Badass Broadcast: The 1967 WONDER WOMAN & BATGIRL “Pilots”!

The success of the Batman TV show led William Dozier (also known as the narrator of the Batman show) to try more DC Comics heroes. One was a no-brainer: he already had Yvonne Craig looking yummy in her Batgirl costume, so why not make a show about her? He created a five minute proof of concept pilot that looks less like a Batgirl show and more like any episode of Batman. Suffice it to say it didn't prove the concept.

But while Batgirl was just more of the same, Wonder Woman was daffy in all new ways. Dozier brought in Mad Magazine writers Stan Hart and Larry Siegel to make more or less a straight-up sitcom about Wonder Woman. In this version Diana Prince lives at home with her nagging mom, dreaming of being a superhero. And maybe she is? When Diana changes into her Wonder Woman costume she ogles herself in the mirror - except herself is Linda Harrison, best known as Nova from Planet of the Apes. 

The show's title would have been Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?, and its bizarre psychology seems ahead of its time. Its comedy seems stuck in some sort of Borscht Belt time warp, though.