Wonder Woman: Season 02  (1977)

Theatrical Release Information:
Wonder Woman: Season 02

Introduced by ABC as a series of intermittently produced specials during 1976 and 1977, the vintage comic-book property Wonder Woman didn't officially become a regular, weekly series until it was picked up by CBS for its second season on the air. Lynda Carter returns in the revised The New Adventures of Wonder Woman as the title character, an Amazonian princess with awesome superpowers who lives in the "mortal" world under the alternate identity of Diana Prince. But, whereas the ABC version was set during WWII, pitting Wonder Woman against Nazis and other such reprobates, the CBS version took place in contemporary times (the 1970s, that is). Since she is immortal, Wonder Woman has not aged one iota in the intervening 30 years -- in fact, if anything, she's more attractive than ever. But how could the producers maintain the quasi-romantic relationship between W.W. and her mortal boyfriend, dashing USAF pilot Steve Trevor? The answer was charmingly simple: in her "new" adventures as a secret agent for the Inter-Agency Defense Command, Wonder Woman would take her orders from Steve Trevor's son, Steve Jr. -- who is the spitting image of his dad (as well he should be, since both Steve Sr. and Steve Jr. are played by Lyle Waggoner). Other additions to the CBS version include Norman Burton as the IADC's head man, Joe Atkinson; Saundra Sharp as Steve Jr.'s secretary, Eve; and a talking computer named the Internal Retrieval Associative, or I.R.A. for short. In season two's 90-minute opener, Wonder Woman manages to convince her mother, Queen of the Amazons (Beatrice Straight), to allow her to continue fighting the good fight in the mortal world, just as she'd done during the war years. In later episodes, W.W. finds that certain antagonists never completely disappear, as she comes face to face with a handful of unregenerate Nazis; she rescues Joe Atkinson's daughter from the clutches of a mind-controlling rock star; a series of man-made volcanoes threaten to decimate the Earth; W.W.'s space-alien friend Andros (played by Dack Rambo, replacing the previous season's Tim O'Connor) shows up on yet another mission to save our planet; the "good guys and good girls" try to thwart a plan to kidnap all of the top Olympic athletes; villains attempt to harness the powers of a youthful psychic for nefarious purposes; and in the season closer, "The Murderous Missile," W.W. adds motorcycling to her ever-growing list of awesome accomplishments! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide