Trama

After a dogfight with a German plane, U.S. Army Air Force pilot Steve Trevor crash lands on an uncharted island in the Bermuda Triangle. Paradise Island is inhabited only by women, and their existence has been kept a secret for thousands of years. Learning of the Nazi German threat to humanity, the Amazon princess Diana is chosen to accompany Trevor back to the United States to battle the Third Reich. Garbed in a skimpy red, white, and blue costume and armed with a magic lasso that forces anyone within its grasp to tell the truth, Diana uses her powers as Wonder Woman to battle the forces of evil.—Marty McKee <mmckee@wkio.com>

Beauty queen Lynda Carter trades tiaras in this November 1975 live-action launch of the popular comic book debuting in 1941, which sets Diana Prince in the Nazi era in which she originated.

In the story, Major Steve Trevor flies to the Devil's Triangle to intercept a Nazi plane headed to bomb the U.S. Both planes are destroyed, and as the two pilots parachute toward land, the Nazi shoots Steve. He lands on the shores of Paradise Island, where he's discovered by two of the beautiful Amazon women living there. One just happens to be the Princess, the only daughter of the Queen (though that would be contradicted later in the season), and this quite dewy-eyed princess can't help but nurse the ailing Trevor back to health. When the Queen sets an athletic competition to determine which Amazon will return Trevor to his home (before his savage manly ways corrupt the tranquil island, you understand), the Princess, forbidden by her mother to compete, wins the contest is disguise. She hops her invisible jet to the U.S. War Department, her precious cargo in tow.

Carters star-spangled superheroine is wide-eyed and sweet as she experiences Washington, D.C., for the first time, causing a sensation strolling down a crowded street in her unique attire, and even bemusedly offering social commentary after stopping a robbery and being asked to "fill out forms." She's approached by a theatrical agent, who promptly makes some cash off her bullets-and-bracelets act but then tries to swindle her. But he's got another angle he's working, anyway.

The Nazi plot thickens, and though Wonder Woman has an innocent quality about her, she veers to the highly shrewd as she works to unravel the scheme. In a key historical moment (and a move that was mimicked by little girls everywhere!), we see Diana twirl to transform into Wonder Woman for the first time. (Lynda Carter explains in the special features for the first-season DVD set that the twirl was her suggestion when the producers were looking for some way for Diana to change into her alter ego.)

Notes: Cloris Leachman lays the comedy aside for an exotic turn as Queen Hippolyte (though she would be replaced later by Carolyn Jones). John Randolph plays General Blankenship in this pilot only; he was replaced by Richard Eastham when the show returned in the spring.