In the mid-1970s, Lindsay Wagner's kid sister's favorite TV show was "The Six Million Dollar Man."

More than two decades later, even Wagner wonders what direction her career might have taken had the girl preferred, say, a goofy sitcom over sci-fi.

After all, Wagner is best known to this day as superwoman Jaime Sommers of "The Bionic Woman" (1976-78). Ironically, though, she originally wanted nothing to do with the character or the series, a "Six Million Dollar Man" spinoff.

"The show kind of chased me down for a while," Wagner admits. "I did the two-part 'Six Million Dollar Man' episode just as a lark. I was not a big sci-fi fan then and so I decided I wasn't going to do it. Then my mother said, 'You mean you're not going to play the Bionic Woman? That's your sister's favorite show.' "

"My sister at the time was 13 and so I did the show as a birthday present. The start date of the show was her birthday. Talk about karma."

Jaime Sommers was an instant hit, particularly with girls who had no female action-hero role models on TV. And even though Jaime died at the end of the two-parter, Wagner returned for another "Six Million Dollar Man" episode (not dead after all, it seemed) and ultimately she agreed to do a series.

But Wagner still resisted almost every step of the way.

"I didn't want to do it," she recalls. "I said, 'I've got important things to do.' I've always felt like I was in this business for communication. I try to tell stories that will be helpful in one way or another for people. But because this was so far-fetched, I didn't get it. I didn't see it as an arena to do the work I wanted to do."

Eventually, she realized that, as she now puts it, "The fact that it's science fiction gives you the license to do anything you want to do. And I can't tell you how many women from a certain age group -- they would be in their 30s now, 20s and 30s -- tell me about how I was their role model when they were young girls. That's one of the nicest compliments I could ask for."

Reruns of "The Bionic Woman" return to the Sci-Fi Channel in July. The "Six Million Dollar Man" episode that introduced Wagner's character airs at 4 p.m. June 18 on Sci-Fi.

In the meantime, fans could turn to the Family Channel on Sunday for a Jaime Sommers fix. Six hours before the 6 p.m. premiere of Wagner's TV movie, "Voyage of Terror," the Family Channel offers a bionic mini-marathon. Wagner and Lee Majors (a k a Steve Austin) star in "The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman" at noon and "Bionic Showdown" at 2 p.m.

Wagner says she enjoyed doing "Voyage of Terror," in which she plays a Center for Disease Control scientist seeking a cure for an Ebola-type virus aboard a cruise ship. Her only complaint is the title. (She preferred the original title, "The Fourth Horseman.")

As for the possibility of another Wagner- Majors reunion, she suspects the most recent one, in which Steve and Jaime got married, will be their last. "We had a graceful ending. Richard Anderson (who played Oscar Goldman) always wants us to do another, but I don't expect it to happen."