Wonder Woman (television series)

Wonder Woman is a popular television series which starred Lynda Carter as the comic book superhero Wonder Woman. It aired on two American networks between 1975 and 1979. It is also the title of a TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby, loosely based upon the character, that aired in 1974.

Early attempts

The Lynda Carter series was actually the third attempt at mounting a live-action series based upon the superhero.

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Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?

The first attempt to translate Wonder Woman to the small screen occurred 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 film subtitled Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? starring Ellie Wood Walker as Diana Prince, Linda Harrison as Diana's Wonder Woman alter ego, and Hope Summers as Diana's mother.

Related Topics:
1967 - Batman - Greenway Productions - Ellie Wood Walker - Linda Harrison - Hope Summers

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As with Batman, the reel took a comic slant on the character, although while the Batman character himself was played straight, in the proposed series Diana Prince (not Wonder Woman) would have been the focus of the comedy. Diana, an awkward and rather plain 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 alter ego (a fact consistent with the early comic books). Much of the film consists of her mother berating Diana about not having a boyfriend. When her mother leaves the room, she changes into her Wonder Woman costume and admires her reflection in a mirror. What she sees is not Diana Prince, but rather a sexy super-heroic figure (played by Linda Harrison) who proceeds to preen and pose, in the process becoming somewhat grotesque and exaggerated, ultimately becoming little more attractive than her Diana alter-ego.

Related Topics:
Batman - Air Force

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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 is 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. The pilot ends with Diana climbing out a window, giving a goofy giggle, and flying away.

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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. The pilot has been circulated on the Internet and is of interest to Planet of the Apes fans for the early appearance of Linda Harrison who would later go on to play Nova in the first two films of that series.

Related Topics:
Stanley Ralph Ross - Planet of the Apes

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Animation

Wonder Woman's first actual broadcast appearance was 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.

Related Topics:
Brady Kids - 1972 - Teen Titans - Batman - Superman - Trojan War

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

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False start: the Cathy Lee Crosby film

Wonder Woman's first appearance on TV screens in live-action form was via a television movie made in 1974 for the ABC Network, starring athlete-turned-actress Cathy Lee Crosby as a blonde non-superpowered Amazon, pitted against a debonair villain played by Ricardo Montalban. This version owed little to the classic Wonder Woman comic book character, and leaned more towards the "I Ching period" abandoned by the comic book some years before in which Diana abandoned her superhero life and became a secret agent a la Emma Peel. 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.

Related Topics:
Television movie - 1974 - ABC Network - Cathy Lee Crosby - Ricardo Montalban - "I Ching period" - Emma Peel - Superhero - Bionic Woman

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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 occassionally crops up in TV schedules.

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