Wonder Woman: Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?

WARNING: this short feature, made to test the waters for another camp comic book show in the wake of Batman's success in the 1960s (with the same narrator) is played broadly for laughs.

So rid your head any visions of Linda Carter or choirs singing "Wonder Woman!" This Wonder Woman, millions of years old, lives in an ordinary suburban house with her mother, Hyppolita (Maudie Prickett doing the demanding mother shtick and who is the best thing in this short feature).

A few things would have to be ironed out had this made it to a series: knowing her amazing beauty Wonder Woman is incredibly self-admiring (one very funny thing I trust was intentional is when she's admiring herself in the mirror her reflection turns the wrong way and uses the wrong hand).

Potential as a series: it might have been good in a "Batman" sort of way. Remember, this isn't any sort of finalized version of a potential series. It's a short feature to entice network executives (not known for their humor or their ability to grasp subtlety) to get a hint of possibilities. Nothing here is set in stone. It's a lot of hints thrown at random against the proverbial wall to see what sticks and wasn't made for public consumption. Once a series was contracted it would have been different (though, I hope, as funny or more so).

Taken for what it is, it's hilarious. I wish it had been longer.

The plot is about Wonder Woman rescuing Steve from an airplane in stormy weather, but don't mind that: they don't get that far. Don't look for any flying effects.

I read tons of comic books as a kid but I never read superhero comics, so I never developed any particular hero worship for these ridiculous figures with superhuman powers. Poking gentle fun at them doesn't bother me. I liked "Batman" (the series) when I was a kid though I knew no more about Batman than the series presented. Later, I liked the show "Wonder Wonan" because I was a post-adolescent high school boy when it aired. 'Nuff said. So I'm open to nonsense like this. I advise anyone watching this to be the same or you'll get in a snit. If you're overprotective of Wonder Woman you'll be foaming at the mouth.

Four minute short that is in fact the first time Wonder Woman appeared on film.

This is a little confusing. Due to the comical acting and the sound of the 1966 Batman narrator, when I watched this I thought it was trying to follow in the footsteps of the campy Adam West Batman series? Instead of being a campy superhero series it was going for the all out sit-com format seen in I Dream Of Jeannie and Bewitched.

Now I get it - but I don't like it.

I personally wish they tried for the less obvious Batman-style of comedy as, when this was made in 1967, there were a few silly fantasy sitcoms doing the rounds, and this probably seemed rather routine.

Others seem to find 1967 Wonder Woman rather amusing but not me. At the time of this review this short can only be found on Youtube, and if it has been taken down, you have not missed much. Basically, it looks like it was thrown together on a Sunday afternoon and the only things of interest are the Batman narrator and the sound of some known 20th Century Fox music cues. Forget it.

This 'pilot' for a series that never eventuated is only four minutes long, but every minute of it is a blast... as long as you're already a Wonder Woman fan. The series would never had survived simply because the idea works best as a spoof, and most people at the time wouldn't have had much to do with Wonder Woman. Now that there has been at least one 'straight' television series about her, the spoof works a lot better. It's also a lot of fun for those of us know WW from the comics, but the less you know about the character the less it is likely to tickle your funny bone.

IN CONSIDERING BOTH the length and tone of this (super) short film, one would certainly ask; why, just why would producer William Dozier bring us this? True, it was 1967 and what was arguably the most original, refreshing and invigorating series was his baby in the prior year.

YEAH SCHULTZ, YOU guessed it. The series of which we speak is, of course, BATMAN and it was by far the best and certainly most memorable of a group of series that were rushed up to the network by ABC In January of 1966. The thought was to shore up badly slumping ratings at the midpoint of the 1966-67 season. Although there may have been some mild successes in the other series, all failed to be on the schedule come September; all except for BATMAN.*

SO BECAUSE OF the so called "Camp Humor" approach to the comic book adaption had met with such a high degree of success, the natural inclination was to follow it up with even more of the same. So, Mr. Dozier's Greenway Productions shopped around and came up with some other pet projects**; with this WONDER WOMAN short being among them.

BUT, WHEREAS THE success on the BATMAN show was carefully crafted, understated and relied more on the exaggerated visual and written idioms of the Comics pages being translated to the medium, of film, it never really went out of its way to be totally farcical. This is particularly true of the first season's product. The same could not e said for this DIANA PRINCE WONDER WOMAN Promo (which is what is was).

IN THIS MINUS 5 minute production, it starts out with Diana Prince's being portrayed as a total klutz. (Or is it the feminine, "Klutzess?") It is painfully obvious just where this is going, right from the start. She is nagged by her mother, she can't hold the daily newspaper without its falling apart, she has natty looking hair and is completely indecisive about going out as WW. It was raining and storming, you see.

THE LOOK OF this 'production', such as it was, appears much more like an afternoon Soap than it does a filmed series. Adding to this obvious attempt to look obvious is the narration provided by Producer Dozier. He did the voice over narration on the BATMAN Series, but this time he went the extra mile in trying to amuse by being super corny and purposely overly dramatic.

BEYOND OUR COMPARISON to the look of a Soap Opera, there is one other analogy which we feel is proper and highly defend-able as am assertion. That would be that the whole thing has the subtlety and comedy level of a spoof that one would see on NBC's Saturday NIGHT LIVE. The length of this "skit's" duration, the rapid fire delivery of the dialog and the lampooning subject matter are all evidence in our favor.

THE ONLY THING lacking is some audience laughter; being technically augmented or not. That was another pitfall that Dozier and company had toyed with in bringing us BATMAN.

TO THIS WE can only say, "Thank you Mr. William Dozier!"***

NOTE: * Among the other components of "ABC's Second Season" were THE DOUBLE LIFE OF HENRY FIFE (spy spoof sitcom with Red Buttons), THE COUNT (????) and BLUE LIGHT (a World War II double agent drama with Robert Goulet).

NOTE: **Other series in consideration by ABC and Dozier/Greenway were a DICK TRACY live action half-hour (starring Dr. Martin), which did actually did achieve the stage of a Pilot; and THE GREEN HORNET Series (with Van Williams and Bruce Lee) which was on for the 1966-67 season.

NOTE:***The only other "film" that had any resemblance to this in either length or content was that insipid RIVERDALE: THE ARCHIE ANDREWS TRAILER(2011)monstrosity of several years ago.

The Batman series creator must have been overworked to have created this schlock! I suspect that he was either misogynist or he really did not want to make this series and wanted to show the studio gate-keepers a lousy pilot, on purpose. The Diana Prince actress and her overbearing earth mother's acting was cheesy enough to rate a lifetime achievement award on the Razzies. The prancing in front of the mirror was awful really awful. Cheesy music, Cheesy set & Cheesy SFX,,what fun!!! DP's Wonder Woman costume as ill-fitting and looks like a cheap wonder woman costume. The actress playing a good looking Wonder Woman, in the mirror reflection (apparently how DP sees herself) was a complete bimbo...the awkward flying out the window was a gasser..don't get me wrong, I dug these affectations. A 5 year old youtube fanboy could create a better pilot..ya gotta see it, man!..Wow, it's awful! As a lover of bad movies (The Room, Troll 2, Grindhouse, Frankenpimp)I gave this short flick a 10...then again..maybe I should get my head examined.