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After an intensive talent search, a former beauty pageant winner from Arizona named Lynda Carter was chosen to play the lead role. For the key role of Steve Trevor, the producers chose Lyle Waggoner, who at the time was better known as a comedic actor after several years co-starring in The Carol Burnett Show. Scripting duties were given to Stanley Ralph Ross, who had worked on Greenway's unbroadcast Wonder Woman pilot reel, but this time he was instructed to be more faithful to the comic book and to create a subtle "high comedy". Ross set the pilot in World War II, the era in which the original comic book began. Thanks to a generous budget and more relaxed shooting schedule, the feature length pilot was able to attain a level of polish and special effects beyond that of regular episodic television at the time. Some of these effects, such as the expensive full sized invisible plane prop and the stunt bracelets (designed to carry small explosive charges for Wonder Woman's iconic 'bullets and bracelets' encounters) were then able to be carried forward into the series proper. Although the pilot followed the original comic book closely, in particular the aspect of Wonder Woman joining the military under the assumed name, Diana Prince, a number of elements were dropped, presumably for practical reasons. The character of Etta Candy was no longer an obese member of Holliday College (the Holliday Girls never featured in the show), but a mature work colleague of Diana Prince. The ancient myths and legends which informed many of the early Wonder Woman comic book stories were lost too, in favour of more conventional stories involving Nazis. And, on a minor note, Steve Trevor was no longer blonde, but dark haired. One change which was later to become synonymous with the show was the twirling transformation which disolved Diana Prince into Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter claims to have suggested the move herself, having studied dance as a child. Coincidentally, this slow motion disolve is similar to the illustrated "running" change sequences in the comic books of the era, in which Diana would peel off her uniform and add her tiara and boots. In both versions she is left with her outer uniform to stow somewhere. Despite strong ratings, ABC stalled on commissioning a second season, causing the show's frustrated production company, Warner Bros., to offer Wonder Woman to CBS. While ABC dithered, CBS took the series on condition that the setting be switched to the modern day. Changing the title to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, the series was nudged away from sophisticated humour, towards a more conventional action/adventure take. Diana Prince, ageless due to her Amazon nature, returns from Paradise Island after a 35-year exile to become an agent with the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC), a CIA-like organization fighting criminals and the occasional alien invasion. Infrequent references to her World War II experiences were made in early episodes.
Changes in the first CBS season included Wonder Woman's costume being updated and made sexier, while her invisible plane became a jet aircraft (although it only appeared a couple of times). Waggoner still appeared as Wonder Woman's friend Steve Trevor, however he was now Steve Trevor Jr., the lookalike son of the heroine's World War II ally. The episode "Bermuda Triangle Crisis" revealed that Trevor Snr. had died some years earlier when his plane crashed in the Bermuda Triangle. (The episode does not explain the circumstances of his death, but one suggestion is that he might have been searching for Paradise Island.) As with the first season, the producers chose to downplay and later drop any suggestion that Steve and Wonder Woman were anything more than friends. Further changes were introduced after only the first few episodes of this new run. Beginning with the episode "The Man Who Made Volcanoes", the opening title sequence, with its memorable "Wonder Woman... Wonder Woman..." lyrics and comic book graphics, was changed to an instrumental and more traditional "action scenes" opening. Another change was to allow Diana Prince to operate away from Steve Trevor, and give her a slightly less stuffy look. (This may have been to further exploit Carter's looks, as Diana typically got twice as much screen time as her super heroic alter ego.) As the season progressed, Diana Prince continued to lose much of her plain-Jane-ness, as she swapped the hair bun for a pony tail, got a hip new wardrobe, and only infrequently wore her glasses (her secret identity as Wonder Woman somehow remained intact even though she often took her glasses off in the presence of Steve Trevor and others). Trevor was promoted to a desk job midway through the season, leaving Diana to go out on missions alone in most episodes. By this time, Diana was no longer simply Trevor's assistant, but was now a notable solo agent with a growing list of enemies. She also became more self-sufficient outside of her costume, not always turning into Wonder Woman when things got tough. In many ways the second and third seasons bore more similarities to the late 1960s version of the comic book than did the 1974 Cathy Lee Crosby telefilm. The series also stopped making reference to Paradise Island, and the fact that Diana is hundreds of years old. Several other changes occurred as the second season progressed. Joe Atkinson, a weathered IADC agent, was dropped after the ninth episode, as was a regular segment showing Diana, Steve, and Joe receiving orders from a Charlie-like character who is heard but never seen, and presumed to be the President of the United States. Midway through the season, this was replaced with regular briefings by IRAC, IADC's super-intelligent computer, who manages to deduce Diana's secret identity. In order to give Steve Trevor (and Lyle Waggoner) more to do, Saundra Sharp joined the cast as Eve, Steve's assistant (the job held by Diana at the start of the season). Near the end of the season, a tiny robot called Rover was added for comic relief; an offshoot of IRAC who performs duties such as delivering coffee and sorting mail, Rover speaks with a high-pitched voice, occasionally makes "Beep Beep" sounds (borrowed from the Road Runner cartoon series), and, like IRAC, is aware that Diana Prince is really Wonder Woman. The character of Wonder Woman also became less innocent and more serious in the second season, although her fights still consisted mostly of jumping and pushing people. The character still maintained her no-kill policy, although there were exceptions such as in the episode "Anschluss '77" in which she destroys a clone of Adolf Hitler, and another episode made reference to a villain who was believed drowned following a previous, unseen encounter with Diana/Wonder Woman. With the beginning of the third season, further changes were made to target the show at a teenage audience. The title theme was reworked again to give it a disco beat, the use of gimmicky little robot 'Rover' was increased for comic effect, and episodes began to revolve around topical subjects like skateboarding, rollercoasters, and the environment. Eve also disappeared from the cast, although she is mentioned once or twice. Wonder Woman was also allowed to become a bit more physical in the third season, and could now be seen throwing the occasional punch or kicking. The writers also came up with several unusual ways for Diana to execute her spinning transformation, one of the most notable occurring in the episode "Stolen Faces" in which Diana makes the change while falling off a tall building. Diana's powers were also increased, particularly in the third season episode "Deadly Dolphin" in which she is shown communicating telepathically with animals, firing "psychic bursts" of some sort to scare away a killer shark, and taking control of minds without the use of her lasso. A later episode had Diana communicating with a bird in order to find out the whereabouts of a villain. At CBS, the show continued to gather a strong audience. In the final episode produced, the writers attempted a "relaunch" of sorts by having Diana reassigned to the Los Angeles bureau of IADC with a new supporting cast, and Steve Trevor, whose presence had decreased throughout the season, was finally written out of the series. One account published in TV Guide puts this down to off-camera friction between Waggoner and Carter - although this seemingly originates from a single and rather dubious behind-the-scenes source. The stars themselves have never publically suggested their working relationship was anything but healthy, although Waggoner did not participate in the recent DVD release of the series. It should be noted that during the filming of the third season, Waggoner was serving as mayor of Encino, California and was naturally required to devote time to his civic duties, suggesting another reason for his decreased presence and eventual departure from the series. This new take on the format lasted for merely a single episode ("The Man Who Could Not Die"), which set up an assortment of new supporting characters, including Bryce Candall, an indestructible man (the titular character of the episode) who might have become a love interest for Diana, as well as a streetwise teenager named T. Burton Phipps III who for some unexplained reason is allowed to hang out at the I.A.D.C. Also added to the cast was a chimpanzee who, like Bryce, is also indestructible. Despite the relaunch, "Man Who Could Not Die" was not actually the final episode broadcast when it aired at the beginning of the 1979-80 TV season. It was followed by a final two-part episode ("Phantom of the Roller Coaster") that was actually produced earlier in the season and once again featured Waggoner. CBS ultimately decided to strengthen its sitcom offerings, and Wonder Woman was suspended from the network schedule, though it was never formally canceled.
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