From March of 1974, here's the
TV Guide advertisement for the
first (underwhelming) attempt to bring DC Comics' premiere superheroine,
Wonder Woman, to network TV. Basing their interpretation of the character on recent issues of the comic book where Diana Prince (portrayed by blonde tennis player
Cathy Lee Crosby in the telefilm) had lost her powers and was acting more as a secret agent than a super-hero, the unsuccessful pilot pitted the less than amazing Amazon against a masterspy named "Abner Smith" (portrayed by none other than Khan himself,
Ricardo Montalban), his sleazy henchman, George (
Andrew Prine), and a renegade Amazon from Paradise Island, Ahnjayla (played by the sexy starlet
Anitra Ford).
Diana never dons her familiar star-spangled comic book costume in the film, but
does wear a uniform of sorts near the end of the film. It's far less revealing than the comic's classic togs, but at least it keeps the patriotic color scheme. Sadly, it's not just the costume that disappoints - the movie is extremely boring, and Crosby, while pretty, is fairly bland and uninteresting in the role. She was much more charsimatic a few years later as one of the hosts of the proto-reality series,
That's Incredible!
As far as I can remember, nobody much liked the movie, but the ratings were pretty decent, and ABC was still interested in the property. A year or so later, Warner Brothers and ABC unveiled
(The New Adventures of) Wonder Woman, starring lovely
Lynda Carter in the classic comic book uniform.
Still, the 1974 telefilm showed up pretty frequently in syndication during the late Seventies and throughout the Eighties on independent channels and basic cable "superstations" like USA Network, TNT and TBS. I also know that the Sci-Fi Channel showed it at least once in the mid-90s.
Being the 70s genre TV fanatic I am, and even though I remember this version of
Wonder Woman being deadly dull, I would still like to see Warner Archive put it out on DVD, if only for the sake of completeness. It'd be cool to have it on my DVD shelf next to the Lynda Carter series.
Oddly enough, any new version of Wonder Woman produced today will probably be closer to Cathy Lee Crosby's subdued take than Lynda Carter's iconic one.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing this as a kid and being perplexed as to why they made Wonder Woman blonde!
ReplyDeleteI was always glad that the ill-conceived period in the comics when WW had no superpowers was very short.
I never even knew this existed! It does, however, shed some light onto how Lynda Carter's show came to be known as The NEW Adventures... I'd always wondered about that! I first saw Cathy Lee Crosby in a rather bizarre Alien invasion movie from the late Seventies called The Dark. Ring any bells?
ReplyDeleteMinor correction there. It wasn't called the New Adventures of Wonder Woman until the second season. "New Adventures" was used to distinguish it from the first season because it had switched networks from ABC to CBS and was set in 1976 rather than World War II as in the first season.
DeleteI remember seeing this-once-on an afternoon movie in the 70's. I remember the discussion between Smith and Wonder Woman about her invisible plane and how she was therefore invisible when she was in it. Even then I knew that was a "smart yet unsatisfying budget saver". I would however also like to at least see this again as a rental!
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing this as a kid when it premiered and just instantly feeling like they got it all wrong. From her costume to her lack of powers, it just seemed like a big mistake. One that was remedied by the Lynda Carter series. I'm ready for the next iteration of this classic character. Whether it's for TV or the movies, I'll be watching.
ReplyDeleteNear the end of DC Comics "52" event, this version of Wonder Woman was given a one panel scene as the various multiverse Earths were reviewed.
ReplyDeleteWas that in Infinite Crisis? I think that was the last DC thing I read, and I remember that panel.
DeleteThat was not in Infinite Crisis, but the the mini-series 52, which was about a year without the Trinity (Superman, Batman, & Wonder Woman) as they had decided to take a year off and reassess who and what they were as heroes in the wake of the events of Infinite Crisis.
DeleteActually, the panel I remembered IS in Infinite Crisis. The Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman can be seen very prominently in a panel on page 181 of the hardcover collection. According to the caption, she lives on Earth-462!
DeleteI remember this airing on a Baltimore station back in the eighties. Being a huge fan of the Lynda Carter version I was extremely perplexed by this! Some blond riding a motorcycle, calling herself Wonder Woman? Huge misstep. Thank goodness the subsequent TV series stuck to the comic book source material.
ReplyDeleteSomething you should know is that this take on Wonder Woman which I saw when it first aired was actually Warners attempting to turn their Wonder Woman property into Black Canary. Cathy Lee Crosby is playing Black Canary in a Wonder Woman motif because Warners wanted a femme fatale heroine character with a DC connection. Just imagine the costume and setting different and you can see this work. They did a similar thing in DC comics with the new Diana Prince treatment of Wonder Woman but were aiming for a Black Canary concept for the TV pilot.
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