Wonder Woman – There Can Be Only One

With all this talk about male superheroes lately I think it is only fair to bring some kind of balance to the subject. This morning while having breakfast Dani asked me if we could watch Wonder Woman on my computer. We had seen a few short clips in the recent past while searching for Batman and other superheroes so he knew the character.

The Dilemma…

I could have said: “Well the storylines are a bit weak in those 70s TV shows”. That would have been an understatement.

Or, I could have said: ”You know what? The action scenes are a little bit unrealistic” – which of course they were but I didn’t want to disappoint the lad.

Alternatively, I could have said: “Well, she is more for girls” – which would have been an out and out lie! She was definitely and primarily for dads.

Instead I just said “Well. OK then. If you really want to watch Wonder Woman…” I then did a quick search on Youtube for Wonder Woman. Not forgetting to add the “TV show” bit so as not to get confused with the modern WW films. In other words, we wanted to watch the real Wonder Woman. The one and only Lynda Carter.

Does my bum look big in this?

As expected there were plenty to choose from but I picked a 7-minute montage of so called “best bits”. It included several swimsuit scenes and enough slow motion jogging scenes to keep any old dad interested. It was more Baywatch than superheroes. But still I soldiered on for Dani’s sake. He seemed to be enjoying it.

“I like the part where she turns and changes into Wonder Woman” he said.

“Funnily enough I do too” I replied.

Interestingly those blue hot-pants she wore seemed to accentuate her already curvy shape. It begs the question that became famous some 10 or 15 years later thanks to the Fast Show: “Does my bum look big in this?”. Well yes actually Wonder Woman, it does (a bit). But don’t worry. It’s really not that bad either.

There are so many superheroes to watch and Dani likes them all. It can all get more than a little confusing. Fortunately, there is something simple about this 70s show that makes it so easy to watch.

In Case You Didn’t Know….

Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman in the TV series from 1975 to 1979. She was a former Miss USA and this role brought her international fame and fortune – quite rightly so in my opinion. I am sure there will be other old dads out there who agree.

As usual I did a little research on the subject and was surprised to discover that there was a spin-off character in a few episodes of the series called Wonder Girl (aka Wonder Woman’s little sister, Drusilla) in which Debra Winger made her acting breakthrough. I certainly don’t recall that character. The producers wanted her to appear in more shows but she declined fearing that it might hurt her budding career and that she may be stereotyped in that role. I suppose that is the difference between a good looking ex-Miss USA and a rather more ordinary looking aspiring actress. Lynda Carter knew that the show has forever cast her as Wonder Woman and has admitted as much in interviews. She has said many times that she does not mind. It has given her the chance to further her singer-songwriter career. She actually started off singing in a band years before the beauty contests and she still tours with several shows planned for 2017.

The real Wonder Woman

 

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