World of Wonder | Wonder Woman (Series 1975) DISCUSSION

I’m w/ you. Haven’t seen the episodes enough to rank them. For now, I’ll just say I enjoyed the whole first season! :+1:

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Depending on definitions, transitioning the Justice Society to the Justice Battalion in 1942 could qualify. An independent Air Force (even if it was more of an informal Joint Service Air Force, similar to how HUAC was a joint-chamber committee in some versions of Earth-2 history) could be retroactively justified by the much larger number of Axis-aligned countries in Golden Age comics.

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Interesting take. I do wonder what was going on behind the scenes, because 1 thing challenges your take, in the last story continuity episode, Diana moves to L.A. and Lyle is removed altogether (an explosion takes his place in the opening credits).

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I know he’s not in the last produced episode. But at the same time he has quite a bit of screentime in the last aired episodes (Phantom of the Roller Coaster) and almost all of his screentime in these episodes is shared with Lynda as well. My take is that his role wasn’t really “continuously diminishing” as I’ve seen some people (not here) saying. It was mostly uneven. He actually engages in more actual action and goes more on the field in certain episodes of Season 3 compared to the last half of Season 2 overall.

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True, but I’m wondering where Phantom was actually supposed to place. It seems Boy Who Knew and Man Who Could Not Die were the last 3 in continuity, because she states she might be moving to L.A. when she last talks to Skip. Also, I greatly wish CBS hadn’t started cancelling the shows because they were being referred to as the comic book network, because besides Wonder Woman, I truly enjoyed Capb Spider-Man, and the Hulk. I could have watched those for many years (and still do which proves it). Regardless, I’m thankful for CBS picking up the series for the 2 extra seasons we got because 14 episodes would have been a terrible injustice…

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wwep14

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Loving the lively discussion! This show really is timeless. It still has us all talking all these years later.

The finale of season 1 was a really enjoyable episode. Probably not my favorite, but somewhere toward the top/middle. I loved the opportunities the change of in-story setting provided the creative team as they were able to use their real world setting of California very successfully and in interesting ways. The part where the baddies have Steve and you think he’s in one place, but it ends up being a set was awesome. Getting to see Dru again was a delight.

I’m definitely going to miss these characters once season 2 hits.

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I love this episode because of Wonder Girl. It is sad that both ABC and CBS ended with a super powered team up for Diana, yet they were never fleshed out (continuity in CBS obviously). It truly is one of my favorite episodes because you have WWII, Wonder Woman, and Wonder Girl, all things that I love in entertainment.

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because now they’re the procedural network

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Hahaha

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Screenshot_2020-06-03 debra winger wonder girl - Google Search

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And because the Dukes of Hazzard was such a deeply intellectual show.

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I think you will enjoy the “modern” seasons. The show looks better shot in general, they can go to places and Diana’s outfits specially in Season 3 are breathtaking.
Also Steve “Jr.” delivers Steve’s greatest line in Season 2 (which I won’t spoil :smirk:)
It’s actually similar to the Bronze Age comics when she worked for the UN “Crisis Bureau”

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Today I finally managed to look up what was probably the highest ranking episode on the Nielsen ratings.
It was Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther, which scored a 22.9 rating and ranked 9th place (tied with “Baretta”, “Starsky and Hutch” and “Welcome Back Kotter”) among all shows during the week.
That rating means around 16 million households, which would be close to 30 million total viewers.
WB used this piece to promote the third episode which shows the rating for the 2nd episode and how Wonder Woman beat the other 2 shows on the same time slot.

I checked and the ratings for the pilot episode did not reach the Top 20 when it was first aired in Nov. 7, 1975, however, a rerun during the week ending in April 4, 1976 reached the 12th place (tied with “Baretta”, “Starsky and Hutch” and “The Six Million Dollar Man”), which would be close to 16 million households/30 million viewers as well.

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Wonder Woman Season 2 kicked off with an extra-lengthy premiere! What did you all think of the first episode? Are you a fan of time jumps?

wws2ep2

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Season 2 episode 2 was quite fun! What did you all think of it? I’m always going to recall it as the episode where Steve wore the yellow turtleneck.

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I’m sold already! I can also tell how much more they are able to use locations instead of just the same sets dressed differently.

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Like always, I remain grateful for your research. You’d give Lois Lane a run for her money! What a cool piece of TV history you found there with the promo for the third episode. A heck of a lot of people watched this show. It’s no wonder so many still view it as the definitive Wonder Woman portrayal because so many were introduced to Diana through this show.

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Unfortunately, the series didn’t sustain such high ratings (relatively to its time and among other shows), but on average it still pulled 12.2 million households (more than 20 million viewers) across all 3 seasons. Also, it was very popular with kids and teens which helped it stay on air when other shows would get cancelled. After it ended and went to syndication, I believe it was #7 in the syndication ratings among kids in 1982 according to the Nielsen survey I once found on the internet.
In its original run the show suffered from weird schedules (many Season 1 episodes would air at different times to fill in spots ABC needed to win) and Season 2 and 3 were on friday night which was already considered a terrible slot back then. Also the last few episodes were aired sporadically, a couple of months later.

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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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