 More properly
billed as The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, this was America's
second stab at liberating the comic-strip heroine from the
printed page. |
 |
|
The first
attempt (not shown in Britain) was set in the war years and ran
for one season with the Amazon Princess, alias Diana Prince,
leaving her idyllic home on Paradise Island to help World War
Two Flying ace Major Steve Trevor battle the Nazis. |
|
|
The New
Adventures updated the scenario to the 1970s, with the ageless,
leggy heroine now being recruited by Steve Trevor Jr's
undercover organization, the International Agency Defence
Command (IADC), again to champion good and fight evil - this
time in the shape of mad scientists, spies, would-be dictators,
supercrooks and aliens. |
|
|
Former Miss
World and '1973 Miss USA Lynda Carter amply filled the
star-spangled costume and bulletproof bracelets in a series that
tried hard to avoid the camp elements of Batman but didn't
always succeed. |
|
|
Perversely,
the BBC skipped the updated 'origins' episode, The Return of
Wonder Woman (shown last), and went straight into the action
with the tale of a telekinetic Japanese seeking revenge on
Wonder Woman for a 35-year-o1d grievance (The Man Who Could Move
the World). |
|
|
Other
adversaries included: a rock musician hypnotizing young women
into stealing for him (The Pied Piper); Roddy McDowall as a
crazy scientist who uses a laser weapon to create volcanic
eruptions across the globe (The Man Who Made Volcanoes); the
Skrill - alien mind-thieves out to take over the world's top
brains (The Mind Stealers from Outer Space); an occult magician
(Diana's Disappearing Act); Henry Gibson as an
athlete-kidnapping megalomaniac (Screaming Javelins); Frank
Gorshin as a mad toymaker using human androids to steal
top-secret plans (The Dead1y Toys); a group of Nazis plotting to
clone Hitler (Ansch1uss '77); Wolfman Jack as a psychic vampire
(Disco Devil); Joan Van Ark as a greedy 22nd-century scientist
(Time Bomb); a billionaire's disembodied brain (Gault's Brain);
and an alien criminal able to assume any shape (The Boy Who Knew
Her Secrets). |
|
 REGULAR CAST |
|
| Wonder
Woman / Diana Prince (Lynda Carter) / Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) |
|
| Writers:
Various, including Stephen Kandel, Anne Collins, Alan Brenner,
Bruce Shelley |
|
| A Warner
Brothers Television Production 45 colour 45-minute episodes (+
one x 80 mins) 1 July-26 August 1978 23 December 1978-4 May 1979
12 January-17 June 1980 (BBC1) |
| (Author's
note: The BBC running order differed considerably at times from
the US original but got there in the end. In America the series
was shown in one 'strung out' season over two years.) |
|
| The
Return of
Wonder Woman (80 mins)* |
| Anschluss '77 |
| The Man Who
Could Move the World |
| The Bermuda
Triangle Crisis |
| Knockout |
| The Pied
Piper |
| The Queen and
the Thief |
| I Do, I Do |
| The Man Who
Made Volcanoes |
| The Mind
Stealers from Outer Space (A 2-part story) |
| The Deadly
Toys |
| Light-Fingered
Lady |
| Screaming
Javelin |
| Diana's
Disappearing Act |
| Death in
Disguise |
| Irac is
Missing |
| Flight to
Oblivion |
| Seance of
Terror |
| The Man Who
Wouldn't Tell |
| The Girl from
llandia |
| The Murderous
Missile |
| One of Our
Teen Idols is Missing |
| Hot Wheels |
| The Deadly
Sting |
| The Fine Art
of Crime |
| Disco Devil |
| Formicida |
| Time Bomb |
| Skateboard
Whiz |
| The Deadly
Dolphin |
| Stolen Faces |
| Pot O'Gold |
| Gaul's Brain |
| 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
the Gift for Disaster |
| The Boy Who
Knew Her Secret (A 2part story) + |
| The Man Who
Could Not Die |
| Phantom of
the Roller Coaster (A 2-part Story) |
| * Shown here
as a 'special': 1 January 1981 |
| + Shown here
as one 90-minute episode: 17 June 1980 |
