Kaz Garas – Through the Shattered Lens

A set of code books revealing the identities of all of America’s secret agents has been stolen. Because the agents are all in deep cover, the government has no way to contact them and warn them that their identities have been compromised. Government agent Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas) has received a ransom demand. Rather than just pay, he assigns the case to his best operative, Diana Prince (Cathy Lee Crosby). Most people think that Diana is Steve’s secretary, but actually she’s an Amazon from Paradise Island who has been sent to America to show the world the value of women. Diana heads to Paris to investigate the mysterious Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban) and his main operative, George (Andrew Prine).

Before Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter, there was Cathy Lee Crosby. The former tennis player turned actress was the first to play Wonder Woman in a made-for-television movie that was a pilot for a possible series. Cathy Lee Crosby’s Wonder Woman did not wear the famous costume, she did not carry a golden lariat, and she never flew in an invisible plane. Her only superpower was that she was athletic. She was also blonde. In fact, if not for the title of the movie, you wouldn’t know she was Wonder Woman at all. She’s a female James Bond. When the movie aired, it got respectable ratings, but it wasn’t the hit that some expected. Later, another made-for-TV movie was produced with Lynda Carter in the role. That movie stayed true to the comic-book version of the character and led to the fondly remembered television series.

As for this first version of Wonder Woman, it’s an acceptable spy thriller if you can ignore that it’s being sold as a Wonder Woman show. Cathy Lee Crosby had just the right mix of spunky but serious attitude to play a spy in a cheap 1970s production. I liked Ricardo Montalban and Andrew Prine as the villains, though I thought it was funny that they kept trying to hide Montalban’s face. As soon as I heard his voice, I knew it was him. Diana also faces off against Ahnjayla (Anitra Ford), an Amazon gone bad. The funniest scene in the movie is when Diana is approached on a city street by an Amazon messenger who tells her that Ahnjayla has left Paradise Island. None of the people walking nearby seem to think it’s strange that a woman in a blue toga has suddenly appeared.

Cathy Lee Crosby did her best, but Lynda Carter is still the definitive Wonder Woman.

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee!

After two months, I’m ready to get back on the California highways with Jon and Ponch!

Episode 2.10 “Return of the Turks”

(Dir by Barry Crane, aired on November 25th, 1978)

It’s always bad news whenever Ponch runs into any of his old friends.

In this episode, when he pulls over a van, he’s shocked to discover that it’s being driven by his old friend, Sid (Kaz Garas). After discovering that former wild man Ponch has now become a cop, Sid spirals into a midlife crisis that leads to him and his friend Rudy (Mark Thomas) playing bumper cars on the highway. Sid is freaked out by the entire experience but Rudy discovers that he loves intentionally bumping into other cars and forcing them off the road.

This episode featured a lot of car crashes and, as usual with CHiPs, they were well-filmed. But I have to admit that I found it almost too disturbing to watch. Usually, I enjoy a good car chase or a spectacularly-filmed car crash. I like fast cars and I’ve always been aware that, when a car crashes onscreen, it’s being driven by a stunt driver. But, back in May, was Dad was in a very serious car crash. He not only broke his shoulder but the crash aggravated his Parkinson’s and the subsequent stay in the hospital and in rehab left him so weak that he died two weeks ago. As a result, I’m not really in the mood for car crashes right now. That’s not the fault of this show, of course. And, under normal circumstances, I would probably be raving about how exciting Rudy’s highway mayhem was.

Ponch is not the only one who meets someone from his past. Baker runs into Pete (James Houghton), the brother of his former partner. Pete’s brother died when he crashed his motorcycle on duty. Pete now puts on his brother’s uniform and pretends to be a member of the Highway Patrol, writing tickets and directing traffic, Because he stole and copied a page from Ponch’s ticket book, Ponch gets the credit for all the tickets but — uh oh! — it turns out that a lot of the tickets are being contested in court. Pete is a bit overzealous. Can Baker and Ponch get Pete off the street before he pulls over the wrong person? And why is a story about the brother of Baker’s former partner mostly about Ponch?

This was a rather melancholy episode. It’s easy to laugh at any episode that features people talking about how Ponch used to be a delinquent because Erik Estrada’s goofy performance doesn’t exactly lend itself to that interpretation. But, in the end, Sid, Pete, and even Rudy were all suffering from a general sort of malaise. They all regretted the way that their lives had turned out and they were all using the California highways as a way to live out their dreams. Unfortunately, by doing so, they put other people’s lives at risk. Fortunately, Baker and Ponch were there to keep the highways safe …. though only after two spectacularly-filmed pile-ups.