Sadly, I've posted so many clips from awful Lynda Carter specials, I can't even keep them straight. Have I shown you her disco-fied versions of songs from thirties musicals? Yes? No? Does it matter?
As I've said repeatedly, I have no regard for Carter one way or another--I think I post these clips mostly because so many of you seem to be annoyed by them. So here's another one, but hey, it's completely different--no singing!
Instead, this is a profile of the Real Lynda, as shown on that epitome of all that was great and glorious about seventies TV, Battle Of The Network Stars. I considered using this clip as an excuse to go off on a long dissertation on why this sort of thing could never work now because networks don't really have any sense of identity anymore, and how there are fewer actors who can be perceived as purely TV stars, the way a Chad Everett or a Robert Conrad or a McLean Stevenson only seemed to function to maximum effect on the cathode ray tube.
But who cares about analysis when you've got Lynda Carter in a swimsuit? Just sit back and wallow in the overwhelming cheese-tasticness of the whole thing--Howard Cosell's smarmy intro ("Let's ask my friend Rona Barrett, the Hollywood Queen"), Barrett's cliche-packed profile ("She is a Wonder Woman, indeed") and randomly deployed air quotes, Carter's endearingly air-headed interview, Gabe Kaplan's astounding Jewfro and, most terrifying of all, shirtless Hal Linden! I never watched these things as a kid, yet they still somehow permeated my consciousness, becoming part of the pop culture landscape that continues to define me. Which explains a lot about how my life has turned out, come to think of it, but again, we'll leave analysis for another time...
