Wonder Woman Now the world is ready for... the Wonder Woman TV series thread

[Mel O'Drama]

GOING, GOING, GONE / SPACED OUT / THE STARSHIPS ARE COMING / AMAZON HOT WAX / THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD / A DATE WITH DOOMSDAY / THE GIRL WITH A GIFT FOR DISASTER / THE BOY WHO KNEW HER SECRET

The journey of censorship within the series has been an interesting one. It began with that glorious fight with Stella Stevens where they threw each other violently through plate glass and over tables and Wonder Woman got to smash her opponent in the face with her fist. Then it evolved into something rather less satisfying - usually of the variety where henchmen are thrown gently into cardboard boxes or onto light fittings. The latter part of the final season has seen something of a return to form, with WW managing to get a few chops and hits in before throwing the henchman of the day around. It's been quite unexpected and more pleasing for it.

Guest actors have been a fairly balanced combination of older character actors and younger teen pinup types. Some of the latter have been a little bland but then there's the occasional one that breaks the mould. The Richest Man In The World had on board one of the angriest young men of the era: Barry Miller.

Here he would be in between Saturday Night Fever and Fame. He's a fascinating actor - very intense and unpredictable. There's an appealing feeling of danger to him that served to bring layers to the proceedings. The episode had him playing to type as a troubled teen who bonds with one of the older characters. Even the obligatory happy ending where the rich older man invites Barry to live with him forever and ever felt like it had a slightly less wholesome subtext in these hands. And it was all the better for it.

Along with some more creative Wonder Spins, Season Three has also played with viewer's expectations around it. A couple of scenes have shown Diana just about to spin when something happens: a man comes crashing through an overhead window or a colleague walks into the corridor. The Boy Who Knew Her Secret took this to the next logical level with one of the Just Seventeen pinup types witnessing the Wonder Spin and learning her secret. It was dragged out to be a two-parter and fitted into a schlocky 50s B-movie type story of invading aliens taking the form of townspeople and is one of those storylines that loses something once you hit double digits. But it played out fine.

Going, Going, Gone featured one of those scenes that's embedded in my memory from watching as a six year old: Diana being put into a submarine's torpedo chute and Wonder Spinning her way out. Turns out the plot wasn't bad either, with a fifth columnist thrown into the mix.

For all the silliness of some of these episodes - and there's silliness aplenty - it's actually Amazon Hot Wax that feels like the episode where the series did some serious shark jumping. It was one of the episodes where Diana went undercover with a fake name. This time she was disguised as a singer who was cutting a record. Which, of course, was all a flimsy excuse for Lynda Carter to show off her singing skills and promote her new album by singing a couple of the songs from it. It's by no means an awful episode, but it had "vanity project" written all over it to the point of making Beauty On Parade seem subtle. It's to the detriment of the series, of course. And perhaps quite telling that at this point in the run it doesn't seem to matter.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Oh - and at the end of The Boy Who Knew Her Secret, Diana mentioned that she'd be in California on a more permanent basis within a month.

I know that the next episode, The Man Who Could Not Die, was the last WW episode in production order and was intended to wrap up the season by setting up the new direction for Season Four with Diana's move to California and the new cast - sans Lyle. But somehow the Phantom episodes got shown last, even though it was still part of the older format. So I'm going to assume that The Boy Who Knew Her Secret was the penultimate episode by production count.

The move did make a kind of sense given that she's headed to California in most of this season's episodes. That said, I did enjoy seeing lots of Washington landmarks from jaunty angles in A Date With Doomsday. It's a shame more episodes didn't do this.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE / THE PHANTOM OF THE ROLLER COASTER

Yet another reboot with The Man Who Could Not Die. As mentioned earlier, this was the last episode filmed and was intended to set up the premise for the following season. Watching it makes me grateful the series ended when it did. While the series had certainly found its niche, it's been sad to see all the original elements being dropped one by one. With The Man Who Could Not Die yet more go out of the window. The Washington setting is gone and - even more crucially - so is Steve.

Steve's diminishing role in the series has been much talked about. But it hasn't been as drastic as I remembered. He was still appearing in every episode for a scene or two. Granted he was mostly tied to the IADC where he'd interact mostly with IRAC and Rover (and sometimes even with Diana, on those occasions she deigned to show up). But he was still enough a part of this series to deserve a proper exit. It's sad to see how it was handled here. One episode he was there. The next he was gone with not a single mention. Diana had moved on.

Adding insult to injury, Diana's move to California still saw her working for the IADC. She just reports to another man doing Steve's role. In place of IRAC we have a smart mouthed streetwise kid played by an actor named (oh dear god) James Bond III. In Rover's stead is a chimp.

This series was never shy of jumping on trends, and the kid feels like an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Diff'rent Strokes. He's entertaining enough as a one-off, but it's not really what this series is about and would have got wearing on a regular basis. As for the chimp... well, he's certainly cute enough. But there's something very uncomfortable about the thought of an intelligent animal being held captive, trained to perform and placed under hot lights in an unnatural environment for long periods simply to give this show the comic relief it didn't need.

Gone is Inglewood City Hall doubling for the now-iconic IADC building.

I can't help but wonder what purpose this reboot served. Why drop everything that is so familiar simply to have variations on a theme?

As previously mentioned, the move to California makes sense. It's all filmed there anyway and it's been quite unconvincing at times when doubling for Washington or (chortle) Heathrow.

But most tellingly there's now a definite hierarchy. Lynda Carter is now the sole, undisputed star of the show and the only person shown on images in the titles. Everyone else is tertiary at best. I dare say it saved a bit of money. And bruised egos. All the co-stars now know their place.

The addition of the invulnerable man feels like one of the many ways this series has started taking its cues from the Kenneth Johnson Bionic series. Several episodes in Season Three have featured Wonder Woman being shown in slow motion as she runs. It's partly, perhaps, a nod to jiggle TV, but also very much reminiscent of the way Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers would be seen to run. There have also been close-ups of WW's ear as she turns to listen to something. Again, this is shamelessly lifted straight from The Bionic Woman. Now onto the scene comes a man who has been enhanced into a superhero through science and chooses to join a government agency. He's basically Steve Austin. Add to the fact that he's teaming up with a woman who also has special abilities and it's basically the Bionic team ups. The invulnerable chimp (did I mention he was invulnerable though scientific enhancement?) is basically Maximillion the Bionic Dog. Oh - and the invulnerable guy seeing his new abilities as a curse and searching for a cure was very reminiscent of Johnson's Incredible Hulk series. I can't help wondering if there were spinoffs planned in the long term. Because it seems a sure thing they'd be fired from this series if they got too big.

On the plus side, Diana's new residence is very nice. Certainly a step up from her apartment. But with true Warner frugality, Diana's apartment does indeed show up in the rebooted version. Redressed, it's now the invulnerable man's apartment.

Diana being tied to her car in the garage is one of those scenes I clearly remember watching back in 1980. I'm fascinated by the stuff my selective memory remembers.

The episode features what I believe is the only overt reference to another superhero in the entire series. Diana told the new superhero that he could make a fortune as "the Man Of Steel", to which he replied that he'd look terrible in a cape and tights.

All in all, it's safe to say that not renewing the series put it out of its misery. Three seasons with perhaps half of the episodes being decent is just enough.



It's gratifying that the final episodes aired in America were in the "classic" format and featured Washington, Steve Trevor and the good old IADC. I was even almost happy to see Rover. Steve actually got to leave the office in this episode. Ok, so he only went to another set (God forbid Lyle would be allowed to go on location at this point) but still, he got a change of scene and the chance to interact with Jared Martin.

Speaking of which, Martin's dual role was enjoyable. There's a poignancy to watching these with him having died so recently. And it felt almost fitting for that reason that he had the final line the series aired.

Diana's car crash at the end of the first part of Phantom is one of those fragments of memory from watching the first time round. One of my earliest experiences of a cliffhanger and having to wait until the next week to watch. Turns out it was a terrible cheat. According to everything we've seen in this series, Diana is not superhuman until she spins into Wonder Woman, and there's no way she could have escaped the car before the collision. Not the way it was filmed. I forgive them because they gave me a whole week of worrying intensely about Diana's fate, but anyone else would feel very cheated indeed.

I was looking at the IMDb for air dates, and it seems Season Three was shown in a VERY random order in the UK. Episodes from earlier in the season were shown way after these three. I'll have to go through sometime and try to recreate the order I would have originally watched them in.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Last night I completed my WW viewing with the remaining bonus features.

Having rewatched the commentary for The New, Original Wonder Woman after Season One, last night I dived into Lynda Carter's audio commentary for My Teenage Idol Is Missing and the three featurettes - one per season.

Carter's enthusiasm for the series shines through. While clearly not a hardcore comic book fan it's easy to see that she's explored the character a little beyond the TV show and mostly understands what makes her tick.

I'd forgotten pretty much everything that was in these bonus features and found it interesting to find that Carter missed some of the more traditional elements of the comic - such as the Amazons - as the series evolved. I did remember that she preferred the series when it updated to the Seventies and that she disliked the invisible aeroplane.

Carter did lose me with her take on feminism. She's many things, but - despite her claims - she doesn't appear to be a feminist. In a few of the features she mentioned feeling sad because Wonder Woman hasn't had the joy of becoming a mother (and, by implication, a wife). Still, you can't be all things to all people and overall it's good to see Carter giving input on what the Wonder Woman legend has come to mean to her.

She spoke mostly in glowing terms about everyone she'd worked with - including Lyle Waggoner and Debra Winger, though in the commentary she did mention Winger's later complaints about working on the show (she put it down to Winger not being comfortable with the TV medium). Regarding Lyle, she actually mentioned that her one regret about working on the show was that she didn't get to spend much time with him, which seemed both sweet and surprising.

Nice to see comic book staff associated with Wonder Woman talking about their passion not just for the character but for the Lynda Carter version. Phil Jimenez's geeking out over the series was particularly adorable.

 

[Seaviewer]

Yet another reboot with The Man Who Could Not Die. As mentioned earlier, this was the last episode filmed and was intended to set up the premise for the following season.

I have no recollection of ever seeing this. I'll have to try to catch up with it sometime.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I have no recollection of ever seeing this. I'll have to try to catch up with it sometime.

It's an interesting taste of what we could have expected from a fourth season.

I too had all but forgotten about it. Its placement as the third from last episode doesn't help in that regard. It's easy for it to go under the radar.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Has anybody seen Lynda Carter lately? I saw her a few weeks ago on the new, dreadful MATCH GAME with Alec Baldwin, and she's turned into a little ol' redneck grandmaw!

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE / THE PHANTOM OF THE ROLLER COASTER
In place of IRAC we have a smart mouthed streetwise kid played by an actor named (oh dear god) James Bond III.

James Bond III?

The British Broadcasting Corporation used to repeat the crime-solving series called The Red Hand Gang, in which James Bond III was a regular, playing Doc. Doc was the only character who ever got an episode title with his name in it. And he got an "and" credit. The BBC showed it again and again over decades. I used to be able to do guest villain Anthony Zerbe's lines from memory. I charge for that service now.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Wow. This is really clever. And a bit creepy...

 

[DallasFanForever]

That was pretty cool! And I didn’t find it creepy at all to be honest. I thought it was well done

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I didn’t find it creepy at all to be honest. I thought it was well done

The fact that it's well done is why I found it a bit creepy. Obviously it looks great here, but I find the idea that this kind of thing can be done so convincingly a little disturbing because of how it could be used elsewhere.

But also, having watched the Wonder Woman TV series, it's so surreal having the familiarity of Lynda's face from that era so realistically used in a different film after all these years. It's a bit like a dream where you'd wake up and think "well that was weird but really cool".

 

[Crimson]

I have hugely mixed feelings about WONDER WOMAN (75-79). It was one of my favorite shows as a kid, watching it in reruns in the 80s; somewhere my mom has a fan/love letter that I wrote to Lynda (and/or Wonder Woman) when I was maybe seven. I have the Wonder Woman insignia tattooed on my left ankle and, as I write this, I'm sitting with a framed photo of Lynda in the WW costume on the wall behind me.

Yet I have never made much of an effort to re-watch the show as an adult, as doing so would take those nostalgic memories and flush them down the drain. When it was first released on DVD I gave it a go, but lasted no more than a half dozen episodes. I'll admit it: I'm a modern era TV snob. I find most American TV made more than, maybe, 15 years ago to be a wasteland of grind-it-out mediocrity.

To start with the good, the show had a maddeningly infectious theme song. Sometimes I just watch the opening credits on Youtube and it never fails to make me grin. Lynda herself was perfectly cast, more so than any other live action superhero. She looks like she sprung straight from the pages of the comics. Even better, she played the role devoid of any Adam West campery.

And that, alas, is the extent of what I enjoyed as an adult. Maybe it's not fair to judge on only a handful of episodes but, knowing the TV of the era, I certainly have no reason to think it got better along the way. The plots seemed typical of the time, working around limited budgets and static writing. It was mostly the guest actors that killed it for me. While Lynda was playing it straight, the guest stars all seemed to think they were on the old BATMAN TV series and hammed it up shamelessly; Cloris Leachman did schtick as Hippolyta. Once I got to Robert Reed and his lousy acting, I was done.

As an addendum, I find it interesting how Lynda has embraced the role in recent years. There was a time when she distanced herself quite strongly from the series; I recall a magazine in the 90s celebrating the character's 50th anniversary noting they hadn't been able to get Lynda to give an interview and that she preferred not to speak about the character. Undoubtedly she left the series with the fear of being reduced to in-costume supermarket openings, like Adam West and Burt Ward. I guess somewhere along the way she reconciled that, like it or not, everything else she has done will be overshadowed by her 3 seasons as Wonder Woman and to make the best of it.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

It was one of my favorite shows as a kid, watching it in reruns in the 80s; somewhere my mom has a fan/love letter that I wrote to Lynda (and/or Wonder Woman) when I was maybe seven.

Oh, that sounds so familiar. In the latter days of its first UK run I was the exact demographic the series was aimed at and it was my favourite show. The one that I looked forward to every Saturday teatime.

While I never wrote to Lynda directly, I did write to Jim'll Fix It asking if he could arrange for me to meet Lynda and declare my love. In hindsight, I'm very grateful it never went anywhere as it would be very icky to think I'd sat on Jimmy Savile's knee.

When it was first released on DVD I gave it a go, but lasted no more than a half dozen episodes.

Maybe it's not fair to judge on only a handful of episodes but, knowing the TV of the era, I certainly have no reason to think it got better along the way.

It got markedly more kiddified as its third season went along. It was also increasingly restricted by panic around violence on TV, which took away any sense of real jeopardy. Frankly, I think the episodes you watched are some of its better ones, which might be telling about how the series holds up in general.

That said, I have a fondness for the first half a dozen or so episodes of Season Two (the first set in the Seventies). They have lots of nice sunny location work which makes it feel easy to watch.

The plots seemed typical of the time, working around limited budgets and static writing. It was mostly the guest actors that killed it for me. While Lynda was playing it straight, the guest stars all seemed to think they were on the old BATMAN TV series and hammed it up shamelessly; Cloris Leachman did schtick as Hippolyta. Once I got to Robert Reed and his lousy acting, I was done.

Yes. I think people were coming at it from different angles, and I'd guess the only frame of reference for superheroes some guests had at the time would be the Adam West Batman series. It's a million miles away from the Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman series which are very well-written and taken incredibly seriously and so hold up much better.

 

[Sarah Danner]

Loved the shows set during World War II. When the ABC to CBS switch happened and the episodes were set in present day (1977), there was a dip. And it seemed to get progressively worse.

 

[Crimson]

While I never wrote to Lynda directly, I did write to Jim'll Fix It asking if he could arrange for me to meet Lynda and declare my love.

I saw Lynda in person about 5 years ago, in one her of cabaret acts. I had great seats -- first row center -- in a pretty small venue in Manhattan. Even in her mid-60s, she was remarkably beautiful and, after the show, she briefly interacted with those closest in the audience. Getting to say "hi" and a quick pseudo-hug seemed like the culmination of something I had wished for decades earlier.

It was also increasingly restricted by panic around violence on TV, which took away any sense of real jeopardy.

Yes, I could have added that to the list of grumbles about the show; the fight scenes were, overall, pretty lame. Even the 60s BATMAN fights were significantly better. I had the feeling the show was restricted to no more than one punch or kick per fight, because it was a whole lot of blocking and pushing. Skimming through some videos on Youtube, it seems like the some of the fights from the 70s era episodes may have been a bit better. (Or at least this one was better than this one.)

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I saw Lynda in person about 5 years ago, in one her of cabaret acts. I had great seats -- first row center -- in a pretty small venue in Manhattan. Even in her mid-60s, she was remarkably beautiful and, after the show, she briefly interacted with those closest in the audience. Getting to say "hi" and a quick pseudo-hug seemed like the culmination of something I had wished for decades earlier.

Oh wow. That's fantastic.

Skimming through some videos on Youtube, it seems like the some of the fights from the 70s era episodes may have been a bit better. (Or at least this one was better than this one.)

My memory is already hazy from rewatching three of four years ago, but I seem to remember some of the much later episodes had some decent fights like the one you linked above. My memory of the Seventies episodes is that she did a lot of throwing and gymnastics and the blocking and pushing you mentioned. Usually with burly stuntmen.

What I liked about the Stella Stevens punchup was that she got to really throw a punch. It may have been just one, but it was a good one, and it was with a main type of character rather than henchmen types. And another woman. Apparently, Douglas Cramer screened that scene to convince the powers that be on Dynasty that a Krystle/Alexis catfight could work.

 

[Seaviewer]

The fact that it's well done is why I found it a bit creepy. Obviously it looks great here, but I find the idea that this kind of thing can be done so convincingly a little disturbing because of how it could be used elsewhere.

I find myself conflicted about the whole process. On the one hand I find it morally questionable, but on the other I would really like to see new episodes of some classic old shows with the original (often now deceased) cast. So call me something of a hypocrite on the matter.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I think if the person was deceased it would definitely bother me a lot more. I don’t mind it being done for a video like the one @Mel O'Drama posted above but I wouldn’t like to see it for an entire episode. Now that I would find much more creepy!

 

[rlr718]

I found these on YouTube. They are dizzyingly (is that a word?) fun.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Another Lynda Carter Deep Fake thingy. Which is possibly a spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen the WW84 film:

Spoiler: Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman '84