This is the Trivia page for the Wonder Woman (1975) television series. For Trivia relating to the Wonder Woman franchise as a whole see this page.
Trivia Tropes
- Ability over Appearance: Lynda Carter was bluer eyed, three inches taller, wider hipped, bustier and less athletically lithe than the Golden Age comic book Wonder Woman she was based on. However, Marston's son thought her attitude and facial expressions were perfect for bringing the character to life. The Golden Age Wonder Woman tended to keep being drawn as she always was in comic books, but the Silver Age, Post Crisis, newspaper comic strip and most other versions of the character were given an extra three or four inches in height and an extra cup size or two. It was to the point people complained when the brown eyed and less endowed Gal Gadot was cast to play Wonder Woman, although the producers insisted again that her attitude was perfect for the more martial Wonder Woman she was adapting.
- Acting for Two: Leif Garrett plays a set of twins in "My Teenage Idol Is Missing".
- The Cast Showoff: Lynda Carter sang two songs in the episode "Amazon Hot Wax" that were taken from an album, Portrait, that she released in real life around that time.
- Channel Hop: Wonder Woman started on ABC and was set in World War II, until the network decided it was too expensive to keep producing a historical series set in the 1940s. It was immediately picked up by CBS, who also changed the setting to the (then) modern day.
- Executive Veto: The episode "Spaced Out" featured scenes set at a sci-fi convention, allowing the show to make references to other franchises, most notably Logan's Run. According to the writer of the episode
, while the producers of the show got permission to not only reference Logan's Run and feature actual costumes from the show, they were denied permission to dress a character as Superman, despite Warner Bros. actually owning DC Comics. - Hostility on the Set:
- Tensions between Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner grew to the point that as the series went on they appeared in fewer and fewer scenes together. So that Waggoner's character would have more activity on the show, producers brought in S. Pearl 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.
- Debra Winger didn't like working with Carter, but Carter said that they didn't have any problems and was like a big sister to her.
- No Stunt Double: Yes and no. Lynda Carter sometimes did her own stunts because it allowed better closeups of the action and because Carter had the physical abilities to do so. In one memorable scene she hung from the bottom of a helicopter as it took off with only her own grip standing between her and a 200 foot fall onto solid rock. She later stated that the producers were... less than pleased when they found out because if she had slipped she would've died for real, Carter is reputed to have said that if they didn't want her doing dangerous death-defying stunts like that, they needed to hire a female stunt double for her, and while female stunt doubles were like hens teeth back then, Carter got her way, and had a female stunt double for seasons two and three. That notwithstanding, when they changed the title sequence to a clips reel, the aforementioned scene was included in the new title sequence.
- Old Shame: Debra Winger doesn't look back fondly on her time as Wonder Girl. In fact, she spent her salary on buying out her contract with Warner Bros.. Years later, while a guest on David Letterman's show, Winger was at least enough of a sport to kid about her Wonder Girl role, wearing the costume again and running through the studio audience.
- The Other Darrin:
- Three actresses played Queen Hippolyta over the course of the series — Cloris Leachman, Carolyn Jones and Beatrice Straight.
- John Randolph Played Phillip Blankenship in the pilot and Richard Eastham in the remainder of season one.
- Playing Their Own Twin: In "My Teenage Idol Is Missing", Leif Garrett plays identical twins Lane and Michael.
- Spoiled by the Cast List: In "My Teen Idol Is Missing", special guest star Leif Garrett as Lane/ Michael.
- Stunt Double: Fairly easy to spot, even from behind; the stunt doubles did not have Carter's wasp waist.
- Technology Marches On: In "The Fine Art of Crime", Harold Farnum tries to convince Steve Trevor to let him use IRAC. He knows all about computers including "...keypunch, you name it!". Steve denies his request because "it costs approximately $100 per minute for even me to use it". Steve should have allowed Harold to use IRAC since that would have exposed Henry Roberts before he could threaten the lives of Harold and Wonder Woman.
- Unfinished Episode: An episode entitled "The Velvet Touch," involving toxic makeup, was unfilmed because star Lynda Carter was a spokeswoman for Maybelline.
- What Could Have Been:
- Wonder Woman's swimming costume was originally a bikini, but the one that was designed had trouble staying on in the water (oh, to see some test footage of that...), so they redid it as a full-body outfit.
- Debra Winger was supposed to appear in more episodes, and there was even talk of a Wonder Girl Spin-Off, but she wanted to focus on more dramatic work.
- Angie Bowie was also in the running to play Wonder Woman, and after she didn't get it she went so far as trying to launch her own show about Marvel's biggest female character at the time, Black Widow. The show would have also featured Daredevil as a major character.
- According to Lynda Carter, Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith (yes, all three original leads of Charlie's Angels) all auditioned for the part of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.
- The final broadcast episode of the series featured a reboot in which Diana relocates to Los Angeles and begins working with a new team of agents. Had the series continued, of course, this new format would have continued.
- The producers of the show planed to have Teresa Graves appear as Nubia, Diana's black sister. Nothing came from it, but a doll of Nubia was produced for the show's doll line.
Miscellaneous trivia:
- In a behind-the-scenes incident, Lawrence McCutcheon, a Pro Bowl NFL running back, refused to let his character be thrown by Wonder Woman in the episode "The Deadly Sting". Lynda Carter proposed that if she could actually throw him in real life, he would agree to move forward with the script. Not only did Carter successfully throw him, but that first attempt was the shot that was actually used for the episode. Lawrence can be seen here being forced to take a seat by Carter.
