The Six Million Dollar Man (TV Series) The White Lightning War (1975) User Reviews

White lightning war

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 20 October 2023]

Investigating a Georgia moonshine operation, the death of a federal agent leads Steve to discover a trail of corruption that starts with a distillery owner, goes through the local sheriff, and ends with a powerful Washington lawyer.

In blue flash episode Austin donned a moustache for a disguise and in this website featuring moonshine smuggling he wears a beard and talks like a reject from the hillbillies shows. Loved the bit where he's imprisoned and then bends the bars breaks out to cause dissension for the moonshine company by wrecking it and then makes his way back to the jail and unbends the bars. Fairly entertaining episode.

Tolerable "Rural Exploitation" Episode

[hypestyle · 5/10 · 16 March 2021]

According to the Bionic Wiki: "After Oscar reports two experienced OSI agents dead of rattlesnake bites, Steve travels to Morgantown, Georgia. "

This is an episode to take place in the 1970s era of so called "hicksploitation" or "rubesploitation" that focused on rural America, especially southern or lower midwestern locales. The story isn't totally bad, but Steve Austin is a bad fit for a "Walking Tall" type story. We get to see Steve using his skills to trick and manhandle good-ole-boys who are terrorizing the town. A Southern Boss runs many small businesses in a small Georgia town as well as a distillery for corn liquor-- moonshine-- and the distribution of it in otherwise "dry" counties (post-prohibition repeal) was apparently still a big deal back in the 1970s. An attorney with federal ties is the go-between with the Moonshine Boss and the "Syndicate" who distributes the liquor. Two OSI Agents somehow get killed investigating something in the area,

In the course of investigating the mystery, Steve has to contend with a corrupt sheriff who works for the Boss.

Some rated G fight scenes take place at the climax of the episode, which provides some good fun.

Katherine Helmond, future star of "Soap" and "Who's the Boss" is featured here as a widow whose husband was killed by the Boss's gang. Robert Donner, a genre actor who had supporting roles in various TV shows and films of the time, is a henchman here.

Compared to Steve's traditional assignments where he's dealing with foreign actors trying to steal important technology or documents, this is a wildly different sort of adventure. But it's relatively inoffensive, with the exception of some dated Southern caricatures.