TV Shows and Cartoons

Most pop culture fans have seen or at least heard of the 70s Wonder Woman television show starring Lynda Carter. For many, Lynda Carter is Wonder Woman. But that was not the first attempt to bring the character to the small screen.

  • In 1967, Greenway Productions developed a short pilot of a comedic Wonder Woman show along the lines of the popular live-action Batman, starring Ellie Wood Walker as the title character. It never went anywhere.

  • Cathy Lee Crosby starred as Wonder Woman in a now all-but-forgotten 1974 made-for-TV movie. Although the comic book had moved on, it featured the mod, 1960s Wonder Woman as opposed to the bold, super hero version Lynda Carter made popular a few years later.

  • Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman television show ran from 1976-1979. In its first season it was set at the time when the first Wonder Woman comics took place, in the early 1940s with World War II as a major theme. It was somewhat faithful to the comic book, but focused more on military missions and less on fantastic tales and mythology. Though it maintained good ratings, it was cancelled after the first season and then resurrected on a new network, CBS instead of ABC. The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, as it was called, was an action/adventure show that took place in the then-present day 1970s.

  • There have been various cartoons, from an appearance on The Brady Kids in 1972 to regular spots on Super Friends in the 1970s and 80s, and Justice League today.


Photo courtesy Amazon.com
The classic Wonder Woman: Lynda Carter

What's next for Wonder Woman? Recent interviews with Joss Whedon suggest he won't be staying faithful to the older comic books. But even if he wanted to, how could he when even the comic book writers themselves had trouble keeping to one consistent origin? Whedon hasn't yet thrown out any names as favorites for the lead actress. The current front-runner in the Stuffo office pool is Charisma Carpenter. Have a better idea? E-mail us at unlisted at stuffo dot com.

Is Wonder Woman Immortal?
(From the Comic Book Resources FAQ)

"It all depends on who you ask. The Amazons from Paradise Island are most definitely immortal, most of whom are over three thousand years old. However, Diana may or may not be immortal since some creators believe that Diana abandoned her immortality once she left Paradise Island.

The original Wonder Woman from the forties did age, albeit very slowly, and had grey hairs before she was shuffled off to limbo during the Crisis [DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths Mini Series]. The Lynda Carter Wonder Woman from TV was most definitely an immortal, not aging a day over the span of 40 years."

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