Wonder Woman (TV Series)

Wonder Woman was a television series, starring Lynda Carter in the title role. Wonder Woman aired on two American networks between 1975 and 1979. 
==Summary==
In 1974, John Black had written and produced a TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby, which described the character as essentially a contemporary version of the female spy .
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. Douglas S. Cramer and Wilford Lloyd Baumes were given the assignment to produce it. Keen to distinguish their work from Black's pilot, Cramer and Baumes gave their pilot the rather paradoxical title "The New Original Wonder Woman". This pilot is available in its original length on the first season DVD, instead of the re-edited version of it which runs 60 mins and was featured as the pilot when the series debuted a year later. This version is also the one shown on reruns. On the DVD version, however, the 1975 pilot movie title is changed to simply "Wonder Woman," and the bullet-deflecting animated sequence is replaced by the lasso toss in the animated introduction and the rest of the television series.
Cramer and Baumes gave scripting duties to Stanley Ralph Ross, who had worked on Greenway-Greenlawn Productions's unbroadcast Wonder Woman pilot reel, but this time, he 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. Thanks to a generous budget and more relaxed shooting schedule, the feature length pilot was able to attain a level of polish and special effects beyond that of regular episodic television at the time. Some of these effects, such as the expensive full sized invisible plane prop and the stunt bracelets were then able to be carried forward into the series proper.
After an intensive talent search, former beauty pageant winner from Arizona Lynda Carter was chosen to play the lead role, around the same time she was breaking into acting with TV guest roles and an appearance in the film Bobby Jo and the Outlaw. For the key 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 . He had also been one of the leading candidates to play Batman a decade earlier.
Although the pilot followed the original comic book closely, in particular the aspect of Wonder Woman joining the military under the assumed name, Diana Prince, a number of elements were dropped, presumably for practical reasons. The character of Etta Candy was no longer an obese 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.
One change which was later to become synonymous with the show was the twirling transformation which dissolved Diana Prince into Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter claims to have suggested the move herself, having studied dance as a child. Coincidentally, this slow motion dissolve is similar to the illustrated "running" change sequences in the comic books of the era, in which Diana would peel off her uniform and add her tiara and boots. In both versions she is left with her outer clothing to stow somewhere.
Following their success with Batman '66, DC began publishing a comic book continuation of the series, written by Marc Andreyko, in 2015. Wonder Woman '77 spawned a spin-off miniseries, Wonder Woman '77 Meets the Bionic Woman that saw Diana share an adventure with Jaime Sommers; series ran during the same period as Carter's series.
==Cast==
Actor 	Character 	Appearances
Lynda Carter 	Wonder Woman likewise United States Navy Women Accepted for Vountary Emergency Service (WAVES) Corps Yeoman First Class (later United States Navy Commander) Diana Prince	Season 1-3
Lyle Waggoner 	United States Army Major Steve Trevor, Sr. (Season 1 only) United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Steve Trevor, Jr. (Seasons 2 and 3) 	Season 1-3
Richard Eastham	United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Philip Blankenship 	Season 1
Beatrice Colen 	Etta Candy 	Season 1
Norman Burton 	Joe Atkinson Deputy Director, Inter-Agency Defense Command 	Season 2
==Episodes==
===Season One===
Episode 	Air Date
"The New Original Wonder Woman" 	November 7, 1975
"Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther"	April 21, 1976
"Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman" 	April 28, 1976
"Beauty on Parade" 	October 13, 1976
"The Feminum Mystique, Part I" 	November 6, 1976
"The Feminum Mystique, Part II" 	November 8, 1976
"Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua!" 	December 18, 1976
"The Pluto File" 	December 25, 1976
"Last of the Two Dollar Bills" 	January 8, 1977
"Judgment from Outer Space, Part I" 	January 15, 1977
"Judgment from Outer Space, Part II" 	January 17, 1977
"Formula 407" 	January 22, 1977
"The Bushwackers" 	January 29, 1977
"Wonder Woman in Hollywood" 	February 16, 1977
===Season Two===
Episode 	Air Date
"The Return of Wonder Woman" 	September 16, 1977
"Anschluss '77" 	September 23, 1977
"The Man Who Could Move the World" 	September 30, 1977
"The Bermuda Triangle Crisis" 	October 7, 1977
"Knockout" 	October 14, 1977
"The Pied Piper" 	October 21, 1977
"The Queen and the Thief" 	October 28, 1977
"I Do, I Do" 	November 11, 1977
"The Man Who Made Volcanoes" 	November 18, 1977
"Mind Stealers from Outer Space, Part I" 	December 2, 1977
"Mind Stealers from Outer Space, Part II"	December 9, 1977
"The Deadly Toys" 	December 30, 1977
"Light-Fingered Lady" 	January 6, 1978
"Screaming Javelin" 	January 20, 1978
"Diana's Disappearing Act" 	February 3, 1978
"Death in Disguise" 	February 10, 1978
"I.R.A.C. is Missing" 	February 17, 1978
"Flight to Oblivion" 	March 3, 1978
"Seance of Terror" 	March 10, 1978
"The Man Who Wouldn't Tell" 	March 31, 1978
"The Girl from Ilandia" 	April 7, 1978
"The Murderous Missile" 	April 21, 1978
===Season Three===
Episode 	Air Date
"My Teenage Idol is Missing" 	September 22, 1978
"Hot Wheels" 	September 29, 1978
"The Deadly Sting" 	October 6, 1978
"The Fine Art of Crime" 	October 13, 1978
"Disco Devil" 	October 20, 1978
"Formicida" 	November March 1978
"Time Bomb" 	November 10, 1978
"Skateboard Wiz" 	November 24, 1978
"The Deadly Dolphin" 	December 1, 1978
"Stolen Faces" 	December 15, 1978
"Pot of Gold" 	December 22, 1978
"Gault's Brain" 	December 29, 1978
"Going, Going, Gone" 	January 12, 1979
"Spaced Out" 	January 26, 1979
"The Starships are Coming" 	February 2, 1979
"Amazon Hot Wax" 	February 16, 1979
"The Richest Man in the World" 	February 19, 1979
"A Date With Doomsday" 	March 10, 1979
"The Girl With a Gift for Disaster" 	March 17, 1978
"The Boy Who Knew Her Secret, Part I" 	May 28, 1979
"The Boy Who Knew Her Secret, Part II" 	May 29, 1979
"The Man Who Could Not Die" 	August 28, 1979
"Phantom of the Roller Coaster, Part I" 	September 4, 1979
"Phantom of the Roller Coaster, Part II"	September 11, 1979
==Trivia==
* The Arrowverse tie-in comic, , reveals that, in the Pre-Crisis Arrowverse Multiverse, this world is designated Earth-76.
** This Earth designation comes from 1976 which is when the Season 1 episodes were mostly aired.
== See Also ==
* Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77
* Wonder Woman '77
* Wonder Woman '77 Meets the Bionic Woman
== Links ==
* Wonder Woman (TV series) at Wikipedia
 
Category:Realities
Category:TV and Movie Realities
Category:Live-Action Series
Category:1975
Category:1975 Reality Debuts