Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter). Photo copyright of Warner Bros. Television.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Lyle Waggoner looks back at his dashing role of Major Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman.
Back in 1974 comic book superheroine Wonder Woman, alias Diana Prince, made her debut on ABC TV in a two-hour film starring tennis pro Cathy Lee Crosby. Although the movie received less than star-spangled ratings, ABC decided to try again a year later with former Miss World-USA, Lynda Carter, in the lead. Set during World War II The New Original Wonder Woman followed the Amazon princess’s adventures as she helped the US government battle an international ring of espionage terrorists. Fighting alongside her was Major Steve Trevor. Handsome Lyle Waggoner had been exchanging comedic barbs with Carol Burnett on her TV variety show when he was invited to audition for the role of Major Trevor.
“The producers had me read with, I think, six actresses that were trying out for the part of Wonder Woman, including Lynda Carter,” recalls Waggoner. “They even made videotapes of Lynda and everyone else who had auditioned. When we finished watching Lynda’s video I said to the other people in the room, ‘Lynda looks just like Wonder Woman. She has to be the one.’ The executives at ABC thought so too and that’s how her and I became involved in the show.”
The New Original Wonder Woman aired on 7th November 1975 and was well-received by both critics and viewers. The network wasted no time in ordering two new one-hour adventures, Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther and Fausta:The Nazi Wonder Woman, followed by 11 more episodes. Waggoner happily traded in his hip 70s threads for a vintage army uniform and signed up for a tour of duty as Major Trevor. The actor chuckles when asked to describe his character.
“He was a real gung-ho kind of guy. Steve tried his best but he always seemed to get himself into hot water. Of course, he pretty much had to because it was Wonder Woman’s job to rescue him. If there was a scene where he got the drop on the bad guys, sure enough, someone would end up slapping the gun out of his hand and turning the tables on him,” he laughs.
Despite Wonder Woman’s popularity with the viewers ABC refused to give a full commitment to the series, so Warner Brothers Television offered the show to CBS Television, who ordered a full run of 22 episodes for its 1977-1978 season. The setting shifted from the 40s to the 70s with Diana Prince becoming an operative for the Inter-Agency Defense Command and working under Steve Trevor Jr., the son of her World War II boss. Although the network welcomed the program’s updated look, Waggoner feels the move to more contemporary times led to its eventual downfall.
“I thought the show’s World War II venue was interesting and a lot of fun as well as more in keeping with the comic book,” he explains. “The Powers That Be wanted to make the show into something more serious like Police Woman, but it was a comic strip, so trying to turn Wonder Woman into a real dramatic piece was pretty much unrealistic. I also couldn’t believe that they wanted me to play my own son. I figured, ‘Well, they’re professionals. They must know what it is they’re doing but this doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense to me.’ I’m sure it didn’t make much sense to the viewers either, but they stuck with us for two years. I was just glad we were still on the air because to get a new series off the ground is incredibly difficult, especially today. What continues to surprise me is when actors who are really unknowns get a series and suddenly think they know everything about the business. Then one day they decide they want to leave the show and do other things. That blows my mind because people like that have no idea how lucky they are to just be working.”
Even the influence of Wonder Woman’s golden lasso could not change the minds of the individuals behind the feared Nielsen ratings when it came time to cancel the series. The Amazon princess made her last stand against crime in March 1979 with a story appropriately titled A Date With Doomsday. The show was relegated to the television graveyard before being resurrected for a second life in the syndication market. Waggoner is flattered by the attention his work on the program continues to bring him.
“I received a great deal of media attention from Wonder Woman as well as other things that are fringe benefits for an actor and what, again, I feel actors should be thankful for and not irritated by,” he says. “I can go anywhere in the US and sometimes the world and people walking down the street will stop me and say, ‘Hey, Lyle, how are you?’ That, for me, is such a marvelous advantage and a situation that people in most other industries rarely find themselves in. Of course, I did The Carol Burnett Show for eight years, so I had a lot of recognition from that. However, with Wonder Woman I was appealing to a much younger audience, and that was exciting.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of Warner Bros. Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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