When Lynda Carter landed the role of Wonder Woman as the title character and her secret identity, Diana Prince, her career took off. The actress turned out to be the perfect combination of looks and acting. The Wonder Woman series ran from 1975 until 1979 on ABC and then CBS. Wonder Woman’s outfit was designed to be identical to the comic book version. It was Carter’s performance, rooted in the character’s inherent goodness, combined with a comic-accurate costume and a catchy theme song, that made the show work. There were initial fears that viewers wouldn’t like a female lead, but CBS picked it up and carried it for a few years. Both female and male viewers enjoyed Wonder Woman.
After the show ended, Carter told the US Weekly that:
I never meant to be a sexual object for anyone but my husband. I never thought a picture of my body would be tacked up in men’s bathrooms. I hate men looking at me and thinking what they think. And I know what they think. They write and tell me.
This series has great special effects, with its cheesy invisible plane, the visible gadgets used for bullets and bracelets bits. Each episode’s shots resemble panels from a comic book. As with many 1970s shows, the show is constantly bordering on high camp, but it tells its’ story in a very straightforward manner. The original title of the first season was ‘The New, Original Wonder Woman’, while the following seasons followed under the banner of ‘The New Adventures of Wonder Woman’.
The Origins of Wonder Woman
William Moulton Marston (originally known as Charles Moulton) created the character of Wonder Woman for DC Comics. They first appeared in a backup story in All Star Comics no. 8 in December 1941.
Throughout the years, Wonder Woman’s origin has been updated extensively, but its premise has remained largely the same. During a flight over Paradise Island, U.S. pilot Steve Trevor crashes his plane. Trevor is rescued by the raven-haired Princess Diana, and the Amazons nurse him back to health. To determine who will take the pilot back to “Man’s World,” a tournament is held, but Diana is not allowed to enter. As Wonder Woman, she wins games while disguised as a boy, gaining the Wonder Woman costume and becoming a hero. In her invisible plane, Diana returns to the United States as Diana Prince, assuming a pseudonym. Trevor soon realizes that Prince is also the superhero who is constantly coming to his rescue, much like a gender-reversed Lois Lane.
Wonder Woman wore a red bodice and gold eagle during her first forty years of adventures, blue shorts with stars (quickly replaced by shorts with stars), red boots, a gold belt and tiara, and bracelets on her wrists. The Wonder Woman comics from the 1970s moved stories back to World War II to match the TV show, but the DC continuity established that the World War II Wonder Woman lived on Earth-Two, the parallel world where she had begun her adventures in the 1940s and joined the Justice Society.
Here below are some beautiful photos of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. These photos also show behind-the-scenes from the making of Wonder Woman series.
