Genesis
The original series was created by writer Kenneth Johnson as a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man television series, which in turn was based upon the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin. Caidin subsequently received a special credit on the original The Bionic Woman series, even though the character of Jaime Sommers was not his creation.
The first mention of a revision of the Bionic Woman series occurred in August 2002 when a story in The Hollywood Reporter indicated that the series would be produced by "Team Todd", sisters Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd. The story quoted Suzanne Todd as saying "We are going to take advantage of the fact that what seemed beyond the realm of reality back when they did the original show - some of the things in terms advancement in prosthetics and in replacement limbs - are real in true life now. I think the idea that they exist in the world today and people make use of them - not in a superhero way the way that Jaime does - is going to allow us to do something really interesting and very different than the old show." It was later reported that the USA Network was considering airing the series, with Jennifer Aniston being in consideration for the lead role. However, no series eventuated at that time.
Then on October 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced that it was bringing the project back with new producers and reportedly a radical reworking of the concept. The series would be written by Laeta Kalogridis (creator of the WB series Birds of Prey) and produced by David Eick. Eick commented on the new series saying, "It's a complete reconceptualization of the title. We're using the title as a starting point, and that's all. It's going to be a meaningful departure".
On January 3, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the series one-hour pilot was given an official greenlight by NBC. On May 10, 2007, NBC announced that they had given an early pick-up to Bionic Woman for their fall 2007 schedule.
The official NBC autumn 2007/2008 schedule was released on May 14, 2007 and Bionic Woman will be on Wednesdays at 9pm (Eastern Time) starting September 26, 2007.
It remains to be seen if the now-deceased Caidin or Johnson will be credited on the new version of Bionic Woman or if any references to The Six Million Dollar Man will be made. Johnson has confirmed on his website that he is not involved with the new Bionic Woman series. Since the rights to The Six Million Dollar Man and Cyborg are held by other parties, the characters of Oscar Goldman and Dr. Rudy Wells from the original franchise have been replaced by new creations and it has yet to be seen whether they or the character of Steve Austin will appear in the new series.
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