Airdate:
10/13/76
When a security
breach and explosion at an army base prompts an investigation, Steve Trevor
suspects an inside job, possibly coming from a touring beauty pageant. Diana dons
a red wig and goes undercover as a contestant, despite raised eyebrows from a
few competitors and especially the piano player, Monty Burns (Bobby Van). Steve
soon discovers that the continuing attacks at the bases, until now believed to
be acts of sabotage on a valued radar-jamming project, are actually part of a
coordinated plan to assassinate General Eisenhower. Ultimately, Monty catches
on that Diana is quite as she appears, but his plan to kill her by
“accidentally” dropping a PA system on her is foiled by an avaricious
co-contestant who steals her act at the last minute, and by, you guessed it,
Wonder Woman – running to the rescue to defend Steve and a certain future
President of the United States!
First official
season premiere episode (after a pilot and two trial episodes the previous
Spring) has it all – action, adventure, drama – and fair amount of bathing
beauties to keep kids, and their fathers, entertained. The show’s budget
appears to be a bit larger, given longer, more elaborate action scenes, and
rough edges are smoothed over, such as the awkward Diana-to-WW transformation
scenes, which now eliminate the slo-mo and use a light flash instead of a
dissolve (although she still checks herself after transforming – still odd).
Decision to have Diana go undercover allows her to do more sans the satin
tights, and presages the superhero-less Charlies
Angels (using the same Executive Producer), proving that girl power doesn’t
need capes or crowns (but still a hair and makeup department).
The who’s who of the 70s also continues with guest stars
Bobby Van and Dick Van Patten, the latter cast as the pageant’s emcee, a Bob
Hope-styled radio star whose magic act sets the stage for the show’s climax. Of
course, Patten would go on to star as the Bradford patriarch in Eight as Enough, and Van was one of
those stars “famous for being famous’: something you could do if you made the
70s rounds of variety, game and talk shows, and The Love Boat.
Gotta love those synthesized sound effects! Most notable: the one used for WW’s jumps, which sound suspiciously like that used in The Bionic Woman.
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