When I was growing up and got in trouble, my parents would punish me by not allowing me to watch TV for one week, two weeks, three weeks...depending on the severity of the "crime". Luckily, for me, Wonder Woman came on TV around that time. I remember being on TV banishment when the premiere of the pilot movie was going to be aired. Hey, I was a seven-year-old kid living in Tennessee and I was a little rambuctious. It was a Friday in November of 1975, if I remember correctly and I had not had any TV all week, but my friends were talking about it and I begged and pleaded with my parents to allow me to watch it. My reason...it was only going to be shown that night and if I missed it, I would never have a chance to see it again. They relented and I sat in front of the television when FDR came on the screen followed by a blast of stars and the theme music filled my ears and I was enraptured by my favorite comic book superheroine coming to life before my eyes.
The following Spring we had moved to Pennsylvania and it was announced that the next Wonder Woman movie was going to air. I was, of course, in trouble again. Not one to miss an opportunity to manipulate my parents again and allow me to watch TV, I begged and pleaded and told them how I hated being up north and everyone was making fun of my accent. This time, however, the movie was going to be aired in the middle of the week and my father had a show he normally watched. Since this was going to be the only time it aired, he let me watch it. Not only did he let me watch, he watched it with me. Needless to say, he became enraptured by Wonder Woman, too. Probably not for the same reason I did. At the end of show, an announcement was made that another one would air the following week. I still had another two weeks on my sentence, but my dad said I can watch the next one with him. It's funny to think back how, eventhough I was being punished, I still got to watch what I really wanted. (I love my parents for that...)
During the Fall of 1976 season of shows, ABC aired all three of the movies again. Whoops. I guess those earlier airings weren't the only time I was going to get a chance to see them. I didn't understand the concept of reruns I guess. ABC decided to rerun the movies before they begin airing the first season of Wonder Woman as a show in their line-up. I couldn't get a handle on the schedule there for a while, because it seemed one week it would show and then it would be a couple of weeks before the next. Finally all winter long, the show aired. Then around February it stopped. Then I heard that it wouldn't be on anymore. What?!? Thank you CBS! I didn't understand then what you had done, but the following Fall of 1977, I was back in front of the TV watching Wonder Woman.
Happy Birthday Lynda Carter! You are my Wonder Woman! It's wonderful to have memories of my parents and my childhood that stick with me and you are, in a way, part of those memories.
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