A Poderosa Isis

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.

I saw an episode from the fourth season of Columbo called "Negative Reaction," which starred Dick Van Dyke as a murderous photographer, and couldn't help but take note of the incredibly beautiful young woman that played Dyke's girlfriend. I looked her up on IMDb and discovered that the woman, JoAnna Cameron, played the titular heroine in the 70s Saturday morning series "The Secrets of Isis." This explains my interest in picking up the "Isis" DVD set. I only vaguely recall the show as a kid; so there's very little nostalgic factor with me.

The show beat out the similar primetime series "Wonder Woman," debuting Sept. 9, 1975. "Wonder Woman" didn't appear until sometime in 1976.

"The Secrets of Isis" was a low-budget Saturday morning series and obviously geared toward kids. Each episode has a moral; the cast is upbeat, likable and multi-cultural; the vibe is simple and wholesome; and the F/X are cheap. Each segment only runs 20 minutes (not including credits) and the last two episodes feature Captain Marvel of "Shazam!" All that said, the show possesses a certain charm. One can't help but respect that JoAnna Cameron took the role seriously.

In the interview section of the DVDs the producers admit that they chose JoAnna to play Isis because she had "great legs." And so she does. In fact, it's the first thing I noticed about her when I saw that episode of "Columbo." JoAnna is fairly short and kind of thin, but curvy at the same time. In any case, her legs are truly exquisite. Her face and presence also exude great intelligence and poise. A very uniquely beautiful woman, to say the least. Lynda Carter of "Wonder Woman," by contrast, was tall and ultra-voluptuous (I personally get sick at the sight of nigh-anorexic women). Another great 70s beauty was Erin Gray of "Buck Rogers."

BOTTOM LINE: Despite its numerous shortcomings noted above, "The Secrets of Isis" is worth picking up for those nostalgic of the show or those fascinated by JoAnna Cameron's great beauty, intelligence and poise; or both. And, by all means, watch it with your kids.

I remember this show like it was yesterday;a modern day high school teacher that see trouble coming and goes into a room has a secret ring on her finger and says,"Oh,mighty Isis!" and changes into a Egyptian princess named Isis with superpowers who helps out kids who get into trouble and fights off evil doers. It came on Saturday Mornings around 10:00am and I can remember this show being on. This was a dynamite show to watch by the way since it only was on for two seasons and went right off the air(and its reruns) for much of the decade(as part of the Shazam/Isis Hour). However,there was Isis who comes out at the end of the show to give a message or two about certain things(which became part of a Filmation staple and a big winner during its run on CBS). The series lasted two seasons on Saturday Mornings from September 6, 1975 until October 23, 1976 and it produced 22 episodes where CBS repeated it entirely until 1979 when it was combined "The Shazam-Isis Hour". Since the show's star was a fashion model before she became an actress,Joanna Cameron was a knockout to watch as Isis. She was beautiful. By the way,whatever happened to her after that? After her stint as "Isis" Joanna Cameron went on to star in the short-lived series based on "Spider-Man",and from there was a guest star in several television shows until she retired from show business and Hollywood altogether in the 1980's. Today,she does public appearances but she left Hollywood for the hotel marketing business based in Hawaii.

Revised on July 8, 2015

As a little boy in during the "70's; Isis (JoAnna Cameron) was my second crush, after Batgirl (Yvonne Craig). And then, after Isis; was WonderWoman; my crush on Lynda Carter was never broken after seeing her play the super-heroine. When they teamed Isis up with Captain Marvel; I was in kid heaven. I always thought there was something going on between those two; whenever they winked at each other. I'm after all; Isis is a goddess and of fertility;no less and then you have Captain Marvel; not really a god but man created and endowed with powers by the gods. The Immortals new what they were doing. I hope they release both Isis/Shazam! shows on dvd at the same time; when the long talked about Shazam! movie makes it to the theaters.

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.