Wonder Woman : Synopsis, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Filming Locations

. The only villains that appeared both in the comic books and the TV series were Fausta Grabels played by actress Lynda Day George and the Baronness Paula Von Gunther played by actress Christine Belford.

. The following women all played the Queen Mother: Cloris Leachman, Carolyn Jones, and Beatrice Straight. All were Oscar nominees.

. An episode entitled "The Velvet Touch," involving toxic makeup, was unfilmed because star Lynda Carter was a spokeswoman for Maybelline.

. Tensions between series stars Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner grew to the point that as the series went on the two stars appeared in fewer and fewer scenes together. So that Waggoner's character would have more activity on the show, producers brought in Saundra Sharp to play fellow IADC agent Eve. Waggoner was to be completely written out of the show as in the last episode of the series Diana is relocated to the Los Angeles bureau of IADC. In recent interviews, Lynda Carter has denied any tension existed.

. When western actor Roy Rogers made a guest-appearance in the episode "Bushwackers", he felt it was inappropriate for Lynda Carter to be wearing only a "bathing suit" so he had producers make her wear a solid red top and white chinos for every scene she was to portray Wonder Woman.

. In the episode "Anschluss 77" (episode 2.2) the script called for Wonder Woman to grab on to a bar under a helicopter and hold on to it as the helicopter lifted 50 feet into the air. Actress Lynda Carter's stunt double shot the scene but as the camera was so close to the stand-in it became obvious that it wasn't Lynda. As the production crew was beginning to lose their lighting, Lynda felt she could perform the stunt on her own and told her stunt double to let her go instead. She filmed the scene herself, which angered the unaware producers of the series as Carter not only didn't inform anyone ahead of time, but did not use protective wrist guards what could have held her to the helicopter should she not have the strength to hold on.

. When the son of Wonder Woman stunt double Jeannie Epper told his classmates that his mother performed on the Wonder Woman television series they did not believe him, even after showing them a photo of his mother in costume. When series star Lynda Carter was told of the situation, she took it upon herself to invite his entire class to visit the Wonder Woman set to see Jeannie perform.

. Costume designer Donfeld had originally created a red, white and blue two-piece bikini for actress Lynda Carter when she was to perform as Wonder Woman in the water. When the finished bikini did not seem to stay on the actress during the required scenes, production opted to go with the full body wetsuit instead.

. In the episode "Stolen Faces" the character Wonder Woman only has one line: "Hold it!"

. There have been changes in the original DC continuity since the show went off the air. Among these changes is the fact that Wonder Woman has no secret identity and is no longer an Amazon princess; she has relinquished the title. Unlike the original Wonder Woman (i.e., pre-crisis), she also has special super-powers that make her different from any other Amazon.

. The first season of the series was set during World War II. When the series moved from ABC to CBS the next year, the entire format of the show was changed with the immortal Wonder Woman returning to civilization in the late 1970s and teaming up with the son of 'Steve Trevor' from the first season (of course played by the same actor). Lynda Carter's costume also underwent some minor modifications with the changeover.

. The dog Tiger used in the episode "The Girl From Islandia" is the same dog named Tiger from "The Brady Bunch" (1969) and from "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" (1973) where he appeared as Fluffy.

. The Bermuda Triangle Crisis" Episode: #2.4 - 7 October 1977 made use of the "Seaview" model from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

. In the episode "Amazon Hot Wax", Lynda Carter flexes her vocal talents by singing a couple songs, one from her solo record album "Portrait". The music centered episode also spoofed then current artists by having the Judge Reinhold and Sarah Purcell characters resemble the group Captain & Tenille and showing the Kiss look-alike band "AntiMatter".

. The Wonder Woman series was known for having actors make multiple appearances playing completely different roles such as Henry Gibson in the Wonder Woman pilot and the episode "Screaming Javelins"; Ted Shackelford in the episodes "Time Bomb" and "Knockout"; Bob Seagren in the episodes "Stolen Faces" and "The Man Who Could Not Die"; and Rick Springfield in "Screaming Javelins" and "Amazon Hot Wax".

. Warner Bros. attempted several spin-offs from characters in the Wonder Woman series. Actress Debra Winger was offered her own "Wonder Girl" series, but opted out as she wanted to perform in more serious roles. A similar series was proposed for actress Julie Anne Haddock for her role as the also super powered girl from the episode "The Girl From Islandia", actress Sheryl Lee Ralph who appeared in the episode "The Starships Are Coming" was approached to play another super hero, as was Bob Seagren for his role in the episode "The Man Who Could Not Die". Alas, the last three proposals never made it past the approval stage.

. Although Debra Winger made a sizable amount of money for her appearances as Wonder Woman's little sister, she actually spent most of it on buying herself out of her Warner Bros. contract as she had second thoughts on continuing to perform her contracted character of Wonder Girl.

. When football legend Bubba Smith learned that he was going to be "thrown" by Wonder Woman in the episode "Light Fingered Lady", he said, "Ain't no way some white lady is gonna f---in' throw me!" Lynda Carter proposed that if she were actually able to throw him, he would have to continue filming. He agreed and was forced to finish shooting his scenes when Carter was able to flip him in place with one try. What Bubba didn't know was that Carter and the cameraman secretly signaled each other to shoot that first humbling test flip and it ended up becoming the shot used for the episode.

. The character of Wonder Girl, played by Debra Winger during the first season, first appeared in comic books in 1965, though the nature of the character is quite different in the TV series version. Today, the superhero is known by the name Troia. A new Wonder Girl was introduced in the mid-1990s.

. In the pilot film and first two episodes, Diana's transformation into Wonder Woman was accomplished via her spinning her clothes off in slow-motion. Although well-received, it proved too expensive to do every week. Beginning with "Beauty on Parade", this was replaced with Wonder Woman spinning quickly, followed by a thunderclap, a flash of light, and she was immediately changed into her costume. Ironically, this rather noisy substitution is first used during a scene in which Wonder Woman is trying to sneak out of a room of sleeping beauty pageant contestants!

. The first season of this series (1975-76) consists of only three episodes, including the pilot, which were broadcast as specials. The second season began airing in October 1976, and was shown on an erratic schedule (sometimes with only 2 days between episodes) until the season ended in February 1977. The 2004 DVD release combines both sets of episodes into one season.

. Lynda Carter unsuccessfully tested for the first Wonder Woman TV movie that starred Cathy Lee Crosby.

. Lyle Waggoner was elected mayor of Encino, California and served in this capacity during production of the series.

. During the period when the show was set in the 1940s, D.C. Comics, the publisher of the Wonder Woman comics, decided to do a tie in with the series by setting the stories in the self titled Wonder Woman comic book as well as her appearances in "World's Finest Comics" in the '40s as well. However, this was the Earth 2 version of Wonder Woman. The modern Earth-1 Wonder Woman still appeared in the "Justice League of America" comics. Also, when the show switched to the modern day, the stories in "Wonder Woman" and "Worlds Finest" followed suit and moved her back to the present day.

. The Super Loop rollercoaster shown in the episode "The Phantom of the Rollercoaster" is actually called The Revolution which debuted in 1976 at the California 6 Flags amusement park Magic Mountain. Coincidentally, the amusement park is owned by Warner Bros., just like the television series, and in the comic book portion of the park (Gotham, named after the city Batman resides in) you can still find rare Wonder Woman merchandise not commonly sold in stores.