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Wonder
Woman: The Complete Collection
(1975 - 1979/Lynda Carter/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
B Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B
Wonder
Woman has been popular since she arrived during WWII and remains the
number one female superhero of all time, yet being brought alive on
any screen took decades and her debut was actually in Saturday
Morning animated TV cartoons before anyone saw her live action.
Wonder
Woman: The Complete Collection
would suggest all her live action TV exploits (including a failed
1960s TV pilot film, the underrated Cathy Lee Crosby 1974 TV movie
and disappointing Charisma Carpenter pilot telefilm that never aired)
would be included in this set, but this is strictly all the Lynda
Carter adventures.
To
distinguish itself from the Crosby telefilm, the TV movie pilot that
launched Carter as the still most successful Wonder Woman (though we
love Gal Godot) was entitled The
New Original Wonder Woman,
had more money and ambition in it than you would expect and was a
major event when it premiered on ABC in 1975. Save The
Night Stalker
and The
Night Strangler
telefilms (both finally on excellent Blu-rays themselves) and not
counting mini-series, the film has one of the most remarkable casts
of any film made for television ever. Carter is instantly perfect in
the role of the title character and her secret identity of Yeoman
Diana Prince, Lyle Waggoner (who eventually left the insanely
successful Carol
Burnett Show
for this series) is Major Steve Trevor, Richard Eastham is his boss
General Blankenship, Cloris Leachman (Phyllis on The
Mary Tyler Moore Show
and soon her own spin off, while still doing Oscar-winning feature
films) as Wonder Woman's mother Queen Hyppolyta (with a reported
paycheck to match), Fannie Flagg, Kenneth Mars, Stella Stevens, Eric
Braeden, Henry Gibson, Ian Wolfe, Anne Ramsey and Helen Verbit. The
teleplay is good too.
The
Adam West Batman
was heavy in syndication at the time and actors knew how valuable it
was to get on such a show, so a cast that strong is no surprise and
the script was just as good, telling how Trevor is shot and barely
survives a Nazi aerial encounter, only to land on Paradise Island,
where is is found by Diana (Carter) and sets up all the characters,
the Nazi menace and what became the series. Such casting continued
(we'll also list key, lesser-known/remembered actors) and the wit of
the scripts, including some humor and camp not as broad as Batman,
made for some classic shows in one of the bets seasons of any show,
superhero or otherwise, in TV history. Here is an example of what we
got as this launched as a full series, without going into all 60
stories.
Wonder
Woman Meets The Baroness Von Gunther
has the great Christine Belford as the Baroness, introduces the
always terrific Beatrice Colen as Etta Candy, Bradford Dillman as
another villain, Ed Gilbert, Ed Griffin and John Brandon. Gunther is
in prison, but is still up to no good. However, the show is aimed at
a younger audience and the results are mixed.
Fausta,
The Nazi Wonder Woman
may be the most amazIngly wacky hour of superhero television of all
time and ranks with the Nazis believe Wonder Woman is just a
Hollywood creation and truly not capable of what she has been
captured on film as doing (stopping bullets, cars, bad guys, etc.)
but Fausta (Lynda Day George is a great performance) is not so sure
and flies into the U.S. to find the truth. She'll kidnap Steve
Trevor to get Wonder Woman and bring her to Nazi headquarters in
Germany and that's just the beginning! Bo Brundin is the most
formidable Nazi in the series as Colonel Kesselman, Keene Curtis,
Colby Chester, Jeff Cooper and Christopher George. You have to see
it to believe it.
Beauty
On Parade
is an amusing romp where Diana goes undercover in a beauty contest
(as Yeoman Prince, she has not been considered 'beautiful' from the
ned of her intro in the pilot telefilm) because military bases are
being sabotaged. Dick Van Patten, Bobby Van, Anne Francis and
Christa Helm. A good entry where the actors make a good script
better.
The
Feminum Mystique
is in two parts, introduces Debra Winger and as Wonder Woman's
younger sister Drusilla, who becomes Wonder Girl here, plus has John
Saxon as a lead Nazi, Caroline Jones (succeeding Cloris Leachman
well) as their mother on Paradise Island, Curt Lowens, Kurt Kreuger
and Pamela Susan Shoop as the Amazon we see most when the Nazis
become interested in the material Wonder Woman's bulletproof
bracelets are made from, called Feminum. It is a classic of the
series and another must-see.
After
that, the shows still had great guest stars and some solid episodes,
but after only 14 episodes including the pilot TV movie, ABC
cancelled the series. Fans hoped there might be a Wonder Girl
spinoff, but that was quickly ended too, though Winger was back for
the final episode of the season in that character again and for the
last time. It seemed that would be the end of it, but CBS contacted
Warner Bros. with an interest in reviving the series. Now set in the
later 1970s when the show was being aired, the show was a surprise
hit and lasted two more seasons with Carter back as Wonder Woman.
The
theme song was altered twice (resulting in less impact) and Waggoner
was back as Trevor's son, but Eastham and Colen could not be rehired
as their characters would be senior citizens or passed on, plus no
Wonder Girl resurfaced and Beatrice Straight would play Wonder
Woman's mother in the relaunch pilot telefilm and find a new take on
the character. A private jet with the son of Steve Trevor (Waggoner
again) is flying near the Bermuda Triangle, but that is also near
Paradise Island and when they get gassed, the plane hits the
invisible magnetic field Paradise Island uses as protection. Diana
goes on board to investigate, only to discover Trevor, which brings
on brief flashbacks.
All
aboard are cured, but made to forget the last few days and the
Amazons discover a secret enemy plot on board. Stunned to see Steve
and to hear about international terrorism, that becomes the last
straw that makes her return as Wonder Woman for the first time since
the Allies won WWII.
Norman Burton (Diamonds
Are Forever)
would play the head of the intelligence outfit Trevor and Diana
Prince now worked for as Joe Atkinson and would be in the mode of the
original Mission:
Impossible
series for story setups. It also used a 'supercomputer' to be more
science fiction and the series (among other cheesy 1970s things it
would do) jumped on the Star
Wars
bandwagon.
Carter
says a few times in the supplements that these later seasons were
more fun for her since they opened up more possibilities for
storylines, but besides the many 1970s time capsules and time capsule
moments, the show just increasingly becomes too broad and moved more
and more away from the basics that worked in the first season, which
remains my favorite. Still, it was finally a hit and now you can see
for yourself for the first time in high definition.
Other
name guest actors on the show for the run of the series included
singer/actor Rick Springfield, Roddy McDowall, Frank Gorshin, Robert
Loggia, John Hillerman, Barbara Anderson, James Olsen, Tim O'Connor
(as Andros), Celeste Holm, Janet McLaughlan, Arch Johnson, Nehemiah
Persoff, Henry Darrow, Lance Kerwin, Martin Mull, Harris Yulin,
Robert Hays, Charles Cyphers, Fritz Weaver, Jessica Walter, Mel
Ferrer, Dick Gautier, James Hong, Ted Shackelford, Jayne Kennedy,
Juliet Mills, David Hedison, John Colicos, Kent Smith, Vincent Van
Patten, Barry Cahill, Gary Crosby, Bubba Smith, Greg Morris, Ron Ely,
Christopher Stone, Joel Fabiani, Jennifer Darling, George Chakiris,
Ross Martin, Mitch Vogel, Michael Cole, Harry Guardino, Lucille
Benson, Warren Stevens, Lee Bergere, Michael Lerner, Albert Paulsen,
Suzanne Crough, Gary Burghoff, Ed Begley Jr., Joe E. Tata, Gavin
MacLeod, Cindy Eilbacher, Brian Tochi, Eve Plumb, Dick O'Neill, John
Carradine, Peter Mark Richman, Philip Michael Thomas, Paul Sand, Joan
Van Ark, Mako, Marc Lawrence, Robert Reed, Milton Selzer, Rene
Auberjonois, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Andrew Duggan, Judge Reinhold, Sarah
Purcell, Jeremy Slate, Carmen Zapata, Marlyn Mason, Roger Perry, Bob
Hastings, Donnelly Rhodes, Hermione Baddeley, Barry Miller, Arthur
Malet, Charles Haid, Raymond St. Jaques, Ina Balin, Bert Remsen,
Clark Brandon, Jared Martin, Joseph Sirola, Fred Lerner, Craig T.
Nelson, Kaz Garas (who played Steve Trevor in the Cathy Lee Crosby
Wonder
Woman
telefilm) and Dack Rambo as a new Andros.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on all the
episodes can show the age of the materials used in parts, including
some experimental use of analog videotape in the early episodes that
look low def, but these look even better than the DVD transfers and
the First
Season
in particular really benefits by having the best color (including all
those Donfeld outfits for Carter that hold up remarkably well), most
solid look and some great depth of field shots. The later two
seasons happened after a delay and the show was moved up three
decades, so color is suddenly not as good, the show is shot with
flatter all around lighting, is meant to be more 'naturalistic' and
is also softer and not as color rich.
Still,
I doubt these shows will ever look better, but you can see the money
and effort that went into the WWII First Season shows here and they
do steal the show from the set.
As
for sound, I was expecting lossless sound, like DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless tracks for all the shows, not even any kind
of stereo upgrade, especially with the classic theme song and great
scoring led by Charles Fox and Artie Kane. Unfortunately, Warner and
DC have decided for some reason to use the older, more compressed,
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound for all the shows and that is the
weak point of the set. This is especially apparent on shows from all
three seasons when the soundtrack is overwhelmed by music, dialogue
and sound effects on the bigger action moments. This is not all the
time, but it is annoying when it happens and the same kind of sound
was oddly retained for the Blu-ray sets of the Adam West Batman show,
which made fans unhappy in that case too. DC, what are you thinking?
Extras
include an excellent Audio Commentary of the pilot movie by Lynda
Carter & executive producer Douglas S. Cramer, Audio Commentary
by Lynda Carter on episode, ''My
Teenage Idol is Missing''
that featured Leif Garrett and three featurettes: Beauty,
Brawn and Bulletproof Bracelets: A Wonder Woman Retrospective,
Revolutionizing
a Classic: From Comic Book to Television
and Wonder
Woman: The Ultimate Feminist Icon.
These apparently are from the older DVD sets and I wish a few new
extras would have been produced, but these are well worth your time.
With
all that said, the Lynda Carter Wonder
Woman
had been at the top of many lists of TV classics not on Blu-ray yet,
but it is finally here, though both the George Reeves TV and Kirk
Alan serial Superman
have yet to make it to Blu-ray. No matter its upas and downs
commercially or critically, it was a major iconic event in television
history, even if many did not realize it at the time. While some
things have dated as noted, some were and are way ahead of their time
and some as relevant or more relevant than ever. The series is
enough of a classic that everyone should revisit it again and this
Blu-ray set is now the very best way to do it.
-
Nicholas Sheffo