While the WWII setting of the first season, made the show’s freshman year my personal favorite, the contemporary (1970’s era) episodes of WONDER WOMAN were also a whole lot of fun. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Lynda Carter continued to look utterly fantastic in her Wonder Woman costume. Carter’s incredible beauty and stature made her completely believable as the Amazonian Princess, who joined the world of man to become a legendary superhero. Sure, the episodes have their campy and corny qualities, which have become more evident today, but the show remains a total delight that to the presence of its leading lady. Season three of WONDER WOMAN maintained the premise of Diana Prince working as a government agent, which always put her in the right place, when Wonder Woman’s assistance was required. As for Lyle Waggoner’s character of Steve Trevor Jr., he seemed to recede further into the background during the show’s third and final year on the air.

WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON ($40) comes to DVD in a four-disc set that features the following twenty four episodes that were aired during year three: My Teenage Idol Is Missing, Hot Wheels, The Deadly Sting, The Fine Art Of Crime, Disco Devil, Formicida, Time Bomb, Skateboard Wiz, The Deadly Dolphin, Stolen Faces, Pot Of Gold, Gault's Brain, Going, Going, Gone, Spaced Out, The Starships Are Coming, Amazon Hot Wax, The Richest Man In The World, A Date With Doomsday, The Girl With A Gift For Disaster, The Boy Who Knew Her Secret Part 1, The Boy Who Knew Her Secret Part 2, The Man Who Could Not Die, Phantom Of The Roller Coaster Part 1 and Phantom Of The Roller Coaster Part 2.

Warner Home Video has made WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON available on DVD in the proper 4:3 full screen aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. The episodes look really good for their age, producing a pretty sharp image and a more than respectable amount of detail. Sure, there is some softness here and there, but it is nothing really worth complaining about. Colors are generally pretty vibrant and the flesh tones are appealing. Blacks are pretty accurate, whites are crisp and contrast is just fine for a television production. The film elements from which the episodes have been transferred display modest blemishes, plus the level of grain in held in check pretty well. Digital compression artifacts never really make their presence known.

All of the episodes that constitute WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON come with perfectly fine Dolby Digital monaural soundtracks. Most of the background hiss and other audible anomalies have been cleaned up in the mastering process, leaving the episodes with a generally pleasing sound quality. Of course, fidelity has the expected limitations, with the music coming across without too much of an impact, plus some of the sound effects sound canned. However, these limitations are inherent in the original production of the episodes, which would have caused nary a complaint on the tinny television speaker of 1970s. Voices are cleanly reproduced and the dialogue maintains complete intelligibility. No other language tracks are provided, but English, French and Spanish subtitles have been included.

Music underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the standard scene/episode selection and set up features, as well as a couple of nice extra features. Actress Lynda Carter provides a running audio commentary for the episode My Teenage Idol Is Missing, plus the set includes the featurette Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Feminist Icon, which also features interview footage with Carter.

WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON is a whole heck of a lot of comic book fun that features actress Lynda Carter in a role that made her an icon. Warner’s DVD set looks and sounds just fine, which should please fans to no end.

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Wonder Woman - The Complete Third Season

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THE CINEMA LASER is written, edited and published by Derek M. Germano.