Wonder Woman's first appearance in live-action television was a television movie made in 1974 for ABC. Written by John D. F. Black, the TV movie resembles the Wonder Woman of the "I Ching" period. Wonder Woman (Cathy Lee Crosby) did not wear the comic book costume, demonstrated no superhuman abilities, her "secret identity" of Diana Prince was not all that secret, and she was also depicted as blonde (differing from the image established in the comic books). The film follows Wonder Woman, assistant to government agent Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas) as she pursues a villain named Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban) who has stolen a set of code books containing classified information about U.S. government field agents. The pilot aired originally on March 12, 1974 and was repeated on August 21 of that year. Ratings were described as "respectable but not exactly wondrous." ABC did not pick up the pilot, although Crosby would later claim she was offered the series that was eventually given to Lynda Carter. An ABC spokesperson would later acknowledge that the decision to update the character was a mistake and the pilot itself has been labeled one of the "hundred dumbest events in television.
American war hero Steve Trevor is downed over the Bermuda Triangle and lands on "Paradise Island", home of the Amazons. The Amazons hold a contest and choose a champion among them - Wonder Woman - who will return with Steve Trevor to America and remain there to fight the Nazi threat. In the pilot episode, there is a Nazi plan to destroy a new bomb site to ruin America's war effort. The Nazis have a mole in Steve's office who is sabotaging him, and only Wonder Woman can stop this catastrophe.
Steve Trevor battles for his life and his career when he's accused of espionage and treason in relation to a series of military missions that have gone awry due to acts of sabotage. Investigating the situation and determined to clear the man she loves, Wonder Woman learns that Trevor is being framed by a Nazi spy ring.
Perhaps the most discussed and favorite episode of WW fans during the show's run, Wonder Woman faces her deadliest test when an evil female Nazi operative comes to America to capture Wonder Woman and learn the secret of her amazing powers, then brainwash her into using her powers to help Hitler's quest during World War 2. Fausta disguises herself as Wonder Woman during a Bond selling rally, and with a little help from her fellow Nazi agents (not to mention a trick stage and a cloth soaked with chloroform), bags her prey and takes the real Wonder Woman to Germany. Can Steve Trevor save the day? Stay tuned!
When Wonder Woman's alter-ego, Diana Prince, enters a suspicious beauty contest to uncover the truth behind the sabotage of radar scanning equipment, she and Steve discover that there is something much more insidious underway that threatens the security of the United States.
An espionage tale involving the Nazis stealing the prototype for America's first jet, the XPJ-1. For Wonder Woman it escalates into something far more horrible when her sister, Drusilla on a mission for Paradise Island's Queen, is kidnapped while in America.
When a clever spy gets information from Drusilla concerning her homeland, the Nazis launch a full assault on Paradise Island, capturing it and planning to use its secrets to conquer the world. In the end, Wonder Woman and Drusilla must come up with a plan to set everything right.
The Amazon Princess must fight a Nazi guerilla, trained to retrieve a defecting agent, whose knowledge poses a threat to Hitler's agenda.
Wonder Woman has her hands full when an Irish mercenary named Fallon steals an American-developed device that can control or eliminate earthquakes. To make matters worse, Fallon is also a carrier of the Bubonic Plague and, as such, threatens America on two levels.
The Nazis place an exact double of a counterfeiting scheme that will result in the collapse of the American economy.
Wonder Woman joins forces with a friendly alien from outer space to prevent the destruction of the world.
Wonder Woman realizes that the fate of the world rests on her ability to prove the worth of mankind by saving an alien from outer space.
Wonder Woman goes south of the border to recover a top secret formula stolen by the Nazis.
Wonder Woman goes to Texas where she is confronted by a dangerous ring of pistol-packing rustlers.
Wonder Woman arrives in Hollywood and discovers some behind the scenes action that's not in the script.
Wonder Woman convinces her mother, the Queen of the Amazons, that she must once again go into the outside world to help protect the free world from its enemies as well as the secret of Paradise Island and its ancient culture.
Wonder Woman is called upon to battle a new and more terrifying Nazi menace when she and Steve Trevor are assigned to investigate a reunion of expatriate Nazis on a small tropical island.
Wonder Woman is pitted against the awesome telekenetic powers of a Japanese man who was interned during World War 2 and has been planning revenge for 35 years.
The I.A.D.C's Operation Sea Harvest is being compromised by Ray Manta and his I.C.O.P.E. organization. Diana is especially worried since both parties are operating around the Bermuda Triangle, dangerously close to Paradise Island.
Wonder Woman must use all her power to stop a terrorist group from kidnapping Steve and other Government officials.
Wonder Woman must use all her powers to save Joe Alkinson's daughter from the evils of super rock star Hamlin Rule.
Diana goes undercover at the Malakan consulate to prevent international jewel thief Evan Robley from stealing the crown jewels of Malakar.
Wonder Woman masquerades as a new bride honeymooning at a health spa to prevent a group of traitors from obtaining government secrets.
Wonder Woman must save the world from destruction through man-made volcanos.
Wonder Woman joins forces with space traveler Andros to stop body snatching aliens from invading Earth.
Wonder Woman realizes that the fate of the world rests on her ability to save the great minds of America from evil alien forces from outer space.
It's the Christmas season and Wonder Woman finds out that some toys can be very harmful.
Wonder Woman goes undercover posing as a bank robber to capture the world's most notorious thief.
Wonder Woman thwarts a plot to kidnap all the top Olympic athletes of the world.
Wonder Woman saves the world from an oil crisis when she exposes a magician's method of changing lead into gold.
Diana is assigned to protect an industrialist from an assasination attempt.
Wonder Woman fights digital thieves who are stealing memory banks from the world's largest computers.
Wonder Woman poses as a photographer to protect an Air Force test flight from sabotage.
The guardians of a young psychic use his abilities to disrupt a peace conference.
When a janitor discovers the key ingredient for an experimental explosives formula, he is pursued by those who would use it for evil.
A young girl flees her own dimension into ours to escape a man who would force her to misuse her special powers.
Wonder Woman must stop the hi-jacking of an experimental thought-controlled missile, but she is continuously delayed by a small-town sheriff.
A singing teenage hearthrob is kidnapped and replaced by a look-alike.
Diana helps find a stolen antique Rolls Royce with top secret microfilm hidden somewhere inside.
When a scientist develops a way to control matter, he uses it to manipulate the outcome of a football game.
When valuable artwork in a museum mysteriously begins to vanish, Wonder Woman discovers the museum statues may be more life-like than originally thought.
Wonder Woman must stop a disco that lures government engineers, and then taps their minds, stealing national secrets.
A scientist uses her strange power to control insects to prevent the manufacture and distribution of a deadly pesticide.
A scientist who has traveled back in time from the year 2155, thinks she can become a billionaire by using her "inside" information.
Diana's god-daughter, a teenage skateboard whiz, is used by a mobster for extortion and blackmail purposes.
Trained dolphins are being used to put explosives on oil tankers.
People are being duplicated including Steve Trevor Jr., and Wonder Woman herself.
Wonder Woman helps a leprechaun recover his stolen gold.
Billionaire Harlow Gault has found a way to keep his disembodied brain alive and now wants a new body for it.
Diana goes undercover to crack a ring of criminals who deal in atomic hardware.
Diana must find a stolen laser crystal that has been hidden somewhere at a science-fiction convention, before the bad-guys do.
A hoax has everyone, including Wonder Woman, believing that Earth is being threatened by hostile aliens.
Going undercover to stop extortionists in the record industry gives Diana (and Lynda Carter) a chance to show off her vocal abilities.
Diana must find a reclusive millionaire who is the only one who can help her with a secret device that scrambles missile-guidance systems.
A computer-dating service is the unexpected hiding place for a deadly virus that was stolen from a government laboratory.
A plan to steal priceless historical documents centers around a woman who 'attracts disaster'.
Alien life-forms shaped like small pyramids come to earth and imprison the minds of humans who touch them, taking over a small town. Meanwhile, Diana isn't as careful as she should be.
Humans who have been 'possessed' by the pyramid aliens search for an alien criminal who has the power to shape-shift into anyone, even Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman goes up against a super-man who is as strong as she is, and a criminal genius who has special powers.
Searching for the leader of a foreign spy ring, Wonder Woman goes to a Washington amusement park where she encounters a disfigured veteran who lives under the roller coaster and 'haunts' the park as its 'phantom'.
Diana is captured on her way to a missile test site and kept captive in a ghost town.
The first attempt to translate Wonder Woman to the small screen occurred in 1967. The success of the Batman television series led Batman producer William Dozier to commission a pilot script by Stan Hart and Larry Siegel. Batman writer Stanley Ralph Ross was then asked to perform a re-write, after Hart and Siegel's script was deemed unsuitable. A portion of the pilot, under five minutes in length, was filmed under the title Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? The piece starred Ellie Wood Walker (Robert Walker Jr.'s wife) as Diana Prince, Linda Harrison as Diana's "Wonder Woman" alter ego and Maudie Prickett as Diana's mother. This pilot episode was never broadcast and the project was taken no further.
Documentary about the making of "Wonder Woman." Includes interviews with Lynda Carter, Douglas S. Cramer, Alex Ross, and Les Daniels. The interviews with Lynda Carter and Les Daniels were filmed at the DC Comics offices in New York City.
A look at the second season of Wonder Woman, when the show moved to CBS and into the 70's.
Lynda Carter and four female authors discuss the status of Wonder Woman as a feminist icon.
