Isis

70s Saturday morning kid's show about a female superhero: Isis.

I had two reactions to this series so here we go:

My 1970s childhood reaction. I thought this series was one of the great wonders of the world. Isis seemed supercool to me, the series plots were fine, the action scenes were outstanding and this series was generally speaking: must-see-TV.

My current middle aged adult reaction. Today I often proudly go down memory lane and watch TV shows of my youth, and I have a great time. But I am sorry to report that this Isis series is missing a lot of the punch it had but related series of the day - Shazam! (1974-76) - still stands tall the way it did decades ago.

But that does not mean that Isis is not worth a look in this century. There are a few episodes that are still wonderful entertainment - mainly "Lucky" and "The Sound Of Silence". "Lucky" is a touching tale of a kid's relationship with his pet dog. "Silence" actually introduces science fiction into the series as a stolen force field makes trouble for all concerned.

And there were a few episodes where John Davey (Captain Marvel in Shazam!) made a guest appearance, and this was a thrill. Isis and Shazam! also shared many of the same music cues during the run of both shows. I would say the music cues were about 40% of the entertainment value in Isis.

However, the Isis series really ran into problems towards the end and the last three episodes - Year Of The Dragon, Now You See It..., ...And Now You Don't - rank as some of the worst Saturday morning TV of the 70s.

If you wish to re-visit all those old live-action 70s Saturday morning TV shows I would consider watching Shazam!, Ark 11, Land Of The Lost, Bigfoot and Wildboy...and maybe leave Isis to the end of your viewing list. Enjoy!

Today's tribal kiddies have nothing on Isis for piercing endurance. That woman wore earrings the size of soup tureens...and flew! How could she do that? I just don't know!

Seriously, it was a fun show, perfectly targeted for its audience.

Isis also had good advice for the kids, like "don't talk to strangers", "don't prank call the police", or "don't share needles with the junkie ho's on south avenue". She was way ahead of her time.

But I think Trinity could have kicked her ass.

Entertaining show for kids with drop-dead-gorgeous JoAnna Cameron as a teacher who changes into the goddess Isis to fight evil. The show came on the air in the mid-70's, during what was then a public uproar over violence on children's television, so Isis defeated most of her villains non-violently and offered a moral at the end of the show. The show only lasted one season but was re-run for many years after that.

The show caught on in South America when it was rebroadcast there in the 1980s, and "Isis" has many Brazilian fans.

The show is mostly valuable today for the fun cornball factor and for the fact that Ms. Cameron, who bears a striking resemblance to Catherine Zeta-Jones, was a knockout who wore short skirts and had great legs. Neo-pagans and Wiccans will find much to raise an eyebrow over, as the goddess aspect is treated with unusual respect for the time and place the show came out.

JoAnna Cameron retired from show business in the 80's and went into nursing, specializing in geriatrics. Recently she has made appearances at science fiction and TV nostalgia conventions and by all reports is still a gracious and beautiful woman.

This was a great Saturday morning show for more than the kids. The dads too enjoyed seeing JoAnna Cameron as Isis dealing with all kinds of 20th century trouble.

By day Cameron was Andrea Thomas mild mannered archaeologist who came into possession of an ancient amulet, purportedly the property of Queen Hatshepsut back in the day. Worked properly and the spirit of ancient Isis entered the body of presumably a female and could give one superpowers.

JoAnna Cameron was one drop dead gorgeous goddess. Many a pubescent teen had some fantasies about her. Like Clark Kent she kind of dressed down in Andrea Thomas mode and had the requisite pair of dorky looking glasses as I recall.

I wouldn't mind seeing this again sometime.

Just noticed the series can be streamed on Netflix and its been fun re-living all the episodes. Joanna Cameron was gorgeous as Isis/Andrea Thomas and had the perfect legs for the Isis short skirt. The story lines were pretty simple and since this show was targeted for kids there were "life lesson" story lines with every episode. One big downside is the unfortunate decision to drop Joanna Pang in the second season. Ronalda Douglas wasn't a great replacement. (To this day Joanna Pang does not know why she was replaced.) One interesting tidbit: the opening of episode 22 (the last) uses the same voice over as season 1. You hear the name "Cindy Lee" instead of "Renee Carrol". (Was that by accident or design by the producers?) I think the show laid the groundwork for the future Wonder Woman series since it showed that a woman character could be the lead for a TV show.