Airdate:
10/21/77
Trouble at the concert! A swinging, sleazy rock star, Hamlin
Rule (Martin Mull) enjoys swarming popularity with legions of screaming teenage
fans, but when his box office receipts keep getting stolen, he demands the
money in full from the venue owners and publicists. The nature of the
robberies, in which solid steel locks are pulverized, alarms I.A.D.C., and so
Diane and Joe, worried about his AWOL daughter, Elena, at UCLA, trek to Los
Angeles to get to the bottom of this not-so-groovy string of events. Diana discovers
that Hamlin plays his flute to hypnotize female fans into conducting his
robberies while he’s on stage, intending Elena to be his primary accomplice.
Thwarted by Wonder Woman, he gives up his secret weapon and promises to use his
talents for love, not destruction, and the world’s a happier place.
Hands down the campiest, silliest, most dated – and thus most fun WW episode to
date, abetted strongly, at least for this Generation X-er, by the guest
appearances of Martin Mull as Hamlin and Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) as Elena. Mull
hams it up in his role of a sandy-haired hipster who gives his flute the most sex
appeal since Jethro Tull (and let’s be honest: the implication behind
“hypnotizing” these lithe beauties is sex, not cash theft – catch Plumb’s
sultry look if you don’t believe). There’s possibly some commentary about the
underpayment of rock musicians, overpayment of concert promoters/managers,
which was just becoming an issue at the time, but I'll prefer just to watch WW
tangle with a huge, burly bodyguard, and win against him by intercepting hollow
prop “speakers” that looked, moments earlier, like 3-ton weights.
Series co-star Lyle Waggoner took a time out this week,
appearing in only two scenes.
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