The Bionic Woman
To maintain the show's plausibility, creator/executive producer Kenneth Johnson set very specific limits on Jaime Sommers's abilities. He elaborated, "When you’re dealing with the area of fantasy, if you say, ‘Well, they’re bionic so they can do whatever they want,’ then it gets out of hand, so you’ve got to have really, really tight rules. [Steve and Jaime] can jump up two stories but not three. They can jump down three stories but not four. Jaime can’t turn over a truck but she can turn over a car." These limits were occasionally incorporated into episodes, such as "Kill Oscar Part 1," in which Jaime is forced to make a jump that's too far down for her bionic legs, causing massive damage to them and nearly causing her death as a result.
Evel Knievel
Knievel made several television appearances, including frequently as a guest on talk shows such as "Dinah!" and Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". In 1977, Evel made a guest spot on "The Bionic Woman", where he played himself, getting inadvertently caught up in East German espionage while appearing in West Germany. Actual footage from Evel's L.A. Coliseum jump over crushed cars was used in the beginning of the episode, and an indoor jump over 11 cars and 1 van was used at the end of the show. Also in 1977, Warner Bros. released "Viva Knievel!" This movie starred Knievel as himself and co-starred Lauren Hutton, Gene Kelly and Red Buttons. Similar to "The Bionic Woman," actual footage from the Wembley jump was used in the movie. In addition, the 1999 children's TV series "Hilltop Hospital" featured a character based on Knievel called Weasel Kneasel, who was the focus of an episode of the same name.