Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season - Fighting Nazis in a Bathing Suit

Most of the more popular superheroes have been men with the women usually stuck in supporting roles.  They have frequently been regulated to the role of the victim needing rescued by the strong male superhero.  That has changed some as more female superheroes have been created.  Wonder Woman is probably the most popular female superhero and she is one of DC Comics top characters along with Batman and Superman.  I remember watching the television series when I was a kid.  I recently decided to pick up the DVD sets of the series when I found them on sale.  I just finished watching Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season.

Wonder Woman first aired as a movie on ABC in 1975.  The success of the movie led to thirteen more episodes being aired in the 1976-1977 season.  Even though the series did well, ABC did not renew the show and it went on to air for two more episodes on CBS in a revamped format.  The show is based on the comic book character created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist and lawyer who was also involved in creating the lie detector machine.  I haven't read any of the comic books though I know a little bit about the original origins of the character.  I know that Wonder Woman first dealt with Nazis during World War II, so that aspect of the plot is the same as the comics.  I'm not sure what other things might have been changed.  The character has appeared in several different comic books and some cartoons over the years.  In the spring of 2009, an animated movie featuring Wonder Woman was released straight to DVD.  She still hasn't been featured in a major live action movie.  There have been plans to make a Wonder Woman feature over the years, but none of them have gone anywhere.  I think the project is still stuck in development, though actress Megan Fox recently denied that she was considering the part, claiming she would never play such a lame character.  Frankly, I don't think she would fit the part anyway.  

The first episode, which was really the movie, shows how Major Steve Trevor ends up washing up on the shore of Paradise Island.  Female amazons live on the island with no men.  A decision is made that someone will have to take Steve back to the United States and Princess Diana, daughter of Queen Hippolyta, wins the right do that.  She first wears her well known red, white and blue costume when she takes Steve back to the United States, which does draw some attention.  She ends up staying in the United States to help fight the Nazis.  She establishes a secret identity as Diana Prince and manages to get a job working with Steve.  The rest of the first season shows how Diana is able to help fight the Nazis as Wonder Woman.  The opening credits have some comic book style animation and during the episodes there are some comic book type captions in yellow blocks that identify where or when a scene is taking place.  There are images of Washington D.C. used when some of the captions are shown that show some of the well known places.  Most of them include the cherry blossoms, even for the episodes set in September.  

Wonder Woman has to face the Nazis many times over the course of the first season.  The episodes are set in 1942, with probably at least half of them taking place in September of 1942.  It was a busy month for Wonder Woman.  It doesn't take long for the Nazis to become interested in Wonder Woman once they learn of her abilities.  A couple of the Nazi plots were mainly to capture Wonder Woman.  Some of the plots are a bit silly, like the one involving the Nazis using a trained gorilla.  Even with the silliness, the show is entertaining.  During one of the two part episodes, an alien is sent to Earth to determine if the planet should be saved or destroyed.  The dialogue isn't that strong for much of the season, which may bother some people.

Every episode in the first season of Wonder Woman includes at least a little bit of action.  Wonder Woman fights several Nazis, including a few women.  The fights usually didn't amount to much.  Most of one of Wonder Woman's fights against another women was basically just the two women rolling down a gentle hill in a yard.  Steve is involved in some of the fights, though he tends to be overpowered quickly and usually ends up waiting to be rescued by Wonder Woman.  The violence isn't that graphic and is very mild overall.  Throughout the season, Wonder Woman continued to wear her well known costume that is basically a bathing suit with some cool accessories.  During The Bushwhackers, when Roy Rogers was the guest star, Wonder Woman's outfit changed to a red shirt and white pants.  Evidently Rogers didn't want to appear in scenes with a woman wearing what amounted to a bathing suit.  The shirt is low cut and somehow the white pants stay immaculate even when Wonder Woman is in dusty areas.  Most of the time when she is Diana, she is wearing her military uniform.

Special effects are used in different scenes throughout the season, mostly to help illustrate Wonder Woman's abilities.  The effects do look very dated now, but they aren't that bad considering when the show was made and that it was for television.  Wonder Woman's invisible plane is shown in a few different episodes and it really didn't look that good.  It sort of looked like a toy plane made of  clear plastic dangling on a string with a small doll sitting in it.  The close ups during those scenes did look better.  The editing in some of the scenes involving effects looks slightly off, like in the first episode when Wonder Woman uses her bracelets to deflect bullets.  A few things are changed a bit during the season, like the spin that Diana does to turn into Wonder Woman.  The first few times it is done, images of her as Diana and Wonder Woman are once the spin begins.  Once she is changed into Wonder Woman, she is holding the clothes she was wearing before she transformed that she then had hide somewhere.  It wasn't long before that was changed to show a bright flash accompanied by a loud crack like noise after she started spinning.  Once the flash was gone, she was transformed into Wonder Woman and she no longer was holding the clothes from before the transformation.  It did seem like Diana was a little less concerned with where she did the spin later in the season as well.  She isn't shown changing back to Diana.

Diana is an Amazon princess that has lived on Paradise Island, a place with no men, for years.  The island is a bit magical and the women living there are strong and peaceful.  As Wonder Woman, Diana has a magic lasso that makes people tell the truth.  Her bracelets repel bullets and her tiara can be used as a boomerang.  She has a fairly simple disguise when she is Diana consisting mostly have large framed glasses and wearing her hair pulled up in a bun.  The characters that see her as Diana and Wonder Woman never figure out that she is the same person.  It is hinted at in some episodes that Diana has feelings for Steve, but that really doesn't go anywhere during the season.  Lynda Carter is really good in the part, both as Diana and Wonder Woman.  She seems comfortable in the rather skimpy outfit that looks mostly like a bathing suit with extra padding in the bra area.  Cloris Leachman plays Queen Hippolyta in the first episode and the role is later taken over by Carolyn Jones for the few other appearances the character makes.  Debra Winger shows up in a few episodes as Drusilla/Wonder Girl, Diana's younger sister.

Major Steve Trevor is a pilot and considered a war hero.  He has no clue that Diana is Wonder Woman even though she always manages to turn up when he's in trouble.  He is always getting into some sort of trouble and has to be rescued by Wonder Woman.  It is a bit different to see a man in that sort of situation on a regular basis.  Steve seems to deal fine with being saved by a powerful woman.  Lyle Waggoner is fine in the part.  Steve and Diana report to General Blankenship.  He is usually just around giving a few orders without really doing anything.  Richard Eastham is fine in the part.  Etta is another woman working in the War Department.  She doesn't do much even though she is usually around.  Beatrice Colen is fine in the part.  

Various members of the Nazi party turn up throughout the season, with most of them only being in one or two episodes.  None of them are that developed and they are usually focused on whatever plan they feel will benefit the party.  There are several guest stars throughout the first season, including Red Buttons, Robert Reed, Stella Stevens, Dick Van Patten, Roy Rogers, John Hillerman, Robert Hays and Robert Loggia.  It was kind of strange to see Robert Reed playing a bad guy, but I think he did well with the part.  

Main Cast

Lynda Carter - Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Beatrice Colen - Etta
Richard Eastham - General Blankenship
Carolyn Jones - Queen Hippolyta
Lyle Waggoner - Steve Trevor
Debra Winger - Drusilla/Wonder Girl

DVD Information

Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season has two doubled sided discs and one single sided disc.  The case lists the episodes along with a short summary and tells which disc they are on.  One panel of the case shares some trivia about Wonder Woman, including information on her creator and some about the cast which is interesting.  Each menu gives the option of playing all the episodes in a row or selecting them one at a time to watch.   

There is a commentary on the pilot with Lynda Carter and the producer that I haven't listened to.  The only other extra for the season is a documentary, Beauty, Brawn and Bulletproof Bracelets: A Wonder Woman Retrospective.  It features Lynda Carter and a few people involved with the creation of the show talking about it.  Some footage from the show is included in the documentary.  Lynda Carter speaks fondly of the character, fully embracing her place in the history of Wonder Woman instead of wanting to distance herself from the role.  The documentary isn't that long, but it is entertaining.

Episode List

The New Original Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther
Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman
Beauty on Parade
The Feminum Mystique Part 1
The Feminum Mystique Part 2
Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua!
The Pluto File
Last of the Two-Dollar Bills
Judgment From Outer Space Part 1
Judgment From Outer Space Part 2
Formula 407
The Bushwhackers
Wonder Woman in Hollywood

Wonder Woman does look a bit dated now and some of the plots are very cheesy, but the show is still very entertaining.  Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season is a good DVD for fans of the show.

This review is part of elvisdo's 2009 Funny Pages Write-Off and talyeson's I Need a Hero Write-Off.

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