Wonder Woman

Lynda Carter stars as Wonder Woman

The Warner Brothers Television series Wonder Woman is based on the DC Comics 'Superhero' character co-created by Dr.William Moulton Marston and his wife Elizabeth (Sadie) Holloway-Marston.  The Wonder Woman character first appeared in 'All Star Comics' number 8, in December 1941.  The Marston's creation is a distinctly feminist character and this trait has in the main been adhered to by other writers subsequently. Wonder Woman was one of the first female 'Superheroes', and is based on the Greek mythological character Princes Diana of the Amazon Warrior Tribe of Scythia.

The former 'Miss USA' Lynda Carter stars as Wonder Woman in the series which originally aired in the United States from 1976 until 1979.  The first season on ABC Television is set in the World War Two era (1942).  For the second and third seasons broadcast on CBS, Wonder Woman is now a crimefighter in the present day (1970s).  Although not the first television adaptation of the character, Lynda Carter's portrayal is widely accepted as being the definitive one.

Although the main series ran from 1976 until 1979, the pilot episode for the show was first broadcast in 1975, under the title 'The New Original' Wonder Woman.  Following this pilot episode, three further episodes were aired under the same name in 1975/1976. These first four episodes also formed part of the 1976/1977 series of the re-titled Wonder Woman series.

In the pilot episode of Wonder Woman shown in 1975, an American Army officer, Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) crash-lands on 'Paradise Island' (somewhere in the 'Bermuda Triangle') and is badly injured.  Princes Diana (Lynda Carter) nurses him back to health, but also falls in love with him! With Steve Trevor now fully recovered, 'Paradise Island's' female population decide that he must return to the fight against the Third Reich.

It is decided that one of the women from the island is to go with Steve Trevor and this is decided by an olympic games-style contest.  Princess Diana emerges as the winner and duly accompanies Steve Trevor back to Washington D.C. to help with the war effort.

Princess Diana assumes the identity of Diana Prince, Steve Trevor's secretary.  When Diana Prince is confronted by a dangerous situation, she quickly finds a discreet location and transforms herself, using a pirouette motion into the fully costumed Wonder Woman, thus enabling her to take advantage of the special 'superhuman' powers with which she is endowed.

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