With Wonder Woman making its way into cinemas all over the world today, doing an admirable job of adding some much-needed levity into the DCEU, it’s worth remembering just what a shambles the TV show was.
Not the Lynda Carter-starring show that ran from 1975 to 1979, which charmed millions across the globe by fighting for our rights in her satin tights. No, rather the 50-year-old TV pilot for Wonder Woman, a piece of television narrative storytelling so abysmal it’s pretty fantastic.
Despite never making it on the air, Wonder Woman: Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince? is a cult favourite online.
Starring Ellie Wood Walker as the eponymous Diana, and Maudie Prickett as her mother, the pilot was produced by William Dozier, who helped create the Adam West-starring Batman and the short-lived Green Hornet.
The five-minute pilot sees Diana Prince facing off against the worst threat a woman in the 60s could have encountered: the threat of spinsterdom.
“The nation needs Wonder Woman,” Diana tells her mother.
“And does the nation care about what she needs? Like a fellow, for example,” her mother replies. “How do you expect to get a husband flying around all the time?”
Take a look at the pilot in full below: