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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 58759" data-attributes="member: 23">Last night I re-watched the Lynda Carter pilot. THE NEW, ORIGINAL WONDER WOMAN. <img src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/7021a81f508b216406b06e25312de401/tumblr_nzm7xhW1p41sfp6m8o2_1280.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />God - there's so much to love about it.Firstly there's that title. It's so unnecessarily wordy and unless you know exactly why it has that name (to establish that it's not Cathy Lee Crosby's older version which wasn't based on the original character) it seems quite nonsensical. Actually, it can seem quite nonsensical even knowing the reason for the name. But I suppose "new" and "original" were two heavily used marketing words at the time, so why not pair them together - even if they appear to contradict each other.All the same, I found it a really exciting and enticing title when I was young and even today just seeing that name taps into how I'd feel when I saw it in the TV listings. Usually on a Bank Holiday.What really grabbed me this time round was how good it looked. And how expensive. So much effort had been put into the Forties period sets and dressings. They haven't just changed the hairstyles and thrown in the occasional old car. There are streets of realistic looking exterior period sets. Scores of extras all looking era-appropriate. And huge indoor sets: apartments; hospitals; Nazi headquarters. With gorgeously dismal greens and greys everywhere. At times it's still quite clear from some details that it was made in 1975, but the production values say otherwise. It occurred to me while watching that it's now being watched on TV screens far larger than would have been imagined at the time it was produced. And those screens show off a very impressive amount of detail that make it feel very cinematic.Then there's that cast: Red Buttons; Stella Stevens; Cloris Leachman; Henry Gibson. It's a little like watching a Seventies disaster film full of stunt casting. What's interesting here are how many different acting styles are going on: Stevens goes for arch camp; Buttons for larger than life sitcom charm; Gibson wouldn't seem out of place in 'Allo 'Allo; Leachman is overwrought and quite neurotic, giving WW's mother a Joan Crawford air. It's perhaps telling about people's frame of reference for superheroes at the time. Some of the performances feel tailor made for Adam West's Batman series, while others feel like they hark back to the jingoism of mid-century black and white superhero shorts. Lynda Carter plays it mostly completely straight. Waggoner does the same but his deep tones and puffed-up chest machismo are almost like a satire of heroic types. In other words he's Zapp Brannigan.The story is the classic WW origin, about to be retold in the upcoming feature film. To date, though, this is the definitive screen version of the story. The balance of humour and drama feels good here. It's easy to imagine this being a way to satisfy both young viewers who are absorbed by the simple story and the adults who are forced to watch with them who can chortle at the silly humour. I know that the older I get the funnier this seems.Charles Fox's music is stirring and energetic and feels so right. As someone for whom the series forms some of my early TV memories it's difficult to imagine there was a time before the Wonder Woman theme existed, and I can't help wondering whether it sounded so right to first time viewers (my guess would be yes).The icing on a rather delicious cake was that catfight, without which Dynasty may have been very different. It's a treat:[MEDIA=youtube]bLmioSaIjdw[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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