Wonder Woman-Complete First Season (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Lynda Carter And Douglas S. Cramer (Exec. Prod.) - Pilot Featurette-Beauty, Brawn And Bulletproof Bracelets: A Retrospective
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	690:17 (Case: 642)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (5)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Jack Arnold Ray Austin Bruce Bilson Michael Caffey
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Lynda Carter
Case	?
RPI	$59.95	Music	Charles Fox Johnny Harris Artie Kane

    This show is totally brilliant. As my girlfriend puts it, it’s like the feminist movement as conceived by the most sexist male chauvinist pig in the world.

    Of course, a show like this must be viewed in light of the times – the pilot being aired in 1975, and the remainder of the first season across 1976 and 1977. During this time, the US was in a time of social and political upheaval, having just lost the Vietnam war, gone through the Watergate scandal and the resignation of Richard Nixon before his impending impeachment, the Cold War was entering its second phase with detente slowly coming to an end and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan looming, and there were growing tensions in US-Middle East relations. American morale was at an all time low, and President Jimmy Carter was keeping his head down. This show is a direct reflection of those times, and a very melodramatic attempt at ego-boosting.

    Check out a typical scene from the first season:

INT: Day. A Hospital. MAJOR STEVE TREVOR (Lyle Waggoner) lies in bed with a bandage over his chest where he was shot. Around Steve stand GENERAL BLANKENSHIP (Richard Eastham) and the beautiful YOEMAN DIANA PRINCE A.K.A. WONDER WOMAN (Lynda Carter) in disguise.

    Okay, so that’s a little bit of an exaggeration ... but not much of one.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’ve just come off the back of a massive Wonder Woman binge (all three seasons in a weekend – awesome!), and I’m not sure I’ve laughed this hard in a while. Truly, whether intentional or not, this show is a total laugh riot. And once you’ve been brainwashed with five or six episodes, it’s really addictive.

    All 14 episodes of The Complete First Season are here for your viewing pleasure. I do not intend to give you a full run down of each episode. Far better summaries than I could provide can be found at TV.com amongst other places. The following is a list of the contents as set out on these DVDs in original broadcast order:

Disc 1

• 1. The New Original Wonder Woman (70:51)
• 2. Wonder Woman Meets Baron Von Gunther (47:42)

Disc 2

• 3. Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman (48:20)
• 4. Beauty on Parade (48:27)
• 5. The Feminum Mystique: Part One (46:33)

Disc 3

• 6. The Feminum Mystique: Part Two (48:26)
• 7. Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua! (47:58)
• 8. The Pluto File (48:11)

Disc 4

• 9. Last of the Two Dollar Bills (48:18)
• 10. Judgment from Outer Space: Part One (46:44)
• 11. Judgment from Outer Space: Part Two (44:52)

Disc 5

• 12. Formula 407 (48:00)
• 13. The Bushwackers (48:05)
• 14. Wonder Woman in Hollywood (47:50)

    Sure, the later seasons were significantly better, particularly after they ditched all the Nazi stuff and the anachronisms that often went along with it. But even then it’s hard not to see Steve, either Jr or Sr, as a total pussy by comparison to the awesome Wonder Woman. I sometimes think they should have got a similarly strong male character, and maybe played the chemistry a little better, like Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting. Not that I have an aversion in any way to watching Wonder Woman save Steve – with that whole spin around where she changes into her satin tights, it’s all just so cool. And let’s face it, Lynda Carter was and is a seriously hot babe. I’d get myself in trouble just to be saved by her.

    Okay, so I’m seriously biased where this show is concerned, having watched it semi-religiously as a child. And, yes, I had a major crush on Wonder Woman. But any which way you put it, this show has just the right level of camp to be funny, and is still engaging enough in its plots to keep you interested. There’s also plenty of sex appeal going on, and enough to keep both kids and adults happy. If you’ve never had the pleasure, and you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, I highly recommend you give it a go. Get into the 70s swing, and you’ll have a ball...

Video

    Transferred here in its original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1, Full Frame, non-16x9 enhanced, this transfer is excellent for a show of this age. I was quite impressed.

    Colour saturation exceeded my expectations, and is quite well balanced.

    There is a touch of graininess, particularly in the shadowy scenes, but really much less than I’ve seen on other more recent series.

    There are no MPEG artefacts, but there are some minor film-to-video transfer artefacts – the usual offenders of background aliasing and occasional moire, usually on blinds. I never found it distracting, and I really had to look for it.

    There is a bit of dirt on the print, but it is limited to the credits and the special effects sequences. On the whole, this is an exceptionally clean print, particularly, again, for a show this old.

    There are a variety of subtitles as listed above. They are white with a black/grey border. The English subtitles are quite accurate.

    Although there are only 3 episodes per disc, I didn’t spot one dual layer pause. I was expecting a pause inside at least one of the episodes, but I never saw one. Given that there is only 1.0 mono audio available, it’s entirely possible that they could get two episodes on one layer, and one on another with the special features. Also, it would seem that there are only 3 discs in the commercial release, 2 dual-sided (and apparently dual-layered) and 1 single sided.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English and French 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono track encoded at 192Kb/s. I listened to the English track and sampled the French track.

    For a mono track, this is pretty darn good. Again, I’m nicely impressed with what Warner Home Video have done with this series. Like Paramount Home Entertainment did with Star Trek: The Original Series, Warner has done a very good remastering job, although without going to the extent of a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix (more's the pity).

    Dialogue is clear and easily understood. The minor sync faults are definitely source faults.

    The range is good for a mono track, although unfortunately we don’t get any surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio. The other menus are static and silent.

Audio Commentary: “The All New Wonder Woman” by Lynda Carter (Actress) and Douglas S. Cramer (Executive Producer) (Disc 1)

    Presented in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono, this is a very interesting commentary track, and well worth listening to, so long as you take everything said with a grain or two of salt.

Featurette: “Beauty, Brawn And Bulletproof Bracelets: Wonder Woman” (21:12) (Disc 3)

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo, this is a great retrospective documentary.

    I do not have an R1 copy for an exact comparison, but from what I can tell the content is identical, aside from the NTSC picture format and the region coding. Buy whichever is cheapest.

    Wonder Woman is an institution, with its catchy theme, cartoon storytelling, and a seriously foxy central character.

    The DVD set is also pretty good, if a little light on extras. That said, I’d rather have what we’ve got than a whole bunch of promotional crap that would just drive the price up.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall