Electra Woman and Dyna Girl

This Saturday morning live-action show can best be summed up by four words: Deidre Hall in spandex! All I can add to that is "Yowza!!!!"

OK, that may not be very politically correct, but for a show that seemingly had women's lib at its core, it sure seemed to spend a lot of time focusing on the attractive Ms. Hall and her sidekick in their tight spandex outfits, escaping from lame death traps, and carrying the biggest watches you'll ever see, this side of a Power Rangers show.

Like most Kroft shows, it was bright, colorful, and cheesy. The dialogue was beyond lame and the villains laughable (as in ineptly campy). The ladies did have a pretty cool car, though. The duo would be saved by some new gadget or function added to their enormous wrist devices, created by their mentor and scientist friend, Frank (Norman Alden). Ms. Hall and her friend looked fantastic, but no one could do this show with a straight face.

Only a handful of episodes were ever made for this addition to "The Krofft Supershow", but it marks a milestone in entertainment history: the introduction of Diedre Hall in her pre-"Days of our Lives" days.

Here, she portrays Lori, a career woman who, with her assistant Judy (Judy Strangis), also fight crime in the guise of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, with the help of their faithful butler Alfred...I mean, their friend Frank Heflin (Norman Alden).

Much like "Batman", EW and DG have an array of devices they use to fight crime and a vast selection of villains to fight against every episode. If memory serves, there was even a cave(!) they operated out of.

Though it reeked of '70s kiddie-show cheapness, the show had a bland kind of style as it tried to evoke the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder while splicing in Women's Lib at the same time.

Too bad. Maybe if they had Aaron Spelling as a producer?

Four stars for "Electra Woman and Dyna Girl" - Diedre Hall's finest hour (in 1976, that is).

I have almost no recollection of any episodes of this show. Having said that I do remember that stirring feeling that my seven year old body underwent on those 8 odd Saturday mornings when Croft Supershow wasn't running Wonderbug. I didn't understand at the time why I was transfixed to the TV when it usually just provided background noise while I played with Legos. Those skin tight costumes even today shape my ideal of the female form. Well that and Linda Carters Wonderwoman. I don't know how I'd react to seeing repeats today. Perhaps I'd see them as Gatsby saw Daisy. The pale light of memory shadows all flaws. I'd probably think of them as cheesy. But damn those girls were hot!

The only episode of this show I remember involved a female bad..uh...woman who had lots of spiders at her command. I know she was referred to as "queen of the spiders" and I think her name was Cleopatra, or some other historical name that really doesn't go very well with the title of arachnid all-mother.

That episode became the basis of many a Saturday afternoon. My sister and I would pretend we were trapped like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl were in this huge web with tarantulas everywhere (we were actually in a walk in closet with a tangle of old jump ropes and a smattering of plastic spiders from the dollar store).

Bout the only other things I remember about Sid and Marty Krofft is Dr. Shrinker and of course Land of the Lost. Really horribly cheesy stuff, and really strange...which probably explains why I can't remember very much of it.

I am a fan of this series, mainly because I am a sucker for superhero shows. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl is one of the many shows made by Sid and Marty Krofft, created for the Krofft Supershow. Only eight episodes were made, which were split into 16 for the Supershow, where each episode had two parts.

In this show, Lori and Judy are two reporters for Newsmaker Magazine, but when crime strikes, and they get a call from Frank, a scientist who serves as inventor and the Alfred of the series, Lori and Judy use their ElectraComs to Electra-Change into Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, spandex-clad heroines, who then use their ElectraComms and smarts to thwart the villain of the day.

So, basically, this is what we call a late attempt at making money off the success of the Batman show from the 1960's. Due to it being made for Saturday Morning (instead of primetime like the Batman), there are no fisticuffs to be seen or more serious plots. Like the other works of Sid and Marty, this is a cartoony take on the superhero genre, and that is where it can be bad to some, as it sometimes makes the show even more campier than Batman. The first episode does not show the origin story of the two heroines, which is also a downside, as we do not know how Lori and Judy got to become Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and what The Sorcerer. The first episode's villain, did to cross paths with them to want revenge. Other than that, it is a good show. Not perfect, but good.