After the 1974 not-really-Wonder Woman "Wonder Woman" pilot starring Cathy Lee Crosby failed to launch, Lynda Carter stepped into the role as William Marston's superheroine with a fascinating, sometimes contradictory premise in "The New Original Wonder Woman" (a title that bespoke shifting approaches already), a television movie-cum-pilot that did take off into an adventure series (initially on ABC)--and turned Carter into an icon that redefined the character.
Scripted by Stanley Ralph Ross, who had developed the premise for television, the pilot had a cartoonish look and feel to it, appropriate in that Wonder Woman originated in the DC Comics universe and that Ross had a firm grounding in that DC universe from being a series writer for the 1960s live-action "Batman" series; indeed, "Wonder Woman" too sported comic-book graphics--no "Biff!" "Pow!" "Krrrack!" on-screen interjections, though--and some gloriously camp performances from several second-echelon big- and small-screen faces.
Set in World War Two following America's entry into the war, the Nazis are up to no good as usual. They've built a long-range bomber, the XV-12, that can reach New York, and Colonel Von Blasko (Kenneth Mars) dispatches Captain Drango (Eric Braeden) to attack a Brooklyn factory that manufactures the Norden bombsight, which would (and did) enable Allied precision bombing of vital German targets. However, Von Blasko's valet, Nikolas (mischievous elf Henry Gibson), is secretly transmitting information (via carrier pigeon) to the Allies, which is how the Americans are tipped to Drango's mission, with Major Steve Trevor dispatched to engage him in a dogfight over Paradise Island, home to the all-woman Amazons in the Bermuda Triangle, that sees both aviators downed in combat.
Enter Wonder Woman, or Princess Diana, who discovers Trevor, wounded and unconscious, on the beach and, despite her mother Queen Hippolyta's (Cloris Leachman) objections, helps nurse him back to health before, again defying Hippolyta, winning the athletic tournament while in disguise to determine who will return Steve back to the United States.
Once in the US, Ross's script has Wonder Woman roaming Washington, DC, as a fetching fish out of water in her celebrated fetish superheroine costume. While foiling a bank robbery that involves repelling bullets with her bracelets, she attracts the attention of Ashley Norman (Red Buttons), a talent agent who is also part of a Nazi spy ring that includes Marcia (Stella Stevens), Steve's secretary. And once Von Blasko learns that Drango failed his mission, he vows to complete it in the new, improved XV-13. (Does it remove ring around the collar too, I wonder?)
Particularly in the early going, Leonard Horn's direction stresses the camp factor. Mars obliges with an encore performance of his deliberately overripe Teutonic accent from "Young Frankenstein" while another "Frankenstein" alum, the always reliable Leachman, plays the ruler of the Sapphic idyll like the paranoid misandrist cousin of Phyllis Lindstrom (her "Mary Tyler Moore Show" character). And check out the mugging by Lyle Waggoner and especially Braeden during their dogfight while Buttons gets off a hilarious sighing eye-roll when, confronting Wonder Woman, he begins to fire his pistol at her having already seen her deflect a machine-gun magazine of rounds.
Playing the straight woman to all these cut-ups, Carter is more than just T&A eye candy although her acting chops are certainly not as head-turning as her physical appearance despite some fairly stirring feminine-positive pep talk (a nod to Marston's distinctive conception of female empowerment) that may or may not be undercut by the climactic catfight for the ages her Wonder Woman has with Marcia as Stevens, the ringleader of the local Nazis, makes the most of her modest performance skills.
The special effects are par for the course for 1970s television, and don't even sweat the stock aerial footage used to depict the chameleonic German super bombers. (Is that a Heinkel He 111 used in the 1969 movie "The Battle of Britain"?) But, in a neat inversion of convention, it's Waggoner's Steve Trevor who winds up being the "damsel" in distress who needs to be rescued by Wonder Woman while their sparks of attraction keep the door open for romance. So, although "The New Original Wonder Woman" is hardly a masterpiece, there is enough entertainment here to pique interest in pursuing further developments.
Scripted by Stanley Ralph Ross, who had developed the premise for television, the pilot had a cartoonish look and feel to it, appropriate in that Wonder Woman originated in the DC Comics universe and that Ross had a firm grounding in that DC universe from being a series writer for the 1960s live-action "Batman" series; indeed, "Wonder Woman" too sported comic-book graphics--no "Biff!" "Pow!" "Krrrack!" on-screen interjections, though--and some gloriously camp performances from several second-echelon big- and small-screen faces.
Set in World War Two following America's entry into the war, the Nazis are up to no good as usual. They've built a long-range bomber, the XV-12, that can reach New York, and Colonel Von Blasko (Kenneth Mars) dispatches Captain Drango (Eric Braeden) to attack a Brooklyn factory that manufactures the Norden bombsight, which would (and did) enable Allied precision bombing of vital German targets. However, Von Blasko's valet, Nikolas (mischievous elf Henry Gibson), is secretly transmitting information (via carrier pigeon) to the Allies, which is how the Americans are tipped to Drango's mission, with Major Steve Trevor dispatched to engage him in a dogfight over Paradise Island, home to the all-woman Amazons in the Bermuda Triangle, that sees both aviators downed in combat.
Enter Wonder Woman, or Princess Diana, who discovers Trevor, wounded and unconscious, on the beach and, despite her mother Queen Hippolyta's (Cloris Leachman) objections, helps nurse him back to health before, again defying Hippolyta, winning the athletic tournament while in disguise to determine who will return Steve back to the United States.
Once in the US, Ross's script has Wonder Woman roaming Washington, DC, as a fetching fish out of water in her celebrated fetish superheroine costume. While foiling a bank robbery that involves repelling bullets with her bracelets, she attracts the attention of Ashley Norman (Red Buttons), a talent agent who is also part of a Nazi spy ring that includes Marcia (Stella Stevens), Steve's secretary. And once Von Blasko learns that Drango failed his mission, he vows to complete it in the new, improved XV-13. (Does it remove ring around the collar too, I wonder?)
Particularly in the early going, Leonard Horn's direction stresses the camp factor. Mars obliges with an encore performance of his deliberately overripe Teutonic accent from "Young Frankenstein" while another "Frankenstein" alum, the always reliable Leachman, plays the ruler of the Sapphic idyll like the paranoid misandrist cousin of Phyllis Lindstrom (her "Mary Tyler Moore Show" character). And check out the mugging by Lyle Waggoner and especially Braeden during their dogfight while Buttons gets off a hilarious sighing eye-roll when, confronting Wonder Woman, he begins to fire his pistol at her having already seen her deflect a machine-gun magazine of rounds.
Playing the straight woman to all these cut-ups, Carter is more than just T&A eye candy although her acting chops are certainly not as head-turning as her physical appearance despite some fairly stirring feminine-positive pep talk (a nod to Marston's distinctive conception of female empowerment) that may or may not be undercut by the climactic catfight for the ages her Wonder Woman has with Marcia as Stevens, the ringleader of the local Nazis, makes the most of her modest performance skills.
The special effects are par for the course for 1970s television, and don't even sweat the stock aerial footage used to depict the chameleonic German super bombers. (Is that a Heinkel He 111 used in the 1969 movie "The Battle of Britain"?) But, in a neat inversion of convention, it's Waggoner's Steve Trevor who winds up being the "damsel" in distress who needs to be rescued by Wonder Woman while their sparks of attraction keep the door open for romance. So, although "The New Original Wonder Woman" is hardly a masterpiece, there is enough entertainment here to pique interest in pursuing further developments.