WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

	Just an "old-fashioned girl" with old fashioned values, lovely Lynda Carter is taking her overwhelming success in stride. The wide-eyed beauty whose flowing brunette mane and striking good looks made possible for her to snap up the "Miss World" title in 1973 is also responsible for her winning the title role in ABC's Wonder Woman series.

	Lynda, like her comic strip alter ego, is a statuesque beauty who has all the necessary ingredients a dash of spunk seasoned with a whole lot of sparkle- which combines to make her an enticing and captivating young woman.

	But unlike her "wham! zap! pow!" charcter, Lynda exhibits a great deal of depth and a burning desire to fully understand who she is and why "all of this" is happening to her.

	She is, at the relatively tender age of 25, a rising star who hails from Phoenix, Arizona. The youngest of three children, Lynda's easy-going way and cockeyed optimism is a product of both a happy childhood and an upbringing that stressed the importance of love and independence.

	When Wonder Woman producers launched a nation-wide search to find a youn g woman who "should be built like a javelin-thrower, but with the sweet face of Mary Tyler Moore," they didn't have far to look adter they stumbled upon the dynamic Lynda Carter.

	Q. Have you finished filming Wonder Woman for the year yet?

	A. Yes, we're on a hiatus right now. We did a lot of shows and a lot of specials. You see, they started out as specials and then they decided to put them on every week for six weeks because they had some other shows flop or fall out, I guess. So they wanted to put us on Saturday nights which is the hardest night of all... against Mary Tyler Moore and Emergency. We've been on against Gone With The Wind, the Orange Bowl, Charlie Brown's Christmas... I mean ani big event!

	Q. Did they put you there on purpose?

	A. As I understand it, we are a programming tool because we've always pulled the ratings. At least, that's my understanding. We pull such big ratings all of the time, so they put us against the hardest competition that they can.

	Q. Wonder Woman against super competition...

	A. Yeah, "Wonder Woman" against wonder competition! (Laughs.) But it's alright, because we've held our own through the whole thing. I mean, we've been first, but all the numbers have been very, very close between Wonder Woman and the other two shows. Saturday night has always been a bad time for ABC, and that's where they put us... at eight o'clock on Saturday night. But for now, we're finished shooting.. and I'm glad! 'Cause I'm planning some rest and relaxation. And I'm going to co-host The Mike Douglas Show which will be neat, because I'll be singing every day. I'm recording and I write for MCA Records.

	Q. I was going to ask you about your singing career...

	A. Not too many people know about it... It's something I've always loved to do, it's something I've always done. But it wasn't until acting came along... not until I was successful in a show, and then someone finally said, "Well, but cans she sing? Can she dance? And I said, "Yeah!" And I bring out the material that I've written...

	Q. Do you write your own music?

	A. Yes, I've been a singer and a writer since I was a child. I used to make up songs, sing them, and do a whole act with them... my sister and I were a duet. We put an act together. And I've been singing for as long as I can remember and it's something I love to do. Now with acting, with being successful as an actress, I can now show that I can sing and I can write... I really love writing and I'd like to have other people record my music, because some of the stuff that I write, I don't sing as well as it's wrtitten.. I can hear and I can sing it, but I think that someone else might be able to do it better...

	Q. What type of music do you write?

	A. I write such a variety of material...ballads, country-and-western, or R&B. So let's say it's R&B. Diana Ross or someone else could sing it better than I... What I sing best is sort of a cross between country and R&B. And some of the songs that I write are very R&B and some of them are very country... and the other ones that I write for myself. One of them is coming out on MCA shortly, and it's really ecxiting! It's part of my career that's like the icing on a cake. And I think it'll be good. It'll be fun. I love to perform,a nd it's a whole different thing from acting.

	Q. Have you always liked to perform?

	A. Always! I'm a ham. Except I hate taking photographs. I always have. It's really strange, and I guess the public doesn't realize it, but most actors and actresses -unless they've been models first- do not like to take photographs.

	Q. As a child, did you want to be an actress?

	A. Yes, always!

	Q. Winning the "Miss World - U.S.A." crown was partly responsible for your becoming an actress, but what made you decide to enter a beauty contest in the first place?

	A. Well, I was -for the first time in my life- not working. Since I was 13 years old, I've worked for eveything -my books, my clothes, everything. I worked doing odd jobs like kids do. You have your Saturday car washes at the gas station. I tried being a secretary. I worked in one of my uncle's restaurants and ended up owing money, because I broke so many dishes! (Laughs.) I was a secretary for three weeks for a Christian organization, and by the time I was done with their typing, there were so many of those white splotches on the letters I typed that they finally said: "We really like you -you're a terrific girl- but we can't read anything!" (Laughs.) But I was always in there punching.

	Q. And how did your parents feel about you working at such a young age, Lynda?

	A. Oh, my parents always encouraged me to work. And so when I first could earn a living at doing something creative, I did. I was 15 years old when I got my first paycheck for singing with a band at high school dance. I got paid twenty-five dollars and I thought that was so much money.. I thought that was the cat's meow! I mean, twenty-five dollars for one night. But that was a special thing - a prom, I think- so they paid the whle band $ 125. Then I joined a group and we started singing weekends in a pub on the campus of a state university. It was very "artsy-craftsy" stuff. I earned twenty-five dollars for the weekend - and I thought I was rolling in the money! Anyway, you asked about the beauty contest, didn't you?

	Q. Yes...

	A. Well, like I said, I always worked. I started working from the time I was 15 -actually, I was 13 but I wasn't successful- and I started earning a living singing. I was three years on the road when I decided that I didn't like it. I had stopped having fun on the road. I think we were in Lima, Ohio on our way East. See, you go towards the East in the summer and towards the West in the Winter. And it was on our way East that I said: "That's it!" And I quit. I gave my notice and said, "That's it. I want to go to Los Angeles, and I want to see if I can do some recording." Because you can travel around and make enough money, but it got boring and that's when I decided to quit. So I went home when I was 20 and it was really wild, because I had worked steadily since I was 15. And then, all of a sudden, I just quit. I started on the road when I was 17 and quit when I was 20. I was home for about a week-and-half when I started going crazy, because I had worked all my life. Ididn't have anything to do, so I went to see an agent and she wanted me to enter a beauty contest. I went home and my mother said: "Why don't you enter it? You're not doing anything."

	Q. So what finally made you decide to enter?

	A. Well, I thought to myself that I wanted to do it at that time because in another couple of years, I wouldn't do it, and in another couple of yeras from that, I couldn't do it. And I decided that it was an experience that I should have. So I thought: "What the heck, it's only a local contest. I'll see what happens." And I won "Miss Pheonix," I won "Miss Arizona," and then I won "Mis World - U.S.A.," all in a period of 20 days. And then I waited two months 'til I went to England for the "Miss World Contest."

	Q. Do you remember what your feelings were...?

	A. Shock.

	Q. What about before they announced your name?

A. Shock. When I won "Miss Phoenix," I thought that was okay. I would have been very disappointed if I hadn't won, because none of the girls were really that terrific. In the "Miss Arizona" contest, my whole family was there and I was just sort of in a limbo. then, when they announced my name, I started crying.. because my family was there. And when I won "Miss World," I don't know... it was just different. It was back east and I had other things on my mind -Like my recording contract- and I just wasn't "into" it. I thought for sure one of the other girsl was going to win. And thenI won, and all these kids were asking me for autographs, and I thought: "What do they want autographs for?" It was just very weird. The whole thing was sort of surrealistic... It was part of my life that was a long time ago, and I've done so many things since then. I've studied, I've