Jane Webb, The Brady Kids (1972)
She’s easily the most famous female superhero of all time, and she’s doing it on her own. She’s Wonder Woman, and she’s been a solo superhero since her first DC Comics appearance in 1941. Though Gal Gadot took her to the big screen in Wonder Woman, until then, the best-known depiction of Wonder Woman had to be the Lynda Carter TV version, which first premiered on Nov. 7, 1975.
That theme song! It’s enough to make you want to spin around and see if maybe this time you’ll magically change into her very same star-spangled costume. Carter’s performance as Wonder Woman was everything a ’70s superhero should be, and years later she’s still fielding questions about the character. In 2014, shortly after Gadot challenged her to the ALS ice bucket challenge, Carter spoke to Nerdist about what made the TV show version so beloved.
“It wasn’t about brawn. It was about brains. And yes, she happened to be beautiful, she happened to be kind of extraordinary in some way, but she wasn’t a guy,” Carter said. “And I think that, often times, they try to put out a female hero, and all they are doing is changing the costume from a man to a woman. It’s really a man who could be doing the same part; they’re not showcasing any of the tremendous dichotomies than women possess in term of softness and toughness, sweetness and grit, and inner and outer strength.”
A TV movie titled The New Original Wonder Woman segued into the TV series simply titled Wonder Woman, which ran for three reasons beginning April 21, 1976. However, Carter wasn’t actually the original Wonder Woman. Today, we’re looking at her notable incarnations so far – and some of the more famous actresses associated with the character.
Jane Webb, The Brady Kids (1972)
Believe it or not, this story begins with The Brady Bunch – specifically The Brady Kids, the animated spinoff to the sitcom that had the siblings going on magical adventures with talking animal characters. (No, really. Just watch that intro in the above clip.)
It was here that Wonder Woman appeared for the first time in 1972 off the comic page, and she was voiced by Webb, who’d already voiced Batgirl on The Batman/Superman Hour. Shortly thereafter she appeared on the Saturday morning series Superfriends and subsequent cartoons, where she was voiced by a series of actresses, but it’s just too weird not to mention that Wonder Woman got her showbiz start with The Brady Kids.
Cathy Lee Crosby, Wonder Woman (1974)
Carter also wasn’t the first live-action Wonder Woman. A brief 1967 pilot, titled Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince?, had Ellie Wood Walker playing the title character, who’d in her imagination turn into Planet of the Apes star Linda Harrison to become Wonder Woman. In 1974, Crosby, who’s today best known now for hosting That’s Incredible!, played a blonde Wonder Woman in an ABC TV movie that ultimately helped bring about the Carter TV series.