Well, Sandra Bullock sure had herself an eventful year. Her two big movies, The Proposal and Blind Side, earned a combined 300 million dollars and counting. Sandra snagged herself two Golden Globe nominations, among other raves. And she and her husband, motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James, entered into a child custody battle with James’ ex-wife, adult film star Janine Lindemulder.

Nobody would have predicted any of that back in the Spring of 1989 when the rough cut of Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman rolled down the hill from Universal City onto the NBC lot in Burbank.

The sequel to 1987’s The Return of The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman starring Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner, Bionic Showdown was supposed to be a backdoor pilot for that New Bionic Woman for the 90s, Kate Mason played by, yes, Sandra Bullock.

A year earlier, John Simon, theatre critic of New York magazine, had praised Bullock for her work as a Southern belle in the Off-Broadway play, No Time Flat. The notice led to Sandra signing with an agent, which led to her TV acting debut as the girl who gets some parts replaced in Bionic Showdown.

I’d love to say that those of us who sat through that first Bionic Showdown rough cut all jumped to our feet at the end and went nuts praising this cute new actress, Sandra Bullock. That didn’t happen. In point of fact, by the time Bionic Ever After, the third film in the franchise rolled around, the character of Kate Mason was long gone.

What a difference a couple of years make, no?

As we look forward to sharing Sandra’s big double-nominee night on, yes, NBC  (The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be telecast live Sunday, January 17^th), let’s also take a look back. Here’s the oh-so-dramatic opening credits sequence from Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman.