WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

	There will be a triumphant re-entry into the TV ratings wars this season of a group who have already proven they can take it-and dish it out, too.

	Collectively they're seven-feet-tall, green, able to climb up walls, shoot webs, hurl golden lassoes, and get to wear the niftiest star-spangled bathing suit ever seen. They're the TV superheroes and millions of viewers across the nation can't get enough of them. The popular triumvirate of The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man and Wonder Woman played to high Neilsen ratings and teeth-gnashing critical reaction last year, so all three will be back this year with added derring-do. There will be some changes made, however.

	"Wonder Woman was a show based in the past the first year," says producer Bruce Lansbury." They never shook off the fact they were doing a comic book show. I came in after eight shows last season and thought what we needed was a quicker pace, so we dropped the spoof aspects. We took the show seriously and will continue to do so in the new season."

	The new season sees the fabulous female continuing in her Friday night spot, pitted against her old nemesis, Donny and Marie on ABC. "We're going for what we call 'subculture' shows," confesses Lansbury, "so we can better appeal to adults while attracting the teen audience. We'll deal with the beach scene, the male heart throb scene and the disco scene.

	"We have a show which Alan Bennett wrote called 'Disco Devil,' which has a villain controlling one particular paranormal who you could call 'John Travolta with the Glowing Eyes.' He can zap your memory and transfer your thoughts into his mind."

	Another episode concerns an expert on ants who devises a serum to give her the powers of the insect."She's a friendly villainess," says Lansbury.

	"She goes after people who hurt the ecology."

	"Other times we plan to have a man who wants to hold up the television networks, and a doctor who works out of a submarine and has a particular knack with laser technology. Then there are our science-fiction stories: one where a fugitive from another world seeks refuge on this planet. In another, there's a man in the future with a time machine. His evil aide arranges to be kicked into our time because she knows something that will benefit her."

Although Wonder Woman is shaping up to be a thematic potpourri, Lansbury thinks it is a better show than critics give it credit for." If people just look at it as a fantasy show that sometimes approaches SF, I think they'll have some fun with it."

Fun is also what the crew of The Amazing Spider-Man is shooting for, but while they had a first season filled with telekinetic terrors, criminal clones, and nefarious nuclear nasties newly appointed producer Lee Siegel intends to push the wall crawler in another direction.

"In very broad strokes, we have a younger audience in our pocket, so to speak, by reason of the comic popularity and the action aspects of the show. What we want now are adults."

And the master plan to attract those grown-ups'? "The stories will be more mature in general. Not so much 'if the problem isn't resolved the world will be destroyed,' more on the order of recognizable characters, stories, and dialogue. Toward that end we're dropping the character of Lt. Barbera who was played by Michael Pataki and adding a character named Julie Mason, a young woman photographer, who will provide some romantic interest and comedy relief, since she still has some problems getting the shots she wants. We're keeping the publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, of course, but he will be played less like a buffoon and more like a real person."

Siegel, who took over the webslinger production reins after leaving the cancelled Six Million Dollar Man, will also extend the series' renovations into the scripts.

"We're doing a story about terrorists who take over a high rise, called 'The Captive Tower.' Another has Julie taking a picture of a murderer, unknowingly. So she's in jeopardy. Peter protects her even though they have a running competitive gag where they screw up each other's pictures. We're trying, in general, to do credible stories with a character who's borderline credible."

Siegel even goes backstage to facilitate the realism. Although there are no plans for a costume change, Spidey's powers and 'abilities will be slightly altered. "I'm doing some research on what it's like to be a spider," the producer divulges. "The sound of what's going on inside that body must be kind of unique. I'm trying to get that sound. I'm going to introduce the sound (amplified) that a spider makes while it's spinning a web."

"In addition, his spider sense will only deal with danger. We will limit that rather than expand it. I think they took too many liberties with it before. it won't be as specific. I'd also like to see him moving on a web as spiders do."

CBS, the hero's home network, would like to see him knock off a variety of competitors in a variety of time slots, so the re-titled New Adventures Of Spider-Man will be potshot all over the schedule.

"We have September 5 and September 12 air dates at 8:00 p.m. Then we'll be off for a few weeks while The Paper Chase goes on," says Siegel of the latest administrative news. "They have an option in November for 13 more shows and another in January for five more. If we don't do well, then I guess we won't continue."

No such worries assail the cast and crew of The Incredible Hulk, a sure-fire hit from the moment it appeared. Nick Corea last year's story editor on the show and this year's producer, explains the success.

"If we had a star who didn't have any depth then we would probably play it up for all the flash we could. We happen to have Bill Bixby as David Banner, who's the best as far as I'm concerned. We also have the Hulk, which automatically gives us ten minutes of melodrama. You can't avoid it when you have a seven-foot green creature, but we want to give the rest of the show to the discerning audience who likes good drama and good action and good relationships. With this combination we hope to get something very exciting and colorful on the one hand and something very meaningful and real on the other."

"The people David will be dealing with," Corea reveals, "are all going to be allegories to his own problems people with beasts inside them or things they must deal with. At the same time, we're really going to confront what it means to change. Rather than just have David get involved with something and 'hulk out' three times, we'll have shows where he's simply dealing with his fight against the inner beast."

At the same time, Corea does not forget the ingredients that spelled success for the jolly, green giant last year. He promises that the astonishing transformation of man into monster will continue to take place in the strangest places.

"We have the Hulk at the Mardi Gras, the Hulk at the Rose Bowl Parade, and a New Year's Eve story where the Hulk will be in Times Square. All those stories are terrific but within them we're building a small, compassionate human story. That's this year's fix."

"Some of those shows include a battered child and a professional football player. But instead of the usual mustache-twirling villains, we have a father with definite psychological problems and a player concerned with the violence of the sport. The violence in both these shows builds until the men have their own 'hulks' inside them."

Corea also promises to clear up some of the first season's inconsistencies. For instance, two things happen when you put an angry David Banner in a box. First, the Hulk usually emerges and second, his shirt is gone and his pants are shorter.

"Well, if we had his pants rip off entirely we'd be in a lot of trouble," Corea laughs. "And if you followed the logic all the way down the line what happens to his shoes? After all, a lot of questions can't be answered in this situation. How many shirts can a guy go through? I mean, we can't show him going around, with a steamer trunk full of clothes. However, rest assured that his pants will be shredded this year and some people will start putting two and two together about his identity."

The Incredible Hulk remains one of the most promising shows to appear in some time, and if Corea and Executive Producer Ken Johnson have their way, it will continue to be through many new seasons.

"Our problem with the network and the critics, especially, is no one seems to be able to get past the title," Corea muses. "Everyone wants to focus on the green guy stampeding down buildings. We want to concentrate on the King Kong facet-the sympathetic beast. What we're looking for is something that satisfies us as writers. If you just have slam-bam up and down the hills and all that jazz, you're doing yourself and your audiences a disservice. And it won't last. After all, how many times can you watch the Hulk go through a wall, knock down a tree and throw people around without going, 'yawwwwwwn?"