TVXOHOF: MAY 2019 - WONDER WOMAN!

Every May we make sure to induct a woman, Queen of May in a way, just to make sure we inject some feminine pulchritude into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  And this year we are inducting superheroes and villains in the monthly showcase.  So… a TV superhero in May who should be female?

Who else could it be but….

WONDER WOMAN!

From Wikipedia:
Wonder Woman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character is a founding member of the Justice League. The character first appeared in All Star Comics #8 in October 1941 with her first feature in Sensation Comics #1, January 1942. The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986.  In her homeland, the island nation of Themyscira, her official title is Princess Diana of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta. When blending into the society outside of her homeland, she adopts her civilian identity Diana Prince.

Wonder Woman was created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byrne, are credited as being his inspiration for the character's appearance.

Marston's comics featured his ideas on DISC theory, and the character drew a great deal of inspiration from early feminists, and especially from birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger; in particular, her piece "Woman and the New Race".

Wonder Woman's origin story relates that she was sculpted from clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta and was given a life to live as an Amazon, along with superhuman powers as gifts by the Greek gods. In recent years, DC changed her background with the revelation that she is the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta, jointly raised by her mother and her aunts Antiope and Menalippe. The character has changed in depiction over the decades, including briefly losing her powers entirely in the 1970s; by the 1980s, artist George Perez gave her a muscular look and emphasized her Amazonian heritage. She possesses an arsenal of advanced technology, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and, in older stories, a range of devices based on Amazon technology.

Wonder Woman's character was created during World War II; the character in the story was initially depicted fighting Axis military forces as well as an assortment of colorful supervillains, although over time her stories came to place greater emphasis on characters, deities, and monsters from Greek mythology. Many stories depicted Wonder Woman rescuing herself from bondage, which defeated the "damsels in distress" trope that was common in comics during the 1940s.

In the decades since her debut, Wonder Woman has gained a cast of enemies bent on eliminating the Amazon, including classic villains such as Ares, Cheetah, Doctor Poison, Circe, Doctor Psycho, and Giganta, along with more recent adversaries such as Veronica Cale and the First Born. Wonder Woman has also regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society (from 1941) and Justice League (from 1960).

The character is a well-known figure in popular culture that has been adapted to various media. June 3 is Wonder Woman Day.  Wonder Woman is part of the DC Comics trinity of flagship characters alongside Batman and Superman.

Wonder Woman has been featured in various media from radio to television and film, and appears in merchandise sold around the world, such as apparel, toys, dolls, jewelry, and video games. Shannon Farnon, Susan Eisenberg, Maggie Q, Lucy Lawless, Keri Russell, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Cobie Smulders, and Halsey among others, have provided the character's voice for animated adaptations. Wonder Woman has been depicted in both film and television by Cathy Lee Crosby, Lynda Carter, and Gal Gadot.

Wonder Woman has made multiple appearances in television, including the 1974 made-for-television film Wonder Woman, and most notably Hanna-Barbera's long-running animated series Super Friends as well as the 1970s live-action show Wonder Woman.  

Wonder Woman, known for seasons 2 and 3 as The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, is an American television series based on the DC Comics comic book superhero of the same name. The show stars Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor Sr. & Jr. It originally aired for three seasons from 1975 to 1979.  The show's first season aired on ABC and is set in the 1940s during World War II. The second and third seasons aired on CBS and are set in the 1970s, with the title changed to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, and a complete change of cast other than Carter and Waggoner. Waggoner's character was changed to Steve Trevor Jr., the son of his original character.

From the IMDb:
After a dogfight with a Nazi plane, U.S. Air Force Steve Trevor crashlands on an uncharted island in the Bermuda Triangle. Paradise Island is inhabited only by women, and their existence has been kept a secret for thousands of years. Learning of the Nazi threat to humanity, the Amazon princess, Diana, is chosen to accompany Trevor back to the United States to battle the Third Reich. Garbed in a skimpy red, white & blue costume and armed with a magic lasso that forces anyone within its grasp to tell the truth, Diana uses her powers as Wonder Woman to battle the forces of evil.

In the story, Major Steve Trevor flies to the Devil's Triangle to intercept a Nazi plane headed to bomb the U.S. Both planes are destroyed, and as the two pilots parachute toward land, the Nazi shoots Steve. He lands on the shores of Paradise Island, where he's discovered by two of the beautiful Amazon women living there. One just happens to be the Princess, the only daughter of the Queen (though that would be contradicted later in the season), and this quite dewy-eyed princess can't help but nurse the ailing Trevor back to health. When the Queen sets an athletic competition to determine which Amazon will return Trevor to his home (before his savage manly ways corrupt the tranquil island, you understand), the Princess, forbidden by her mother to compete, wins the contest is disguise. She hops her invisible jet to the U.S. War Department, her precious cargo in tow.

Carter's star-spangled superheroine is wide-eyed and sweet as she experiences Washington, D.C., for the first time, causing a sensation strolling down a crowded street in her unique attire, and even bemusedly offering social commentary after stopping a robbery and being asked to "fill out forms." She's approached by a theatrical agent, who promptly makes some cash off her bullets-and-bracelets act but then tries to swindle her. But he's got another angle he's working, anyway.

The Nazi plot thickens, and though Wonder Woman has an innocent quality about her, she veers to the highly shrewd as she works to unravel the scheme. In a key historical moment (and a move that was mimicked by little girls everywhere!), we see Diana twirl to transform into Wonder Woman for the first time. (Lynda Carter explains in the special features for the first-season DVD set that the twirl was her suggestion when the producers were looking for some way for Diana to change into her alter ego.)

Comic books, TV movies, TV series, cartoons, movies.  I’ve written about the televersion of the multiversal Wonder Woman in the past:

WONDER WOMAN – DC UNIVERSE VS. TOOBWORLD

WHITE COLLAR REFERENCE FOR WONDER WOMAN

O’BSERVATIONS ON WONDER WOMAN 

MARY RICHARDS AND WONDER WOMAN

The first two qualifications for Wonder Woman’s inclusion in the TVXOHOF are on solid ground.  First we have the pilot movie, “The New Original Wonder Woman” and then her three season series.  One year was broadcast on ABC and then the next two seasons on CBS.

That first season was set during World War II but the timeline then advanced to the “present day” of the mid-1970s.  Once Wonder Woman began making a name for herself in battling the Third Reich, my trusty “Zonk Alibi” – the shadow ops group UNReel – sprang into action.  They were the instigators behind the Marstons and Peter creation of the comic book so that the general public would come to believe that she was really fictional, and maybe serving as a morale booster in the war effort.  This would allow the real Wonder Woman to continue on her mission to “defeat the Hun.”  (How jingoistic.)

Lynda Carter's third appearance as Wonder Woman marks her as a TV multidimensional on her own.  In 1976, she played the role in a sketch for "A Special Olivia Newton-John".  And she remained in character.

There's more to confirm Wonder Woman's existence in Toobworld than just her actual appearance.  For instance, we know that the UNReel project worked.  Young Mary Richards used to read the Wonder Woman comic book….

‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’
“Anyone Who Hates Kids And Dogs”

MARY:
I used to like comic books when I was your age. I used to love Wonder Woman. Do you know her?
STEVIE:
Sure.

MARY:
I used to love the way she’d ward off bullets with her golden bracelets. Gee, every month I couldn’t wait for the next issue to come out. Oh, I remember this one story when Egg Fu, her archenemy, had her trapped in this giant mustache of his. And he had her tied up in one end of the mustache, and in the other end of the mustache was her boyfriend, uh …
SUE ANN:
Steve Trevor.
MARY:
Right. Right. Well anyway just before Egg Fu was about to crush them both, Wonder Woman worked her arm free and twirled her magic lasso around his head and she cracked it into a thousand pieces, and the world was safe for democracy once again. I just thought it was wonderful. Do you like Wonder Woman?
STEVIE:
Naw, she’s too butch.

Nothing about Mary’s dialogue gives any indication that she thought Wonder Woman was a real person, so UNReel’s efforts had been successful. 

There is a discrepancy in her reminiscence that needs to be rectified: the comic first came out when Mary Richards was a year old.  (By contrast, Mary Tyler Moore was five years old.)  So she probably got into comic books around 1950, when she turned ten years old.

That infatuation with Wonder Woman lasted into her mid-twenties because she was twenty-five years old when that issue of “Wonder Woman” with Egg Fu came out.

From the IMDb:
The villain in the Wonder Woman comic book Mary talks about - 'Egg Fu' - first appeared in 1965. Mary said she read Wonder Woman as a child, but Mary Richards was in her mid-twenties, at the time.

There’s no Zonk here.  Mary told that little snot Stevie that she liked comic books when she was his age.  She just never said when she stopped liking them. 

By the 1970s, when Wonder Woman reappeared in public to battle crime (although I think she surreptitiously did so in the interim, which would allow me to incorporate this photoshopped picture into the Toobworld Dynamic), UNReel upped their game to cover for her by financing the Toobworld version of her TV series.  (It would not be the exact same TV series which we saw.  As was the case with other TV shows with televersions, there would be episodes which were never seen in the Real World.)

And we know that the televersion of Lynda Carter would be the star of that show as the Real Lynda Carter was in the Real World. Proof of that comes from yet another TV series:

‘Two And A Half Men’
“Justice In Star-Spangled Hot Pants”

Alan:
That woman with your mom looks just like Lynda Carter.
Walden:
That is Lynda Carter.
Alan:
Really? Wait, wait, T-TV's Wonder Woman? The jewel of Paradise Island? The-the shining crusader for justice in star-spangled hot pants?
Walden:
I just call her Lynda.
Alan:
And I just lost the cleaning deposit on this tux.

Walden:
Lynda, you look amazing.
Lynda:
Oh, my God. The last time we saw each other, you barely came up to here.
Walden:
I remember those days.

So that Zonk about ‘Wonder Woman’ being a TV show within another TV show was resolved by the same UNReel splainin for the comic books.

And then we have this reference:

‘Hope & Faith’
“Phone Home For The Holiday”

From the IMDb:
Faith and Hope approve of her Dad's new girlfriend until she admits that she was kidnapped by aliens.

Lynda Carter wasn’t appearing as herself; she played Summer Kirkland, the girlfriend. When the girls realized the heartbreak they caused their father by breaking them up, Hope and Faith disguised themselves as stewardesses to get on Summer’s flight and convince her to come back; their father wanted to marry her.  Unfortunately, the doors were shut and the plane was making ready for takeoff.  Summer took charge and bellowed for the doors to be opened back up again.  This caused Faith to remark to her sister, “Wow.  Check out Wonder Woman!”

This could be a combination reference – Faith may have noticed Summer’s “uncanny” (nudge nudge, wink wink) resemblance to Lynda Carter, which could mean that she was a fan of the TV series; she may also have read the comic books; and by the new millennium, the veracity of Wonder Woman’s existence may have already been exposed and confirmed to the general public.

If you refer back to that Inner Toob link to “An O’Bservation On Wonder Woman”, you’ll see the Super Six List of TV characters who dressed up as Wonder Woman.  Their inspiration for the costume could also come from the same set of references – the comic books, the TV series, both of which were based on the Real Wonder Woman.

(Here's one that wasn't used in that Super Six List.  This was a philandering couple at a costume party in an episode of 'Hart To Hart'.)

Within the greater TV Universe, Wonder Woman is a multidimensional.  Before Lynda Carter wore the stars and stripes, Cathie Lee Crosby assayed the role in a one-off TV movie which is set in a different TV dimension.  And that difference in appearance?  A different blob of clay was used to build her, I guess.

And then there was the 2011 failed pilot for a new version starring Adrianne Palicki.  That exists in Toobworld2, the land o’ remakes.

And of course, there is the Wonder Woman of the Tooniverse.  No matter the differences in artistic style, she is always the same character.

So if you don’t like the idea that Wonder Woman is being inducted based on inference, then think of her as the multidimensional, with Lynda Carter being the official face of the character based on her numerous appearances in the role.

And to finish up, here's one last photoshopped picture that could have happened.  Definitely inspiration for some fanfic, don't you think?

Oh!  As another member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame (Class of 2005) would often say, "Just one more thing...."

I'd like to make a suggestion to any TV producers out there whose assistants (the ones that do the heavy lifting) might stumble across this blog post: bring back Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.

Yes, I know she has aged, but not drastically so.  Yet it could play into what I have in mind....

Lynda Carter could play Wonder Woman far in the future.

We saw that Queen Hyppolita, first played by Cloris Leachman and then Carolyn Jones, showed signs of age during the course of the series.  So would be the situation for Wonder Woman.  And that's why it should be a show which is set in the future.

Even better?  Make it a guest appearance in a TV series that travels into the Future.  And what could be a better showcase than a series which is licensed by DC Comics?

Let's have Lynda Carter show up as Princess Diana in the far Future on an episode of 'Legions of Tomorrow'.  We've already seen her homeland of Themyscira make a cameo on an episode of the show.  So the option would be viable.

Of course, this would mean that she would be playing Wonder Woman in yet another TV dimension, but she's already proven that she does exist in other TV worlds as played by Ms. Carter.

So here’s to you, Wonder Woman! Welcome to the Television Crossover Hall of Fame!

BCnU!

I'm dedicating this post to three fans of Wonder Woman - my cousin Coco Manson, a dear friend, Mark Thompson, and my blogging buddy Rob Buckley.  More than anybody else, I hope you three enjoyed this....