![]() ![]() I think they were just reworking the concept so it would A) be cheaper, and B) play into the spy movie trend that was popular at the time. While the comic book Wonder Woman did go through a powerless superspy phase in the book a few years earlier, but I doubt that was what the producers of this film going for with this one. Here is a clip from the film, taken completely out of context. The film focused on Diana trying to track down vital stolen documents from a bad guy with a rogue Amazon bodyguard. And her trademark costume was replaced by a track suit you’d expect an Olympic athlete to wear during opening ceremonies. She kept her magic bracelets, but her golden lasso turned into a golden cord in her belt buckle. In other words, she could beat that burly trucker in an arm-wrestling contest, but she couldn’t tear a door of a bank vault off its hinges. She did have strength, speed and agility greater than the common man, but nowhere near her comic book counterpart. Most of the character’s superpowers were gone. It starred the exceptionally blonde Cathy Lee Crosby as Diana, who was more superspy than superhero. On March 12, 1974, ABC aired a Wonder Woman film that was intended to be a backdoor pilot for a series. However, even taking that into consideration, it was still way off in its portrayal of the icon. If we are being generous, we can say that the next television incarnation was faithful to a particular era of Wonder Woman. They needed a superhero for a campy comedy, they drafted Wonder Woman for a dumbed down version of That Girl. It’s not just that they didn’t “get” the character, although that plays a big part of it, but it’s also that they decided to employ the character to suit their own needs. Regardless, this incarnation showed the start of the errors Hollywood made in approaching Wonder Woman. When Diana says she’s looking for a “man” instead of a boyfriend, it seems like lip service to the feminist movement to make up for the stereotypes on display. ![]() Even after you get past the awkward story structure and the lame attempts at jokes and slapstick, you have a clip that’s less about Wonder Woman and more about Diana Prince being harangued by her mother to find a boyfriend. You might say it’s hard to get an idea of the final product from just five minutes, but I can’t see it getting any better. Five minutes of that pilot were filmed and they were completely awful. Titled Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince? ,it was a comedic look at the character. In 1967, when the Batman TV show was at the height of its popularity, a Wonder Woman pilot was commissioned. Her trek to the small screen wasn’t a piece of cake either.Ībout nine years before Lynda Carter donned the eagle breastplate, an attempt to create a Wonder Woman TV show was made. If we want to examine Wonder Woman’s problems getting a film of her own, we should start with he struggles to get on TV. Or, it could be a sign that the problems plaguing the character are getting worse. Superman film could be seen as a sign that the character’s journey to the big screen might be over. The casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and the news that she will be appearing in the forthcoming Batman vs. Batman only has one live-action TV show to his name, but is going on his fifth film incarnation. Superman has had four live-action shows, and is undergoing his fourth regeneration at the cinemas. ![]() While she arguably has more cultural influence that the other Big Two (she is a feminist icon as well as being a gay icon), she has only one live-action television show to her credit and no feature films. This makes it especially puzzling why Wonder Woman has had such a hard time get adapted into live-action format. And odds are if there is a piece of licensed material with a DC Comics character on it–be it bedspreads, t-shirts, alarm clocks or anything else that could be sold–it has one, if not all three, of these characters on it. They are American icons that have become part of Americana. They were at the birth of the comic book medium, they survived the dark period of the 1950s, and have weather numerous booms and busts over the decades. All three have been continually published in one form or another for over seventy years (the only superheroes to do so). Sure, you could make an argument for every one from Spider-Man to Wolverine, Plastic Man to Captain Marvel/Shazam to make the cut, but in my eyes, these three are the big three. If I had to pick the three most popular comic book superheroes of all time, I’d have to pick three DC Comics characters–Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
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