 This is the SF Productions podcast network Supergirl wasn't the first woman to don the tights on TV from the pop culture bunker I'm Mindy and I'm mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got more free comics on iTunes on our website SF podcast network comm so after a long absence We have a super heroine show on primetime US TV Supergirl it has been a very long time. Yes as this airs the second episode has now come out We were impressed with the pilot got into the action and the costume quickly Yes, which was a problem with the other shows. I think yes It wasn't dark and depressing also a problem with some of the other shows who looking at you are oh Ben was was really born for the role. I think Yeah, of course the hardcore comic book fans don't seem to be as impressed Well, they're really not following comic book continuity as usual with some of these right now Yeah, but of course supergirl is hardly the first show with a super heroine lead So we're gonna talk about those Some rules I've put in place so we'll be talking forever. Yes live-action TV only Uh-huh must have actual powers either intrinsic or with gadgets. Yes No spies so that gets I'm appeal is out because she did not have super power right honey west so no and Must be the lead as opposed to just a team member so really the ones that appeared on like Smallville don't count Right. Yes. Now. I'm gonna bend that rule for the first entry and that's Batgirl 1967 and She was introduced for the third season of the Adam West Batman series Really added to save the series, but that ship had already sailed It was played of course by the recently departed Yvonne Craig There's a 10-minute introductory film designed to show the executives how the character would work and one thing they really stress was well A girl shouldn't be punching so she's kicking and she she does a lot kicking Did she ever not punch on the show? She never punched on the show. Wow. I never noticed that but she just kicks That's interesting and killer moth was the villain in this introductory film Just like her comic book intro, which was also in 1967 They didn't exactly match up but but they kind of borrowed from each other and The character is Barbara Gordon the librarian daughter of Commissioner Gordon. Yes The Batman producers also created a five-minute pilot that never aired of a Wonder Woman series that year Now was that supposed to be a camp series like absolutely and It was played by Ellie Wood Walker And it was really being played for laughs like a sitcom She lived with her mother and her mother's like why can't you just sell down and marry instead of being a superhero? That's a good Hapalita and there's a series and there's a sequence where She is looking at herself in the mirror and there's another actress who I'm Blanking on right now, but she played the girl in the Plain of the apes movies, okay And so that's who she sees in the mirror. So she's not all that beautiful in real life Yeah, really weird and never really went anywhere at all So we then skip all the way to 1974 Where a Wonder Woman returns this time with Kathy Lee Crosby Yeah, yeah, and TV movie intended as a backdoor pilot into a series She looked nothing like Wonder Woman more like a track-and-field runner A ridiculous plot that involved Ricardo model bond and code books. She had no real powers Exactly it I equate this to The Halle Berry cat woman movie, okay, where it's like we have the name of the character throw everything else out So they tried it again in 1975 with the Wonder Woman series the Linda Carter series Mm-hmm, of course perfect for the role. Yes much much closer to the comic book Mm-hmm It ran three seasons one at ABC and was set in the 1940s where she's in the army and It decided to be too expensive for the network because it was a period show I mean when you a period show you've got a nope modern cars. Everybody's got to be in costume It's very expensive to do a series like that And then they did two seasons at CBS then set in 1970s where she's a spy Working for the IADC the interagency defense command Now her character is immortal. So she's it's the same character in both series same cruise explain how They kind of do actually Okay, there's a reference to the fact that Lyle Wagner played both Steve Trevor senior and junior In the two series and there's a reference to that So she's essentially immortal. So it's like yeah, it's the same character. That's yes Carter's portrayal was so enduring. It's taken 40 years to try it again for the upcoming movie if that ever happens And of course TV is nothing if not repetitive so we got a whole group of shows around this time Yeah, so they were all trying to kind of ape the success of Wonder Woman right starting with Mighty Isis in 1975 a Saturday morning show produced by Filmation and This was kind of partnered with the Shazam series, right? Played by Andrea Thomas. She was a school teacher with a magic amulet She could use poetry to initiate the powers. It was the cheapest show short of public access Okay, I didn't watch it all that 1976 the bionic woman a spin-off of the six million dollar man and she has power so she counts exactly introduced in a backdoor pilot Jamie Summers played by Lindsay Wagner and just like Steve Austin was turned into a cyborg without the Approval well, she played a tennis player who is Steve Austin's girlfriend exactly and then she got horribly injured in one of his Missions skydiving accident. Yes, and and he made her you have to fix her Now she apparently died during his series, but that was just a cover-up and When she comes back Jamie has amnesia about Steve conveniently And she ends up working for the Office of Scientific Intelligence EOSI as a spy as Steve did. Yes, but somehow kept separate so that Steve didn't know. Yes She had a bionic ear a bionic arm and bionic legs and They later introduced a bionic dog in the last season Max. Yeah She reappeared in the TV bionic movies in the 80s and 90s I think she and Steve eventually got together and had little bionic baby. Yeah. Yeah Electro woman and dyna girl 1976 another Saturday morning show produced by Sid and Marty Croft of HR puff and stuff and Lidsville Deidre Hall who of course later went on to days of our lives and Judy Strangas played the heroes They had these electro comps bracelets that gave them powers Which apparently rarely worked it seemed like it took campiness to a whole other level than even more than the animus series There was an attempted remake in 2001 with Markey post in the lead any more much more cynical view of the character You can find it on YouTube. It's it's like wow she's like an alcoholic and And she's sleeping around She's living in a trailer Definitely not a Saturday morning show. No and then earlier this year a web series was announced But I can't find any evidence that it actually happened. Okay, like two YouTube stars that we're gonna do that again Oh, who knows? I think it's just a publicity stunt the greatest American heroine 1986 an attempted pilot sequel to greatest American hero that ran from 81 to 83 Played by Mary Ellen Stewart and the idea is this alien suit gives you superpowers. Yes We got a few female heroines in the 90s like Zena and Buffy, but I wouldn't really consider them to be superheroes I don't know Buffy, you know, she had powers. Yeah, she was the chosen one, right? Yeah, but you know, it's it's so far away from Superhero. Yeah, it seems like like more like a dark dark Hero, right and speaking of dark heroes dark angel in 2000 was an early role for Jessica Alba who plays a genetically enhanced super soldier on the run in 2009 post apocalyptic Seattle. I really liked this. Yeah, we liked this show. It also featured Michael Weatherly. Yep who went on to ACS. Yes. James Cameron did the pilot He produced the show. It cost ten million dollars for the pilot It lasted two seasons Black Scorpion 2001 sci-fi channel series from Roger Corman starred Michelle Lintel as a police detective who moonlighted as a vigilante hero Corman really emphasized the sexy costumes on the show She had no powers just gadgets in a supercar But she had tights so she counts as a superhero. Okay. Yeah Adam West and Frank Gorshin Of course both from the 60s Batman series got roles as villains at one point It was actually based on a couple soft core movies that were made in the 90s Which blade 2001 a TNT series based on images comic book series Police detective played by Yancey Butler who finds this ancient blade that gives her powers and magic armor That at least in the comic leaves little to the imagination It was supposedly cancelled because Butler went into rehab for magic use apparently Well, she They say was TNT's highest rated show when it was cancer. So it must have been because of that Birds of Prey 2002 based on DC's comic book series and again, I really liked this show at least in One of its various incarnations. They changed the they seem to change it up several times. Didn't well It was only 13 episodes. Yeah, but they kept changing people Yeah, it was set in a near future Gotham where Batman is gone leaving a city defended by Oracle Barbara Gordon played by Dina Meyer Huntress Ellen at Kyle played by Ashley Scott. Who is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman? So it's almost like an earth to in a way Dinah Lance who is the daughter of black canary and played by Rachel Scarston and as I mentioned only 13 episodes a Bionic woman remake with Michelle Ryan in 2007 Really never took off. I mean there were several episodes, but it did terribly in the rain. Yeah David Kelly produced a truly horrid Wonder Woman pilot in 2011 with Adrian Palicki Who's now on agents of shield and that is available online in various places? Yes? I want to watch it really was not very good There there's a scene where she's fighting this guy or coming up against this goon in a hallway She picks up this huge metal bar and impales him killing him instantly She was never in danger. Nobody was in danger. She just killed him. Yeah So now we have both a supergirl and a Jessica Jones series coming from Netflix With Kristen Ritter starring which looks very very very dark Yes, and you would expect that to be based on what we've seen already from their daredevil daredevil Yeah, right And we're also getting legends of tomorrow this January which is an in arrow slash flash spin-off on the CW There are multiple female heroes and heroines in that show Yes, so we'll have to see how that goes and how much of a lead they take right So we're looking forward to watching that at least I am yeah And in the meantime you can check out our audio podcast I got my wife Tweet comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm from the pop culture bunker. I'm Mindy. I'm Mark Thanks for watching