind of sonic pain inducer on the big hairy fella.
Since this was the first part of a 2-parter that continues in the first episode of The Bionic Woman's 2nd season, Lindsay Wagner also appears here in a supporting role as Jaime Sommers; she overhears a lot with her bionic ear to bring her up to speed. There's also a new female alien character played by Sandy Duncan who restores most of Austin's memories so that he can help out. There's good continuity also, with Severn Darden back as the leader of the good aliens and Charles Cyphers back as the disgruntled alien. Cyphers' character, Faler, had displayed feelings of unrest in his previous appearance, for no apparent reason other than an ornery personality, and it makes sense that he joined Nedlick's band (it also seems like writer Johnson had intended to continue the story in this way when he wrote the original Bigfoot 2-parter for the 3rd season). Cyphers also looks a lot older here; maybe it's a different hairstyle.

Some of this is a bit silly and juvenile, recalling the more goofy sci-fi movies about invading aliens in the sixties, but it is very sci-fi. To underscore how absurd some of this is, Austin tries to explain much of the situation to Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) after he regains his memories, warning them that they wouldn't believe him; sure enuff, his two best buddies have trouble buying into all that Austin tries to sell them - space aliens? C'mon! (however, Oscar seems to have forgotten the other aliens from Straight On 'till Morning). Austin gets seriously injured in his climactic tussle with Bigfoot this time, paving the way for Jaime to pick up the slack in her own series, in The Return of Bigfoot, Part 2. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: Lee Majors began this new season with a new mustache and it remained for most of the season. Martin E. Brooks was added to the regular cast list this season. Ted Cassidy, at 6' 7", was one of Hollywood's tallest actors, but he was still nowhere near the size of Andre the Giant (the original player of Bigfoot), who was over 7 feet tall and bulky. Andre probably could not be located to reprise, being somewhere in Europe overturning cars or something. Star Trek TOS actor alert: Cassidy was in What Are Little Girls Made Of, playing the android Ruk.