Wonder Woman is without a doubt one of the casualties of modern comics. Everyone knows who she is, everyone loves her… but there are so few stories that you can point someone toward. There’s the Perez run of course and everyone knows of the Lynda Carter TV series… but that’s almost it (I do like the Byrne run, there are some interesting moments with Phil Jimenez and the Rucka material is worth looking into). Even though Lynda Carter is the iconic representation of Wonder Woman, the program itself is all but unseen.
So… here’s something even more obscure, a precursor to the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman starring Cathy Lee Crosby as a crime-fighting heroine (who bore a passing resemblance to the comic book character).
Wonder Woman 1974 TV pilot coming December 11 to DVD
The Warner Archive Collection continues its rollout of fanboy-centric DC Comics properties with the December 11 DVD release of the original 1974 television pilot, WONDER WOMAN, starring Cathy Lee Crosby.
Before Lynda Carter took the heroine back to World War 2 for her “New, Original” incarnation in 1975, statuesque tennis pro-turned-performer Cathy Lee Crosby swung the magic lasso in a very different TV incarnation of WONDER WOMAN. As developed by scribe John D.F. Black (Star Trek, Shaft), and seemingly influenced by her recent turn as a mod, cat-suited crime-fighter in the pages of her DC Comics home, this Amazon Princess was more superspy than superhero. Still, many of the expected wondrous elements from bracelets and lassos to Paradise Island and invisible jets all make an appearance, albeit with a sleek, seventies espionage super-action refit. Three years before taking up residence on Fantasy Island, Ricardo Montalban plays laconic lothario Abner Smith, who lurks at the top of the conspiracy to make off with ultra-secret code books – leading Agent Prince to discover an Amazon sister-in-exile (Anitra Ford).
On DVD
The Daily P.O.P. 
When I read this was coming out… I swear I remembered having a version of this as bonus content somewhere… but for the life of me I can’t find it. I just remember having this somewhere I swear… but maybe it was a dream.
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Oh my eyes! That cosume! What were they thinking? Happily Lynda Carter was cast as The New Original (!) Wonder Woman which made it all right, and Ms Crosby got the consolation prize role of not-unhot villain.
P. S. Not to be annoying but FYI you accidentally wrote “Linda” instead of Lynda three times before the first image. Don’t hate me!
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You know… given it was the 1970s and they were probably trying to demure-down the costume a bit… I actually don’t think this was a bad costume. I know, people will yell at me for saying that.
I think Lynda Carter nailed it, hit it out of the park, and whatever cliche you can reach for… I don’t just mean the sex-appeal, but respecting the character and everything…
But I think there was more wrong with the Cathy Lee Crosby pilot than the costume. I haven’t watched in a while, but it was like someone wrote a spy movie and called it Wonder Woman… but it really wasn’t Wonder Woman at all… IF it had been a random new character, instead of Wonder Woman, I think it might have been received better.
Wonder Woman needs to be Wonder Woman… trying to shoehorn some other kind of thing into a movie and calling it Wonder Woman will get called-out, which is what I really think happened to this pilot. Nothing against Ms Crosby or as I said even the costume. It’s not a bad hero costume… it just isn’t Wonder Woman’s costume.
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Well, that’s probably a fairer way of looking at it. It simply *doesn’t* work as a Wonder Woman costume but, as you say, it seems the whole project seems to be WW in name only; if they couldn’t even get the *look* of Diana herself right it’s no surprise that the rest didn’t work. Ms Crosby didn’t look bad (tho’ me no likee costume) but she looked as much like Wonder Woman as Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler or Barry Manilow (him again! At the Copa…).
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You know… if you look at single frames from Cathy Lee Crosby in this movie, you might have a negative reaction.
Crosby… Stills… Gnash…
It’s your fault for mentioning Manilow and putting me in the musical brain again!
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Ha! Fabulously terrible! Oddly enough I did as you suggested but after my teeth began to gnash I was interrupted by a not-noticeably-good ’80s pop group, that’s *right* – Crosby…Stills…Gnash…WANG CHUNG!
Bwahahaha! The Horror! The Horror!
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