| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Production 44424 Original Airdate: May 5, 1976 | |||
 Jaime jumps
| |||
| Produced by Kenneth Johnson | |||
| Teleplay by Mann Rubin Arthur Rowe | |||
| Story by Mann Rubin | |||
| Directed by Barry Crane | |||
| Guest Cast | |||
| Guest Star(s) Christopher Stone as Marlowe Jerry Douglas as Connors Spencer Milligan as Reed Martin E. Brooks as Dr. Rudy Wells | |||
| Co-starring Vito Scotti as Romero Arline Anderson as Mrs. Griffith | |||
| With Dick Valentine as Sam Diamond Jim Raymond as Co-Pilot John Zoller as Dr. Frankus Joe Stefano as Captain Larry Dunn as Radio Operator | |||
| Broadcast Order | |||
| Season 1 | |||
| ← Previous | Next → | ||
| "Canyon of Death" | "The Jailing of Jaime" | ||
| Related episodes Indirect prequel to Assault on the Princess | |||
Jaime goes undercover as a flight attendant to protect Dr. Rudy Wells and the top-secret formula that he possesses.
This episode is notable for being a virtual shot-for-shot remake of "Survival of the Fittest," substituting the characters of Jaime and Rudy for the earlier production's Steve and Oscar.
Synopsis
Dr. Rudy Wells meets his old friend Dr. Frankus to acquire the formula for Cobalt 247, then arrives at the airport in Manaus, Brazil, where Jaime Sommers is working as an employee of the airline so that she can accompany Rudy as his bodyguard. However, they are being watched by Connors and Reed, who conspire with a third person named "Bobby," to board the plane and kill Rudy before the plane lands. The identity of "Bobby" is a mystery.
As Jaime monitors the passengers, Connors activates a device that sends a homing signal to a waiting boat, the San Carlos, that is tracking them. Flying through a storm front, lighting strikes an engine on the plane, and the pilots attempt to maintain control as they lose the hydraulics system. The plane lurches forward, knocking the pilots unconscious, and sending the plane headed toward the ocean below. Jaime is able to stabilize the plane, but the pilot instructs her to put out a distress call and prepare the passengers for a crash landing.
The survivors gather on the beach while Rudy and Mrs. Griffith, a missionary, attend to those in need of medical aid. Jaime leaves the group to explore further inland and gather food. Rudy goes after her, and the two share a coconut and conversation. Meanwhile, Connors and Reed continue to wait for the boat before they take action against Rudy.
On the beach, Jaime hears a rescue plane, and it drops supplies for the passengers until they can be picked up the following day. Checking in with Marlowe and Mrs. Griffith, Jaime learns that Rudy was given a message to meet her. Setting off to look for the doctor, Jaime finds him unconscious. Knowing that someone is after the Rudy and the formula, the two decide not to go back to the beach. That night, Connors and Reed leave the camp, and shoot Rudy. Needing medical help, Jaime sees Romero and instructs him to send Mrs. Griffith. The missionary and Connors both attempt to kill Jaime, but she knocks both of them out. Marlowe appears, and with some convincing by Jaime, saves Rudy. Oscar and the rescue boat arrive to take the survivors home.
Notable Quotes
Romero: You know, it is a defect that I have observed worldwide. Obviously you have seen it too, that is to say that men of any country seem to think that men of other countries are the lucky ones. You know what I mean? For example, we take the Italians. The Italians, they like Swiss girls. The German man likes the Spanish woman. And the Greek, ah the Greek, they like the Danes, you know? That's the way it is. It never fails. Never, never, never fails.
Romero: (to Rudy while looking at Jaime's legs) Nice legs.
Rudy: Ah, yes. I couldn't have asked for nicer ones if I made them myself.
Rudy: (to Jaime) Watch the man sitting beside me, or I'll wind up bodyguarding you.
Jaime: (to injured captain) How you doing?
Sam: I feel like the Red Baron after he tangled with a Sopwith Camel. Very poorly.
(While handing out box lunches, air turbulence drops Jaime into Romero's lap)
Jaime: I'm so sorry!
Romero: My pleasure! May I help you? There must be something that I can do for you. (places his hand on Jaime's leg)
Jaime: (smacks his hand) Yes, there is. Please get your hands off my ham and cheese.
Rudy: You know, Jaime, a few years ago bionics was just an idea in my head, a dream, a lot of notes and schematic drawings. Now, I look at you...
Jaime: And you realize it was all a crazy dream that's not gonna work, right?
Rudy: That's not quite what I was gonna say.
Jaime: Oh, you mean you don't know how Dr. Frankenstein felt?
Rudy: The tables have turned, huh? The bionic daughter taking care of the old man? Worries about him too.
Jaime: (mock indignation) I do not. This is just a job, and you're just another person who happened to bring me back from the dead, and hold my hand through all of my traumas, and gave me another chance at life. And Steve, and besides being one of my favorite people, I mean, what have you done for me lately, Mr. Wells?
Sam: Look, take charge in my place, get them organized. Start rescue procedures. know what they are?
Jaime: Sure, I'll just get them all in a group, and we stand there and holler, "help!" (laughs)
Rudy: (trying to open the radio box) It got bent landing. I can't open it.
Jaime: Would you care to make way for the six million dollar can opener?
Rudy: I know people have a lot of blood in them but... it always seems worse when it's your own.
Marlowe: Need some help?
Jaime: I dunno! Are you a good guy or a bad guy?
Marlowe: That depends on how you mean it! I can't give you many good character references!
Rudy: Thanks for saving my life, Jaime.
Jaime: Well, it was purely selfish. Besides that, where would I go for spare parts if anything happened to you, huh?
(Romero just made a pass at Jaime)
Oscar: What was that all about?
Jaime: Oh, I'm tellin' you, that's the closest call I've had on this whole trip!
Oscar: Is he dangerous?
Jaime: Yeah! He had life imprisonment in mind!
Trivia
Cast
- Actor Vito Scotti reprises the character of Romero in the second season episode Assault on the Princess.
- Actor Christopher Stone would later join the cast as Chris Williams, a recurring character in Season 3.
- Martin E. Brooks appears as Dr. Rudy Wells in only one other season one episode, "Welcome Home, Jaime."
Characters
- Jaime uses the undercover alias of "Ms. Winters."
- Although the cost of Jaime's bionic replacement is officially classified, when opening the metal case containing the radio transmitter, she comments to Rudy Wells, that she is a "six million dollar can opener."
Story
- "Fly Jamie," and its Six Million Dollar Man counterpart "Survival of the Fittest," may have been inspired by Universal's successful Airport films of the 1970s. Stock characters in a disaster film can include the troubled failure who finds an opportunity to play the hero, the anxious passenger, the alcoholic, and the motormouthed comic relief. Both "Fly" and "Fittest" have these types of characters.
- Martha Scott who plays Steve Austin's mother played Sister Beatrice, a singing nun in Airport 1975.
Continuity
- This is the second time that Jaime begins a mission in a semi-fictional location in Brazil. In "Angel of Mercy," Jaime began her rescue mission into Costa Bravo from U.S.A.F.B. Sao Paulo.
- Jaime shakes off her contact with a snake with disgust. Her hatred of snakes is first established in "Angel of Mercy" and will be revisted in season two's "Doomsday Is Tomorrow (Part II)" and season three's "African Connection."
Recycled
Production of Season 1 of The Bionic Woman was commissioned with very short notice before broadcast. This resulted in a few time-saving and cost-cutting measures being implemented in order to have a half-season's worth of episodes ready in time to air during the first half of 1976. One of the measures was the decision to remake "Survival of the Fittest" which had been the second regular hour-long first-season episode of The Six Million Dollar Man and which was a little over two years old at this point.
Since the script for "Fly Jaime" is virtually the same as "Survival of the Fittest", it inherited many of the same problems noted in the Nitpick section for that episode. However, "Fly Jaime" in a sense has more continuity problems than "Survival" because of its reused script:
- While there is no doubt as to the origin and destination of the flight in this episode — Jaime and Rudy are going from the fictional Manus, Brazil to Rio de Janiero — this actually makes the situations and dialogue from "Survival" all the more problematic. In particular, the name of the airline, Trans-Pacific, is retained from the earlier episode. However, Brazil has no Pacific coastline, and the flight was flown entirely within Brazilian territory.
- Brazil's geography really doesn't allow for many domestic routes that would involve travel over water. Flights from extreme southern Brazil to Rio might well cut across the Atlantic, but no such flight would take the script's five-and-a-half hours. The stated time implies a cross country trip, which would place Manus in the extreme north-west of the country. A trip from there to Rio would not involve any time over water — save, perhaps, for the final approach into Rio.
These guys again?
- Like "Survival", this script makes a reference to a Baker Island airport weather report. The mistake is even more egregious than in "Survival", as Baker Island is a quarter of the planet away from Rio (although it's possible they may be referring to another station by that name).
- The same actors are used for the pilot and co-pilot of the plane in this episode that were used in "Survival". This is ostensibly because shots from the earlier episode could be edited in to this production, thereby reducing production costs. While they could have been playing different characters — who just happened to be twins — this re-use of the actors makes it appear to careful observers as if the pilot and co-pilot in "Survival" have come back from the dead. (In fairness, the episode was produced in an era where home video release of episodes allowing such comparison was not a consideration, and even viewers of syndicated reruns weren't expected to pay that close attention).
- Given his role as, essentially, the morale officer of this episode, it is at least curious that Oscar never relays his own experience of being stranded on a desert island. Perhaps the producers didn't want to draw attention to the episode they were so blatantly remaking.
- A significant difference between the remake and the original is that in the Six Million Dollar Man version all three conspirators die, whereas no-one dies in the Bionic Woman version.
Gaffes
Continuity
- After take-off, when Jaime is announcing flight conditions such as speed and altitude, a night shot of passengers is mixed in with day shots.
- As Sam the pilot begins to ditch the plane, he's not wearing a life vest — except for two shots from behind where he is.
- When Jaime tells Rudy to get the life rafts, he appears to only get one out of the overhead compartment. When we see a shot of the liferaft in the water, there appears to be only one. Later, when they are on the beach, two are clearly seen, and they look to be smaller than the one seen earlier in the water.
- Some shots of Rudy and Jaime from the coconut-opening scene are reused in the radio-opening scene.
- Jaime indicates that it doesn't hurt when her bionic finger is cut open to expose the wires, yet in "The Deadly Missiles" she reacts with an "ouch!" when she catches her bionic hand on an exposed bolt in her oven.
Nitpicks
- Throughout the episode, two small bruises can be seen just below the elbow of Lindsay Wagner's right arm.
- The sand on the beach appears to be groomed.
- Some shots of the airliner in flight show its landing gear lowered.
- During the turbulent flight the passengers are never told to fasten their seatbelts.
Gallery
