TV Review – “Wonder Woman: Season One”

In the 1970s, one of DC’s icons made it to the small
screen. This may or may not have been a good thing.

Cast and Crew

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman / Diana Prince

Lyle Waggoner as Major Steve Trevor

Beatrice Colen as Etta Candy

Richard Eastham as General Blankenship

Debra Winger as Drusilla

A number of then-current and soon-to-be notable guest
stars.

Complete information is
available from this
IMDB
page
.


Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past TV reviews can be found here.

Original Airdate


This season originally aired from 1976-1977.

Synopsis

In this first season, Wonder Woman makes her way to
America during the
second world war, and does more than her fair share
as part of the war
effort against the evil Nazis.

High Point

The High Point would probably be the conversations
between Diana and
Drusilla in Diana’s apartment from “The Feminine
Mystique.” That’s
because they’re pretty much the only time when Lynda
Carter’s acting
seemed natural in any way.

Low Point

In “The Pluto File,” a Nazi agent spreading bubonic
plague steals an
earthquake controlling device and attempts to use it
to create
earthquakes and cause a nuclear meltdown. The idea
is as poorly
executed as it sounds.

The Review

This series loses points for originality
simply by being an
adaptation from another medium. It could have
worked, but when
Stanley Ralph Ross (a former writer from the old
Batman
series) is in charge of developing the series for
television, you know
it’s going to be an overly happy and glossy flashback
to the time when
the Comics Code Authority was at its peak. This
entire season felt
like a ripoff of the old 1950s sci-fi flicks, but
with the beautiful
woman as the hero instead of the screaming victim. I
give it 3 out of
6.

The effects are terrible. Rubber shaped
like metal abounds,
and flexes under its own weight before Wonder Woman
even starts to
bend it. Her huge jumps lose impact when they’re
done in three or
four distinct camera shots. The Invisible Jet just
looks bad. It’s
as if they spent so much money making it look like
the 1940s that they
didn’t have anything left for, well, anything. I
give it 2 out of 6.

The stories were cheesy, dependent upon bad
decisions by the
heroes, and often laughable. Some were completely
nonsensical. I
give it 3 out of 6.

The acting was at least as bad as the
effects. I don’t know
if it’s because of the stodgy dialogue, or if the
capable actors were
simply asked not to outshine the star, but it was
really bad. I give
it 2 out of 6.

The emotional response this produces is
similar to that
produced by Hercules In New York, Santa
Claus Conquers
the Martians
, or Plan 9 From Outer
Space
. If you try to
take the show seriously in any respect, you’ll walk
away unhappy.
Just sit back and laugh at the complete and utter
goofiness. I give
it 5 out of 6.

The production had strong and weak points.
The lighting was
either “day” (when everything was bright and free of
shadow) or
“night” (when shadows fell everywhere the characters
weren’t.) The
camera work was remarkably weak, with some very
unstable pans and
cranes. The set and costume design was pretty good,
for the most
part. The pieces did look like the 1940s, complete
with props and
cars, which probably blew most of the budget. The
costumes were
traditional too. In fact, my only problem with the
costumes is that I
found Lynda Carter more attractive as Diana Prince
than as Wonder
Woman, which was not what they were shooting for, but
maybe that’s
just me. The use of comic book like captions was a
nice touch,
reminding the viewer of the source material. I give
it 4 out of 6.

Overall, it’s something that should be
watched out of
nostalgia or a craving for something corny. I give
it 3 out of 6.

In total, Wonder Woman: Season One receives
22 out of 42.

5 replies on “TV Review – “Wonder Woman: Season One””

  1. Hey now
    I enjoyed it! And I think Lynda Carter does a fantastic job.

    Yeah, the effects are crap – they’re 1970s crap. Are they any worse than other SciFi of the time? Remember “Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman”? Heck, “The Greatest American Hero” is form the 80s and has about the same special effects…

    It’s camp, but it’s good camp!

    • Re: Hey now

      Remember “Six Million Dollar Man”

      That show was genius. Slow-motion with “chhhh chhh chhh” sound effects to indicate super speed? I can’t believe that worked : )

      • RHey , remember the “Bionic Bigfoot” eps?

        The Six Million Dollar Man was not crap!

        Oh…. Wait… Yeah, it was.

        • Re: RHey , remember the “Bionic Bigfoot” eps?

          The Six Million Dollar Man was not crap!

          Oh…. Wait… Yeah, it was.

          Pfft! Next thing you know wou’ll start bashing the Dukes of Hazard! For shame ;-)

  2. Well…
    …I just got the urge for crap classic comic-book TV action so I added this to my Lovefilm list. Can’t wait!

Comments are closed.