Colonel Steve Austin's making a comeback--in court.
Lee Majors, the semi-cyborg stud on ABC's The Six Million Dollar Man, is suing producer Universal Television Group for breach of contract and fraud, alleging the company failed to pay him royalties it owed him from the series, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit, filed on December 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the two parties made a deal in 1975, after the show's second season, to give Majors a 15 percent cut of the net profits during Six Million Dollar's heyday on the air as well as in its afterlife in syndication. The series ran on ABC from 1973 to 1978.
According to court papers filed by Majors, Universal reneged on the profit-sharing agreement by foregoing payments to the star.
As a result, Majors is demanding a full appraisal of Universal's bookkeeping and financial records dating back to the start of the series to recoup the money that he says was due him.
Specifically, the suit claims producers defrauded him by providing an inaccurate estimate on the total interest charged for certain production costs.
Majors, who got his start on the tube playing a rancher with sideburns in ABC's '60s western, Big Valley, achieved his greatest stardom starring in The Six Million Dollar Man, not to mention being married to former Charlie's Angel, Farrah Fawcett for eight years (they divorced in 1977).
As Steve Austin, the thespian played an astronaut who nearly dies after the crash of an experimental aircraft but is given a new lease on life when doctors replace his lost eye, arm and legs with cybernetic parts.
The new "bionic" limbs make Austin "better...stronger...faster." Suddenly he's blessed with everything from better vision and strength to amazing speed--the man could run in excess of 67 mph. The colonel would then be sent out on spy missions to battle all kinds of villains, from mad scientists to alien monsters.
The sci-fi series was such a huge hit, it spawned a knockoff, The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner, which ran from 1976 through 1978. Wagner played Jaime Sommers, Austin's former schoolmate and a tennis pro who suffered near-fatal injuries in a sky-diving accident only to be brought back by Austin and Co. as the first bionic woman.
In fact, USA Networks and the producers of the Austin Powers franchise have announced they're going to revive The Bionic Woman in a brand-new series set to launch this summer. No word yet in what capacity the 53-year-old Wagner will be involved, but most likely, producers will pick a new bionic babe.
Wagner and Majors also costarred in three Bionic TV movies together, including 1989's Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, featuring a little known actress, Sandra Bullock.
After ABC canceled The Six Million Dollar Man in 1978, Majors went on to play a stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter in the network's The Fall Guy in the early '80s. He has since appeared sporadically in feature films, including a cameo as himself in 1988's Scrooged.
Both Majors' manager and Universal Television Group declined to comment on the lawsuit, pending litigation.