TLDR: The Six Million Dollar Man turned a fictional rebuilt astronaut into a genuine 1970s phenomenon. During filming, its own crew stumbled onto something stranger than anything the writers ever came up with: a real, decades-old human corpse hiding in plain sight as a prop.
The Six Million Dollar Man premiered on ABC on January 18, 1974, starring Lee Majors as Steve Austin, a former astronaut rebuilt with bionic limbs and an eye after a near-fatal crash.
The show ran five seasons through 1978, based on Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg, and turned its opening narration, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology,” into a genuine piece of American pop culture shorthand.
The Crew Found a Real Mummy Hanging in a Funhouse
On December 8, 1976, a production crew filming the episode “Carnival of Spies” set up inside an old funhouse ride called Laff in the Dark at Long Beach’s Pike amusement zone.
A crew member reached out to reposition what looked like a glow-in-the-dark mannequin hanging from a noose, part of the ride’s built-in scares, and its arm snapped off in his hand, revealing a real human bone underneath.
The figure turned out to be the mummified remains of Elmer McCurdy, an Oklahoma outlaw shot dead by a posse in 1911.
His body had passed through decades of carnivals, sideshows, and wax museums as a paid attraction, painted, drilled into, and eventually forgotten as anything other than a prop, until a medical examiner confirmed his identity using a bullet still lodged in his chest and carnival ticket stubs found in his mouth.
He was finally given a proper burial in April 1977 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, 65 years after his death.
Its Star Married, and Eventually Divorced, One of TV’s Biggest Names
Lee Majors married Farrah Fawcett in 1973, the year before his own show premiered, and Fawcett went on to become a genuine phenomenon herself the following year on Charlie’s Angels, appearing in four episodes of her husband’s show along the way.
Majors has said plainly that two demanding, high-profile careers running at the same time simply left no room for the marriage. “I ended up seeing her two weeks in one year,” he said. “That’s mainly the reason we got divorced; we never saw each other. We stayed great friends, but we just had our own careers going and didn’t have time for each other.”
The couple separated in 1979 and finalized their divorce in 1982.
Majors Held Out for More Money, and Universal Sued Him for It
In 1977, with the show still a genuine hit, Majors attempted to renegotiate his contract with Universal Television, and reportedly failed to report to work that June as a result.
Universal responded by suing to force him back under his existing contract terms. According to his manager at the time, the real dispute wasn’t about a bigger paycheck at all, but about getting Majors’s own production company, Fawcett Majors Productions, brought on as an independent producer alongside the studio. Universal ultimately relented.
Ratings Decline Ended the Show, Alongside Its Own Spinoff
Despite winning that contract fight, ratings began sliding not long after, and ABC cancelled the show in 1978. Its companion series, The Bionic Woman, was cancelled around the same time on NBC.
Majors has said the grueling production schedule, nearly 100 episodes across five seasons while effectively living on the studio lot, left him genuinely relieved once it ended.
The Six Million Dollar Man, Frequently Asked Questions
Did the crew of The Six Million Dollar Man really find a real corpse?
Yes, on December 8, 1976, while filming an episode inside a Long Beach funhouse, a crew member’s attempt to move a prop revealed it was the real, 65-year-old mummified body of outlaw Elmer McCurdy, who had died in 1911.
Why did Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett divorce?
Both have said their careers, with Majors filming The Six Million Dollar Man and Fawcett filming Charlie’s Angels, left them almost no time together. They separated in 1979 and finalized their divorce in 1982.
Why did The Six Million Dollar Man end?
Declining ratings led ABC to cancel the show in 1978, the same year its companion series, The Bionic Woman, was cancelled on NBC.
Did Lee Majors have a contract dispute during the show?
Yes, in 1977 he attempted to renegotiate his contract, reportedly to get his own production company brought on as an independent producer, and Universal Television sued to force him back to work under his existing terms.
