November 7, 1975: The New Original Wonder Woman premieres on ABC, an hour-and-a-half "backdoor pilot" for a series that began a year later.
In 1967, a 5-minute promotional film for a Wonder Woman TV series was produced by William Dozier, who had already produced Batman and The Green Hornet. It was ridiculous, with Ellie Wood Walker playing meek Diana Prince, seeming not at all like an Amazon Princess; and Linda Harrison, later to be known as Nova in the 1968 version of Planet of the Apes, as Wonder Woman.
On March 21, 1974, ABC aired a TV-movie, starring Cathy Lee Crosby as a blonde version of the unpowered, martial-arts-using "secret agent" Wonder Woman seen in DC Comics from 1968 to 1973. The ratings weren't very good, but ABC still believed in the concept, and decided to start over.
They took the character back to her origins: She debuted in 1941, and was shown in the comics to be fighting for the Allies in World War II. So the pilot film was set in 1942. Lynda Carter, winner of the Miss World America pageant in 1972, was cast in the traditional star-spangled outfit. Stanley Ralph Ross, who had written several episodes of Batman, was the show's main writer.
The show was revolutionary for its time, but, like every other TV show and movie in the pre-CGI era, it was very limited in what it was capable of showing, regardless of what the censors might allow. While Wonder Woman has been shown flying in some media, including in the Super Friends cartoon that was underway at the time, Carter's Diana could only jump really high.
The show debuted in a year that represented other steps forward for American women, who, collectively, were chosen as People of the Year by Time magazine. Representing them on the cover were First Lady Betty Ford; Carla Hills, the 1st woman to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Barbara Jordan, Representative from Texas, who had played a notable role in the previous year's impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon; Ella Grasso of Connecticut, the 1st woman elected Governor of any State without having previously been the wife of a Governor; Susie Sharp, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court; Kathleen Byerly, the 1st woman to command a U.S. Navy vessel; Jill Conway, the 1st female President of the all-female Smith College in Massachusetts; Alison Cheek, the 1st woman ordained as an Episcopalian minister; Carol Sutton of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, the 1st female editor of a major U.S. newspaper; Addie Wyatt, labor union leader; Billie Jean King, who used her success on the tennis court to fight for gains for women in all sports; and Susan Brownmiller, who wrote Against Our Will, about women's struggles against rape and abortion laws.
After the 1976-77 season, ABC canceled Wonder Woman, due to the cost of the period costumes and cars. CBS picked it up for the 1977-78 TV season, and, to save money, moved it up to the present day. This meant that Lyle Waggoner, having played U.S. Army Major Steve Trevor, was now playing Agent Steve Trevor Jr., with the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC).
The 1st season's episodes were always set in 1942. It was explained that Steve Sr. had died sometime between then and 1977. While it was never specified, it was implied that he died sometime during World War II, much like Marvel Comics' hero Captain America, the similarly-named Steve Rogers, was believed to have died near the end of that war.
Unfortunately, as seems to happen with every other science fiction and/or superhero show of the 20th Century, in an effort to get better ratings, the stories got more and more ridiculous as time went on. And, like most such efforts, it backfired. In 1979, after 3 seasons, the show was canceled.
Despite Megan Gale being cast in a Justice League film that was never made, canceled after the 2008 screenwriters' strike, Wonder Woman didn't appear again in live action until 2011, when Adrianne Palicki filmed a pilot for NBC that wasn't picked up. In 2016, Israeli actress Gal Gadot appeared in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Gadot has since appeared in Justice League and 2 Wonder Woman films, with a 3rd yet to come. She has also teamed up with Carter for United Nations humanitarian work.
UPDATE: Although Gadot had cameos as Wonder Woman in Shazam: Fury of the Gods and The Flash, Wonder Woman 3 was canceled when the DCEU was shut down. As of November 7, 2025, rumors have abounded about how the new DCU would handle Wonder Woman, but the role has not yet been recast.
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November 7, 1975 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 105-97 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, acquired by the Lakers from the Milwaukee Bucks the preceding June 16, scored 40 points and grabbed 22 rebounds.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Phoenix Suns, 103-99 at The Spectrum.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 94-90 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls, 124-122 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 104-101 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Kansas City Kings, 92-88 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association, early in this season, which turned out to be its last:
* The New York Nets beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 118-117 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Virginia Squires, 104-100 at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.
* And the Kentucky Colonels beat the San Diego Sails, 104-99 at Freedom Hall in Louisville. The Sails folded 5 days later.
There were 3 games played in the NHL that day:
* The New York Rangers lost to the California Golden Seals, 7-5 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. This was also the day of "The Trade," for which I have a separate entry. Esposito played, and scored 2 goals and had an assist. Vadnais did not appear in the game.
* The Atlanta Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-2 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* And the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Kansas City Scouts played to a 3-3 tie at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.
After the 1975-76 season, the Seals became the Cleveland Barons, and the Scouts became the Colorado Rockies. In 1978, the Barons merged with the North Stars. In 1980, the Flames moved to Calgary, In 1982, the Rockies became the New Jersey Devils. And in 1993, the North Stars became the Dallas Stars.
There were 4 games played in the World Hockey Association:
* The Houston Aeros beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 5-3 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The San Diego Mariners beat the Denver Spurs, 3-2 in overtime at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.
* The Calgary Cowboys beat the Cleveland Crusaders, 5-2 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.
* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Toronto Toros, 5-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
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