Fifty years ago in November 1975, Wonder Woman traveled from the comic book page to the TV screen for her very own television show. Starring Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor, the popular series featured a female character in heroic way like never before. The series ran for three seasons, located mostly in the US, but it all started on Paradise Island.

The show was set in 1942, when the world was embroiled in World War II. It starts when American pilot Major Steve Trevor must bail out of an air battle, landing on Paradise Island. There, he meets Diana and the Amazons, a group of strong, agile, intelligent women. Diana rescues him and once she has helped him recover, her mother, Queen Hippolyta, decides that a tournament will be held to choose which Amazon will take Steve back to America. When the queen forbids Diana from participating in the games, she wears a disguise to compete for the job. Once Diana wins, proving she is the best for the job, her mother relents and lets her escort Steve home.

Before leaving, Diana is outfitted with a uniform, featuring American colors and emblems with a golden belt that will be her source of power and strength from Paradise Island. She also has her bracelets that deflect bullets and the unbreakable golden lasso that forces people to obey and tell the truth.

As Wonder Woman, she flies Steve back to DC and after dropping him off at the hospital, she stops a bank robbery. Steve goes back to work where his secretary, Marcia, acts as a double agent for the Nazis. Her mission is to help operatives kill Steve and the new threat, Wonder Woman.

First, she tries to stop wonder woman with a machine gun, then Steve is kidnapped. Wonder Woman saves him, defeats Marcia, and stops a Nazi pilot from bombing the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After Marcia and her ring of spies are defeated, Brigadier General Blankenship hires the new Yeoman First Class Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, to work in their office. In this capacity, Wonder Woman monitors local and foreign threats, stopping them in the nick of time.

Two years after the show began, the Mego Corporation released a line of Wonder Woman dolls featuring Carter on the box art. The line included figures of Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, Steve Trevor, Hippolyta, and Nubia, plus fashion outfits for Diana. In 2007, DC Direct released a Wonder Woman statue and in 2015, Hallmark sold a Wonder Woman ornament – both using Carter’s likeness.

Carter’s Wonder Woman also saw a second life in comics. The Wonder Woman ’77 comic written by Marc Andreyko was set during the TV show’s run, embracing the themes, style, and tone of the show. DC and Dynamite collaborated on the crossover book, Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman, co-starring Lindsay Wagner’s character from the 1970s Bionic Woman show. Another adventure was told in Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 featuring Adam West’s Batman with Carter’s Wonder Woman.

Carter returned to playing an Amazon in Wonder Woman 1984 as the heroic Asteria.