Mrs and Mr. Steve Austin |
Bigfoot was everywhere, or at least it seemed. The great show, IN SEARCH OF, hosted by Mr Spock himself devoted an episode to him, as did DYNAMITE Magazine which was a pretty lame kid based magazine that you'd get with your scholastic book order.
Bigfoot was big, I've since learned, because of the Patterson film which is now famous, purported to show an actual Sasquatch walking through some heavy woods in California and which MANY experts have decreed couldn't POSSIBLY be a man in a costume. The only trouble to this is the man who shot the film, Mr Patterson himself, admitted it was a hoax and that he had done it as a lark with some friends-- he admitted this on his death-bed which would even be admissible in court-- but many Bigfoot believers seem to not want to hear this confession.
Bigfoot's biggest moment, as far as I was concerned in the 70s, was when he appeared on an episode, or multiple episodes of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. Bigfoot turned out to be, well, SPOILERS and all-- you'll have to watch it for yourself. It's been a longtime since I've seen it but I seem to recall Stephanie Powers or Sandy Duncan or both in the episode which makes it just less of a LSD trip than it could have been.
The difference between me and a few of my generation is I stopped believing Bigfoot was real by the end of the first episode-- and MANY of my fellow 70s children apparently did not. Despite the fact that not a single bone has been found, despite Patterson's confession, despite the overwhelming evidence that there are no giant apes living in the woods they want to believe, at least if a recent visit to the Discovery Channel is any indication.
The multitude of Bigfoot shows on now towers over what we had in the 70s-- which will likely lead to a whole new generation of believers.
Good luck to them, the day you can show me a Sasquatch skull is the day I eat my words, until then I'm pretty confident Steve Austin figured out the riddle of the Bigfoot back in the day. And that's enough for me.