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Date and Issue: Volume 28, Number 10, October, 1977.
LINDSAY WAGNER, look out! You have a rival. And she's not bionic. She's Wonder Woman, Charles Moulton's famous comic book heroine of the Forties.
She'll be arriving on BBC screens in the near future and she's going to pack quite a punch. The lady behind that punch? A gorgeous newcomer called Lynda Carter.
If you're wondering just who Wonder Woman is she's a beautiful Amazon Princess sent to America from an uncharted Paradise Island to champion good and combat evil. Her equipment, besides her own personal assets - a golden belt (symbol of Amazon supremacy), a golden lasso (which compels people to tell the truth), bullet-proof bracelets, an invisible supersonic plane and amazing strength.
Oh - and a sense of humour. Not a bad set of credentials, even for Superman.
Lynda Carter's credentials for the role aren't bad either. The former Miss World USA of 1973, the willowy, dark-haired beauty has vital statistics of 37-21-36, larga soft ayes that run to blue, green and grey depending on the colours around her, and she is 5ft. 8in. tall.
Her height almost told against her when she decided on acting as a career. "A theatre owner in my home town told me I'd never make it in films because all the male stars are short," says Lynda. "I guess he hadn't heard of Wonder Woman," she adds defiantly.
"Quite a few TV shows have been based on comic strip characters. Batman, Hazel and Charlie Brown are probably the most successful.
"Wonder Woman was obviously before my time, but I've done a lot of research on the 1940s when the show takes place and seen a lot of films from the period, probably the best method to get the feel of the time. The thing that amazes me is how unified and patriotic America was in those days. It's certainly different from now, with the Watergate scandals and all the different interest groups causing dissension."
Says Lynda: "The key to Wonder Woman is reviving the old-fashioned Forties' code of ethics when everyone knew who the bad guys were."
She admits the series is very tonguein-cheek, but nonetheless takes it very seriously. "It's comedy but not broad comedy," she says. "The only way to make this sort of thing work is to play it straight. I never believed Batman because they played it strictly for laughs."
Twenty-five-year-old Lynda who recently married her manager Ron Samuels (he also manages Lindsay Wagner) agrees that it's a bit unusual to get a leading role with practically no real acting experience. "I didn't have movie or TV credits," she says, "but I studied hard for two years. So it wasn't just luck. I feel everybody gets at least one opportunity in their lifetime and the secret is to be ready for it. I was."
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