Torch's Reviews/Retrospective: Wonder Woman: The TV Series

This being the 40th anniversary of the Wonder Woman TV series, what better time than to let Johnnie Torch take you back to this monumental, if oft over-looked, series.

To start, we'd have to go back to 1974, where the first attempt was made for a Wonder Woman pilot starring Cathy Lee Crosby,who neither looked like Wondy,nor had an accurate costume. The Great Ricardo Montalbon played the villain. I caught it on cable in the wee small hours one night, years ago and it was entirely forgettable. So if you haven't seen it, no worries. You're not missing anything. And we can move on now...that's it....

SEASON 1 WONDER WOMAN

Well,that attempt came to nothing, but fortunately TPTB took another stab at it. In 1975 lovely Lynda Carter got the role as Wonder Woman for a new series that hewed closer to the original comic incarnation. Lynda was the perfect choice. She both resembled Wonder Woman perfectly, but also brought a lot of humanity to the character. Much like Christopher Reeve as Superman, Lynda became the gold standard for "Perfect casting" in the Superhero genre.

As Major Steve Trevor, WW's "sometime" love interest, Lyle Waggoner was cast. Lyle was in the Carol Burnett Show, and lost out to Adam West several years earlier for the role of Batman. He got another shot at a DC Icon here. And he's much better suited here , bringing his all american look and authoritative voice to Steve Trevor, a character that's more or less a thankless role...but, more on that later...

The pilot is fairly accurate to the origin story.During WW II, Trevor crashlands on Paradise Island. A contest is held to choose an Amazon to take the injured Trevor back to America. Diana's mom (who just happens to be Queen) forbids Diana from taking part in the contest. So Diana enters the contest in disguise. She wins after passing the most difficult challenge "Bullets & Bracelets". After discovering the truth,her mother allows her to go, but not before bestowing upon her the Golden Lasso of Truth, The belt of power,secret of her strength, her bullet proof bracelets, a tiara that doubles both as a boomerang and communication device and her new costume, inspired by the American flag, a symbol of her new ambassadorial status in "Man's World".

Wonder Woman even has the famous invisible plane in the show. In subsequent episodes, it's funny to see how low-tech the distance shots are, where it looks like a toy with a WW action figure inside!

WW's famous transformation by twirling was an invention of Lynda Carter. In the comics, she'd toss the lasso over her head and (for whatever reason) her clothes would transform into her costume. Not being able to do that on a 70's TV budget, Carter suggested spinning. In the early episodes this was done in slow motion, but it was quickly replaced by a lighting flash that better served the urgency of her quick-change.

There are some slow spots where the Nazi villains are concerned, but overall it's a fun and fitting tribute to Wonder Woman's first big adventure. Red Buttens plays a shifty talent agent and there's some amusing "fish out of water" antics as Diana tries to become acclimated into this new world. This marks the only time Wondy bounces off the bullets of a machine gun (wielded by a little old lady!) with her bracelets. Since this was the pilot, they spared no expense on the FX.

In the end, Diana takes on the role as Steve's secretary (a role that seems to amuse her more than anything) and wears a dowdy uniform and glasses to conceal her true identity from the world. Another comic character from WW's comic was introduced in the first season, Etta Candy, played by Beatrice Colen. They even went so far as to emulate the comic's little yellow narration boxes to transition scenes. The earliest episodes of the first season play a little too strongly into the "Girl Power" mold. Thankfully, they don't overplay that hand for too long.

Wonder Woman's little sis Drusilla, makes an impressive appearance in the first season, played by Debra Winger. She does a good job as the cute,wide eyed kid wanting to enjoy the conveniences of the (then) modern world. Upon spinning herself, she learns that she too can transform-into Wonder Girl! It's a pity Winger doesn't show up in future seasons, as she's very fun to watch. These days, they'd have spun her off to her own show! But those days you were lucky to have at least one comic show on at any given time.

At this point, Carolyn Jones replaced Cloris Leachman as Queen Hyppolita,and she was my favorite of the three actresses that took the role. Leachman was a bit too neurotic for my taste and Beatrice Straight was alright but fairly generic.Jones, of course played Morticia in the Adams Family and had played the DC villianess, Marsha Queen of Diamonds in the Batman series.

The highlight of the short first season was the 2 parter The Feminum Mystique, where Hyppolita sends Drusilla to bring Diana back home and give up her role as Wonder Woman. Diana isn't too successful in convincing her mother of the threat of the Nazis, until they attempt to take over Paradise Island and Diana's family must band together to overthrow their occupation.

SEASON 2 THE NEW ADVENTURES OF WONDER WOMAN

ABC ended up canceling the show after the first season, but CBS was willing to pick it up- albeit with a few changes. They set the show in (then) present day. Which I think was a wise choice. Wondy may have gotten her start in WW II, but she's more well known for her adventures in modern times. There was also only so much you could do with Nazi agents as the villains week after week. It was a refreshing change.

The Iconic theme song was retained, but the lyrics referring to the Axis were changed in favor of the new time period.The transition was easy enough to explain. After helping the U.S to win WW II, Wondy returned to Paradise Island to take her place as the Princess. When Col. Steve Trevor JUNIOR (still played by Lyle Waggoner) lands on Paradise Island with others as victims of a terrorist attack, Diana is pressed back into service as Wonder Woman in a clever recreation of the origin tale, only set in the 1970's.

Trevor is later surprised to learn that Wondy is the same woman his dad told him stories about as a child and how she helped win WW II. All without aging a day!

Wondy's costume was retooled as well to being somewhat skimpier, reflecting the changing times, I guess. I didn't mind the changes, except they cut about half the stars from the lower part of her costume for no apparent reason. Did we lose some states from the Union since the 40's or something? Her bracelets went from silver to gold. They also gave her an underwater diving suit that she got during her double transformation. This suit was also used whenever she rode a motorcycle, which was more often then you'd think.

Gee, the Captain America parallels are just too big to ignore. Both fought in WW II, both beat the aging process to return in present day, both wear the American flag prominently in their costume, both take up with a relative of the person they were an item with back in the day and they both rode motorcycles...once in a while!

Er...where was I? Anyway, Diana now worked with Steve as an agent of IADC. The agency had a super computer named IRA, (that more or less looked like the Light Bright I had as a kid. You know, the thing with the black paper and you stuck the colored pegs in and they'd light up in a pattern?) IRA kinda knew she was WW, but wouldn't say anything. It had a little side kick named Rover that drove around going "Meep Meep" like the Road Runner. It seemed like something out of the Buck Rodgers show that was also on around that time.

Their boss was originally a guy named Joe Atkinson (played by Normann Burton). And he'd talk to the President or whatever and give Diana & Steve their mission. About halfway through this season, Joe dropped out and Steve was bumped up to his executive position. The theme was altered again at this point, dropping all the lyrics, save the female chorus repeating "Wonder Woman".

One of the problems with this season at this point was they conveniently started dropping Diana wearing the glasses. Much like Clark Kent, that's 90% of her secret identity, so it made little sense. Granted, WW only accounted for about 30% of the episode and I suppose it was a lot to ask of guys to put up with Lynda hiding behind oversized glasses and frumpy clothes for too long.

This season boasted several really cool episodes with some entertaining villains. My top 5 would be:

#5 KNOCKOUT

A former Cop and friend of Steve's (played by Jayne Kennedy) leads a terrorist organisation and kidnaps Steve. Diana gets some help from a former Vietnam vet and cabbie played by Ted Shackleford. (Ted would return in the 3rd season as a new character- an alien- ironically partnered with his Knots Landing co star Joan Van Ark!) Perhaps I like it, since this is one of the last times Trevor is out in the field. But it's an interesting story and I enjoy Ted's role as the single dad of his mute son. Keep your eyes open for Honeymooners perennial recurring actor Frank Marth as a baddie!

#4 THE PIED PIPER

Not a version to be confused with the original DC Flash villain. In this case,Martin Mull plays Hamilton Rule, a spoiled rock star. He gets Atkinson's daughter (played by Jan Brady herself,Eve Plumb) under his spell along with other girls to steal for him. The real highlight is probably tough guy actor, Denny Miller (who dresses like a Genie for much of the episode) taking on WW in a pretty decent fight scene. Diana also transforms by spinning while tied to a chair! I really like Mull, but it's downright hilarious seeing him "singing" his songs as an alleged rockstar!

#3 I DO,I DO

This one starts with a fun twist opening of Diana getting married to some guy we've never seen before. Obviously it's some kind of ruse for the undercover mission she's on. The villain is Henry Darrow in his 2nd WW appearance. (He also played a villain in the Incredible Hulk's 5th season episode "Sanctuary", before finally playing a good guy as Don Alejandro De la Vega, the father of Zorro, in the New World series) I guess, truth be told, the villain plot isn't among the best. He's sort of a hypno-masseur. (Nice work if you can get it!) This was where they sorta threw all pretense of trying to conceal her identity as much as possible out the window. I mean, if Clark Kent took off his glasses and walked around in his swim suit, chances are most would recognize him as Superman. Not so for Diana, I guess.

#2 MIND STEALERS FROM OUTERSPACE Two-Parter

Unlike the live action Marvel shows of the day, where the villains tended to be child abusers and coin collection thieves, Wonder Woman's show firmly had it's feet planted in the world of the fantastic. She faced Androids and Aliens on more than one occasion. In this case, the main alien baddie is an obvious appeal to the newly popular Darth Vader from Star Wars. It's fun to see Wonder Woman go up against a villain of equal strength. Alas, the other aliens are not quite as convincing, but the lead alien takes over the body of Dick Van Patten's son, Vincent for most of the story.

Dack Rambo shows up as Andros, a benevolent alien out to help save our world. There's a hint of possible romance between the two. (Well, more than there was with Steve anyway) He's supposed to be the son of the Andros that appeared in the first season (played by the much older Tim O'Connor-- best remembered as Dr Huer in the Buck Rogers series) whom Diana also seemed a bit smitten with. In the end, it seems as if both he and the previous 'older' Andros are one and the same, making for a confusing backstory.

#1 THE DEADLY TOYS

While the show didn't rely on an abundance of DC villains, they did a pretty good job in casting former Riddler,the enormously talented Frank Gorshin as a semi-recognizable Silver Age version of Superman's foe, the Toyman. It's great seeing Gorshin get the nod in another comic book series. It's a Christmas themed episode, where Toyman builds an android Wonder Woman to defeat the original and take her place. Naturally Lynda plays both parts during the fun confrontation between Wonder Women.

SEASON 3 THE FINAL SEASON

For the 3rd season, the series continued to be very strongly written, but some oddities began creeping in. For example, the famous transformation scenes began being cut. Ofttimes Wonder Woman would just appear without us seeing the transformation. Other times, a stunt double would be used in the distance or a stock scene from previous episodes would be quickly cut in. This was pretty disappointing. Part of the charm of the genre is the superhero transformation. Think of Chris Reeve ripping open his shirt to expose the S symbol or Bill Bixby's white eyes signaling an eminent Hulk out. WW's spinning was just as iconic, but for reasons unknown, started being cut. Maybe it was for time. Maybe Lynda just had enough of spinning twice an episode and begged off doing it in the 3rd season as often as possible since the show was already well established. Who knows?

The theme song was updated again, with a male chorus replacing the female one.

By now, the series felt much more a product of the 70's. Diana seemed more a part of the times than ever before. She seemed less "visitor to the outside world" and more like someone born and raised in the U.S. Well, I suppose she had been here for several years at this point.

They continued to up the action in the fight scenes. In earlier episodes, Wondy tended to throw thugs around with relative ease. By now in the series, she'd break a little sweat by throwing a few punches and kicks during an altercation.

As I mentioned earlier, Lyle Waggoner's role really started getting thankless at this point. And I mean to ridiculous levels. The guy rarely left his office by now. He was constantly stuck behind his desk. (with a photo of himself-er, I mean his dad behind him. That was admittedly a nice touch.) and his hair was let grey, making him appear more like Wondy's uncle than love interest.

I'm not quite sure the reason for this. Steve never really got a fair shake as a love interest. Originally, he pretty much just served as a male "damsel in distress." He'd get in some kind of mess, punch a few guys in the face, then get taken captive until WW came to his rescue. He'd be over the moon just seeing her for a few minutes. But,he never kissed Wondy and they never seemed anything more than friends.

Maybe TPTB just didn't like the concept that Wondy had both a father and his identical son as potential love interests that caused things to not pan out for them romantically. It's all just speculation. I mean, nobody's watching the show for Steve Trevor, so in a sense he'd just be taking screen time away from WW, but it is kinda sad that he became relegated to "afterthought" status. In the "Hero Love Interest" pantheon Steve is less a Lois or MJ and more a Vicky Vale, I guess.

The season ended with the fairly mediocre "Phantom of the Roller Coster" two parter.(Ike Eisenmann--perhaps best remembered as Scotty's ill fated nephew in Wrath of Khan-- as a roller coaster enthusiast, who gets abducted by the amusement park owner's deformed but benevolent twin brother) Presumably it was setting up big changes in the potential 4th season by having Diana move to L.A. (ostensibly writing Trevor out entirely) But the show ended up being canceled.

The top 5 best episodes of this season were:

#5 THE BOY WHO KNEW HER SECRET Two-Parter

This episode is another take on popular "Invasion of the BodySnachers" kick of the time. It has an interesting premise that gets more or less squandered by the overly padded first part. Skip (played by Clark Brandon) is a likable kid that seems like the only one in town not effected by the alien take over plot. Eventually, he sees Diana's transformation and discovers her secret. Later,Diana's memories of her secret I.D. are erased by one of the aliens. There's no real connection made between Wondy and Skip. He doesn't really figure into her regaining her memory, but in a superficial way. It seems like an interesting concept, that this least likely of kids would be the one to actually save WW, by helping restore her memory.Since Wondy has no other confident (at least in the U.S.) that actually knows her double identity it would be quite the problem if she were to lose her memory in that way. In the end, Skip is made to forget via the Golden Lasso, but re-discovers the secret via his audio-diary. As I said, an interesting concept, that really doesn't get used to it's full potential.

#4 THE FINE ART OF CRIME

Only the second actor to play a villain in this show as well as the Batman series (The Bookworm and later the voice of the Mad Hatter in Batman The Animated series) the legendary Roddy McDowall makes his 2nd appearance in the show, along with Ed Begley Jr (who also has his own Batman connection: He was Riddler's boss in Batman Forever) Roddy plays an art thief that uses his method of turning his life-like "statues" (which are people under his control) into the instruments of his robberies. Will Wonder Woman become his next prize work of art?!?

#3 FORMICIDA

While the show didn't have WW arch-villainess The Cheetah, they did give her an Ant-inspired villainess in Formicida,given the power to control ants.This episode certainly isn't recommended to anyone with an ant phobia, but it is fun to see Wondy do battle with another female costumed character.

#2 SPACED OUT

This is a fun early look at "nerd culture" back when things like sci-fi conventions were still in their infancy. The bulk of the episode is set at a sci-fi convention,where guest star, the great Rene Auberjonois (best known for his Sci-Fi stint as Odo in ST: DSN) plays a pro jewel thief who fails to deliver the goods to his employer, the great Paul L. Smith (best know as Bluto in the classic Popeye movie) who gives a Sydney Greenstreet-esq performance. Rene spends a good deal in "costume" as the "Masked Avenger". There are also some cool nods to Star Wars, Logan's Run & Forbidden Planet.

#1 AMAZON HOT WAX

Diana goes undercover as a singer,which is pretty much an excuse to give Lynda a chance to sing a couple of songs, which she does very well. (is there nothing WW can't do, you ask? The answer is a resounding "no"!) The plot is fairly amusing, as Rick Springfield (is there a 70's series he didn't appear in,you ask? The answer is a resounding "no"!) leads a rock band that seems a cross between KISS and The Monkees that aids Wondy in finding a missing singer (who is presumed dead). The bad guys turn out to be a singing brother and sister duo (an obvious and hilarious take on Karen & Richard Carpenter), the male half, being played by Judge Reinhold.

Well,there you have it. The show was canceled thereafter the third season. Ironically, Lynda maintains that she gets paid no residuals from the series, as by the terms of her contract, the show has yet to return a sufficient profit. Unfortunately, there were no "reunion movies" on the horizon for Carter & Co and she never returned to provide the voice of Wonder Woman in any animated project. A new comic book based on the series has come out. But,regardless of not appearing any additional media, Lynda Carter left an indelible mark as the Amazonian Princess.

Unlike her contemporaries Superman & Batman, Wonder Woman has at this point been portrayed by one person. Gal Gadot is set to take over the role of Wonder Woman beginning with the upcoming Batman vs Superman. But, for me, there's nothing like the classic performance of Lynda Carter, played back when DC characters were allowed to smile, Wonder Woman carried a lasso instead of murder weapons like swords & spears and she exuded a confidence that whatever the trouble- not to worry. We have Wonder Woman on our side.

Given the impact of her portrayal on the character as well as the overall faithfulness to the traditional origin and characters, I can't give Wonder Woman The Series any less than 5 stars!

Until next time, this is Johnnie Torch reminding you to keep the Flame Burning Brightly and I'll be with you soon!