Wonder Woman Set for a TV Reboot?

Image from source, TV Squad

I've lamented many times in this space that DC Comics heroes have gotten short shrift in comparison to their Marvel Comics rivals. Why? DC Comics has got Warner Brothers as owners for God's sake! They can't all be morons at WB, right?  Still, after many years (and even after having Buffy the Vampire Slayer demigod Joss Whedon at one time attached), Wonder Woman has been moribund in development hell.  Now, it looks like they've pulled Wondy out of mothballs, and plunked her into TV Land again. 

The problem is, the 70s ABC/CBS TV series version of Wonder Woman was so iconic--even if it doesn't exactly hold up in the two-thousandsees--that it will be hard to eclipse.  Lynda Carter very simply was Wonder Woman.  There may not be any actress to appear at any time that more perfectly captured a character.  She was the right age, the right height, the right boobage. She could be tough and innocent at the same time. It was the kind of casting that most producers could only dream of.  But the 70s Wonder Woman suffers from 70s-itis. 



In the days of Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Mannix and Hawaii Five-0, action-dramas were thinly plotted, and formulaic.  You'd watch meandering tracking shots of characters driving along a shoreline, closing the car door, wandering up the beach, spying a suspect, and then lightly interrogating them. A scene that would last three minutes now, in a modern show, would go on and on and on.  There was an "a" and possibly a "b" story, but no nuance, no character development, no momentum. But Lynda Carter turned an initially 2-D performance into a fully realized character. Lynda Carter was--and still is--Wonder Woman.

Any modern actress is going to have a very tall legend to live up to.  I have no doubt that today's writers can produce a better written and plotted show. But I have significant doubts that anyone can fill Lynda Carter's boots. And bustier.

[Excerpt]

David E. Kelley to Bring Back 'Wonder Woman'

Right now you could be forgiven for thinking that there are no new ideas in the world of TV. Hot on the heels of news that networks in search of hits are revisiting such classics as 'The Munsters,' comes news that David E. Kelley ('Ally McBeal') is dusting off Wonder Woman's star-spangled shorts for Warner Bros. Television. . .

Read more at: TV Squad