Wonder Woman

Network: ABC, CBS
Episodes: 59 (hour)
Seasons: Three

TV show dates: November 7, 1975 — September 11, 1979
Series status: Cancelled/ended

Performers include: Lynda Carter, Lyle Waggoner, Tom Kratochvil, Richard Eastham, Beatrice Colen, Norman Burton, Saundra Sharp, Michael Santiago, Carolyn Jones, Debra Winger, Curt Lowens, Tim O’Connor, Arch Johnson, Fred Lerner, and Michael Shannon.

TV show description:
During World War II, Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) crashes his Army plane near Paradise Island, a secret place in the Bermuda Triangle. It’s inhabited by Amazon women who, many years earlier, had sought to escape the male domination of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Amazon Queen Hippolyta (Cloris Leachman), arranges a competition amongst the island women in which the winner will be allowed to accompany the injured Trevor back to the United States and remain there to help battle the Nazis. Her daughter, princess Diana (Lynda Carter), is quite taken with the foreigner but is forbidden by her mother to enter the challenge. Diana dons a disguise in order to compete and wins anyway. After Diana reveals her identity, her mother relents and gives consent for Diana to leave Paradise Island.

Once in Washington, D.C., she joins the military under the guise of Diana Prince and ends up becoming Trevor’s Yeoman secretary once he recovers. Diana becomes best friends with Corporal Etta Candy (Beatrice Cohen) and helps Trevor in his efforts thwart Nazi schemes in the US. When needed, Diana slips away, spins around in a circle, and transforms into Wonder Woman, a superheroine with amazing powers.

Aside from her natural agility, Wonder Woman has bracelets that can deflect bullets, a gold lasso which can compel people to tell the truth, a tiara that can be used like a boomerang, a gold belt which provides her super strength, and can telepathically control an invisible jet.

After the first season, the story moves forward to modern day and the series is renamed The New Adventures of Wonder Woman. Diana returned to Paradise Island but resumes the role of Wonder Woman when her late friend’s lookalike son, Steve Trevor Jr. (Waggoner), lands there. Working together, they thwart a terrorist’s plans and return to America.

Diana works for the government agency, IADC, and becomes an accomplished solo agent, sometimes working with Agent Joe Atkinson (Normann Burton). IRAC is a super-intelligent computer that gives them their missions and also deduces Diana’s secret. A smaller robot, Rover, performs office duties and provides frequent comic relief.