Friday, September 17, 2010

The Animated World of DC Comics: Wonder Woman on "The Brady Kids" (1972)

The Brady Kids was the centerpiece of ABC's 1972-73 Saturday lineup. The six Kids from Brady Bunch (Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Susan Olsen, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, & Mike Lookinland) lent their voices to their animated alter-egos, at least through the first season. Half the gang chose not to return for the 2nd and final season, which coincided with the end of Bunch, as both series were gone by 1974. Filmation & Paramount co-produced the series, the first of two such collaborations (NBC's reboot of Star Trek the following year was the other) between the two studios. They also contributed to the evolution, if you will, of what would be the cornerstone of the network's Saturday schedule the next year, Super Friends, as Wonder Woman & Superman guest-starred in separate episodes. Filmation stalwart Jane Webb was the voice of the Amazing Amazon in the episode, "It's All Greek to Me", which Diana Prince (get it?) uploaded to YouTube:







As we all know, Hanna-Barbera landed the license to produce Super Friends, which would be a franchise for ABC well into the mid-80's, and they certainly knew how to better utilize Wonder Woman. All you needed to do was take a look at how they were able to have Batman & Robin interact with Scooby-Doo over on CBS, to get an idea.

Rating: C (for cheesy).

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