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Wonder Woman originally appeared in a pilot shot in the 1960s, starring Ellie Wood Walker and Hope Summers, that was created by the makers of Batman. Campy, stupid, and an insult to the character, this show luckily never made it to the television screen.  After the first fiasco that didn't make
it to the screen, Wonder Woman first appeared on television during a
1972 episode of the Brady
Kids titled "It's All Greek To Me."
In 1973, Wonder Woman appeared on ABC's Saturday morning lineup as one of the Super Friends. While it was preachy and always had a heavy handed moral at the end of each episode, this animated version of Wonder Woman with the Marilyn Quayle flip hairstyle is one of the more enduring images. The original run of the Super Friends through the many title and animation style changes(the most popular being the Challenge of the Super Friends) ran through 1985.
Soon after the TV-Movie, Wonder Woman's comic book persona changed from being a glorified Emma Peel knock off and returned to her classic costumed version. The concept for a tv show was revived, Lynda Carter was brought on as the title character, and the show was a hit.
For whatever reason, the show debuted on ABC on December 18, 1975 as The New Original Wonder Woman to distinct itself from the Cathy Lee Crosby version. The new Wonder Woman was set in the 1942 and the look of the show was copied directly from how the comic book looked in that era. It was excellent for its detail, and was faithful to how the characters were during World War II. Shown as a series of specials rather than given a regular timeslot, Wonder Woman was used to bolster timeslots with sagging ratings. With a rich array of guest stars such as Cloris Leachman, Red Buttons, Carolyn Jones, and Roy Rogers not to mention introducing Debra Winger to a larger audience, Wonder Woman had a strong cast. With scripts for the Feminum Mystique written by people such as Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday(co-creators of Cagney and Lacey), the show had a strong foundation for success. Seen as too high of an expense per episode, after the pilot and thirteen "specials", ABC didn't renew their order for episodes which lead CBS to pick up the option.
Retitled The New Adventures of Wonder Woman Diana was able to take on relevant things in the late 1970s such as mimes, disco, and psychics. During the second season on CBS, NBC counter programmed with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century with Gil Gerrard. With ratings having dropped the show was cancelled after two seasons and Wonder Woman was replaced by the Dukes of Hazzard. Now available on DVD, the fun and glory that was Wonder Woman in the 1970s is available to all without any commercial cuts or time removed to fit more commercials in. Although for some reason which neither I nor anyone else can figure out, the live action credits in seasons two and three with the instrumental theme are modified. Rather than the red star on the blue background as pictured above, the DVD has the credits changed to a red star on a black background. This is a small thing in comparison to the fact that the audio doesn't sync correctly on the credits leading to an odd discontinuity between video and audio.
Luckily, the only evidence that was released to the public of this nauseating concept was a mini comic in boxes of Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini-Buns. Wonder Woman returned to animation on the Cartoon Network in 2001 via the Justice League cartoon. |
Next,
Wonder Woman sprang to life as a mediocre TV-Movie starring former
tennis star Cathy Lee Crosby(best remembered for her stint on That's
Incredible!)as
a bizarre blonde version of everyone's favorite raven haired Amazon
Princess. With no super powers, a modified costume that was a cross
between a flight attendant and a gymnast, and a pointless script
the project crashed and burned.
One apocryphal story was that the Lynda Carter version was created to
stand in for The Bionic Woman(Another ABC Show), as Lindsay Wagner
was accident prone and did her own stunts, often hurting herself.
CBS,
the former "Tiffany Network", took Wonder Woman into the 1970s and instead
of being Yeoman First Class Diana Prince as she had been during 1942,
Wonder Woman was now an IADC(Inter Agency Defense Command) agent who
was still Diana Prince and was now working under Steve Trevor's son:
Steve Trevor Jr. Obviously Steve Junior was dense like his father. He
knew about Wonder Woman from his father's stories and yet... both were
involved in intelligence and worked with women named Diana Prince yet
neither figured it out. What's worse is that obviously Steve Junior's
dad never told him about Diana Prince. 
In 1993 because of
a proposed toy line by Mattel we were almost subjected to Wonder Woman
and the Star Riders cartoon which would have been the animated tie-in
to the product line. Note that they "had to" redesign the classic costume
and put Diana in white leggings with blue stars and made her tiara silverish. In case there were any worries about violence a spokeswoman for Mattel stressed that the line would be nonviolent and that Wonder Woman would have "lots of hair to comb."