The Six Million Dollar Man
A crash, a countdown and the promise that they can rebuild him — narration that entered the language more thoroughly than the show did.
The Six Million Dollar Man opens with a main title sequence of 31 seconds.
At 31 seconds, it opens well under the 58-second median for sci-fi sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ABC in 1973, when One Life to Live, All My Children and The Bugs Bunny Show were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
31sThe opening alone, opening on the telemetry screen from the crash. Half a minute, so shorter than the full broadcast version, but not a bundle.
More sci-fi opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequenceThe Incredible Hulk
A narrated origin, a green transformation, and a piano coda so sad it became the show's real signature — though that plays over the closing credits, not these.
- Season 1
2 sequences
Space: 1999
The most confident opening Gerry Anderson ever made: a burst of brass, then a rapid-fire montage of clips from the episode you are about to watch, so no two broadcasts were identical.
- Season 1
- Season 2
1 sequenceBuck Rogers in the 25th Century
A disco-scored space opera that opens with a shuttle, a starfield and absolutely no embarrassment about either.
- Season 1
1 sequenceLand of the Lost
A raft over a waterfall into a closed pocket universe, written by Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold for Saturday mornings.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBlake's 7
BBC electronic music and a rotating logo, rebuilt each series as the crew was killed off — which on this show happened often enough to matter.
- Seasons 1–4
1 sequenceThe Bionic Woman
The Six Million Dollar Man's spinoff, with the same narrated-reconstruction structure and a better theme.
- Season 1