I’m going to walk out on a limb and say that Lynda Carter is more iconic than Adam West.
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In the sense of how she embodies the character, than yes. Adam West’s Batman did more to add to the lore of Batman than the actual character.
I forgot about the disembodied voice of the boss. they lose that eventually, if memory serves.
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The voice goes away when the show is tweaked and Steve promoted.
It’s supposed to be the President, as it uses the presidential seal (actually a very similar mockup, since the use of the actual seal is regulated by the White House). And Joe once makes a call to reach him and mentions Camp David. The IADC is supposed to be the top defense agency in the US. In the Wonder Woman '77 meets Bionic Woman comic they went more in detail about that, with the IADC coordinating the FBI and CIA and other intelligence agencies (which is why it’s called “Inter-Agency”)
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Awesome research, I never thought to look up how it ranked. Guess it shows what happens when you get Wonder Woman right…
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You sound like Andy Mangels with your knowledge of the character. BTW, he has a Wonder Woman collectors’ group on Facebook if anyone wants to learn or share about Wonder Woman merchandise.
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Thanks. Some of the stuff I picked up reading posts and interviews by Andy Mangels and people like him (like the stuff about the presidential seal). The promo I stumbled upon on ebay once. Then I started digging and found an website with historical ratings.
All in all, DC shows would rank like this in terms of television ratings
- Batman (Top 5 Nielsen Ratings during Season 1, around 14 million households, but Season 2 dropped to 11 million and I don’t have any data for Season 3)
- Wonder Woman (close to 13 million households during Season 1, around 12 million for the other seasons, with Season 3 actually doing better than 2)
- Lois & Clark (around 9.5 million households for the first 3 seasons)
- The Flash 1990 (close to 8 million households, but back then those were bad numbers)
Of course new shows have an entirely different set of standards when it comes to ratings. Even Smallville, because it was on The WB/CW. Also up until the late 90s they didn’t know how many actual viewers there were, only households. Some shows would have closer to 2 or more people per household watching it than others, naturally. Mainly family shows, like Wonder Woman.
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The Flash was also hurt by competition (Simpsons and Cosby) as well as changing times and days.
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Since the last episode we watched was written by a woman, Judy Burns (other works include Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Six Million Dollar Man, Knight Rider), it would be a good time to recollect that the show’s most prolific writer was also a woman.
Anne Collins wrote 15 episodes of the show and served as story consultant/story editor for another 23 episodes. Her episodes include some of my favorites (“Going, Going, Gone”, “The Starships are Coming”, “The Boy Who Knew Her Secret Parts 1 and 2”). Other works includes Hawaii Five-O, Buck Rogers, Fantasy Island, Matlock and Murder She Wrote.
Other female writers on the show:
Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday (“The Feminum Mystique” w/ Jimmy Sangster)
Margaret Armen (“Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther”)
Gwen Bagni (“Last of the $2 Bills” w/ Paul Dubov)
Kathleen Barnes (“Time Bomb” w/ David Wise)
Katharyn Powers (“Formicida”)
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I noticed a huge continuity issue I never had seen before. Steve only heard stories from his Dad, but Ishida had a vast collection of Wonder Woman memorabilia. Doesn’t hurt the show for me in tge least, just can’t believe I never noticed before…
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Season 2, episode 3, The Man Who Could Move the World, was an interesting episode. It tackled some heavy topics. According to one of our World of Wonder club members, it was one of the only shows at the time to depict the internment of Japanese Americans in a negative light at the time.
We also get some flashbacks to WWII, which used to be the setting for season 1. We get to see a little more development between Diana and Steve, while also getting some awesome fashion choices. I like how this Steve actually feels like a different character and not just Steve, Sr. in different clothes.
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I don’t think that’s really an issue. It’s never stated that he only knows about Wonder Woman from his dad. He only says his father told him about their adventures, and he knows the details about how the lasso works. He doesn’t even know where she comes from because Steve Sr. also didnt know about Paradise Island and the Amazons. But he has the album with newspaper clippings (that other people have discovered as well, like Gloria and Solano seeing the newspaper clipping of Wonder Woman and FDR).
Besides, it’s always treated like Wonder Woman has been pretty much forgotten despite being in the media during WWII. Stuff like that happens in real life, huge fads sometimes are forgotten, specially from around that era.
But the very cover of that magazine from the 2nd season suggests people now remember she existed. “Wonder Woman returns”. Her resurgence made them recollect.
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Steve said he thought his father made up the stories of Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman told him his father was a very honest man. Also, if there were puzzles, dolls, coloring books, etc, it stands to reason that she would be remembered 30 years later. I mean, how much like her would you forget in 30 years?
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Steve said he thought he “exaggerated.”
Which was what most people thought. In season 1 Nazis constantly dismiss previous reports of their own agents thinking they exaggerated. I could see a scenario where Wonder Woman gets recognized as a hero but more as an Allied “special agent” and her feats being more like urban legends (after all she’s not all that powerful in this version)
Ishida’s collection seems to be rare. In fact in the very episode Steve calls the doll a “collector’s item” and Wonder Woman says only a few dolls were sold for charity. He collected them because he had a special interest in her.
Actually, one interesting thing the show does (considering a time when continuity across episodes was often ignored) is that people start to recognize Wonder Woman. At the start of Season 2 a few people recognize her from the past, a few still think she’s just a legend. But as it goes on she gets famous. And villains in special start realizing she often appears helping IADC agents so she must be associated with them.
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I’d equate her to Evil Kneivel, a legend in a costume, but we all remember him all these years later.
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Round 2 brackets are set. This link will take you right to the start of the 2nd round:
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The best and most copied superhero costume change ever
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I think there is some validity in that, but it is also the only tv or theater released solo version of WW until Gadot. Where as Batman had many solo incarnations in film and tv cartoons in those intervening years.
Part of the reason Lynda Carter is so iconic is there isn’t a lot else to compare her too. And I say that as someone who honestly loves her more as WW than Adam West as Batman.
Gadot did a great job in WW, and probably in WW84. However, will she unseat Lynda Carter as the iconic Wonder Woman. Not in my book.
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