ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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This 12-minute video of Lynda Carter's better moments should appeal to anyone with nostalgic memories of the popular series, and perhaps it will encourage some discussion of the show.

There's certainly never been a more attractive superhero, although I think Miss Adrianne Palicki's brief outing as the Amazon princess is at least a close second.
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________________ Wonder Woman Video #100

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

In my entire life, I have had only one freakish obsession with a celebrity...Lynda Carter.

It's hard to remember the days before streaming and home video. When WONDER WOMAN aired on Friday night, I moved my chair in front of TV and people quickly learned that there would be Hell to pay if my viewing was interrupted.

And she's a star who never let her fans down. She's aged more than gracefully and treats WONDER WOMAN with respect.

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Brent, I think she would be a perfect Queen Hippolyta!
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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Queen Hippolyta, indeed! It certainly runs in the family.

That IS quite a lot a hip.




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[ralfy]

Don't forget Wonder Girl:

_____ Drusilla (Debra Winger) Surprises Her Sister


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[Bud Brewster]

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Wow, what a wonderful clip of Debra Winger with David Letterman, knocking his socks off by suddenly shucking out of her dress to reveal her Wonder Girl costume underneath, after David pretended to surprise her with a clip of her first superhero transformation in an episode of Wonder Woman.

This is from the clip.


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And these are from the Letterman excerpt. She dashed off the stage, sprinted right up the isle, and ran out the back door of the studio!


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r]

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Custer]

Lynda Carter was the Wonder Woman, for sure. I do think the first season, set during World War II, was the best.

I came across this gif today, after someone posted a still of the same scene on Facebook. It looks as if those walls are testing our heroine's strength...

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, it actually looks more like she's pulling on the walls to developing her pectorals.

"We must . . . we must . . . must increase our bust!

The bigger the better, the tighter the sweat, the men are depending on us!"

By God, I think it's working, too!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Fans of Linda Carter (which means "everybody") will enjoy this well-made photo essay that shows the popular actress from ages 1 to 67.

What a grand lady.
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_Lynda Carter | Transformation From 1 To 67 Years Old


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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By Jiminy, it's time for a new video about Wonder Woman.

Enjoy! _
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Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) TV Show: Everything You Didn't Know


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Extremely Sexy Wonder Woman Hanging Upside Down


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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production,
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~ When the son of Wonder Woman stunt double Jeannie Epper told his classmates that his mother performed on the Wonder Woman television series they did not believe him, even after showing them a photo of his mother in costume. When series star Lynda Carter was told of the situation, she took it upon herself to invite his entire class to visit the Wonder Woman set to see Jeannie perform.

Note from me: By God, if this doesn't prove that Lynda Carter was a classy lady, I don't know what does! What an awesome thing to do!

~ Lynda Carter had $25 left in her bank account when she got the call that she had landed the part of Wonder Woman. She beat 2000 other actresses to the part.

Note from me: An American success story if ever there was one!

~ In the episode "Anschluss 77" (episode 2.2) the script called for Wonder Woman to grab on to a bar under a helicopter and hold on to it as the helicopter lifted 50 feet into the air.

Actress Lynda Carter's stunt double shot the scene but as the camera was so close to the stand-in it became obvious that it wasn't Lynda.

As the production crew was beginning to lose their lighting, Lynda felt she could perform the stunt on her own and told her stunt double to let her go instead. She filmed the scene herself, which angered the unaware producers of the series as Carter not only didn't inform anyone ahead of time, but did not use protective wrist guards that could have held her to the helicopter should she not have the strength to hold on.

Note from me: If ever there was any doubt that Lynda Carter was indeed "Wonder Woman", this proved!

~ Although Debra Winger made a sizable amount of money for her appearances as Wonder Woman's little sister, she actually spent most of it on buying herself out of her "Warner Bros." contract as she had second thoughts on continuing to perform her contracted character of Wonder Girl.

Note from me: I think Ms. Winger was wise when she did this. She knew that as an actress she would not be taken as seriously as she wanted if the public identified her too strongly with Wonder Girl. George Reeves had the same problem because of his great portrayal of Superman.

~ Tensions between series stars Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner grew to the point that as the series went on the two stars appeared in fewer and fewer scenes together.

So that Waggoner's character would have more activity on the show, producers brought in S. Pearl Sharp to play fellow IADC agent Eve. Waggoner was to be completely written out of the show as in the last episode of the series Diana is relocated to the Los Angeles bureau of IADC. In recent interviews, Lynda Carter has denied any tension existed.

But she does say in interviews she regrets not getting to know him better.

Note from me: This is surprising in view of the fact Lyle Waggoner is nobody's idea a great actor. He was just a 'pretty boy" that Carol Burnett featured in her TV series, and she made him seem wonderful to her loyal public.

~ Costume designer Donfeld had originally created a red, white and blue two-piece bikini for actress Lynda Carter when she was to perform as Wonder Woman in the water. When the finished bikini did not seem to stay on the actress during the required scenes, production opted to go with the full body wetsuit instead.

Note from me: And to this interesting bit of trivia I reply with one tantalizing word. Outakes. . .

~ Lynda Carter unsuccessfully tested for the first "Wonder Woman" TV movie, "Wonder Woman (1974)," that starred Cathy Lee Crosby.

Note from me: Ah-ha. And who, pray tell, even remembers THAT failed production?

~ Some of the sound effects from "Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)" (most notably the background soundtrack used on the Enterprise bridge) were used for various electronic and computer sound effects on this show.

Note from me: A list of productions that used those iconic sound effects would be quite extensive.

~ In the pilot and the first 2 episodes Diana's transformation into Wonder Woman was accomplished by spinning her clothes off in slow motion.

This proved to be too expensive and time consuming, to do on a weekly basis. Finally, from the third episode they used a cheaper concept, for the transformation is the ball of light and, it was used through out the remainder of the three year run.

Note from me: The burst of radiance to obscure the costume change is very appealing. We get the impression that her civilian clothes are being "beam" off her body and replaced by her costume when it is being beamed on! It's brilliant! (No pub intended . . . )

~ Lynda Carter controlled the flashes flying from her bullet-deflecting bracelets herself. She was holding a remote control device in her clasped hands.

Note from me: Interesting. But it sounds bogus. The flashes were just matted in during post production . . . right?

~ Near the end of the second season, the series introduced "Rover", a small robot that became comic relief. Rover occasionally would go "Meep-meep!" to get people out of the way. The sound effect for this is the same as that used for the Road Runner in "Warner Brother"s "Looney Tunes" cartoons.

Note from me: I have no memory of this K-9 android. But just to be fair, I've seen worse robots . . . and uglier dogs!

_______________WonderWoman "twin rovers"


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~ According to Lynda Carter, the three women who would become the original Charlie's Angels — Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Kate Jackson — all auditioned for the part of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.

Ironically, Lynda was also up for one of the Angels!.

Note from me: Two words immediately came to mind.

Crossover Episode!

A Charlie's Angels Meets Wonder Woman episode would have been Must See TV!

Charlie's Angels ran from 1976 to 1981, and Wonder Woman ran for 1975 to 1979, so a fourth season "crossover" of Wonder Woman would have been great as a third season episode of Charlie's Angles!

Imagine the opening scene of Charlie's Angles in which John Forsyth's voice on the phone tells the Angels that he has a special assignment for them — and they'll be assistant by an Honorary 4th Angel . . . Wonder Woman!

I LOVE the idea!

~ Lyle Waggoner was elected mayor of Encino, California and served in this capacity during production of the series.

Note from me: This one surprised me!

~ There were never any Wonder Woman/Superman crossover episodes because Warner Brothers was filming Superman (1978) and this television series at the same time.

In addition, neither Christopher Reeve or Lynda were available for NBC's television special Legends of the Superheroes (1979) which was a live action version of Challenge of the Superfriends (1978).

Note from me: When I started this post I was thinking that Lynda Carter and Christopher Reeve were both extremely likable people who won our hearts as the superheroes they portrayed! They seem to deserve our admiration as heroes who looked fabulous in their costumes!

~ Lyle Waggoner is quoted as saying "If Wonder Woman had been allowed to keep fighting the Nazis, she would have been on for a very long time".

Waggoner is referring to the fact that " Wonder Woman" was more successful and got better ratings when it was on ABC and took place in the 1940s. When the producers updated the series to the 1970s after CBS picked it up, the ratings sank.

Note from me: That's an interesting comment, and I wouldn't have thought it had much validity . . . if the ratings hadn't dropped because of the change.

~ The metal from which Wonder Woman's bullet-deflecting bracelets is made is called Feminum (in the original comics it was called Amazonium).

Note from me: It actually took me a moment to get the joke! "Feminun" is derived from the word "feminine".

~ A decade earlier, Lyle Waggoner screen tested for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman for Batman (1966), but ultimately lost it to Adam West.

Note from me: Remember what I said above about Lyle Waggoner's acting ability? Well, I seriously doubt that Lyle would have been as good as Mr. West as Batman.

~ Wonder Woman's trademark spin around transformation was originally going to be done on a electronic platform; until Ms. Carter volunteered to just do a pirouette herself, utilizing her ballet training.

Note from me: I must admit, Miss Carter's graceful, feminize spin is exactly what make those transformation scenes work.

~ Diana changes her costume in "The Bushwackers". This episode's co-star — Roy Rogers — insisted that her star-spangled costume was too provocative and inappropriate for a Western-themed episode.

He actually just told her to "put some clothes on" when he saw Lynda in her tight, form-fitting costume. Production was halted until the costume designer came up with an alternative for the actress.

For this reason, Carter donned a conservative outfit with a red long sleeve shirt and long white pants while temporarily staying at Hadley's ranch.

Note from me: Being a life-long fan of Roy Rogers, and knowing what a moral and upstanding person he was, it doesn't surprise me that he wanted the shapely Miss Carter to cover up a bit for the episode he was in.

Obviously the producers of the show respected his feelings in the matter, so they provided an attractive (but less revealing) version of the costume!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)