Wonder Woman (1975) — The Lynda Carter Series

For most of the 20th century, Wonder Woman was a comic book with intermittent crossover into popular culture. The character had no successful theatrical adaptation, no major animated standalone, and only one botched 1974 made-for-TV film. The 1975 ABC pilot The New Original Wonder Woman changed that. By the time the series ended four years later, Lynda Carter had become so closely identified with the role that no other actress would meaningfully challenge her hold on the public imagination until Gal Gadot's casting in 2016.

This page covers production, the three seasons, the cultural impact, and the show's afterlife. For the broader screen history, see Wonder Woman on screen. For Lynda Carter's career as a whole, see Lynda Carter.

Production background

Producer Douglas S. Cramer optioned the rights from DC Comics in the early 1970s. The 1974 Cathy Lee Crosby TV movie had failed; Cramer wanted a faithful adaptation that drew explicitly on William Moulton Marston's original 1941 premise rather than a contemporary reinvention.

Cramer cast Lynda Carter — then a 23-year-old former Miss World USA with limited acting credits — in the title role. Carter was reportedly the producer's first choice; she beat several better-known actresses to the part. Lyle Waggoner (formerly of The Carol Burnett Show) was cast as Major Steve Trevor.

The pilot film The New Original Wonder Woman aired on ABC on 7 November 1975. Set in 1942, it followed Marston's premise faithfully: an American military pilot crashes on Themyscira; the Amazon princess Diana wins the right to escort him home; she becomes Wonder Woman to fight Nazi spies on behalf of the Allied cause.

The pilot was a ratings success. ABC ordered a series.

Season 1 — "Wonder Woman" / ABC (1975–76)

Set during the Second World War, faithful to Marston. Diana operates as Yeoman Diana Prince in U.S. military intelligence under Major Steve Trevor. Wonder Woman's mission is to fight Axis sabotage, espionage, and supernatural threats on the home front and occasionally abroad.

The first season is the most period-faithful and the most distinct stylistically — gas masks, Nazi villains, period dancehalls, USO shows. The first-season cast included Carolyn Jones (later replaced by Beatrice Colen) as Etta Candy, the first season's comic relief and Diana's friend.

ABC declined to renew the series for a second season at its existing budget level, citing the cost of period production.

Season 2–3 — "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman" / CBS (1977–79)

CBS picked up the show with a major creative reset. The new framing leaped Diana to the present day. She had returned to the ageless Themyscira after the war and now re-emerged in 1977 to find Steve Trevor's son — also Steve Trevor, also played by Lyle Waggoner — running the IADC (Inter-Agency Defense Command), a fictional U.S. government anti-terrorism agency.

The second and third seasons were contemporary thrillers. Plots centred on technological villains, Soviet-era espionage, and increasingly science-fictional concepts (alien invasions, telepaths, time travellers). The tone was lighter than season one, with some episodes leaning into camp.

The contemporary setting had practical advantages — cheaper production, more visual variety — but the loss of the WWII framing diluted the show's distinct voice. Many fans rate season one above the CBS years on creative grounds, while the wider audience that the CBS run reached made it more culturally consequential.

The series ended in September 1979 after 60 total episodes.

The transformation

The single most enduring image from the series — surviving every parody, syndication run, and cultural memory test — is the transformation sequence. Diana spins in place, surrounded by a flash of light, and emerges as Wonder Woman. The effect was simple by modern standards (a rotating dolly shot, an explosion of light, a dissolve to the costume) but its repeated use across 60 episodes lodged it permanently in the popular imagination.

The transformation became one of the most parodied sequences in 1970s American television — referenced in everything from The Simpsons to Family Guy to advertising decades later.

The theme song

The show's theme song ("Wonder Woman, all the world is waiting for you / And the power you possess") was composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. It is one of the most instantly recognisable superhero TV themes in history, alongside the Spider-Man (1967) and Batman (1966) themes.

Lynda Carter's performance

What made the series work, beyond the production values and the iconic costume, was Carter's performance. She played Diana Prince and Wonder Woman as fundamentally the same character — earnest, principled, warm — rather than as a Clark Kent / Superman split where the secret identity is a put-on. The Diana of the Carter series is just Wonder Woman with her hair up and her glasses on; she does not put on a goofy disguise persona. This grounded the show emotionally and gave Carter the chance to play the character as a real person rather than a series of poses.

Carter's physical bearing — her height, her dancer's posture, the literalness with which she could carry the costume's pageantry — was as central to the role's success as her acting. She has said in numerous interviews that she approached the role as if Wonder Woman were a real woman rather than a comic-book figure, and that approach is what reads through.

For more on Carter's life and work beyond Wonder Woman, see Lynda Carter.

Why it ended

The series was cancelled in 1979 amid declining ratings rather than creative collapse. Network television was shifting; the late 1970s were a transitional period for action-adventure shows. CBS chose not to renew. Carter herself has said in retrospect that she felt she had played the role for as long as she usefully could.

Cultural afterlife

The series survived in syndication continuously from the late 1970s onward. Subsequent generations of children encountered Carter's Wonder Woman through reruns, then VHS, then DVD, then streaming. The transformation sequence and theme song have been parodied so often that they have themselves become cultural shorthand.

Carter herself has never fully retired from the character. She has appeared: - As Moira Sullivan, Chloe's mother, in several episodes of Smallville - Voicing Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (2019) - In a cameo as Asteria, the original Amazon hero, in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - In numerous public appearances, conventions, and brand-ambassador roles

She is the longest-tenured Wonder Woman in any medium.

Where it fits

For anyone who watched television in the late 1970s and 1980s, Carter is the canonical Wonder Woman. The Gal Gadot-led films have introduced a new generation to the character, and the Carter and Gadot versions now coexist in cultural memory rather than displacing each other. There is space in popular culture for both.

The 1975 series is widely available on streaming and home video and remains worth watching — particularly the first season — both as a piece of 1970s television history and as a study in how a performer can fully inhabit an iconic role.

See also

• Wonder Woman hub — character history and continuity
• Wonder Woman on screen — every live-action and animated portrayal
• Wonder Woman costume evolution — including the Carter-era costume
• Wonder Woman (2017 film) — the modern theatrical version
• Lynda Carter — the actress who defined the role