WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

	The middle 1970s can well be described as the- Era of the SuperHeroine. The voluptuous Wonder Woman has burst into life upon television screens almost too small to contain her bigger-than-life adventures (and physical attributes), battling the villains of Hitler's Third Reich. And while Wonder Woman pits her superhuman powers and impenetrable bracelets against her own evil adversaries, the beautiful Bionic Woman and Isis are combatting injustice in their own unique ways.

	But on television, though the medium has always been dominated by male heroes, a few superheroines predating Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman and Isis have managed to prove that the world of TV super-doing is not entirely a man's world.

Sheena, the gorgeous blonde amazon of television's SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE, was video's first superheroine. She originated in the pages of JUMBO COMICS, published in the early 1940s by Fiction House and was the creation of S.R. Powell (under the pseudonym W. Morgan Thomas). She was a kind of female Tarzan who fought injustice in the jungle wearing her scanty leopard skin outfit and going through an unnending series of pinup poses. A good percentage of her time was spent rescuing her ineffectual "mate" Bob from adversaries and threats that even he, with all his weapons and modern day trappings, could not overcome. In 1942-this most popular of all jungle girls debuted in her own book, appropiatedly titled SHEENA.

On television the statuesque Irish McCalla donned less revealing yet still fetching jungle garb to star inSHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE, a series which debuted in 1954. The series was inexpensively made and shot in the U.S. instead of Africa. The plots were less elaborated than those featured in the comic books, but Ms. McCalla was the perfect screen incarnation of the Sheena character, rescuing the hapless Bob week after week and fighting to maintain peace in the jungle. A new motion picture version of SHEENA, starring the incomparable Raquel Welch was recently announced.

But even while Sheena was swinging through the simulated jungle of her television series, LUCY Ricardo was playing the mighty "Man" of Steel, the immortal Superman. It was on a 1954 episode of I LOVE LUCY that comediennel Lucille Ball briefly enacted the role of a super-woman. Maintaining her position of TV's whackiest wife (in those early days when such characters as opposed to wonder women were popular), Lucy promised her son Little Ricky that she would secure Superman for an appearance at his birthday party. When her husband, bandleader Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), informed her that he was unable to get Superman for the event, Lucy decided to play the role herself. Donning a pair of tights, boots, shorts, the required cape, a jersey with a Superman "S" and a football helmet (to hide her flaming red hair), Lucy prepared to make an entrance through the window. When the window became inadvertently locked, "Superman" found herself trapped outside on the ledge. The real Superman (George Reeves) did make his unexpected landing into the Ricardo's living room, Men went to Lucy's rescue in heroic style.

On The Man of Steel's own TV series, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, ace reporter Lois Lane Noel Neill) also enjoyed a very brief career as a super-heroine. The final (#104) episode of the series, "All That Glitters" was directed by George Reeves himself. Professor Pepperwinkle (Phillip Tead) was an eccentric scientist who discovered a pill derived from Kryptonite, Superman's weakness) which gave both Lois and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson) super-powers. Both Super-Lois and Super-Olsen demonstrated their abilities to fly, repel bullets and otherwise enact the part of People of Steel until everything proved to be a dream in the head of the unconscious Jimmy.

The mid-1960s brought a number of shows to television inspired by the James Bond films, and several of these featured leading characters that almost qualify as superheroines. HONEY WEST starred Anne Francis as a private detective who wore a black jumpsuit and fought crime utilizng a number of electronic gadgets. THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E., a spinoff of the popular MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., had its heroine April Dancer, played by lovely Stephanie Powers, fighting crime in a world of super-spies, science fictional weapons and whatnots, and world conquering villains who were usually in the employ of the vast criminal organization called THRUSH. April, however, usually left the physical defeat of the villains to her U.N.C.L.E. companion, played by Noel Harrison.

A more active heroine in the occupation of superspy was Emma Peel, portrayed by the matchless Diana Rigg. Mrs. Peel, along with secret agent John Steed (Patrick MacNee), were the protagonists of the extremely popular British television series THE AVENGERS. Usually clad in a jumpsuit that almost seemed to be the costume of a bonafide super-heroine, Mrs. Peel faced her opponents in physical combat, utilizing her grace, speed and martial arts skills, and not requiring the intervention of any man, even Steed, to emerge from battle victorious.

Yet the first real super-heroine (in the comic book sense, anyway) of 1960s television was a co-star of the BATMAN series. There was an earlier, different Bat-Girl in the pages of the BATMAN comic book (published by National Periodical Publications) who fought crime and often interfered with the Caped Crusaders' own war against the underworld during the very early 1960s. This other Bat-Girl debuted in a 1961 issue of the BATMAN magazine in a story simply titled " Bat-Girl! " Her secret identity was Betty Kane, niece of Batwoman, another female crime-fighter, but after a few years she was dropped from the comic books. The Batgirl of television was a different character altogether and, like her predecessor, made her initial appearance in the comic books.

Batgirl was created out of necessity. The BATMAN TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward was in its third year and, after going through its repetitious routines week upon week, needed some new and fresh element 'to boost its sagging ratings. William Dozier, the producer of BATMAN, decided that the innovation which might (but did not) save the show from cancellation that season was the introduction of a female counterpart to Batman. The result was Batgirl, played by Yvonne Craig.

Before making her debut on TV, Batgirl came to life in the comic book pages. In the 1967 tale "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" in Detective Comics No. 359, the character was revealed to be Barbara Gordon, the prim and proper daughter of Gotham City's Commissioner Gordon. In the comic book origin, Barbara (or Babs) first put on the form-hugging, black Batgirl costume to attend a masquerade party. En route she made use of her athletic body and judo skills to save millionaire Bruce Wayne (in reality Batman himself) from a gang of costumed criminals.

On television, Batgirl's much heralded debut occurred in the first episode of the last season of BATMAN in 1968. Batglirl was given her own theme song as she squeezed into her sensational bat-costume, mounted her bat-cycle and roared off into the night to aid a surprised Batman and Robin during a big brawl with the villains. Utilizing her own method of fighting, she proved more than capable of being the third Caped Crusader of Gotham City.

Throughout the duration of the BATMAN series, the brilliant Masked Manhunter never suspected that Batgirl was the daughter of Gotham's police commissioner.