Wonder Woman the DVDs

[Zone Fighter]

pilot (The New Original Wonder Woman) cast:
Lynda Carter - Princess Diana/Wonder Woman/Diana Prince
Lyle Waggoner - Major Steve Trevor
John Randolph - General Blankenship
Stella Stevens - Marcia
Inga Neilso - Rena
Cloris Leachman - Queen Hippolyta
Fannie Flagg - Doctor
Red Buttons - Ashley Norman
Eric Braeden - Drangel
Kenneth Mars - Colonel Von Blasko)
Henry Gibson - Nikolas

weekly series main cast (1st season ABC):
Lynda Carter - Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Lyle Waggoner - Major Steve Trevor
Richard Eastham - General Blankenship
Beatrice Colen - Etta Candy

I rented the first disc of the first season from Netflix. The rental discs are appartently different from the discs you would get if you bought the set. The episodes menu claims episodes 2-4 are on the other side but the rental disc is a single sided disc which is labeled "rental only - not for resale". Other series are the same way, double sided if you buy them, single sided when you rent them. I think its a dirty trick to make me rent twice as many discs.

Anyhow, this rental version included the 90 minute pilot and the first one hour episode. The only bonus material is an audio commentary by Lynda Carter and Douglas S. Cramer (producer). Apparently in reruns the pilot episode was often editted down to an hour. (Same thing happend to season two premier episode.)

The spinning transformation was invented by Lynda Carter, it was not used in the comics. The first couple times it is longer then in later episodes and silent. The original filming technique was too expensive to repeat weekly so a flash of light and thunderous bang are eventually added to cover up the fact that the transformation is shorter. In later seasons the sound effect is removed.

In the pilot when Princess Diana first wears the Wonder Woman costume she has a removable skirt which she removes. Dougls S. Cramer said that once she removed it the network (ABC for first season) would not let her put it back on.

Except for the absurd notion that women without men would live in peace and harmony I like the pilot. Depsite the queen's claim that Paradiise Island is a paradise because there are no men the way she behaives when she starts talking about their masculine ways gives the impression that she doesn't really think its paradise without men. And she must have been involved with a man at least once to have produced daughters. Princess Diana of course falls for Major Steve Trevor though she does not admit it. He in return has fallen for Wonder Woman but barely notices Diana Prince, though he does defend her loyality in the first 1 hour episode.

There is one flaw in the dialogue. The queen says the Amazon to win the turnament will escort Major Trevor back to the US then return home right away. So why did Diana need the Wonder Woman costume and the magic lasso if she was just going to drop the Major off and return home immediatly?

In the first 1 hour episode Wonder Woman meets the first of only two villains actually based on the comics.

After the first season Wonder Woman moves from ABC to CBS and from World War II to 1970s.

[Xenorama ™]

oh, there's a long story about the Amazons, both in mythology and the Wonder Woman story. short story is that they had BAD experiences with men in the past (namely Hercules).

Diana was made of clay and the Greek Goddesses breathed life into her. Donna Troy, Wonder Girl of the comics, was an orphan at one point, i have no idea what her current status is.

so there were no relations for those comic book daughters, and wisely the tv show just glossed over it. i always thought Drusilla was a dumb name for Wonder Girl though.

i'll move this to the correct forum!

[Zone Fighter]

The Queen in the pilot claims women had been slaves under the Romans and the Greeks. And that she brought them to this island so that would never happen again. So she obviously knew men.

[Xenorama ™]

i'll be watching these in the near future. i don't remember much about most of the episodes any more, other than the space ones.

[Zone Fighter]

What were they thinking? They went from Wonder Woman saving America from the Nazis and the entire planet from aliens (first season) to Wonder Woman saving a record company from a black mailer (third season).

[Zone Fighter]

The 3rd season episode The Man Who Could Not Die shows what a 4th season would probably have been like. Diana Prince moves to LA, getting a new boss (Lyle Waggoner is gone) and an immortal partner (who doesn't want to be). When she's not at work Diana lets her hair down, which should make it quite obvious that she is Wonder Woman. No more super computer (which has worked out that Diana Prince and Wonder Woman are the same person) or its mobile counter part. The other new character is a (black) kid who sells snacks and newspapers to the staff at higher than normal prices (for the time).

They stole the character of a man who not be killed from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Captain Scarlet.

[Xenorama ™]

probably just as well they didn't make a fourth season. i don't remember much of the third season at all.

[Zone Fighter]

Episodes must be out of order because The Man Who Could Not Die is followed by a two parter Phantom of the Roller Coaster which has Diana Prince still working for Colonel Steve Trevor in Washington DC. This is the end of "The New Adventures of Wonderwoman".

[Hakaida]

Best part of the season three set was the inclusion of an episode of the old Filmation "Shazam!" series in it.

Now if only THAT show were available on DVD. Yet another victim of Litigation Hell, thanks to greedy corporate types - just like '66 Batman and Six Million Dollar Man.

[Zone Fighter]

Nov 2, 2008 8:23:51 GMT -8 Hakaida said:

Best part of the season three set was the inclusion of an episode of the old Filmation "Shazam!" series in it.
(

What? I didn't see that.