20171020

WONDER WOMAN

Wonder Woman was 2,527 years old when the CBS version of the series went on air in 1977. Born Princess Diana of Themyscira, Wonder Woman grew up in Paradise Island, founded around 200 BC. Her mom was Queen Hippolyte of the Amazons and her dad Ares. In the first 'Wonder Woman' comic book, readers were told, "The planet Earth is ruled by rival gods - Ares (or Mars), god of war, and Aphrodite (or Venus), goddess of love and beauty. Ares is determined that men shall rule with the sword. But Aphrodite has vowed the women shall conquer men with love." In 1993, 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus' by John Gray turned out to be a phenomenal No. 1 New York Times bestseller.

It was concluded the 25 was how old Lynda Carter was when she first breathed life into the cartoon character of Wonder Woman in 1975 (born in 1951) and 27 was how old she was when the series on CBS was first shown. Set 32 years after the end of World War II, at which time in 1941 when Wonder Woman had to leave Paradise Island for the outside world to take on Adolf Hitler and to protect the Free World from the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, the present-day society (1977) provided the series "a more 'geopolitical' tone" as Wonder Woman, alias Diana Prince became an agent for the Inter Agency Defense Command (IADC), a CIA-like organization.

Diana worked at IADC headquarters in Washington D.C., alongside a super computer known as IRAC (Internal Retrieval Associative Computer) and a robot called Rover. Lynda Carter explained, "They thought the World War II storylines were too limiting with the only major villains being the Nazis. The thinking was that if we took it into the 1970s, there would be more to explore, from a creative standpoint."

After 14 specials were produced (including the pilot) for ABC to show when the network preempted other programs such as 'The Bionic Woman', Alan Sloane, then chairman of Warner Bros. sold the 'Wonder Woman' series to CBS for the 1977-1979 seasons, to be shown on a fixed weekly time slot on Fridays. On ABC, Lynda Carter recalled, "We pull such big ratings all of the time so they put us against the hardest competition that they can."

In its first season on CBS, the network reported the 'Wonder Woman' series was growing in popularity among American viewers. By its last season, 'Starlog' reported the average ratings of 'The New Adventures of Wonder Woman' for the first 12 episodes of the 1978-1979 season "was actually several points higher than the same period of the previous year." However that was insufficient for CBS which "temporarily shelved" 'Wonder Woman' after the 1978-1979 season. The network then segued into 'The Incredible Hulk' series which provided lead-in for 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and 'Dallas' on its Friday night TV lineup.

On CBS, the contemporary setting afforded 'Wonder Woman' the opportunity to explore more science fiction stories. Charles Fitzsimmons stated, "Now that we're with a new network, we're taking 'Wonder Woman' out of the World War II period and updating it to today (in 1977). We want the show to come into the era of science fiction, to encounter all of the things that are popular with people today. We don't want to deal merely with the Nazi threat, show after show, anymore. We want a faster pace."

Bruce Lansbury spoke to 'Starlog', "We're going for what we call 'subculture' shows so we can better appeal to adults while attracting the teen audience. We'll deal with the beach scene ('The Deadly Dolphin'), the male heart throb scene (Leif Garrett guest starred) and the disco scene. 'Wonder Woman' was a show based in the past the first year (1976-1977). They never shook off the fact they were doing a comic book show.

"I came in after 8 shows last season (1977-1978) and thought what we needed was a quicker pace, so we dropped the spoof aspects. We took the show seriously and will continue to do so in the new season (1978-1979). If people just look at it as a fantasy show that sometimes approaches science fiction, I think they'll have some fun with it. We have a show which Alan Bennett wrote called 'Disco Devil,' which has a villain controlling one particular paranormal who you could call 'John Travolta with the Glowing Eyes.' He can zap your memory and transfer your thoughts into his mind." 

Formicida, Bruce Lansbury insisted, "She's a friendly villainess. She goes after people who hurt the ecology. Other times we plan to have a man who wants to hold up the television networks, and a doctor who works out of a submarine and has a particular knack with laser technology. Then there are our science-fiction stories: one where a fugitive from another world seeks refuge on this planet. In another, there's a man in the future with a time machine. His evil aide arranges to be kicked into our time because she knows something that will benefit her."

The brave new world was explored in the 17th episode of the 1977-1978 season, 'IRAC Is Missing'. Written by Anne Collins and directed by Alex Singer, Ross Martin played Bernard Havitol, a leading authority in the field of computer science. In the episode, Havitol was hell-bent on taking "total control over the modern world" via communication satellites. Viewers were also introduced to his robot CORI.

Havitol told Diana, "There are almost 4 billion people (in 1977). The world is already too big. Computers are running right now out of necessity. I have access to every computer on the face of the Earth. I can spend myself cash at any bank in the world. I can control every bit of information in every computer everywhere in the world. I can control the world."

Havitol claimed to have 50 drone bases all over the world which could control 1000 computers at each center. With access to the satellites, Havitol could now communicate with all of the drone bases at the same time. The network first aired the episode in February 1978 and reran the episode again in June 1978. Havitol also told IRAC he found the sound of computers, sound of knowledge more satisfying than the cacophony of the human species.

'American Youth Magazine' reported in 1979, "Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Wonder Woman first appeared in a continuing comic book series. Written by psychologist William Moulton Marston until his death in 1947 under the pen name of Charles Moulton, the comic book was based largely on his research and his belief in American democracy. Marston was interested in the Greek goddesses and legendary Amazons."

'StarForce' reported in 1978, "With the phenomenal success of Superman and Batman in the late 1930s, comic books had become one of the most profitable branches of publishing. Of all these cartoon demigods, only Superman, Batman and - of course Wonder Woman have survived until now without interruption. America was about to join the battle of World War II when Wonder Woman bounded onto the comic book scene.

"Although Marston explains how his women come to Paradise Island, he never tells us how the Amazons manage to give birth to the many young women who live there. One explanation may be parthenogenesis - cloning duplicates of themselves in a scientific 'virgin birth' process. John Wyndham explored this idea in his novel, 'Consider Her Ways' (1956), which told of a future society in which men have become extinct due to a mutated virus. The all-female society clones its replacements, and eventually they learn how to clone a male from a female body. The idea is soon discarded, however, for the women can think of no good reason for bringing back the male sex."

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