|
|
Date and Issue: TV3507 / 1977.
Onscreen they stand together as TV's top women warriors-but in real life. Lindsay and Lynda find they have little in common....
Wonder Woman bursts onto your television screen in her patriotic red-white-and-blues, swinging her golden lasso, blocking bullets with her armbands, and wrapping Nazi spies around telephone poles. Meanwhile, Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman, is vaulting over electric fences, throwing trees like javelins, and eavesdropping on a fly's sigh halfway to Tacoma!
Yes, both the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman are busy being amazing on television. And even though Jaime does her thing in present day surroundings while Diana Prince is strictly World War II, they're pretty similar as far as TV's larger-than-life folk go.
Are they similar in real life too? BANANAS found that the answer to that question is a big NO! In fact, it would be difficult to find two people more different.
Lynda Carter, who plays Wonder Woman, really is a bit of a wonder. She's been a champion swimmer and a ballet dancer. Her combination of strength, coordination; and grace is unbeatable. Lynda has been described as "a natural athlete" by the people who work with her. And, they add, she has "the physical skills to do most of her own stunts." Lynda is a vegetarian. That is, except for one food. "Tacos," she admits, "are my Waterloo. I have a real passion for all kinds of tacos."
Meanwhile, back on the bionic set, Lindsay Wagner shudders at the mere mention of the word "athletic." "I'd rather sit at home concentrating on my music and art," she says. "In fact, the only physical thing I do these days is take an occasional dip in my pool."
On television, Lindsay may pretend to run 60 miles a minute, but in real life the only thing she's bionic in is sleeping. If given the chance, Lindsay can sleep for 14 hours at a time! Lately, however, she seldom gets the chance. The Bionic Woman must do an hour-long show, week after week. Sometimes Lindsay starts work at 4:30 a. m. and doesn't get finished until almost midnight! How does she feel about her schedule? Pooped!
"This show exhausts me," she admits. "When I arrive at the studio each day, I stagger into the makeup department. One of these days, they're actually going to have to feed me while putting-on the makeup!"
As far as her eating habits go, Lindsay is no vegetarian. She will eat anything that doesn't eat her first! "I used to diet before I got this role," she says. "But now, because I'm working so hard, it's completely unnecessary."
Perhaps the two stars are so different because of their very different upbringings. Let's take a peek at how it all happened for them.
Lynda Carter had it pretty good. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Lynda was the youngest of three children. She attended a branch of the London School of Ballet off and on for ten years. Later she finished Arcadia Titans High School with flying colors and a "most talented" award for her singing and dancing.
By the time Lynda got to Arizona State University, she was a blossoming beauty with talent to spare. After a year of college she left to try her luck singing and dancing. But she had more luck just being her beautiful, talented self.
Just for the heck of it, she entered the Miss Phoenix contest. She won. Then in other beauty pageants, she won, and won, and won, until in 1973 she won the title of Miss World, U.S.A.
After this triumph, Lynda took some acting lessons and decided to try out for a film part. She didn't get it. But then, even when Lynda is losing she's really winning. The folks who tried her out were so impressed with her poise and beauty, they sent her film test on to the ABC Television studios. It so happened that execs at ABC were looking for someone to play Wonder Woman. So, out of hundreds of women who would have given their eye-teeth to get the role, Lynda Carter ended up playing Wonder Woman with barely so much as batting an eyelash! Talk about your beginner's luck!
Lindsay Wagner, on the other hand, has never had it easy. Everything she's gotten has been the result of hard work.
Lindsay lived sometimes with her divorced mother, and sometimes with her grandparents. So she was raised part of the year in Los Angeles, and part of the year in Portland, Oregon. As the oldest of two children she had a lot of responsibility thrust on her at an early age. "We went through some bad times," she remembers. "My mother worked nights, and I would spend much of the time taking care of my baby sister."
Everybody had to chip in to keep the family going, and Lindsay began working as a model at the ripe old age of 13! She may have been young, but she didn't look it in her pictures. She modeled college clothes for years before she ever got to college! "Being tall helped give the impression that I was older," Lindsay says. "And, of course, I was quite sophisticated. I give credit for that to modeling, which gave me poise." That's not all it gave her-the $50 an hour she earned was nothing to sneeze at!
Lindsay later took a stab at college the University of Oregon-but it didn't take. "It was hopeless," she sighs. "I just wasn't into school. My thoughts were constantly on becoming an actress. I knew what I was going to do, and a college education didn't fit into my plans."
She wasn't exactly an overnight success. Though she appeared in guest shots on TV and in several movies, nobody really noticed her until she appeared on The Six Million Dollar Man. In a two-part episode, she played Jaime Sommers who was bionicized after a sky diving accident. In part two, Jaime's body rejected the bionics and she died.
After filming these episodes, Lindsay figured that was that. The audiences figured otherwise. Television stations all over the country were swept up in a tidal wave of mail-all of it furious about "killing off" Jaime Sommers. The studio decided to revive Jaime and give her own series. So the Bionic Woman was re-born, and Lindsay herself is going strong.
How do Lynda Carter and Lindsay Wagner feel about the characters they portray? What are they trying to put across on the screen? Different things, of course!
Lindsay Wagner wants to take a super-human and make her more human. "It would be boring," she says, "if Jaime had to rely on the bionic element too much. I like the series because it gives Jaime an opportunity to use her head occasionally to solve problems, and not always depend on super-human qualities."
On the other hand, Lynda Carter wants to use the character she plays to make human beings more wonderful. Even though Wonder Woman is played in the 1940's, Lynda believes that the series can encourage people to believe that most people can do more than they've been told they can. "Also," she says, "Wonder Woman shows that women don't have to be unattractive to be independent." Now, who else could make a statement like that but independent, attractive Lynda Carter?
People will be making on-and-off-screen comparisons between Lynda and Lindsay for some time. But in the battle between the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman, BANANAS knows who the real winner is-the viewers!
© 1977 by Scholastic Magazines, Inc.
|
|||||
|
