Wonder Woman (television series) - Definition

Wonder Woman is a popular, although often campy, television series which starred Lynda Carter as the superhero Wonder Woman and aired from 1975 until 1979.

B.C. (Before Carter)

The first attempt to translate Wonder Woman to the small screen was in 1967, when the success of the Batman television show led to a flurry of copycat series. Greenway Productions, the company behind the Batman show, produced a four-and-a-half-minute Wonder Woman test reel starring Ellie Wood Walker as Diana Prince, Linda Harrison as Diana's Wonder Woman alter ego and Hope Summers as her mother.

As with Batman, the reel took a comic slant on the character. Diana Prince, an awkward and rather unattractive young woman, lives with her mother close to a US Air Force base. She is madly in love with pilot Steve Trevor, and believes Steve is also madly in love with her Wonder Woman identity. Switching to Wonder Woman, she admires her super-heroic form in a full length mirror, unaware that she is little more attractive than Diana Prince.

And so this, presumably, was to be the basic gimmick of the show. Diana believes that as Wonder Woman she is irresistible to men, but the reality far different. Steve Trevor is never seen in the pilot, but the assumption is that, had the show gone into production, he would have spent much of his time avoiding the romantic advances of the title character. Writer Stanley Ralph Ross said, years later, that he felt the people at the head of the production lacked the enthusiasm for a female-centric show to make the pilot a success. This pilot episode was never broadcast, and the project was taken no further.

Wonder Woman's first actual broadcast appearance is as a guest in a Brady Kids cartoon in 1972, entitled "Beware of Gifts Bearing Greeks". (Her sister, Wonder Girl, had already appeared on television in a series of Teen Titans cartoon shorts, part of the Batman/Superman Hour cartoon show.) The Brady kids meet up with Diana Prince, and together they find themselves transported back in time to the Trojan War, where Wonder Woman must come to their rescue.

This was quickly followed by the heroine's inclusion in the long running Superfriends cartoon series.

Wonder Woman's first appearance on TV screens in live-action form was a television movie made in 1974, starring Cathy Lee Crosby as a blonde non-superpowered Amazon, pitted against a debonair villain played by Ricardo Montalban. This version owed little to the Wonder Woman comic book character current at the time of screening, being closer perhaps to the I Ching period abandoned by the comic book some years before. In the closing action sequences Wonder Woman wears a patriotic track suit, but this is far from a superhero costume. The pilot instead sets the character up as more of a Bionic Woman style secret agent. Even the name 'Wonder Woman' is barely mentioned, and it is never established for certain that this is supposed to be the lead character's name.

This pilot was screened, but reportedly generated little interest from the public. It has been sold around the world as a stand-alone TV movie, and still to this day occassionally crops up in TV schedules.

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman

Though not successful at the first attempt, network interest was such that within a year another pilot was in production. Keen to make a distinction between the last pilot, the show was given the rather paradoxical title The New Original Wonder Woman.

Scripting duties were given to Stanley Ralph Ross, who had worked on Greenway's unbroadcast Wonder Woman pilot reel, but this time he was instructed to be more faithful to the comic book and create a subtle 'high comedy'. The new TV series ran from (1976-1979), and starred Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor. The series originally featured Wonder Woman as a World War II heroine, fighting Nazi spies and saboteurs in America.

Although following the comic book very closely, a number of elements were dropped, presumably for practical reasons. The character of Etta Candy was no longer a youthful member of Holliday College (the Holliday Girls never featured in the show), but a mature work colleague of Diana Prince. The ancient myths and legends which informed many of the early Wonder Woman comic book stories were lost too, in favour of more conventional stories involving Nazis. And, on a minor note, Steve Trevor was no longer blonde, but dark haired.

But perhaps the most memorable change, indeed what became the 'signature moment' of the show, was the introduction of a twirling transformation, to change Diana Prince into her super-heroic counterpart. When trouble raised its ugly head, dowdy Diana Prince would slip away to a quiet spot, look around nervously as she removed her glasses and hat, then spin with arms outstretched, to be engulfed in a ball of light and transformed into Wonder Woman. This magical sequence, which appreared at least once in most episodes, clearly left an impression on its audience, as it has been referenced and parodied repeatedly ever since.

The first season of The New Original Wonder Woman lasted for 14 episodes, including the pilot movie, on ABC - the later episodes being used to fill in for the Bionic Woman television show, after production had to be suspended while its star, Lindsay Wagner, recovered from a car accident. Notably, two stories (one of them a two parter) introduced Debra Winger as Wonder Girl, in possibly her first on-screen role.

Reportedly frustrated with ABC's lack of commitment to the show (despite strong ratings) Warner Bros. offered Wonder Woman to CBS, who took the series on the condition that the setting be switched to the modern day. Changing the title to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, the series was nudged away from sophisticated humour, towards a more conventional action/adventure take. In this version Diana Prince became an agent of the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC - kind of like the CIA, but without all the shadowy cloak and dagger stuff) where she fought criminals and the odd space invasion. At CBS the show ran for two more seasons, still gathering a strong audience. In 1979, however, the CBS network felt it desperately needed to strengthen its sitcom offerings, and Wonder Woman was suspended from the schedules, but never actually formally canceled.

During the 1990s, there were many rumors of a possible Wonder Woman feature film, but, to date, nothing has come of it. There are many who feel Lynda Carter's portrayal has made it impossible for anyone suitable to be found to inherit the role (much as studios until recently had spent several years without success searching for a new actor to succeed Christopher Reeve as Superman).

The first season of the TV series was released on DVD in North America during the summer of 2004, with release of the second season scheduled for March 1 2005; the third and final set is expected to follow in the fall.

Episodes

Season 1 (1975-1976) - ABC

1. The New Original Wonder Woman (November 7, 1975) - two-hour telefilm
2. "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" (April 21, 1976)
3. "Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman" (April 28, 1976)

The first "season" consisted of three specials.

The New Original Wonder Woman: During World War II, a pilot, Major Steve Trevor, ejects during an air battle over the Bermuda Triangle, home of Paradise Island. The island houses Amazons, beautiful, ageless women with great strength, agility, and intelligence. Amazon princess Diana (Lynda Carter) rescues Trevor, and wins a contest to return him to America, where she will remain to help the Allied forces. Her costume is designed to feature American emblems in the hope that she will be accepted in her new home, and her golden belt will be her source of strength and power. She retains her bracelets, which deflect bullets, and also receives a golden lasso, which is indestructible, and forces people to obey and tell the truth when bound. Diana is now known as "Wonder Woman," and flies to D.C. in an invisible plane. After dropping Trevor off at Walter Reed Hospital, the heroine stumbles upon a bank robbery, which she stops. A promoter who sees her in action invites her to take her Bullets and Bracelets act on the road as a theatrical attraction. Diana is hesitant, but she needs money in this society, so she agrees.

Meanwhile, Trevor's civilian secretary, Marsha (Stella Stevens), is revealed as a double agent for the Nazis. She seeks to continue to aid top spies in killing Trevor and opposing the new threat, Wonder Woman, although her first attempt -- arranging for an audience member to fire a machine gun at Wonder Woman during her stage show act -- backfires when the Amazon easily deflects the multiple bullets. Later, at the hospital, Diana disguises herself as a nurse in order to keep an eye on Steve (as in the early comics, where her alter-ego is a Lieutenant in the Army nursing corp). As spy activities increase, Trevor leaves the hospital and is captured, prompting his "nurse" to do an amazing slow spin in the hall where she slowly peels off uniform parts and replaces them with her Wonder Woman costume, before heading off to rescue him.

Wonder Woman defeats the villainess and the spies, breaking up the spy ring. A memorable cat fight sequence features hand to hand combat, slapping, kicking, and even a little slapstick, between Carter and Stevens. The fight was considered a milestone in TV action, and would later be used as a reference when planning similar fights on the soap opera Dynasty years later.

Season 2 (1976-1977) - ABC

1. "Beauty on Parade" (October 13, 1976)
2. "The Feminum Mystique, Part 1" (November 6, 1976)
3. "The Feminum Mystique, Part 2" (November 8, 1976)
4. "Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua!" (December 18, 1976)
5. "The Pluto File" (December 25, 1976)
6. "Last of the Two Dollar Bills" (January 8, 1977)
7. "Judgement from Outer Space, Part 1" (January 15, 1977)
8. "Judgement from Outer Space, Part 2" (January 17, 1977)
9. "Formula 407" (January 22, 1977)
10. "The Bushwackers" (January 29, 1977)
11. "Wonder Woman in Hollywood" (February 16, 1977)

The first two seasons are generally considered to be a single set of episodes.

Season 3 (1977-1978) - CBS

1. "The Return of Wonder Woman" (September 16, 1977)
2. "Anschluss '77" (September 23, 1977)
3. "The Man Who Could Move the World" (September 30, 1977)
4. "The Bermuda Triangle Crisis" (October 7, 1977)
5. "Knockout" (October 14, 1977)
6. "The Pied Piper" (October 21, 1977)
7. "The Queen and the Thief" (October 28, 1977)
8. "I Do, I Do" (November 11, 1977)
9. "The Man Who Made Volcanoes" (November 18, 1977)
10. "Mind Stealers from Outer Space, Part 1" (December 2, 1977)
11. "Mind Stealers from Outer Space, Part 2" (December 9, 1977)
12. "The Deadly Toys" (December 30, 1977)
13. "Light-Fingered Lady" (January 6, 1978)
14. "Screaming Javelin" (January 20, 1978)
15. "Diana's Disappearing Act" (February 3, 1978)
16. "Death in Disguise" (February 10, 1978)
17. "I.R.A.C. is Missing" (February 17, 1978)
18. "Flight to Oblivion" (March 3, 1978)
19. "Seance of Terror" (March 10, 1978)
20. "The Man Who Wouldn't Tell" (March 31, 1978)
21. "The Girl from Islandia" (April 7, 1978)
22. "The Murderous Missile" (April 21, 1978)

Season 4 (1978-1979) - CBS

1. "My Teenage Idol is Missing" (September 22, 1978)
2. "Hot Wheels" (September 29, 1978)
3. "The Deadly Sting" (October 6, 1978)
4. "The Fine Art of Crime" (October 13, 1978)
5. "Disco Devil" (October 20, 1978)
6. "Formicida" (November 3, 1978)
7. "Time Bomb" (November 10, 1978)
8. "Skateboard Wiz" (November 24, 1978)
9. "The Deadly Dolphin" (December 1, 1978)
10. "Stolen Faces" (December 15, 1978)
11. "Pot of Gold" (December 22, 1978)
12. "Gault's Brain" (December 29, 1978)
13. "Going, Going, Gone" (January 12, 1979)
14. "Spaced Out" (January 26, 1979)
15. "The Starships are Coming" (February 2, 1979)
16. "Amazon Hot Wax" (February 16, 1979)
17. "The Richest Man in the World" (February 19, 1979)
18. "A Date with Doomsday" (March 10, 1979)
19. "The Girl with a Gift for Disaster" (March 17, 1979)
20. "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret, Part 1" (May 28, 1979)
21. "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret, Part 2" (May 29, 1979)
22. "The Man Who Could Not Die" (August 28, 1979)
23. "Phantom of the Roller Coaster, Part 1" (September 4, 1979)
24. "Phantom of the Roller Coaster, Part 2" (September 11, 1979)

The final three episodes technically aired at the very start of the 1979-1980 season but were produced at the close of the previous season, so they do not constitute an abbreviated fifth season.