| Wonder Woman | |
|---|---|
Intertitle for season one |
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| Format | Action/Adventure Fantasy Drama |
| Created by | Characters: William Moulton Marston (as Charles Moulton) |
| Developed by | Douglas S. Cramer Stanley Ralph Ross |
| Starring | Lynda Carter Lyle Waggoner Norman Burton Richard Eastham Beatrice Colen Saundra Sharp |
| Theme music composer | Charles Fox (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 (as a weekly series 1976 - 1979) |
| No. of episodes | 59 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Douglas S. Cramer Wilford Lloyd Baumes |
| Producer(s) | Bruce Lansbury (supervising producer, seasons 2-3) Charles B. Fitzsimons Mark Rodgers |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC (season 1) CBS (seasons 2-3) |
| Original run | November 7, 1975 – September 11, 1979 |
Wonder Woman is an American television series based on the DC Comics comic book superhero of the same name. Starring Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor, the show originally aired from 1975 to 1979.
It had its origins in a November 1975 American television movie entitled The New, Original Wonder Woman starring Carter. It followed a 1974 TV movie entitled Wonder Woman starring blond actress Cathy Lee Crosby, who neither resembled the superhero character nor exhibited any super powers. In this second movie, set during World War II, Carter as Wonder Woman matched the original comic book character. Its success led the ABC television network to order two more one hour episodes; both of which aired in April 1976. That success led ABC to order an additional 11 episodes which the network aired weekly (for the most part) during the first half of the 1976-1977 television season. The episodes ran on Wednesday nights between October 1976 and February 1977.
Wonder Woman had achieved solid ratings on ABC for the weeks it had aired during the 1976-1977 TV season. But the network was still reluctant to renew the series for another season. Wonder Woman was a period piece, and as such, it was more expensive to produce than a series set in the present day. Also, ABC thought that the 1940s-setting limited the possible storylines, with the major villains being Nazis. ABC did not renew the series so Jerry Lieder, then-president of Warner Bros. Television, went to CBS with the notion of shifting the series to the present-day 1970s, which would cost less to produce and allow for more creative storylines. CBS agreed and picked up the show in 1977 and it continued its run for another two seasons.
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The first attempt to translate Wonder Woman to the small screen occurred in 1967. The success of the Batman television series led Batman producer William Dozier to commission a pilot script by Stan Hart and Larry Siegel. Batman writer Stanley Ralph Ross was then asked to perform a re-write, after Hart and Siegel's script was deemed unsuitable.[1][2] A portion of the pilot, under five minutes in length, was filmed under the title Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?[3] The piece starred Ellie Wood Walker (Robert Walker Jr.'s wife) as Diana Prince, Linda Harrison as Diana's "Wonder Woman" alter ego and Maudie Prickett as Diana's mother.
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.
Wonder Woman's first appearance in live-action television was a television movie made in 1974 for ABC. Written by John D. F. Black, the TV movie resembles the Wonder Woman of the "I Ching" period. Wonder Woman (Cathy Lee Crosby) did not wear the comic book costume, demonstrated no superhuman abilities and her "secret identity" of Diana Prince was not all that secret. The film follows Wonder Woman, assistant to government agent Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas) as she pursues a villain named Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban) who has stolen a set of code books containing classified information about U.S. government field agents.[4]
The pilot aired originally on March 12, 1974[5] and was repeated on August 21 of that year.[6] Ratings were described as "respectable but not exactly wondrous."[7] ABC did not pick up the pilot, although Crosby would later claim she was offered the series that was eventually given to Lynda Carter.[8] An ABC spokesperson would later acknowledge that the decision to update the character was a mistake[7] and the pilot itself has been labeled one of the "hundred dumbest events in television."[4]
See also: List of Wonder Woman episodes
Though not successful at the first attempt, ABC still felt a Wonder Woman series had potential, and within a year another pilot was in production. Keen to make a distinction from the last pilot, producers gave the pilot the rather paradoxical title The New Original Wonder Woman.
Scripting duties were given to Stanley Ralph Ross, who was instructed to be more faithful to the comic book and to create a subtle "high comedy." Ross set the pilot in World War II, the era in which the original comic book began.
After an intensive talent search, Lynda Carter, who had done a few prior acting jobs, and was a former beauty pageant winner and Bob Hope USO cast member, was chosen to play the lead role. For the role of Steve Trevor, the producers chose Lyle Waggoner, who at the time was better known as a comedic actor after several years co-starring in The Carol Burnett Show. He was also known to Ross as having been one of the leading candidates to play Batman a decade earlier. Waggoner was also considered a pin-up hunk, having done a semi-nude pictorial in the first issue of Playgirl.[9]
Although the pilot followed the original comic book closely, in particular the aspect of Wonder Woman joining the military under the name Diana Prince, a number of elements were dropped. The comic book Diana obtains the credentials of a look-alike nurse. Although the pilot shows Diana briefly as a nurse at one point, Diana takes on the identity of a Navy enlisted First Class Petty Officer Yeoman. As it was set during World War II, many of the episodes involved Nazis and war events.
Steve Trevor was played by Waggoner with his natural brown hair. The character Steve Trevor was blond in the comic.
One change, which was later to become synonymous with the show, was the transformation of Diana Prince into Wonder Woman by spinning. During the filming of the pilot, producers were trying to figure out a way to show how Diana Prince became Wonder Woman, when Carter suggested that she do a spin.[10] The spinning transformation was later incorporated into the comics and into animated appearances such as Justice League Unlimited.
During season one, Wonder Woman has the ability to impersonate anyone's voice, which came in handy over the telephone. She does not use this ability during the second and third seasons.
Unlike the earlier pilot, the comic book origins of the character were emphasized by the retention of the character's traditional costume and original setting and through the use of comic book elements. The series' title sequence was animated in the form of a series of comic book panels featuring Wonder Woman performing a variety of heroic feats. Within the show, location and exposition were handled through comic book-style text panels. Transitions between scenes and commercial breaks were marked by animated starburst sequences.
During World War II, American pilot Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) bails out during an air battle over the Bermuda Triangle, location of Paradise Island. The island is home to the Amazons: beautiful, ageless women with great strength, agility, and intelligence. Amazon princess Diana (Lynda Carter) rescues the handsome Trevor and helps nurse him back to health. Her mother, the Amazon queen (Cloris Leachman), decrees that Olympic-style games shall be held to select one Amazon to return Trevor back to America, but she forbids her daughter Diana, the princess, to participate. Diana states that since she is not allowed to participate, she does not want to be present for the games and will take a retreat to the other side of the island. The games are held with participants wearing numbers, and a blond amazon wearing a mask. During the events, the blond Amazon shows exceptional skills and she ties for first with another amazon. To break the deadlock, the "Bullets and Bracelets" event is decided as the tiebreaker, where each of the women take turns shooting at the other; the one being shot at must deflect the bullets with their bulletproof bracelets. The blond woman wins the event, injuring her opponent's arm. When she is pronounced the winner, she removes her mask and wig and reveals that she is Diana. Her mother relents and allows her to go to America.
Diana's costume features emblems of America, the land in which she will be returning Steve Trevor. A golden belt will be the source of her strength and power while away from Paradise Island. She has her bullet-deflecting bracelets and also receives a golden lasso which is unbreakable and forces people to obey and tell the truth when bound with it. Diana, as Wonder Woman, flies to Washington, D.C. in an invisible plane. After dropping Trevor off at a hospital, the heroine stumbles upon a bank robbery, which she stops. A theatrical agent who sees her in action offers to help make her bullets and bracelets act a stage attraction. Diana is hesitant, but needing money in this new society, she agrees.
Meanwhile, Trevor's civilian secretary Marcia (Stella Stevens) is a double agent for the Nazis. She seeks to aid top spies in killing Trevor and opposing this new threat, Wonder Woman. Her first attempt is arranging for an accomplice to fire a machine gun at Wonder Woman during her stage act. Later, as spy activities increase, Trevor leaves the hospital but gets in a fight and is captured, prompting his "nurse" Diana to come to his rescue. Wonder Woman defeats Marcia in an extended fight sequence in the War Department. Having defeated Marcia, Wonder Woman thwarts a Nazi pilot who had plans to bomb the Brooklyn Navy Yard by using her invisible plane, and she rescues Trevor. With Marcia and the spy ring defeated, the film closes as Trevor and General Blakenship talk about Trevor's new secretary: Yeoman Diana Prince, Wonder Woman in disguise.
The pilot film, aired on November 7, 1975, was a ratings success and ABC quickly authorized the production of two one-hour specials which aired in April 1976. These three productions would later be considered part of the show's first season.
These three special episodes scored strong ratings and ABC ordered a further 11 episodes for the new 1976-1977 TV season. The network began airing the episodes at the beginning of the TV season in October 1976 up until mid-February 1977. After mid-December 1976, they were airing on a weekly basis.
Few changes were made between the specials and the series itself. One change was the introduction of an explosion effect to the twirling transformation of Diana Prince to Wonder Woman.
The transformation in the original specials was performed by fading between two synchronized shots, both filmed with an overcranked camera to create a slow motion effect. A twirling Diana's hair would fall loose around her shoulders and she would quickly dissolve into Wonder Woman who would then be holding the garments she just had on, mainly her full Navy uniform. She then would stow the items somewhere, usually in a closet or locker, and then exit. This sequence was too time consuming and expensive to maintain. A camera would need to be locked off (secured in place), and Carter's costume, make up and hair altered between shooting the two segments which made up the sequence. But the explosion sequence saved both time and money as it joined the two segments, allowing each segment to be shot independently without need for a locked off camera, and it could be shot at practically any point in the shooting schedule. The explosion and its adjoining "thunderclap" noise had the added benefit of making must-see moments through the episode.
Unlike the comic character, the TV transformation gave Diana the ability to change to Wonder Woman in virtually any location. At first, like in the television specials, Diana must stow her clothing and return to the site to change back; later, she simply changes quickly and her clothing is not mentioned. The television visual effect of the magic instant transformation behind the ball of light and explosion was more convenient for the television continuity. The "thunderclap" sound effect is only audible to the audience and perhaps to Diana. She used this change in front of or near a dormitory of sleeping women, in adjoining office spaces, backstage at a live show, in the woods near a crowd of soldiers, and other locations where she would have attracted attention if the "boom" were heard by them. To change back, as she showed in one episode, she merely does a slow about face spin with her arms extended and is instantly Diana, with no special effect.[11]
Another change involved the relationship between Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman. The romantic aspect was part of the series during the original special episodes and somewhat into the weekly series, but in season two and three it was downplayed and the characters were basically good friends who cared about each other. Executive producer Douglas S. Cramer noted the difficulties in maintaining long-term romantic tension between leads, because the resolution of that romantic tension often results in the cancellation of the series.[12]
The series began at a time when violence on television was under intense scrutiny. As a result, Wonder Woman was less frequently seen punching or kicking people the way she did in the early episodes. The character would usually be shown pushing and throwing enemies, or using creativity to get them to somehow knock themselves out (jumping high into the air causing pursuers to collide). Despite the wartime circumstances, the character never resorted to deadly force. The only exception occurs in the pilot film when she sinks a Nazi submarine with an airplane. Although the fate of the sailors aboard is never actually specified, it is assumed they were killed.
Wonder Woman herself was occasionally defeated by the Nazis, but she always came back in the second half of the show to save the day. Among the things the Nazis used on her were chloroform and poison gas. Her enemies also occasionally stole away her belt (leaving her without her super strength), her lasso, and her bracelets (leaving her defenseless against gunfire), but Wonder Woman always recovered the stolen component by the end of the episode.
Two stories (one of them a two-parter) introduced Debra Winger as Diana's younger sister, Druscilla, aka Wonder Girl, in one of Winger's first on-screen roles. On these occasions, Druscilla came from Paradise Island to deliver a message to Diana and stayed for a visit. When the show switched to CBS for its second and third seasons, the Druscilla character was neither seen nor referred to again. Wonder Woman herself remained active from 1942 to 1945, and was honored by Franklin D. Roosevelt for her work against Axis attacks.[13]
Despite strong ratings, ABC stalled on commissioning a second season causing the show's frustrated production company Warner Bros. to offer Wonder Woman to CBS. While ABC dithered, CBS agreed to pick up the series on condition that the setting be updated to the modern day (the 1970s). Changing the title to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, the series was nudged away from sophisticated humor towards a more conventional action/adventure take.
Princess Diana, ageless because of her Amazon nature, returns from Paradise Island after a 35-year absence to become an agent with the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC), a CIA-like organization fighting criminals and the occasional alien invasion. Infrequent references to her World War II experiences were made in early episodes.[13]
Changes in the first CBS season included Wonder Woman's costume being redesigned. Her invisible plane became a jet aircraft, though it only appeared a couple of times. Lyle Waggoner returned playing the role of his ABC character's son, Colonel Steven Trevor, Jr.. This Trevor had as a child heard his late father's stories of adventures with Wonder Woman during World War II.[13] The producers chose to downplay and later drop any suggestion that Steve and Wonder Woman were anything more than good friends.
The theme song was re-written to remove references to the Axis, reflecting the series' new present-day setting, and the action depicted in the opening's animated comic book panels was similarly updated. Beginning with the episode "The Man Who Made Volcanoes", the opening title sequence was changed again to an instrumental and more traditional "action scenes" opening.
Trevor was promoted to a desk job midway through the season, leaving Diana to go out on solo missions in most episodes. By this time, Diana was no longer simply Trevor's assistant, but was now an accomplished solo agent.
Unlike the first season on ABC, Wonder Woman's sources of power (her belt, bracelets and lasso) were never stolen by villains in any of the CBS episodes. In the Season Two episode "The Man Who Could Move The World," she voluntarily removes her magical devices in order to persuade an adversary to trust her.
Several other changes occurred as the second season progressed. Joe Atkinson (Normann Burton), a weathered IADC agent, was dropped after the ninth episode, as was a regular segment showing Diana, Steve and Joe receiving orders from a "Charlie-like" character who is heard but never seen. Midway through the season, this was replaced with regular briefings by IRAC (Information Retrieval Associative Computer) (more informally known as "Ira"), the IADC's super-intelligent computer, who deduces Diana's secret identity. Saundra Sharp joined the cast as Eve, Steve's assistant (the job held by Diana at the start of the season). Towards the end of the season, in the episode "IRAC is Missing", a small mobile robot called Rover was added for comic relief. An offshoot of IRAC who performs duties such as delivering coffee and sorting mail, Rover speaks with a high-pitched voice, occasionally makes "Beep Beep" sounds (borrowed from the Road Runner cartoon series) and, like IRAC, is aware that Diana Prince and Wonder Woman are one and the same.
The character of Wonder Woman maintained her no-kill policy, although there were exceptions: in the episode "Anschluss '77" she destroys a clone of Adolf Hitler, and another episode made reference to a villain who was believed drowned following a previous unseen encounter with Diana/Wonder Woman.
Multiple new costumes were introduced. Wonder Woman still wears the red-white-and-blue cape for special events or appearances from the first season, but without the skirt. A diving costume is introduced, a navy-blue lycra body suit with matching gloves, gold bracelets, flat boots, and a flexible tiara is featured whenever aquatic activity is necessary. The same costume, with low-heeled boots and a gold helmet, is used to ride motorcycles. At first, Wonder Woman would change into these newer costumes by performing an extended spin in which she first changed from her Diana Prince clothes into the standard Wonder Woman costume, then continued to spin until a second light explosion occurred and she would appear in one of the newer outfits. However, this extended spin device was dropped for expediency and Diana was then able to change into any of the Wonder Woman costumes in a single change.
With the beginning of the third season, further changes were made to target the show at a teenage audience. The title theme was re-recorded again to give it a disco beat, the use of the robot 'Rover' was increased for comic effect, and episodes began to revolve around topical subjects like skateboarding, roller coasters and the environment. Teenagers or young adults were commonly used as main characters in the plot lines. The animated stars used before and after commercial breaks were dropped, and Eve disappeared from the cast although she is mentioned once or twice. Episodes during this season showed Diana on assignments by herself far more often (particularly outside of Washington DC), and Steve Trevor had become Diana's boss and was seen less.
Wonder Woman was also allowed to become a bit more physical in the third season and could now be seen throwing the occasional punch or kicking. The writers also came up with several unusual ways for Diana to execute her spinning transformation, the most notable instances occurring in the episode "Stolen Faces" in which Diana makes the change while falling off a tall building, and the episode "The Pied Piper" in which she changes while strapped into a spinning chair.
Diana also exhibited other powers, particularly in the episode "The Deadly Dolphin" in which she is shown communicating telepathically with animals and generating bursts of an unknown form of energy to scare away a killer shark.
In the final episode produced, the writers attempted a "relaunch" of sorts by having Diana reassigned to the Los Angeles bureau of IADC with a new supporting cast. Though done in anticipation of a fourth season, the revamp was seen for only a single episode ("The Man Who Could Not Die"), which set up an assortment of new supporting characters. These included Dale Hawthorn, Diana's new IADC boss, Bryce Candall, a genetically enhanced man who was indestructible (the titular character of the episode), as well as a streetwise youngster named T. Burton Phipps III who inexplicably is allowed to hang out at the IADC. Also added to the cast was a chimpanzee who, like Bryce, is also indestructible. This episode was actually the last to be produced and should have ended the third season, but was shown out of sequence with the two-parter "The Phantom of the Roller Coaster".
CBS ultimately decided to strengthen its sitcom offerings and no further episodes of Wonder Woman were produced.
Columbia House with Warner Home Video released the series on VHS videotapes through their Wonder Woman: The Collector's Edition series from the late 1990s-early 2000s, which was only available through mail order subscriptions. Each volume contained two episodes. The Season Two episodes "The Pied Piper" and "Flight To Oblivion," however, were not included on the VHS releases.
Warner Home Video has released all three seasons of Wonder Woman on DVD in various regions.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete 1st Season | 14 | June 29, 2004 | All 14 episodes (including the pilot) with commentary by Lynda Carter and executive producer Douglas S. Cramer; New documentary retrospective. |
| The Complete 2nd Season | 22 | March 1, 2005 | 21 episodes plus a feature-length season premiere; Bonus documentary: "Revolutionizing a Classic: From Comic Book to Television." |
| The Complete 3rd Season | 24 | June 7, 2005 | Audio commentary by Lynda Carter on "My Teenage Idol is Missing"; Featurette:"Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Feminist Icon." The initial Region 1 release included a bonus DVD containing the first episode of the Captain Marvel television series Shazam!, "The Joy Riders". |
Mego Corporation released a line of dolls in 1976 to correspond with the TV series. The boxes originally featured Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman on the front flap. However, in 1977, her image on the box was dropped and the line was revamped with only the Wonder Woman doll being featured and revised.
The Mego dolls included Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, Queen Hippolyte, Nubia, and Steve Trevor.[14] The line also included separate fashion outfits for Diana Prince that were released in Canada.[15] Various playsets were also created but were not released for sale.[16]
DC Direct (which creates merchandise for DC Comics) released a Wonder Woman statue in 2007 which is based upon the image created by Lynda Carter.
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