Wonder Woman 3.19: The Girl With a Gift for Disaster

Airdate: 3/17/79

An electronics thief and his cohorts plan to use the special powers of his girlfriend to steal a microwave jammer so they can send D.C. into a power and transmission blackout. The girl’s power? She’s a “jinx”; anywhere she goes, catastrophe follows, particularly to anyone planning to stop her boyfriend’s nefarious plot. But she wises up, thanks to the IADC and Diana, and helps to foil the grand plan to steal priceless American documents for the benefit of a crazed collector.

 A jinx? More like a Carrie rip-off, but salvaged, in part at least, by the beguilingperformance of Jane Actman in the title role. This is her second WW appearance, after playing the downtrodden girlfriend of “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (is this a trend?), and she delivers a poignant evolution from vulnerability to mustered strength, in essence taking a subplot and propelling it far ahead of the trite main action. Sports fans take note of Dick Butkus as one of the villainous sidemen.