History Series / WonderWoman

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/00014_6.jpg]]
->''"Wonder Woman!\\
All the world's been waiting for you\\
And the power you possess\\
In your satin tights\\
Fighting for our rights\\
And the old red, white, and blue!"''
-->--'''Series theme'''

''Wonder Woman'' is an American live-action TV series that originally aired from 1975 to 1979, based on the comic book superhero Franchise/WonderWoman. It starred Creator/LyndaCarter as Wonder Woman and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor. While often regarded as campy and cheesy in hindsight, it's still somewhat of a CultClassic.

The movie-length pilot episode and first season aired on Creator/{{ABC}}, and were set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

From the second season, the series moved to Creator/{{CBS}}, was retitled ''The New Adventures of Wonder Woman'', and the setting moved to the present day (ie. TheSeventies). Wonder Woman, being an ageless Amazon, hadn't aged a day, while Lyle Waggoner switched to playing the [[IdenticalGrandson remarkably familiar-looking]] Steve Trevor Jr.

An unrelated failed PilotMovie was broadcast about a year earlier, ''Film/WonderWoman1974'', starring Creator/CathyLeeCrosby as a non-powered Wonder Woman in a very loose adaptation (verging on InNameOnly). Even earlier, in the mid-1960s, William Dozier (who produced Series/{{Batman}} and Franchise/TheGreenHornet) produced a five-minute ''Wonder Woman'' screen test which portrayed Diana as living with her mother.

In 2011, Creator/DavidEKelley attempted to produce a pilot for a new ''Wonder Woman'' series starring Creator/AdriannePalicki, best known for her role in ''Series/FridayNightLights'', although the project was cancelled before the pilot had been completed. The unfinished pilot attracted poor reviews and [[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot has a page here]].

In January of 2015, a digital comic continuation à la the ''ComicBook/Batman66'' comic kicked off under the title ''Wonder Woman '77'', written by Marc Andreyko of ''Manhunter'' and ''Batwoman'' fame. Print anthologies are being released a couple of times a year. November 2016 saw the release of digital crossover miniseries ''Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77'', co-written by Andreyko and ''Batman '66'' writer Jeff Parker, followed in December 2016 with another crossover mini, ''Wonder Woman '77 Meets [[Series/TheBionicWoman Bionic Woman]]'', written by Andy Mangels.

----
!!This series provides examples of:

* AbsoluteCleavage: Creator/LyndaCarter brought a new look to the character. Previously in the comic book Wonder Woman had a slim and athletic build. After Carter's portrayal, Wonder Woman was [[MostCommonSuperPower was never drawn the same way again]]. Formicida and [[KidSidekick Wonder Girl]] were also impressive.
* ActionGirl: Wonder Woman followed in the footsteps of the first TV [[{{Superhero}} superheroine]], Batgirl. She was part of the action girl movement in the [[TheSeventies 1970's]] that included shows such as ''Series/TheBionicWoman'', ''Series/PoliceWoman'', and ''Series/CharliesAngels''.
* ActionMom: Wonder Woman's mother is Hippolyta - the amazon who defeated Hercules - but this is never confirmed or denied in the show. However, in "The Feminum Mystique", the Amazons [[spoiler: overthrow the Nazis who were holding them prisoner after seizing Paradise Island]]. The last defining act is when Hippolyta, armed with a feminum bracelet, stares down the leader informing him that his gun is now useless against her.
* AdaptationDistillation: The TV show simplified the comics (none of Wonder Woman's supervillains ever appeared, for example, though some of her Nazi opponents did) but still had a charm of its own. As far as public perception goes, this show was to Wonder Woman what the Adam West ''Series/{{Batman}}'' was to Batman; everything the public knows (or thinks it knows) about Wonder Woman comes from either this show or ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends''.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Steve Trevor, blond in the comics and most adaptations, is here played by the brunet Lyle Waggoner. The same thing happens to Paula Von Gunther.
** And the exact ''opposite'' happens with Fausta Grables, who was brunette in the comics but played by the blonde Lynda Day George on the show.
* AdaptationalWimp: In the original Golden Age comics, Etta Candy was a one-woman cavalry, routinely beating up Nazi spies with her bare hands (and the occasional judicious use of candy), WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief be damned. Here, she's little more than flighty comic-relief, and even her love of sweets is downplayed.
* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: Paradise Island is an uncharted island within the Bermuda triangle. In 1942, the Amazons wear togas and use bows and arrows, but they had an invisible plane, a truth serum, and guns to use in her “Bullets and bracelets” challenge.
* AfterActionPatchup: In the pilot, "The New Original Wonder Woman", Wonder Woman nurses Steve Trevor until he's healthy enough to be transported back to the United States.
* AgonyBeam: These appeared more than once in the series.
** In "The Man Who Made Volcanoes", Wonder Woman endures the prolonged laser blast of a weapon designed to cause volcanic eruptions.
** At the climax of "IRAC is Missing", Diana encounters an artificially intelligent security program which uses a laser in an attempt to thwart her heroics.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Most of the AIs Diana meets seem to function as programmed, except possibly for Cori. When Havitol betrayed his robot secretary in "IRAC Is Missing", she quickly did a HeelFaceTurn and used her knowledge of Havitol's escape plans to lead the authorities right to him.
* AirVentPassageway: Used by Havitol to steal IRAC in "IRAC Is Missing".
* AllLovingHero: Wonder Woman's theme says it clearly: Make a hawk a dove, stop a war with love. Much like the comics, she frequently rehabilitated or helped people rather than fighting them.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In "IRAC Is Missing", [[BigBad Bernard Havitol]] climbs through the AirVentPassageway in [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction IADC Headquarters]] to steal [[NamesGivenToComputers IRAC]] right from the secret government agency's home base. [[spoiler: And gets it back as Wonder Woman destroys his base in return.]]
* AlliterativeName: Wonder Woman.
* AlmostOutOfOxygen: In "The Man Who Could Not Die", [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]] is tied up and trapped in her garage with the car left on in order to kill her. She escapes her bonds just in time to [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning transform into Wonder Woman]]...but passes out entirely mid spin! [[spoiler: Bryce Candle, The titular Man Who Could Not Die, arrives in the nick of time!]]
* AlwaysOnDuty: Being Wonder Woman means never getting a day off and in "The Feminum Mystique" using her leave time [[spoiler: to return to fight Nazis on Paradise Island]]. In "The Queen and the Thief" and "Knockout", Agent Diana Prince's apartment is set up to alert her when she's needed using signal lamps that look like normal ones. Being woken up in the middle of the night and coming home at midnight are commonplace.
* AmazonChaser: Steve Trevor is shown to be very interested in Wonder Woman, but somewhat oblivious to Diana Prince (romantically speaking).
* AnAssKickingChristmas: "The Deadly Toys", featuring Frank "[[Series/{{Batman}} the Riddler]]" Gorshin as the BigBad!
* AndMissionControlRejoiced: In "Flight to Oblivion", Wonder Woman breaks into mission control, disarms the {{Mook}} and allows the operators to divert the missile into the sea.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' Good work, Captain!
--> '''Captain:''' Look who's talking!
* AnimatedCreditsOpening: Used in the first two seasons, but dropped by the third.
* AppropriatedAppellation: In the pilot:
--> '''Queen Hippolyte:''' Go in peace my daughter. And remember that, in a world of ordinary mortals, you are a Wonder Woman.
--> '''Princess Diana:''' I will make you proud of me... and of Wonder Woman.
* ArchEnemy: None of WonderWoman’s villains in the TV series ever recurred, but it’s implied that [[LargeHam Marion Mariposa]] did appear in a previous, unbroadcast adventure, as he is talked about last seen presumably drowned in the North Sea. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ERHpdE1Bs The interesting part is that he is not Wonder Woman’s enemy]], but [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction IADC agent]] [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince’s]] enemy. For Diana Prince and Marion Mariposa, ItsPersonal.
--> '''Marion Mariposa:''' Oh, why are you so unpleased to see a familiar face? [[SchmuckBait Did you enjoy the candy I sent you?]]
--> '''Diana Prince:''' ''[waking from her induced sleep]'' Not in the least, [[KnockoutGas and I enjoyed the flowers even less]].
--> '''Marion Mariposa:''' [[FauxAffablyEvil What’s the matter? Lost your sense of humor?]]
--> '''Diana Prince:''' I was hoping we were rid of yours. [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat Weren’t you supposed to be drowned at the North Sea after our last encounter?]]
--> '''Marion Mariposa:''' By now you should know that I have my entrances and exits carefully choreographed, Diana. I had one of my submarines pick me up.
** The above exchange is made the more remarkable given that Diana/WW generally maintained a "no killing" policy, yet here she openly talks about trying to kill someone.
*** Or possibly just failing to rescue/capture someone.
* ArgentinaIsNaziland: Foreshadowed in "Formula 407". Played straight in "Anschluss '77".
* ArtEvolution: While Diana's spinning into her WW outfit had been there since the first episode, it wasn't until a few episodes in that the lens-flare coverup was added. The spin was also initially depicted in slow-motion, but this was sped up (hence the need for the lens-flare).
** It's also stated in the commentary on the first episode that the transparency effect of the transformation in the pilot was too expensive to film over and over again, and the lensflare was a cheaper alternative.
* AudibleGleam
* AudibleSharpness: Wonder Woman's TV series tiara [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EykZgkC8l58 makes a strange sound]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qahSU4RYblY when she uses it as a boomerang]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsrOK8fkcWE Her lasso of truth makes a "snap" sound when she lassoes someone, and there is always thunder when Diana Prince]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning spins]] [[ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction to change clothes into]] Wonder Woman.
* AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: Let's just say the Nazis' war effort was not helped by repeatedly attacking Diana.
* TheBait: Steve Trevor's main job. For example, in "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman", Steve is [[KnockoutGas gassed]] by Fausta and locked in a crate solely to draw out Wonder Woman and watch her beat up some {{Mooks}}. Later in the same episode, he's chained to a wall to capture Wonder Woman with crushing walls. [[spoiler: She's stronger than the Nazis counted on]]. In "Knockout", Steve spends the entire episode tied up and in the evil terrorist's clutches. [[spoiler: Thus dooming the group to be destroyed by Wonder Woman]].
* TheBaroness: Baroness Paula Von Gunther, though given the child-friendly tone of the show they obviously couldn't show any of the less savory aspects of the trope. She did like tying people up, though.
* BangingForHelp: In "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman", a bound, gagged, and trapped in a crate Steve Trevor alerts Wonder Woman as to his whereabouts by kicking the crate and mmmmruphing through the gag. She rips open the crate to rescue him. In "The Man Who Wouldn't Tell", Wonder Woman traps a {{Mook}} in an elevator. He calls for help over the building's intercom system. We never find out who arrives to rescue him since Wonder Woman rounds up his boss quickly after trapping him.
* BeachEpisode: Diana spends some time in a swimsuit on the beach in "Skateboard Wiz". It's a somewhat unnecessary bit of fanservice, considering that her iconic outfit is already a LeotardOfPower.
* BeautyContest: In the "Beauty on Parade" episode, Diana Prince enters a beauty contest to covertly expose some villains.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Wonder Woman is a drop dead gorgeous [[BeautyContest pageant winner]] and shining beacon of justice and goodness. Steve Trevor is tall, handsome and a war hero. Paradise Island is populated by good and beautiful women who are all willing to fight Nazis.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Wonder Woman always looks like she's competing in the Miss World pageant (which Lynda Carter actually did in 1972) regardless of the death-defying experiences she frequently endures.
** The most blatant example occurs in "The Man Who Made Volcanoes." At the episode's climax, Wonder Woman [[spoiler:places herself in the firing range of a laser beam that causes volcanoes to instantly erupt on the other side of the Earth. Despite being hit by this weapon, which would release up to 25 megatons of energy, for the better part of a minute, Wonder Woman]] barely has a hair out of place afterwards.
* BeingGoodSucks: Used sparingly, which isn't surprising for escapist entertainment made during the 1970s. There were situations, however, when it seemed like Diana got the raw end of the deal by becoming a superheroine. Especially considering that prior to repeatedly risking her life to save the world, she enjoyed the life of a royal princess. Of a place called Paradise Island.
** In "Mind Stealers from Outer Space, Part II", Andros asks Diana to join him on a cosmic trip to the most romantic planets in the galaxy. She declines, not because she doesn't want to join him, but because she's needed on Earth.
** In "The Man Who Could Not Die", Diana Prince chides the despairing eponymous character by noting that, "in a lot of ways, Wonder Woman is more alone than you are."
* BelligerentSexualTension: Mei Ling and Lin Wan in "The Man Who Made Volcanoes."
* BigHeroicRun: [[Creator/LyndaCarter Lynda Carter]] could be credited with inventing the Baywatch run for some of her lingering slow motion running shots, such as in "Amazon Hot Wax". In character, this was best shown in "Death in Disguise" when she ran over 700 mph to thwart the evil plan.
* BikerBabe: Wonder Woman rides a motorcyle in several episodes, and even has a special outfit for doing so.
* BloodlessCarnage: The show went to great lengths to keep the violence PG rated. Wonder Woman crashed cars with {{Mooks}} in them, blew up a submarine, hit bad guys with a razor sharp tiara, fought a gorilla, fought her way out of a Nazi prison, and caught bullets all without spilling a drop of blood. In "Wonder Woman in Hollywood", she even convinced Steve Trevor and Wonder Girl that she'd been shot despite the lack of blood!
* BoundAndGagged: In "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman", Steve Trevor is kidnapped and stuffed in a crate in this condition. Diana Prince is regularly as Wonder Woman's weaknesses in season 2 and beyond are rarely known to her enemies and never purposely exploited.
* BrainInAJar: In "Gault's Brain."
* BrainyBrunette: While Diana's genius intellect is far from her sole defining attribute, her apparent knowledge of every spoken language (including birdsong!) and her ability to solve complex scientific problems within seconds indicate she is certainly a brunette who is brainy.
* BreakingTheBonds: Wonder Woman did this many times. In "Formula 407" she is chloroformed and Steve Trevor are tied up. She snaps the rope almost as a afterthought. In "Baroness Von Gunther", the bad guys have the forethought to chain her up with chains that are "unbreakable, even by elephants". But they are breakable by Wonder Woman. In "The Murderous Missile", Wonder Woman wakes up in a jail cell chained by both of her hands and feet. It takes her 25 seconds to break the chains and the door of the cell.
* BulletCatch: In "Death in Disguise", [[BigBad Nightingale]] surprisingly fires a small cannon that is unexpectedly a real weapon at Wonder Woman. She catches the bullet sized cannon ball.
* BulletproofHumanShield: Justified when, in "The Man Who Could Not Die", Wonder Woman ducks behind the aforementioned man to throw her lasso of truth around a {{Mook}}. He blocks the bullets with his body which is slightly more efficient than letting her deflect the bullets with her bracelets and lassoing the thug as he runs away - as is done every other time this comes up.
* ButtMonkey: Harold Farnum.
* TheCaligula: [[LargeHam Marion Mariposa]] is wildly irrational, violently moody, very intolerant of being told anything he doesn't want to hear, and [[IControlMyMinionsThrough totally in control of a micronation, submarines and his mercenaries]]. He infiltrates the US by sky diving, kidnaps Olympic athletes in an attempt to gain popularity for his own micronation, [[{{Egopolis}} Mariposalia]], and his ArchEnemy is not Wonder Woman, but IADC agent [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]]
* CaptainPatriotic: Wonder Woman's outfit was initially based on Steve Trevor's American flag insignia.
* CatFight: Occasionally.
* TheChampion: Invoked by Queen Hippolyta: The Amazon winner of a tournament will escort Steve Trevor to his country. Subverted because this is less for his safety than to preserve the LadyLand in Paradise Island.
-->'''Queen Hippolyta:''' For his safety - and ours. One of our young Amazon girls will escort him to his country, and then return to Paradise Island.
-->'''Princess Diana:''' But all the girls will want that task.
-->'''Queen Hippolyte:''' I know. To forestall any ill feelings, I have planned a tournament of athletic games, by which I alone will determine the strongest, nimblest, and most likely candidate for the assignment.
** Princess Diana / Wonder Woman is the champion for Paradise Island, for Steve Trevor and for Liberty and Democracy while she stays in man’s world.
* ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction: This [[Series/WonderWoman adaptation]] introduced the world [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL9L_uYASrU to the way]] Diana Prince could [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning spin]] to change her clothes, and even Wonder Woman could change back into Diana Prince (in the episode "The Feminum Mystique Part 1)".
* CityOfSpies: Going by this show, it would seem like half the population of Washington DC were Nazi double agents.
* ClarkKenting: Almost always played straight as pulling her hair back and wearing big glasses fools everyone. However, it was averted in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dsdp_7bxIc "Mind Stealers from Outer Space (Part 1)"]] when the Skrills, an [[RubberForeheadAliens alien race]] who steals minds to sell them into slavery, discovers easily Diana Prince's secret with only a slide projector:
--> Unquestionably, the same human.
** In later episodes, the trope is lampshaded by the fact that Diana often appears ''without her glasses'' and with her hair loose, yet no one incredibly makes the connection.
* CliffhangerCopOut: The episode “Phantom of the Roller Coaster: Part 1” ends with Diana Prince (Wonder Woman's depowered SecretIdentity) inside her car looking back, just before an enormous truck smashed it... [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat with her inside]]. Part 2 begins with Wonder Woman outside the car lassoing the perpetrators.
* CombatByChampion: ''"Wonder Woman’s return"'': After being in a stalemate with Dr. Solano, he proposes to Wonder Woman a SwordFight. “Winner gets all”. [[spoiler: It’s a trap]].
* CombatStilettos: Wonder's Woman's official uniform includes red boots with white trim and fairly high heels. Any viewer paying special attention during action sequences, however, can clearly see that both Lynda Carter and her stunt double used otherwise-identical heelless boots for running, fighting, etc.
* TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt: The villainness Paula von Gunther who worked for the Nazis was revealed as doing so because they had her daughter captive. (In the comics she was a willing accomplice, until her HeelFaceTurn.)
* ConcertClimax: In "My Teenage Idol Is Missing", the episode ends with a concert headlined by Lane, played by Leif Garrett [[spoiler: and his identical twin brother Michael, also played by Leif Garrett]]
* ContinuityDrift: During Season 1 Wonder Woman was the main character with [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]] serving as a secretary only to get information on where she was needed. She frequently visited [[HiddenElfVillage Paradise Island]] and traveled in her [[CoolPlane invisible jet]]. Seasons 2 and 3 feature Agent Diana Prince who is the IADC's top agent largely because she can become Wonder Woman when the occasion requires. The invisible jet last appears in "The Man Who Could Move the World", the second episode of season 2. In "The Man Who Could Not Die", one of the last episodes of the series, she even says: "In a lot of ways, Wonder Woman is more alone than you are." That's a very long way from the pilot, "The New Original Wonder Woman", with regular invisible jet travel anywhere in the world and an entire island of amazon sisters where she is a member of the royal family.
* ConvenientEnemyBase: In "The Bermuda Triangle Crisis", Diana and Steve crash land and end up right next to [[BigBad Manta's]] secret headquarters
* CoolCrown: Wonder Woman's tiara is a razor sharp boomerang that she uses regularly to disable Nazi boats, disarm bad guys, and destroy equipment among other things. In "The Queen and the Thief", Queen Kathryn's crown was very nice and the focus of the episode.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Queen Hippolyta claims [[HiddenElfVillage Paradise Island]] is a Utopia because it is a LadyLand. Once Princess Diana [[GenderRarityValue had seen a man for the first time, she dares to disagree:]] Paradise Island is a CrapsaccharineWorld for the very same reason.
* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: All of the Amazons use multicolor vaporous dresses and use bows and arrows even if they live in an AdvancedAncientAcropolis
* CulturalPosturing: Queen Hippolyta remembers that women were slaves of the Romans and the Greeks. After some thousands of years being an immortal, she is not fond of any culture in the patriarch world:
--> '''Queen Hippolyta:''' We are stronger, wiser and more advanced than all those people in their jungles out there. Our civilization is perfection!
* CurbStompBattle: This was true of most of Wonder Woman's fights. The producers of the show were very concerned about the visual of a woman being hit by a man in prime time television in TheSeventies. The solution was generally that her fights were so one sided that she would rarely be hit or [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished even muss her hair]]. A notable example is in "The Starships Are Coming" when Wonder Woman annihilates [[BigBad Mason Steele]] and his seven {{Mooks}} with contemptuous ease.
--> '''Mason Steele:''' She must be executed as an example to all those who idolize her. Get her!
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' ''Tilts her head with an expression of "Seriously?" mixed with "Bring it on"''
--> '''Lead Mook:''' Well we gotta so something!
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' ''Stomps the curb, floor, grass, bushes, and street with all of them''
* DamselInDistress: Wonder Woman in "The Starships are Coming."
** DamselOutOfDistress: Wonder Woman herself in several episodes.
* DarthVaderClone: In "Mind Stealers From Outer Space", the alien Skrill unleash the Zardor, a monster that is even stronger than Wonder Woman. Despite all [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHAGxsvLXm8 the trouble that the Zardor gives Wonder Woman]], his outfit resembles what happens when a Sith Lord gets his clothes from a craft store.
* DecoyDamsel: [[spoiler:George in "The Murderous Missile."]]
* DemotedToExtra: Steve Trevor (Jr.) during the last leg of the CBS era, where he was made Diana's commander instead of field partner; the never-materialized fourth season probably would've written him out entirely.
** To an extent, this happened to ''Wonder Woman herself'' in the CBS era, which (probably to compete with NBC's ''Series/TheBionicWoman'') became increasingly focused on Diana as a non-powered government agent and only had her turn into Wonder Woman when some bad-guys needed punching (even the iconic invisible jet was gone by Season 3). In contrast, the ABC-era episodes frequently referenced Diana's Amazon background, and their villains would make specific plans and contingencies for Wonder Woman rather than treating her as a random annoyance.
* DesperateObjectCatch: In "A Date With Doomsday", Wonder Woman leaps to catch the virus thrown from a helicopter. [[spoiler: She succeeds.]] PlayedForLaughs in "The Queen and The Thief" when Wonder Woman tosses the lock she's just ripped out of a safe to Evan Robley. [[spoiler: He succeeds...eventually.]]
* DirtForcefield: The show was surrounded by this. Steve Trevor making his way through a Nazi forest? He and his guide are squeaky clean. ("Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman") Wonder Woman, Steve, and a bunch of others just had a knock down fight on a dirt road? Everyone's still clean. ("The Girl With a Gift for Disaster") Wonder Woman breaks up a bottle smashing, food flying fight among a bunch of football players? Everyone's still clean. ("The Deadly Sting")
* DisguisedInDrag: Starker in "Death in Disguise."
* DistressedDude: Steve Trevor is captured and/or knocked out almost every single episode.
* DoesNotLikeGuns: Not to ComicBook/{{Batman}} extents, obviously, but Wonder Woman took a certain pleasure in destroying the bad guys' guns during the first season, and when she goes skeet-shooting in a later season, turned down the shotgun in favor of ''throwing the shells with her bare hands''.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Hoo boy, "Skateboard Wiz". A vice-loving man desperate for money [[AdultFear finds an unattended, prepubescent girl at the local arcade]] and sweet-talks her into using her talents to "help out" at his vice-den of choice. This "helping out" requires that the girl wear a revealing dress to look more "mature". And it's the '70s, so everyone and his brother is wearing a PornStache. Really, the episode feels a ''lot'' like an hour-long StrangerDanger PSA.[[note]]Despite the episode's title and semi-memetic screencaps, there's very little actual skateboarding; the main plot revolves more around an arcade, and the illegal casino hidden in its backrooms.[[/note]]
* DownerEnding:
** Averted in most episodes. As a fairly campy show in both its WWII and 1970s eras, most episodes concluded with either Diana Prince or Wonder Woman presenting a broad smile to the camera.
** Played straight in 'The Girl From Islandia'. The character in question was [[spoiler:stuck in Man's World without any known way of returning to her home.]]
** The ending to 'Mind Stealers From Outer Space, Part II' was bittersweet at best. [[spoiler:The world was saved from the alien invasion, but Diana's refusal to accept Andros' romantic offer was clearly not an easy decision for her to make.]]
* TheDreaded: The Zardor.
** Also seen with the shape-changing alien in "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret". When it transforms into its final form, Wonder Woman visibly shudders with fear as it advances towards her.[[note]] Bear in mind that Wonder Woman is amazingly powerful and courageous. She once stopped a tank with her bare hands, and seemed to do so with almost no effort. She once let someone fire a machine gun at her ''for a charity event''. Few things can hurt her, and even fewer things can scare her. If Wonder Woman seems to be afraid of something, you ''know'' it's dangerous. [[/note]]
* EarnYourTitle: Princess Diana had to compete in a contest on Paradise Island to earn the right to return Steve Trevor to Man's World and fight injustice as Wonder Woman.
* EffortlessAmazonianLift: Wonder Woman has a habit of lifting up heavy items and opponents in a display of her super-strength. When she's using clearly superhuman strength a bionic style SignatureSoundEffect plays.
* ElectiveMute: Charlie in "The Bushwackers". Thanks to Wonder Woman, he goes from frightened to the point of mute to leading the children to help her escape a jail cell by returning [[SuperStrength her magic belt]] to talking by the end of the episode.
* ElevatorEscape: In "The Fine Art of Crime", two {{Mooks}} are sent to kill Diana. She hits them with her car door and runs away, ducking into an elevator. [[spoiler: She returns to the floor as Wonder Woman. The mooks run. CurbStompBattle ensues.]]
* EnemyMime: In "Diana's Disappearing Act."
* EveryEpisodeEnding: Each episode ends with a close-up of Diana smiling, followed by a freeze-frame.
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: "Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua" had a gorilla [[AttackAnimal trained to attack Wonder Woman]]. "The Man Who Could Not Die" had a [[SmallAnnoyingCreature chimp]] who was the first successful experiment before the [[NighInvulnerability titular man]].
* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The famous spin-change was proposed by Carter; the producers were nervous about having Wonder Woman simply take off her clothes every episode.
* FailedASpotCheck: The fact Steve and other characters seem unable to recognize Diana is Wonder Woman simply by her putting on glasses, covering her legs and putting her hair into a bun is one thing, but in later episodes where she a) stops wearing glasses even as Diana, b) has no qualms about wearing Wonder Woman-esque swimwear at the beach and c) doesn't even bother changing her hairstyle anymore ... and people ''still'' don't make the connection? That's textbook failing a spot check.
* {{Fanservice}}[=/=]MsFanservice[=/=]ParentService: Carter herself, of course. And it only got [[FanservicePack better]] as time went on; in the second season the costume was tweaked to flatter her bust a bit more (she was never fond of the "bullet bra" from the first season) and to show more leg, and her civilian clothes were sexier than the bulky military uniform she wore in the first season. A (very) skin-tight lycra catsuit was also added to her wardrobe for use when Diana needed to swim or ride a motorcycle. Towards the end of the series Diana wore her hair down Wonder Woman-style more frequently, too, and also got away with losing the glasses, too (meaning Carter basically pretty much looked like Wonder Woman in every scene).
** Debra Winger as Wonder Girl.
* [[FauxActionGirl Faux Action Boy]]: War hero Steve Trevor will suddenly be surrounded by Nazi spies. He decks one with a punch, then a second spy will pull a gun on him and he meekly goes into captivity to be rescued by Wonder Woman later that episode.
* FinalBattle: Most of Wonder Woman's opponents are vastly outmatched to the point of a CurbStompBattle. Two notable exceptions are the Zardor in "Mind Stealers from Outer Space" and the Shapeshifter in "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret". Zardor was a truly strong opponent that Wonder Woman could not overpower. [[spoiler: She was forced to send him plummeting to his death.]] The Shapeshifter became a barbarian and put up a reasonable fight in the climax to a two part episode. He even threw Wonder Woman around and through some things, [[spoiler: until it pissed her off enough to flip, smack, and kick him into the Glowing Pyramid.]]
* FishOutOfWater: Especially in the first season, Wonder Woman didn't entirely know how the world outside Paradise Island worked, and did things like reading books on slang so she could blend in better.
** Very much downplayed, if not ignored, when Diana returns to America in the 1970s.
* FlatCharacter: Etta Candy, General Blankenship, Joe Atkinson, and Bobbie are among many examples.
* FriendToAllChildren: Wonder Woman frequently befriends children throughout the series. In "Baroness Von Gunther" and "My Teenage Idol Is Missing", only Wonder Woman believes the fantastic story from the child that turns out to be true. In "The Bushwackers", she befriends all of the children, including inducing the wayward and jealous son to do a HeelFaceTurn and getting the ElectiveMute orphan to talk.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Definitely present in this portrayal of the character. If you want Wonder Woman to stay out of your secret compound, you'll need more than guard dogs. [[SpeaksFluentAnimal On one episode, she could mentally communicate with pigeons.]]
* FunWithAcronyms: The Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC), which employs Diana Prince from Season 2 onward. Kind of an FBI[=/=]CIA combo.
* GamerGirl: Jamie in "Skateboard Wiz," who can easily beat anyone at everything from arcade games to blackjack as a result of her math-savant abilities.
* GenderRarityValue: The unconscious Steve Trevor is the only man that had reached the LadyLand / HiddenElfVillage Paradise Island in millennia. There was fear that he would become worshipped, so Queen Hippolyta declares an Amazon will escort him to his country.
-->'''Princess Diana:''' But all the girls will want that task.
* GeniusBruiser: Diana is shown to be exceptionally skilled at math.
** In "The Pluto File", Wonder Woman casually solves an equation that was befuddling one of the world's foremost experts.
* GentlemanThief: Evan Robley in "The Queen and the Thief".
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: While the actual show was pretty cuddly and harmless even for '70s TV, its digital-comic revival is somewhat less so. The first story arc has Diana and Steve investigating a [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed thinly-veiled]] version of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_54 Manhattan's Studio 54]], complete with a recreation of the infamous "Man in the Moon With the Cocaine Spoon" sign, and a customer [[VisualPun snorting "cola" through the nose]].
** On a more literal note, the comic allows profanity a lot more easily than, say, what the ''[[Series/{{Batman}} Batman '66]]'' comic will allow. In her debut issue, Cheetah even gets to growl "bastard" under her breath!
* TheGlassesGottaGo: Steve's inability to see that Diana was gorgeous was largely due to her glasses.
** Taken literally in later episodes where Diana ditched the glasses herself.
* TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin: Almost always in effect. Averted in the conclusion of the first half of each two-parter.
* GoodIsNotNice: In "Anschluss '77", Wonder Woman alters a scientific device sustaining a clone of Hitler, which effectively kills the reborn dictator before he can unleash his plans to conquer the world. In most episodes, Wonder Woman prefers to use non-fatal techniques to defeat the bad guys, but there are some enemies who are too dangerous for the proverbial kid gloves.
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The IADC (Inter Agency Defense Command), of which Steve Trevor Jr, was an agent.
* HeelFaceTurn: Wonder Woman often tried to reform bad guys rather than defeat them, and sometimes she would succeed.
* HeroDoesPublicService: In Season One, Diana was particularly active in encouraging the American public to support the war effort against the Nazis. She'd often show up at charitable events and display her powers, such as attempting to lift an enormous weight or deflecting bullets with her bracelets.
* HeroicSecondWind: Wonder Woman typically has a significant advantage against most of the villains that she encounters. But there were a few situations in which she came back from the brink of defeat.
** In "The Feminum Mystique, Part 2", Paradise Island is conquered by the Nazis, and Diana is enslaved along with the rest of the Amazons. She and her sister manage to rally and defeat the invaders.
** In "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret, Part 2", Diana has been brainwashed into forgetting that she is Wonder Woman. After she's told of her true identify, she struggles to overcome her disbelief in order to transform before the final battle.
* HeroKiller: The Zardor seen in "Mind Stealers from Outer Space" was designed to be this. It was a large, nearly mindless humanoid monster that the Skrill only kept with them for the few threats that they couldn't overwhelm with their laser weapons or mind-stealing technology. When the Skrill-possessed-Johnny declared, "He will tear Wonder Woman apart", he meant it literally.
** Even more noteworthy was Diana's reaction to the Zardor. In her first encounter with it, Diana was temporarily stunned by a HeroicBSOD as she tried to comprehend the bizarre abomination that had just burst into her apartment. She then tried to flee in utter terror before it caught her, and when it did, there was nothing she could do to break free of its grip.
** In her second encounter with the Zardor, she attempted to fight it as Wonder Woman. The struggle had some give-and-take, but as the battle waged on, it was clear that Wonder Woman was fighting against something even more powerful than herself. After it bearhugged her and backhanded her, Wonder Woman tried to run away from the battle, only to have the Zardor still catch up with her.
** Indeed, Diana only managed to prevail against the Zardor by using her mind to outwit the monster. If the Zardor had been a little smarter, Johnny's earlier threat would have been prophetic.
* HeroStoleMyBike: Wonder Woman has a special outfit specifically designed for stealing motorcycles. At no point is it ever established that she brought a motorcycle from Paradise Island or owns one as Diana Prince. However multiple times, such as the climax of "The Murderous Missile", she spins into her bike riding outfit and takes off with someone's bike.
** Why a [[SuperStrength super strong amazon]] who can run over 700 mph bothered with motorcycles at all is never addressed
* HiddenElfVillage: Paradise Island is an uncharted island within the devil’s triangle. Queen Hippolyta had decided to hide Paradise Island from the world: In the pilot, she claims that no one in the last thousand years has ever found it. She also claims that any amazon who leaves the island may lose her immortality and become a mortal again.
* HollywoodHealing: Especially in Season 1, Steve Trevor was gassed, punched, and bashed over the head enough to require his own personal trauma ward, but never showed any worse for the wear.
* HotLibrarian: Diana Prince poses as one more than once. And while not ''actually'' a librarian, Diana has something of the general aesthetic in the 1970s.
* HotScientist: In "The Pluto Files", Wonder Woman solved math problems on a chalkboard that were stumping the resident aged scientist. The "hot" part...this is Creator/LyndaCarter playing her.
* HowDoIShotWeb: Both Wonder Woman and [[KidSidekick Wonder Girl]] were shown learning how to [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning transform into a super heroine]] while away from Paradise Island. The first time Drusilla changed into Wonder Girl, it took her multiple tries and a mental review to get it right.
* HypnotizeThePrincess: In "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret", the Shapeshifter succeeds in hypnotizing Princess Diana into forgetting that she is Wonder Woman. [[spoiler: She breaks the spell with the help the titular Boy Who Knew Her Secret reminding her of who she is.]]
* INeedNoLadders: In the series, Wonder Woman couldn't fly, ride air currents, or the like. That change in the comic books would happen years later. Instead she jumped superhuman distances: up buildings, down onto {{Mooks}}, across into fights, and so on without ever needing a ladder. Specifically in "The Girl With a Gift for Disaster", Wonder Woman foils an ambush by Neil, played by none other than Dick Butkus(!). He runs away up a two part staircase. Rather than outrun him up the stairs, she jumps over the entire staircase from the first floor to the second. Even Dick Butkus knows he's beat at that point.
* IWasBeatenByAGirl: In a real behind-the-scenes incident, Bubba Smith (yes, that Bubba Smith) refused to let his character be thrown by Wonder Woman in the episode "Light Fingered Lady". Lynda proposed that if she could actually throw him in real life, he would agree to move forward with the script. Not only did Lynda successfully throw him, but that first attempt was the shot that was actually used for the episode.
* IdealHero: Wonder Woman possesses super-strength, super-speed, bullet-deflecting bracelets, an invisible plane, a golden lasso that can compel people to tell the truth and obey other commands, a tiara that can be used as a boomerang weapon, and the ability to communicate with animals. She is also a compassionate hero who fights honorably and strives to redeem her adversaries whenever possible. And after Season 1, her two known weaknesses on the show (i.e. being stripped of her magic belt or being exposed to chloroform) were almost never used again. And she was played by an actress who previously represented the USA in the Miss World competition. There's a reason that Wonder Woman remains the iconic superheroine of the genre.
* IdenticalGrandson: After disappearing from "man's world" after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended, Diana meets Steve Trevor Jr. in the first episode of the second season, "The Return of Wonder Woman", a SettingUpdate in [[TheSeventies 1977]] (which was then the present day). At first, she is confused, thinking he hadn’t aged, but given she is an [[CompleteImmortality immortal amazon warrior]], Queen Hippolyta explains the concept of "sons" to her.
* IfYouCanReadThis: The smaller-print newspaper headlines in the pilot episode are variants on the "New Petitions and Building Code" format and the articles are filled with text that, while coherent, has no contextual meaning.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: In "Light-fingered Lady", Diana must steal [[MacGuffin plans]] for [[BigBad Caribe]] to prove her worthiness and standing as a criminal. She does so as Wonder Woman, but unbeknownst to her, Caribe sent someone else to check on Diana. Diana's plans go awry when she runs into him as Wonder Woman and is forced to lock him in a closet. [[spoiler: As Diana, she rescues the {{Mook}} and gets bonus points for pulling off the job right under Wonder Woman's nose!]]
* IKEAWeaponry: The old sniper-rifle-in-a-briefcase in "Time Bomb."
* ImNotAfraidOfYou: In "Seance of Terror", seemingly unseen poltergeists destroy Diana's car, summon flames out of nowhere, and try to scare her with their haunting cries. This has the opposite effect.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' Whatever you are, mortal or otherwise, I challenge you to show yourself!
* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: Seen in [[spoiler:"The Deadly Toys". Wonder Woman faces off against a robot version of herself that has been designed to defeat Diana and take her place. The battle ends with Wonder Woman being knocked unconscious by the aforementioned robot, who then follows the bad guy to enact his evil plan]]. Or so it seems.
* InASingleBound: Episodes regularly featured Wonder Woman jumping a superhuman height/distance at least once.
* InNameOnly: The Cathy Lee Crosby PilotMovie featured a non-powered blonde Wonder Woman in a track suit. While it does mention Diana's Amazon home and invisible plane, it generally plays more like a superspy knockoff of ''Series/TheAvengers'' than a superhero story.
** To be fair, however, the TV movie was based upon an era of the comic book in which Diana ''was'' depowered and made into an Emma Peel clone. In other words, the comic book itself had become InNameOnly. But by the time Crosby's movie was made, the comics had returned to the status quo.
* IndyPloy: In "Light-Fingered Lady," Diana poses as a thief to infiltrate a gang of criminals. They say she can earn their trust by stealing some plans they need. She uses her powers as Wonder Woman to complete this theft, but is caught doing so by one of the criminals, who was following her to make sure she was who she said she was. Thinking fast, Wonder Woman tells him she is on the trail of her criminal alter-ego, and when he won't tell her where she is, she locks him in a closet. Then she goes back to her street clothes and frees him, and the fact that she completed her mission even while Wonder Woman was supposedly after her convinces most of the group she's legitimate.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: It never occurs to Wonder Woman that she is basically wearing a strapless bathing suit everywhere she goes (well, except in water), or that there is anything wrong with this.
* InstantCostumeChange: Nobody ''ever'' put a better spin on this Trope than Carter did. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ecux9dlr-I&feature=related Nobody.]]
* InstantKnots: Wonder Woman could count on her magic lasso securely wrapping itself to whatever is handy when she needs to use it to scale a building. For example, she did this in "My Teenage Idol Is Missing" to scale a 20+ story building. Justified in that the comic books establish that she has mental control of the magic lasso. However, this is neither confirmed nor denied in the series.
* InstantSedation: During the World War II era of the show, this is used repeatedly. It is the only way the Nazis are able to reasonably stand up against [[IdealHero Wonder Woman]]. For example:
** In "Baroness Von Gunther" the eponymous [[TheBaroness Baroness]] sprays Wonder Woman with knockout perfume.
** In "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman" the Nazis drop Wonder Woman through a trapdoor and knock her out with a chloroformed rag.
** In "Judgment from Outer Space (Part 1)" a Nazi mole fires a gun at her feet that turns out to be a knockout gas grenade.
** In "The Feminum Mystique" Wonder Girl is chloroformed after throwing some {{Mooks}} around. Later the Nazis [[spoiler: take over Paradise Island. When they discover that all of the women [[BullyingTheDragon can overpower them]], they turn to hand thrown knockout gas grenades]].
** In "Formula 407" Wonder Woman's rescue attempt is foiled by a chloroform rag after tossing a couple of Nazis in the lake.
** Averted in "The Return of Wonder Woman". A [[{{Mook}} henchwoman]] pulls out a knockout gas device and runs away. Instead of passing out, Diana coughs a few times, grabs a towel to cover her mouth, [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning turns into Wonder Woman]] and disables the device. This seemed to be the new network announcing the new direction for the show.
** In "The Murderous Missile" [[BigBad George]] tricks Wonder Woman in order to spray her in the face with gas while covering his own mouse and nose. So much for the new direction.
** Lynda Carter herself made this mistake in an interview - misremembering the well known Bubba Smith instead of the unknown Lawrence [=McCutcheon=], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CexNXOcqrsk&t=172 who can be seen here being forced to take a seat by Lynda.]] Getting beat up by Wonder Woman is [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2167771/?ref_=tt_cl_t10 his one and only credit on imdb]] - perhaps because actors who sign contracts to do a show named "Wonder Woman" and then give the director crap about getting beat up by a girl are actors that a) are asked to read the freaking script and b) not asked to return.
* InvincibleHero: Wonder Woman rarely faced super powered foes. The notable exceptions were Zardor in "Mind Stealers From Outer Space", Formicida in "Formicida", Takeo Ishida in "The Man Who Could Move the World", and the Shapeshifter in "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret". [[spoiler: Zardor and the Shapeshifter were eventually defeated in combat. Formicida and Takeo Ishida each did a HeelFaceTurn.]] Every other fight in which Wonder Woman was at full strength, the only thing slowing her down was her proclivity to try to convince the bad guy to see the light before punching his lights out.
** The novelty in TheSeventies of a woman who actively looked to solve the MysteryOfTheWeek by physically beating up the {{Villains}} probably helped stave off some of the boring aspects of this trope. Non-super [[ActionGirl action girls]] such as April Dancer in ''Series/TheGirlFromUncle'', the Angels in ''Series/CharliesAngels'', and Batgirl in ''{{Series/Batman}}'' were portrayed as competent fighters but not overwhelming. Fighting wouldn't always win the day. Wonder Woman was very different. She was well aware that she was much stronger, faster, and better trained than her opponents. They could either a) go quietly or b) fight her, lose, and then go quietly. This was a very unusual twist at the time.
* JiggleShow: There's a reason some say "the ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' run" was invented by this series. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSR6isVJaEA Observe this scene from "Amazon Hot Wax"]].
* KarmaHoudini: Happens a lot. If someone is participating in a crime and seems to not really want to do it, or better yet does anything to thwart the rest of the criminals, they will never be punished at the end for the crimes they committed.
** Also some villains escaped: Marion Mariposa in ''Screaming Javelins'', Count Cagliostro in ''Diana's Disappearing Act,'' Bleaker in ''The girl from Ilandia'' and... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Harlow Gault's brain]] in ''Gault's Brain''.
** Gault's brain returns in the digital comic, where he's finally captured and incarcerated.
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: In the later episodes of the series, wardrobe made effective use of the fact that [[Creator/LyndaCarter their star]] was an actual [[BeautyContest beauty pageant winner]]. She was dressed in the latest fashions, and occasionally fought the {{Mooks}} as [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]], such as in "Skateboard Wiz".
* KidSidekick: Princess Drusilla, a.k.a. ComicBook/WonderGirl. She was ''mostly'' able to avoid the [[ContinuitySnarl radioactive]] continuity that plagued her comics counterpart Donna Troy, though there is the minor issue that episodes set before ''and'' after her adventures keep implying her older sister Diana is an only child.
* KnockoutGas: Wonder Woman is taken down many times this way. Knockout gas and chloroform were the the only reliable method of fighting her when she was not disguised as [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]].
** In "Judgment from Outer Space (Part 1)" a Nazi mole fires a gun at her feet that turns out to be a knockout gas grenade.
** In "Baroness Von Gunther" the eponymous [[TheBaroness Baroness]] sprays Wonder Woman with knockout perfume.
** In "The Feminum Mystique (Part 2)" the Nazis [[spoiler: take over Paradise Island. When they discover that all of the women [[BullyingTheDragon can overpower them]], they turn to hand thrown knockout gas grenades]].
** In "The Murderous Missle" [[BigBad George]] tricks Wonder Woman in order to spray her in the face with it while covering his own mouse and nose.
** Averted in "The Return of Wonder Woman". A [[{{Mook}} henchwoman]] pulls out a knockout gas device and runs away. Instead of passing out, Diana coughs a few times, grabs a towel to cover her mouth, [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning turns into Wonder Woman]] and disables the device.
* KryptoniteFactor: Initially, Wonder Woman would lose her superhuman strength if her magic belt was removed from her uniform. Similarly, she possessed no resistance to chloroform, which conveniently made its way into a number of Season 1 episodes. When the show was moved to the 1970s, the former weakness was addressed only once (and only then when she willingly removed her belt, lasso, and bracelets to assure an enemy that she did not wish to fight him), and the chloroform was used far less often.
** There's another, less obvious weakness - Diana Prince needs enough freedom of movement to spin to turn into Wonder Woman. No villains ''deliberately'' exploited this (since very few knew about her secret identity in the first place), but several accidentally used it when they handcuffed Diana to a support beam or something similar.
* LadyLand / OneGenderRace: The Amazons that live on [[HiddenElfVillage Paradise Island]] are an all-female society, but still human (they just don't age [[HandWaved on Paradise Island]]). However, Queen Hippolyta remembers the patriarchal societies of the past very well and [[CulturalPosturing she doesn’t want these to spoil her paradise]], so she forces the expulsion of the only man that had reached the island in millennia by assigning an amazon to escort him to the exterior world.
* LargeHam: Mariposa in "Screaming Javelins."
* LaserHallway: In "IRAC is Missing", Wonder Woman has infiltrated the villain's lair when she enters a room guarded by a sentient computer armed with laser weapons.
* LastVillainStand: At the end of "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret", [[spoiler:a shape-changing alien criminal has been cornered by Wonder Woman after his elaborate plan has failed]]. Desperate and outraged, he [[spoiler: changes his form into one that can rival Wonder Woman in power]].
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' You see, you didn't get rid of me after all. You slipped up. That's what usually happens at the beginning of the end.
--> '''Alien:''' Beginning of the end for whom, Wonder Woman?
* LatexPerfection: Wonder Woman faced enemies with this ability several times.
** "Wonder Woman vs Gargantua" used it to disguise Erica Belgard, the Nazi gorilla trainer, as Wonder Woman in order to train Gargantua. It's unclear whether the perfect disguise was only from the audience's perspective (thus allowing them to use Lynda Carter in the faux Wonder Woman scenes) or the Nazis just didn't think of any other uses for the mask and duplicate outfit.
** "Stolen Faces" centered around a [[ComplexityAddiction rather convoluted plot]] to impersonate Wonder Woman and IADC agents. Oddly enough, it was Steve Trevor that the [[BigBad bad guys]] impersonate.
** "A Date With Doomsday" features the creation of the masks. The [[EvilPlan evil plot]] centers around a dating company so they can use their [[MagicFromTechnology special chair]] to make the perfect masks. They probably would've done better [[spoiler:had they used a higher tech delivery system than throwing the deadly virus by hand from a helicopter and hoping that Wonder Woman wouldn't catch it. She did.]]
* LeotardOfPower: ''The'' iconic uniform. The Season 1 version of Wonder Woman's satin tights were designed to match the WorldWarII ComicBooks including the "bullet bra" with an eagle motif. The show was updated to TheSeventies for Season 2 and the costume was re-designed to highlight and flatter [[Creator/LyndaCarter Lynda Carter's]] specific curves. This was much more difficult to do during Season 1 since that was a series of movies of the week with 14 episodes airing from November 1975 until February 1977 and the star was an unknown actress in the process of being cast.
* LightningBruiser: Her super-strength was obvious (notably when she stopped a tank in its tracks). Her super-speed was implied by feats like catching a bazooka shell in her hand, and her tendency to run rather than use a car when she needed to get somewhere quickly.
** In "Death in Disguise," [[spoiler:she runs forty-seven miles in less than four minutes]].
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Season 1 features Steve Trevor, a brave hero played by Lyle Waggoner who sometimes needs Wonder Woman to save him. Seasons 2&3 feature Steve Trevor Jr., a brave hero played by Lyle Waggoner who sometimes needs Wonder Woman to save him.
* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: In "The Last of the Two Dollar Bills", Steve Trevor becomes [[RunningGag the fifth person to be locked into the cell in the basement of the coffee house]]. He looks around, finds a fork on a nearby shelf and uses it to pick the lock. It might have helped make the lock easier to pick when Wonder Woman [[SuperStrength bent the lock open and bent in back into shape]] earlier when she needed to break out of the same cell.
* MaleGaze: Wonder Girl in her first appearance.
** Surprisingly rarely invoked with Wonder Woman herself, mainly due to the character so dominating every scene (especially when in costume) that any additional "help" is unnecessary.
* ManOnFire: In "The Man Who Could Not Die" Bryce Candle, the titular deathless man is shot, mauled by a lion, and yes, set on fire. Non-spoiler alert: He doesn't die.
* MartialPacifist: Wonder Woman prefers to use non-violence whenever possible, but she is a skilled martial artist who is more than capable of defeating numerous villains in combat.
* MathematiciansAnswer: In "Spaced Out," Diana throws a thug into a pool, then quickly changes to Wonder Woman, interrogates him with her golden lasso, and makes him forget the conversation. A little later the thug runs into his boss, who's shocked to see him soaking wet.
-->'''Rohan:''' Where on Earth have you been?!
-->'''Munn:''' ...Swimming.
* MeaningfulName: Invoked by Queen Hippolyta:
--> '''Queen Hippolyta:''' I named this island "Paradise" for an excellent reason. [[LadyLand There are no men on it.]] [[CulturalPosturing Thus, it is free from their wars, their greed, their hostility, their... barbaric... masculine... behavior]]. ''[bites her hand]''
** Diana's nomenclature for her alter-ego is meaningful as well. On Paradise Island, she is Princess Diana. In Man's World, her alter-ego goes by the name of Diana Prince.
* {{Meganekko}}: Wonder Woman's SecretIdentity, Diana Prince, was a classic "glasses girl" for the first two seasons. Towards the end of the third season, she frequently dropped the [[ClarkKenting disguise]] and no one seemed to notice.
* MildlyMilitary: Averted, especially compared to her comic book counterpart at [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the time]].
* MindControl: In "The Man Who Could Move the World", Takeo Ishida controlled Wonder Woman via telekinesis. "The Pied Piper" used a flute to control minds. Then the "Mind Stealers from Outer Space" controlled minds [[spoiler:by literally stealing and encasing them in egg-like holders.]]
* MissionBriefing: In several episodes from early in Season 2, Diana, Steve, and Joe Atkinson would be briefed by a [[Series/CharliesAngels Charlie's Angels-esque]] faceless voice coming from a TV bearing a picture of the Presidential seal. It was never addressed whether these orders were coming directly from the President or another intermediary.
* MissionImpossibleCableDrop: Wonder Woman did something like this in the episode "The Queen and the Thief", hanging from a rope tied to her ankle so she could get into a safe in the middle of a room with an explosive floor. One wonders how many takes were ruined by Carter falling out of her top, because [[TheissTitillationTheory she looked about a centimeter away from it]] the whole time.
* MonsterMisogyny: In "Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua", the eponymous foe is a Nazi-trained gorilla that has been brainwashed for one purpose: to destroy Wonder Woman.
** In "Mind Stealers from Outer Space", the Zardor is reserved solely for attempts to capture or kill Wonder Woman. The Skrill never use him against Andros -- the Zardor even peacefully walks past Andros at the start of the second episode -- but are quick to use him against the Amazon princess.
* MostCommonSuperpower: Until the television series, Wonder Woman was portrayed in the comics as a slim, athletic figure. And then Lynda Carter filled out the costume (and then some!) on this show. Ever since, the comics portray her as the ([[ComicBook/PowerGirl second]]) bustiest, curviest superheroine in the DC Universe.
** Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman may have been even bigger, though far more covered.
* MuggingTheMonster: The first couple of times the Nazi's attack Wonder Woman, they have no idea what she's capable of. However, it quickly becomes BullyingADragon as they fail to learn their lesson.
* MuscleBeachBum: In "Skateboard Wiz", Diana is accosted by a couple of these. The pretty girl was not impressed. [[CurbStompBattle They learned the error of their ways.]]
* NeutralFemale: Inverted and how! The character of Wonder Woman is designed by William Marston to invert this trope. Her portrayal by Creator/LyndaCarter is true to Marston's vision.
* NightmareFace: Formicida's expressions are terrifying.
* NonMammalMammaries: The robot "Cori" in "IRAC Is Missing" has a feminine voice and a rectangular protrusion on her chest that is suggestive of breasts.
* NotQuiteFlight: Instead of flying, or even "riding air currents", Diana can only jump really far and high.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:"Just George," who turns out to be the mastermind in "The Murderous Missile."]]
* ObviousStuntDouble: Some of Lynda Carter's doubles were not-particularly-effeminate men. [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7cRt2_WT4d8/UdQpCIum3cI/AAAAAAAALT4/nMUtrT57CCc/s580/wonderwoman.jpg Jeannie Epper]] took on most of the stuntwork for Wonder Woman. It's still fairly obvious when Jeannie is playing the part, as those sequences typically obscure Wonder's Woman's face.
** Lynda did perform many of her own stunts as well, including the incident wherein she held on to the bottom of a helicopter in actual flight without a harness. The producers reportedly flipped out when they learned that Lynda had risked her life to get that shot.
* OhCrap: A common experience for the mook of the week when encountering Wonder Woman. On very rare occasions, Wonder Woman's reaction to a surprising foe.
** Diana's encounters with the Zardor in "Mind Stealers From Outer Space".
** Diana's discovery that a bomb is guarded by an amazon-seeking laser in "Irac is Missing".
** Wonder Woman reacts this way when the alien shapeshifter in "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret" changes into his final form.
** Chloroform. This was used so frequently during the first season that it's surprising there wasn't a worldwide shortage by season two.
* OpenSaysMe: In "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman" and "Judgment from Outer Space", Wonder Woman breaks down doors to rescue Steve and Andros respectively. [[spoiler: Except Andros doesn't want to be saved.]] In "Diana's Disappearing Act", She rips open a steel door and punches through a brick wall to confront [[BigBad Count Caliostro]].
* OutsideRide: Wonder Woman (naturally) in "Mind Stealers From Outer Space" and "Death in Disguise."
* ParentService: For an entire generation of children, the Wonder Woman series was their first exposure to a superheroine who could save the world entirely on her own. For the fathers of those children, the series had an entirely different kind of allure.
* PlanetDestroyer: In "Judgment From Outer Space", Andros is a self described "judge, jury, and if need be, executioner" of the Earth.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Wonder Woman's producers seemed to enjoy trying to make spin-offs, despite the fact that they never succeeded. For example:
** [[KidSidekick Wonder Girl]] could have had her own show. Debra Winger turned it down.
** "The Girl From Ilandia" had all the makings of a new show including TheHomewardJourney, a suitably sinister [[{{Villains}} villain]], and one of the very few [[DownerEnding downer endings]].
** "The Man Who Could Not Die" set up a new location, new cast, and a new superhero who was [[AppliedPhlebotinum somehow immune to Wonder Woman's magic lasso]]. Whether it was a spin-off or a new direction for season 4, neither happened.
* PopTheTires: [[DistressedDude Steve Trevor]] gets his shining moment in "Gault's Brain". Two [[{{Mooks}} bad guys]] ''run away from him'', race to their car, almost run him down, then Steve shoots out a tire and captures one of them. Steve did all of this without Wonder Woman around to even intimidate them or anything!
* PowerGlows: There is always one of those just when [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning spins]] [[ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction to change clothes into]] Wonder Woman. (Notice that there wasn't any AudibleGleam nor PowerGlows in "The Feminum Mystique Part 1", the only episode in the series where Wonder Woman is actually seen changing back into Diana Prince.
* PrettyInMink: Diana wore a fur jacket a few times.
* PrettyPrincessPowerhouse: Princess Diana is royalty, beautiful, and a warrior of the highest order.
* PrimaryColorChampion: Wonder Woman's outfit is almost exclusively made of primary colors. Red bustier and boots? Check. Golden tiara, bracelets, belt and lasso? Check. Blue star-spangled bottoms. Check. When she wears a cape, this color scheme is enhanced even further.
* ProtectThisHouse: In "The Feminum Mystique", Paradise Island itself is under attack by Nazis. [[spoiler: The Nazis succeed and take over the island. Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl help retake their home.]]
* ProudScholarRaceGuy / PerfectPacifistPeople: In this incarnation, Paradise Island’s amazons are this. In contrast with the ProudWarriorRaceGuys from the comics, the amazons were overpowered by the Nazis in “The Feminum Mystique”. However, the Amazons easily overpower the Nazis once Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl came back to liberate the Isle.
* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: In "Going, Going, Gone", a [[{{Mook}} Bruce Lee clone]] becomes one of the few bad guys to actually punch Wonder Woman. His two solid punches to her gut do [[OhCrap absolutely nothing]] to her.
* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Wonder Woman threw quite a few bad guys across rooms, but in "The Starships Are Coming" she punches [[BigBad Mason Steele's]] [[{{Mook}} chief lieutenant]] and he flies into a pile of garbage.
* PutTheirHeadsTogether: Episode "The Nazi Wonder Woman". While being attacked by two Nazi guards Wonder Woman grabs their shoulders and knocks their heads together, knocking them out (they were wearing helmets at the time).
* RansackedRoom: In "The Return of Wonder Woman" Diana's apartment is ransacked and the burglar is still there! Diana has a rare serious fight in her SecretIdentity.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: At the start of Season Two, Wonder Woman is 2,526 years old.
--> '''Steve Trevor:''' You can't be more than 23 or 24 years old.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' I will be 2,527 years old on my next birthday.
* RebelliousPrincess: Against the orders of the Queen Mother, Princess Diana participates in the tournament that allows her to become Wonder Woman. Doing so results in her leaving Paradise Island and venturing to Man's World, much to her mother's dismay.
* RedundantRescue: In "The Last of the Two Dollar Bills", Wonder Woman captures [[BigBad Wotan]] and then races back to save Steve Trevor - who has already defused the bomb and saved Secret Service Agent Dan Fletcher.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' I was so worried. They said you were dead!
--> '''Steve Trevor:''' Nothing to worry about, Wonder Woman. We handled this all on our own. For a change.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Between seasons 1 and 2, Wonder Woman returns home for three decades. Apparently the goal was to save the world from the Nazis and once that was done, she went home. "The Return of Wonder Woman" shows her mistaking Steve Trevor Jr. for his father and being coerced back into action, but now it's [[TheSeventies the 1970's]].
* ReluctantWarrior: Partly as a result of ExecutiveMeddling. The producers didn't want Wonder Woman to be too violent, thinking that it would alienate viewers, which is why you're more likely to see her tossing a thug into a pile of cardboard boxes than punching him in the face. Also see HeelFaceTurn above. During the entire run, there are only a couple of cases where she kills anybody (i.e. destroying a German U-boat and its crew in one of the first episodes, and she later encounters one villain who she thought she'd killed in an earlier encounter).
* {{Retool}}: Besides the update to the 1970s at the beginning of the second season, there was a planned retool that showed up in one episode of the third season (which should have been the season finale but was shown out of order). Diana was transferred to the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles branch of the IADC, with a new boss and supporting cast. The show never got a fourth season, so that was all we got.
* RobotMaster: "The Deadly Toys" featured Frank Gorshin of [[TheRiddler the Riddler]] fame from [[Creator/AdamWest Adam West's]] ''{{Series/Batman}}'' as an [[BigBad evil toymaker]]. His [[EvilPlan plan]] included making a robot Wonder Woman to challenge the real Amazon Princess.
* RooftopConfrontation: Wonder Woman jumped onto many buildings during the series, so this happened quite a bit. "The Deadly Toys", "Spaced Out", and "Diana's Disappearing Act" featured them.
* RulesLawyer: Invoked by the IADC's [[AIIsACrapshoot main computer]], [[{{Irony}} oddly enough]], during "Seance of Terror". IRAC gave Diana information that she wasn't (technically) cleared for. But after all...
-->'''[[{{Hyperawareness}} IRAC]]''': Major Trevor said nothing about clearance for Wonder Woman.[[note]]Granted, the computer waited until she was out of the room before it said this, but still...[[/note]]
* SamaritanSyndrome: When Season 1 begins, Wonder Woman is a naive idealist whose lack of experience is exceeded by her willingness to help others and fight for justice. By the end of Season 3, she seems far less naive, and her snappy one-liners to the bad guys are often laced with snarky cynicism. While she still fights to make the world a better place, it's apparent that dealing with would-be supervillains gets old fast.
** The reason for Wonder Woman being written this way during the latter seasons may be more than mere character development. The CBS incarnation of the show was supposed to be less campy than its WWII-era precursor on ABC, and Wonder Woman was written to have "more modern" dialogue.
* SaunaOfDeath: In "I do, I do", Diana succumbs to knockout gas while in a sauna.
* SayMyName: The theme tune starts out with [[TitleScream shouting her name]].
-->"WONDER WOMAAAAAN!"
* ScoobyDooHoax: The villain of "The Starships Are Here" is a rich, powerful RightWingMilitiaFanatic who wants to [[WellIntentionedExtremist ensure American supremacy]] by tricking the US into nuking China. He attempts this by using {{Phony Newscast}}s to create the illusion of an AlienInvasion.
* SculleryMaid: In "The Queen and the Thief" Diana goes undercover as a scullery maid while Steve Trevor poses as Steven Ludwig, president of the American Malachar cultural association. Diana immediately points out the [[DoubleStandard chauvinism]], but ultimately her cover lasts longer than his.
* SecretIdentityChangeTrick: Diana Prince has a tendency to run away from trouble the moment she realizes that she can't handle the danger as her alter-ego, only to secretly transform into Wonder Woman when no one is looking, and then return to save the day. This need to protect her secret identity does seem a little absurd, given that: (1) as a princess from Paradise Island, she literally has no loved ones in Man's World to protect with a secret identity; and (2) she makes no effort in the latter seasons to conceal Diana Prince's uncanny resemblance to Wonder Woman.
* SeriesContinuityError: The pilot establishes that Paradise Island, in 1942, is a HiddenElfVillage of Amazons who had never seen a man in a thousand years. Princess Diana is elected TheChampion to travel to man’s world. She is the first Amazon to leave Paradise Island in a thousand years. However, in the third season episode ''Diana's Disappearing Act'', {{C|onMan}}agliostro claims that Wonder Woman has stopped all his lineage plans since the original Cagliostro (born in the 18th century) and in ''Screaming Javelins'', Diana remembers having met UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, implying not only that she was in Europe those years, but that she was already doing her superhero job.
** At the pilot and the first episodes, Wonder Woman uses spinning to change clothes into her costume. Later episodes show how she changes by spinning with AudibleSharpness and PowerGlow. At the “Feminum Mystique part I”, Wonder Girl remembers Queen Hippolyta teaching Wonder Woman how to change her clothes with AudibleSharpness and PowerGlow before leaving Paradise Island.
* SettingUpdate: The first episode of the Second Season, "The Return of Wonder Woman": Wonder Woman disappeared when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended, but another plane incident at Paradise Island forces her to return to man's world, by which time it's now:
* TheSeventies: The first episode of the second season, "The Return of Wonder Woman" was set in 1977 which was the present day at the time. Also the entire series aired in the 1970's with the first episode, "The New Original Wonder Woman" airing on November 7, 1975 and the last episode, "Phantom of the Roller Coaster, Part 2" airing on September 11, 1979.
* ShesGotLegs: And how. Completely unavoidable given the context of the series and ''that costume'', but while the camera rarely lingers too long on her legs, the directors did seem to try and work in full-length shots of Wonder Woman whenever possible, and there is one episode where W.W. is shown strung up and her legs dominate the shot throughout.
* ShipTease: Diana and Steve would occasionally have a "moment" in the first season. They backed off from this in subsequent seasons (possibly nervous about the obvious 16-year age gap between Carter and Waggoner) to the point of making Steve Diana's boss so they wouldn't be working directly together anymore.
* ShoutOut: The sci-fi convention in "Spaced Out" has Shout Outs to [[Film/ForbiddenPlanet Robby the Robot]] and ''Film/LogansRun'', among others.
* TheShowGoesHollywood: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Wonder Woman In Hollywood"]], which doubles as the finale to Season 1 and the entire WWII era of the show.
* SmallSecludedWorld: The amazons claim [[HiddenElfVillage Paradise Island]] is this: the youngest of these immortals [[LadyLand have never seen a man before]]. However, [[PlotHole Princess Diana recognizes a parachute, and the Queen can read Trevor’s English written documents without any problem]].
* SmokeOut: Count Cagliostro (a descendant of THE [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagliostro Count Cagliostro]]) in "Diana's Disappearing Act," one of the few bad guys to just flat-out escape Wonder Woman.
* SoftGlass: In "The Richest Man in the World", Wonder Woman punches through the window of a van. In "The Man Who Made Volcanoes", she punches through the lens of the volcano beam. It was established in "Wonder Woman in Hollywood" that she is not invulnerable, yet the glass does not harm her at all.
* SongsInTheKeyOfLock: In the 1st season two-part episode "Judgment From Outer Space", Wonder Woman meets a space alien named Andros. During Part 1 she hears him whistle a six note musical phrase, and in Part 2 she uses that same phrase to both open the outer hatch on his space ship ''and'' deactivate a force field inside the ship.
* SpecialGuest: There were many special guest stars, such as Cloris Leachman in the pilot, "The New Original Wonder Woman". "The Bushwackers" easily had the most plot changes to accommodate the guest star, Creator/RoyRogers. It was set on a cowboy ranch with Roy raising war orphans. Significantly, it is the only time in the series where Wonder Woman is NotWearingTights. At Roy's behest, she wore white pants and a red blouse instead.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: In "The Deadly Dolphin" and "Light-fingered Lady", Wonder Woman pacifies guard dogs. In "The Man Who Could Not Die" she does the same to a ''lion''. "A Date With Doomsday" has her getting information from a pigeon. "The Girl from Ilandia" shows it best as Wonder Woman gives telepathic commands to a dog named Tiger who then executes them perfectly.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' Tiger, you take care of her and if she's in trouble you come and find me. Understand?
--> '''Tiger:''' ''barks (and later carries out these orders to the letter)''
* StageMagician: Several in "Diana's Disappearing Act."
* StatuesqueStunner: Creator/LyndaCarter was both tall and stunning in her [[LeotardOfPower satin tights]]
* StarCrossedLovers: Played literally with Andros II. Despite the obvious chemistry between him and Diana, their conflicting responsibilities in different solar systems prevent them from taking their relationship to the next level.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' The last time we said goodbye was when? 1943?
--> '''Andros:''' Perhaps we should keep track of our hellos instead. Even better...
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' Don't ask me that.
--> '''Andros:''' I know a planet with eight moons. They fill the night sky like jewels in a crown. You'd look beautiful under that sky.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' Andros...I can't. I'm needed here.
--> '''Andros:''' Yes...you are. So, Princess: until whenever.
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' Until whenever.
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: In "Fausta,The Nazi Wonder Woman" Wonder Woman is captured, her belt of strength removed and put into this position. [[spoiler:{{Pride}} saves the day as Fausta's superior officer [[IdiotBall throws the belt and lasso back to Wonder Woman]]. A minute later Wonder Woman is the only one left standing.]]
* StupidJetpackHitler: While not extreme, they did have very advanced animal training and plastic surgery. They would have become this had they captured the feminum mine.
* StylishProtectionGear: Wonder Woman has special outfits for swimming, motorcycle riding, and skateboarding. Stylish helmets, kneepads, and wetsuit are included.
* SuperStrength: One of Wonder Woman's powers. She and all of the amazons have this while on Paradise Island. A magic belt is necessary to use her amazonian strength elsewhere.
* SuperWindowJump: In "Death in Disguise", Wonder Woman races back to I.A.D.C. headquarters by leaping up the side of the building and crashing through the window.
* SuperheroesStaySingle: In Season One, Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were clearly attracted to each other, but nothing serious came of their flirtations. In Seasons Two and Three, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman had several other potential-suitors-of-the-day that appeared for just an episode, but no long-term love interest.
* SupernormalBindings: Subverted in one episode when after being caught by Nazis, she's wrapped in chains that had survived being tested by teams of elephants. For a while [[PlayAlongPrisoner she just sits there]] as they monologue, but when the time comes she breaks the chains easily.
* TakingOverTheTown: In "The Murderous Missile", [[BigBad George]] and his minions clear out the entire town of Burrogone to stage their missile hijacking plans. Apparently every last one of the townsfolk went on the Vegas vacation.
* TakingTheBullet: Downplayed in "Wonder Woman in Hollywood". Wonder Woman pretends to take a bullet to inspire Corporal Jim Ames.
* TalkingToThemself: Bleaker, the villain of "The Girl from Ilandia," talks to no one ''but'' himself, which he does out loud. Apparently this is because he's so brilliant that he finds himself to be the only worthy conversation partner.
* TeenIdol: Creator/LeifGarrett plays a thinly veiled version of himself in an episode appropriately titled, "My Teenage Idol Is Missing."
* ThinkUnsexyThoughts: After immortal Princess Diana of [[LadyLand Paradise Island]] invokes WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove when she sees a man for the first time, her mother hilariously invokes this trope:
-->'''Queen Hippolyta:''' There are some things that are better not known. Young Amazon minds are best occupied with athletic discipline, higher learning.
* ThouShaltNotKill: With a couple of exceptions (such as an early WWII-era episode in which she destroys a German sub, and a later modern-era episode referencing a villain she apparently killed), Diana is generally never shown using deadly force.
* TimeBomb: In "IRAC is Missing", [[BigBad Bernard Havitol's]] headquarters are about to blow up in 250 seconds with Diana Prince and IRAC trapped inside. [[spoiler: Wonder Woman cuts the power to the building with .8 seconds left.]]
* TransformationSequence: The now-iconic twirl transformation was actually Lynda Carter's idea, which she suggested during the filming of the pilot episode. The transformation sequence has been so strongly associated with the character that it has since been incorporated into the comic book and the Justice League Unlimited cartoon.
* TwinkleSmile: Season 1 and the first eight episodes of Season 2 featured an animated to live action TitleSequence. In both sequences, Steve Trevor had a TwinkleSmile while Wonder Woman's eyes similarly sparkled.
* TyphoidMary: In "The Pluto File", The Falcon is an unknowing carrier of the bubonic plague and manages to infect several people he comes into contact with before he develops symptoms himself. Sure, he's a villain, but he still has no idea he's carrying the plague.
* UndercoverAsLovers: In "I Do, I Do", Diana and Christian Harrison pose as newlyweds because they suspect someone has been manipulating the wives of high government officials to gain information, and Christian works in the White House.
* UndercoverModel: Diana Prince went undercover as a beauty pageant contestant, although Steve didn't think she was pretty enough to pull it off...
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Early in Season 1, the Nazi leaders who had never personally encountered Wonder Woman often scoffed at the reports landing on their desk.
--> '''Colonel Kesselman:''' ''Watches a film of Wonder Woman's abilities''
-------> This is nonsense. Obviously trick photography. Hollywood magic for American propaganda.
* {{Unobtainium}}: [[HiddenElfVillage Paradise Island]] is the only known source of Feminum, the metal used to make Wonder Woman's bulletproof bracelets.
* VerySpecialEpisode: The war orphans in "The Bushwackers".
** The digital comic also had stories spotlighting DomesticAbuse and [[GreenAesop elephant poaching]].
* VillainExitStageLeft: While most of the villains were captured (and a few killed) at the end of their episodes, two notable exceptions include Harlow Gault([[BrainInAJar 's brain]]) and the scientists from "The Man Who Could Not Die" (who were presumably meant to be the MythArc of the never-materialized fourth season).
* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: When the Skrill determine that Diana Prince and Wonder Woman are the same person, they send two of their alien-possessed humans to Diana's apartment. Diana is surprised and shocked to see them there, but she almost manages to fight them off. Then the third Skrill envoy, the seven-foot tall monster called the Zardor, arrives.
* VoiceChangeling: Wonder Woman displayed this power occasionally.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were never officially dating in the show, but in Season 1, it was clear that they both had strong feelings for one another. Due to Steve's role in the U.S. military, he was often a target for Nazi operatives and secret agents, who would quickly discover that it was unwise to provoke Wonder Woman.
* TheWallsAreClosingIn: These traps showed up a few times on the show.
** In "Fausta, The Nazi Wonder Woman", Steve Trevor is held captive in such a room to lure Wonder Woman to her doom. The lure succeeds. [[spoiler:The walls, however, don't.]]
** In "The Man Who Made Volcanoes", Diana's snooping in a place where she's not welcome when she falls through a trap door. She quickly finds herself in a narrow pit with the walls closing in to crush her. [[spoiler:There is, however, enough room for her to spin and transform into Wonder Woman.]]
* WarriorPrincess: Diana is a member of the royal family of Paradise Island. She could easily enjoy a comfortable life in a utopian society as the universally-adored heir to the throne. Instead, she devotes her life to saving Man's World from Nazis, mad scientists, alien monsters, criminal masterminds, and one disembodied brain in a jar with telekinetic powers.
* WeaponizedHeadgear: Diana's tiara is for more than just looks. When necessary, she can throw it as a boomerang weapon.
* WeDoTheImpossible: A short list of the eponymous heroine's feats includes: wrestling a gorilla; stopping a tank with her bare hands; running 47 miles in four minutes; saving the world from ''several'' alien invasions; and preventing World War III from starting by destroying Hitler's clone. She's called Wonder Woman for a reason.
* WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk: Used in the conventional sense by the Nazi villains in the first season, albeit in a family-friendly version that never got worse than a PG-rating level in intensity.
** Also used by Diana herself. Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth allowed her to command people ensnared within it to honestly answer any question she posed to them. The lasso could always give people temporary amnesia or command them to do other things.
** The original creator of the Wonder Woman comic book, William Moulton Marston, also invented the systolic blood pressure test, aka the polygraph. He also had a penchant for bondage. Three guesses as to where the idea of the Lasso of Truth came from...
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: In the pilot, the reason why Steve Trevor cannot stay any in [[LadyLand Paradise Island]].
--> '''Princess Diana:''' When I look at Steve Trevor, I feel things. Things I've never known before.
* WholePlotReference: "Judgement from Outer Space" is basically Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951 set during WWII and Andros taking the place of Klaatu. There's even a scene at the Lincoln Memorial.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The third-season episode "The Man Who Couldn't Die" features a man desperately trying to get the scientist who somehow made him immortal to reverse the process. Even though it's been a short time, he's already freaked out about feeling no pain.
* WickedToymaker: "The Deadly Toys" features Frank Gorshin as a toymaker who creates robots to duplicate real people - including Wonder Woman!
* WindsOfDestinyChange: OneShotCharacter Bonnie Murphy, the "girl with a gift for disaster", produces bad luck whenever she's agitated. Her episode comes up with a ''lot'' of TechnoBabble to try and justify it, but she might as well be an actual (if reluctant) witch.
* WomenAreDelicate: Averted. Wonder Woman deflects bullets, wrestles gorillas, catches mortars in mid-air, and ''stops tanks in their tracks with her bare hands''.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: In the comics, Wonder Woman is canonically acknowledged as the world's most beautiful woman, due to the blessing she received from Aphrodite. In real life, Lynda Carter had already represented the USA in the Miss World pageant prior to being cast as Wonder Woman.
* WouldntHitAGirl: Although the bad guys try to kill Wonder Woman in various ways, no one ever really is shown taking a swing at her, much less connecting.
** Largely true as Wonder Woman overwhelms the majority of her opponents to the point they can't even start an attack although they sometimes swing wildly over her head. {{Averted}} in "Going, Going, Gone" when a karate guy punches her twice in the stomach...to no effect and his own [[OhCrap Oh Crap!]] moment and "The Girl with a Gift for Disaster" when a thug attacks Diana with a huge boulder...that she breaks in half before dispatching him.
* YouClonedHitler: In "Anschluss '77", Wonder Woman foils a plot by remnants of the Nazis from WorldWarII in [[ArgentinaIsNaziland Argentina]] cloning Hitler. It was one of the few times Wonder Woman [[TooPowerfulToLive killed anyone]]. If you're going to kill someone, [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Hitler is a good choice]].
* YourDaysAreNumbered: In "Time Bomb", Diana meets a time traveler from the future who casually reveals that a nuclear war occurs in 2007. The fact that Wonder Woman now has 30 years to [[SavingTheWorld save the world]] from nuclear annihilation or she'll face a CrapsackWorld is never addressed.
----

* IndyPloy: In "Light-Fingered Lady," Diana poses as a thief to infiltrate a gang of criminals. They say she can earn their trust by stealing some plans they need. She uses her powers as Wonder Woman to complete this theft, but is caught doing so by one of the criminals, who was following her to make sure she was who she said she was. Thinking fast, Wonder Woman tells him she is on the trail of her criminal alter-ego, and when he won't tell her where she is, she locks him in a closet. Then she goes back to her street clothes and frees him, and the fact that she completed her mission even while Wonder Woman was supposedly after her convinces most of the group she's legitimate.

* IWasBeatenByAGirl: In a real behind-the-scenes incident, Bubba Smith (yes, that Bubba Smith) refused to let his character be thrown by Wonder Woman in the episode "Light Fingered Lady". Lynda proposed that if she could actually throw him in real life, he would agree to move forward with the script. Not only did Lynda successfully throw him, but that first attempt was the shot that was actually used for the episode.