Lynda Carter - TV's Only Amazon Princess Gets A New Life

by Ed Naha and Sam Maronie

Excerpted from the October 1977 issue of Starlog

When Wonder Woman was unceremoniously dropped from the ABC fall line-up, Lynda Carter—everyone's favorite superheroine-come-to-life—had to face the dim prospect of never returning to Paradise Island. But CBS has come to the rescue, promising a new, prime-time show and assuring Ms. Carter and the multitude of her admiring fans that happily the troubles in paradise are not over...

During the past six months, the adventures of the Amazon heroine Wonder Woman have been as interesting in real life as they have been on the TV screen. Wonder Woman will be back this season on a regular basis, no thanks to ABC. At the end of its 1976-77 run, the network abruptly let the Wonder Woman cast and crew know that they were not at all interested in picking up the show for the upcoming season. Before the initial shock had time to set in, CBS galloped to the rescue, offering a weekly time slot to the top-rated show. This fall, Wonder Woman has a new home, a new time and, most importantly, a new look.

Fans of the fantastic female need not dismay. CBS has taken great pains to give Wonder Woman a facelift that neatly fits into character. In his office on the Warners studio complex , newfound WW producer Charles Fitzsim-ons, when queriedabout the revamped storyline,beams: "Now that we're on a new network, we're taking Wonder Woman out of the World War II period and updating it to today, giving greater flexibility to the stories. We want the show to come into the era of science fiction, to encounter all of the things that are popular with people today. We don't want to merely deal with the Nazi threat show after show anymore. We want a faster pace."

According to Fitzsimons, the changes have been accepted wholeheartedly by everyone involved: "Lynda and the cast think the idea is great." In the new show, Wonder Woman will continue her fight against evil. As Diana Prince, she will be special assistant to Steve Trevor Jr., son of the Air Force intelligence ace for whom Wonder Woman worked incognito during World War II. The role is again played by Lyle Waggoner. Trevor Jr. is part of the interconnected Intelligence Community which falls under the direction of the President's Office. In fact, the weekly assignments will be received in top secrecy from a soft-spokeo man with a Southern accent. Fitzsimons, who served as a producer for the first William Dozier Batman pilot, stresses that the modifications of the new, improved Wonder Woman will be minimal and all for the better. Appearances will be slightly altered, of course, but he adds, "The costumes will be basically the same with a little modernization. The wide lapels, however, will be strictly taboo."

While CBS was busy changing the life of Wonder Woman on the tube, star Lynda Carter was diligently changing her everyday existence in a big way. Early in June she married her personal manager, Ron Samuels, and flew off to Hawaii on their honeymoon.

Before embarking on her new life, on and off screen, the talented Ms. Cartel took time to chat with STARLOG while hard at work on the set of one of the final ABC specials of last season. Huddled inside her air conditioned dressing room-trailer, Lynda seemed fairly oblivious to the action going on outside. A few yards away from her door, a group of extras, dressed in broad-lapeled suits and well-worn fedoras,trudged laboriously through an artificial swamp on the back lot of Warner's studios. The day was unusually hot and humid, and the Los Angeles sun made the tropical set authentic in terms of temperature. The cast and crew wilted accordingly. Lynda's trailer, however, remained untouched by it all and the willowy star, in simple black sweater and slacks, talked about her career and her involvement with the show in low, hushed tones.

"People want to get back to old-fashioned feelings," she said in an attempt to explain Wonder Woman's immense popularity. "There's a strong romantic element in the show along with the fantasy-type characters; a war hero and an Amazon Princess. Doesn't every girl still want to be a princess and every boy a hero?" That basic idealistic desire to be something special was part of Lynda's own childhood in Phoenix, Arizona. The 24-year old brunette related that she avidly followed Wonder Woman's comic book exploits as a youngster, often pretending she could imitate the character's fantastic feats. In real life, though, she found herself frustrated and somewhat inhibited by the single characteristic that brought her to the attention of Wonder Woman's producers in the first place . . . her height. "In high school," the statuesque, six foot beauty recalled, "I was too tall to be in the pep squad, too tall for a boy to feel comfortable with on a date and too tall to feel at ease anywhere. Everybody used to tell me—sympathetically, I guess—'Don't worry, you've got what it takes . . . talentl You'll make it.' Nobody showed me how, though, until someone, I forget who, said 'study.' So I took up music and singing."

As a result, she was voted Most Talented Student at Arcadia-Titans High School in Phoenix. Lynda subsequently decided to leave Arizona State University to pursue a singing career. While she didn't exactly set the pop world afire, she was good enough to tour with several rock groups before returning home in 1972. It was at this time that Lynda decided to capitalize on her most obvious natural asset: her beauty. She entered a local beauty contest. A "Miss World- USA" crown followed and crash courses at several New York acting schools ensued. Eventually, Lynda made her way to such shows as Starsky and Hutch,. Cos and Nakia in guest roles. About this time, ABC was reeling from an unsuccessful attempt at launching comic strip heroine Wonder Woman on the airwaves. Their attempt with Cathy Lee Crosby was a bona fide disaster and a new actress was needed pronto. Lynda's regal figure was spotted and, voila, instant superhero!

Seated calmly on the set, Lynda stated that she thoroughly enjoyed her role as Amazon Princess explaining her feelings about the unique coloring of the drama. "It crosses the bridge between fun and reality," she theorized, thus making it a show that would appeal to both children and adults. As the final ABC season drew to a close, Lynda stated that she had never really worried about being stereotyped as the Amazon type or being identified too closely with the Wonder Woman role. "Wonder Woman is part of my life right now and I see it as a step in my career," she smiled. "I'm not really afraid of being typed because I'm involved with different things, like writing music and singing."

"Wonder Woman has never really been flesh and bones before, so, right now, I am Wonder Woman. If a person totally immersed herself in a role, she would be totally insane. But if she didn't become involved at all, she wouldn't be doing the proper job." Lynda doubted that she would ever completely lose herself in her superhero image because of the demands of studying the complex character. "There's such a fine line between fantasy and reality in the show that it's probably the most difficult role I'll ever play."

For Lynda, one of the most fascinating results of the Wonder Woman role has been the waves of fan mail triggered during the past season. While a healthy dose of the mail originated from fantasy and comic strip enthusiasts, a large hunk of it emanated from an ap-38 preciative male audience who rated Lynda's performance on a hubba-hubba scale of one to ten—a perfect tenner. Lynda is slightly embarrassed by this type of adulation but laughs and enjoys it nonetheless. Especially fascinating, in her mind, are her chance meetings with her fans.

"The other day I stopped by the market to pick up a few things," she began, "and there were two little girls waiting outside on bicycles. One of them nudged the other and whispered, 'Look! It's HER!' They both stood there like statues," Lynda grinned. "So I just put my fingers to my lips like I was in disguise, like Diana Prince, and asked them to keep my real identity a secret." Lynda reacts to the adulation in general with a good-natured shrug. "I'm just a person like anybody else. Hopefully, the role that I play will have some kind of positive effect on both myself and the public." One of the best demonstrations of Lynda Carter's "positive effect" came to the actress' attention via a letter from a teacher of retarded children who wrote to say that her usually impassive children watched and enjoyed a recent episode. One child in the class, who normally spoke very little, broke his long-standing silence by actually reading Lynda's name aloud from the credits. As Lynda recalled the incident, her voice caught with emotion. "Things like that really make you stop and think about someone other than yourself. Whew. That really blows my mind to think of it. Of course, the children were just relating to what I'd projected on screen ... but I do get sentimental when I read something like that."

Lynda revealed that as a result of the monumental fan response, she had immersed herself in perfecting the Wonder Woman character offstage as well as on. Her routine is not confined simply to memorizing lines and smiling for close-ups. She has thrown herself into the grueling physical demands of the role. Last season she handled most of her own stunts, which made it necessary for her to keep in top physical shape'... a fact pleasantly obvious to the hordes of male viewers. "I'm running, swimming, climbing rope . . . things that a little while ago would have taken a little more 'oomph' to do. Now I look forward to it."

Lynda explained that she also looks forward to playing Wonder Woman for as long as the all-powerful ratings allow, although she is aware of the limitations inherent in the role. Nothing, she giggled, could last forever. "Can you imagine a sixty-year-old Wonder Woman? How about a Wonder-Grandma. You know, hobbling around with a cane instead of a magic lasso!"

The actress was interrupted by a crew member sticking his head inside her door. Wonder Woman would be needed on the set soon. Lynda arose from her chair and said her good-byes. Soon, she would be dressed in the red, white and blue patriotic costume of her fictional counterpart. The members of the cast relaxed outside her trailer in canvas backed chairs, waiting for theheroine to make one of her last excursions into the fabulous forties before plunging headfirst into a new season of seventies adventures. Within minutes, Lynda Carter, actress, had reappeared on the set, completely transformed into the towering Amazon Princess. "Beautiful as Aphrodite . . . Wise As Athena . . . Stronger Than Hercules." For over 35 years, these words of creator Charles Moulton have introduced nearly all of Wonder Woman's comic book capers. Now, in 1977, it seems as if he had Lynda Carter in mind all along.