This episode is such a hot mess! The behind-the-scenes story is actually much more interesting than the story of the episode itself: The year was 1972, and Filmation Associates was competing with Hanna-Barbara for the rights to make a animated TV series, based on DC Comics' Justice League of America. Both studios each made two crossover episodes/backdoor pilots: Batman & Robin guest-starred in two episodes of Hanna-Barbara's The New Scooby-Doo Movies and Superman & Wonder Woman individually guest-starred in one episode each of Filmation's The Brady Kids.
Hanna-Barbara's two New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes were faithful adaptations of the 1960's Batman & Robin TV series era and Filmation's Superman/Brady Kids crossover episode was a competent adaptation of the 1950's Adventures of Superman TV series era, but Filmation's adaptation of Wonder Woman was very far removed from the original source material!
In 1972, Wonder Woman's character was in a state of flux. She was in the final stages of a five-year failed experiment, which ended in early 1973, where Wonder Woman shed both her classic costume and her Super Powers. During this period she traded her costume for mod outfits and she traded her super powers for Martial Arts skills. In The Brady Kids' crossover episode, Filmation opted to use her classic costume, her super powers, and her Diana Prince dual identity. Instead of portraying Wonder Woman as either a classic era Army Wac & Super-heroine or as a mod era female adventurer with Martial Arts skills, Filmation re-imagined Diana Prince as Jan Brady's Math teacher, who moonlights as a super-heroine in her spare time!
The convoluted plot of this crossover episode is as follows: Marlon, the magic mynah bird accidentally sends The Brady Kids, as well as Jan Brady's Math teacher, Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, back in time to the first Olympic games in ancient Greece and Diana attempts to train the Brady Kids to compete in the first Olympics, while trying to keep her dual-identity a secret, as well as keeping the kids from radically altering history! (*WHEW!*)
Other than that Diana Prince wears her classic costume, Filmation's interpretation of Wonder Woman bears almost no relation to either the classic or the mod era of Wonder Woman. In fact, other than the fact she doesn't either wear the classic costume or have the classic hair color, Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman much more faithfully reflects the core Wonder Woman than Filmation's version does. Also, in terms of comedy, as painfully bad as the Ellie Wood Walker pilot is, it's still much funnier than The Brady Kids' Wonder Woman crossover episode!
Ultimately, Filmation's well-intentioned, yet woefully misguided efforts were all for naught. DC Comics preferred Hanna-Barbara's efforts over Filmation and Hanna-Barbara won the bid for the TV rights to the Justice League of America. After de-empathizing the violence, empathizing pro-social values, adding Scooby-Doo style teen sidekicks, and changing the name of the Justice League of America to the more family-friendly "Super Friends", all to placate the network, the Super Friends series premiered a year later, in September 1973 and the show ran, on-and-off, for thirteen years!
Even though Filmation previously made some reasonably faithful adaptations of the DC Comics superheroes in the mid-1960s, considering the very poor quality of Filmation's The New Adventures of Batman 1970's series, as well as the two Brady Kids crossover episodes/backdoor pilots, which indicate the mindset of Filmation at the time, perhaps it was for the best that Hanna-Barbara did win the bid for the Justice League America/Super Friends TV rights!
Hanna-Barbara's two New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes were faithful adaptations of the 1960's Batman & Robin TV series era and Filmation's Superman/Brady Kids crossover episode was a competent adaptation of the 1950's Adventures of Superman TV series era, but Filmation's adaptation of Wonder Woman was very far removed from the original source material!
In 1972, Wonder Woman's character was in a state of flux. She was in the final stages of a five-year failed experiment, which ended in early 1973, where Wonder Woman shed both her classic costume and her Super Powers. During this period she traded her costume for mod outfits and she traded her super powers for Martial Arts skills. In The Brady Kids' crossover episode, Filmation opted to use her classic costume, her super powers, and her Diana Prince dual identity. Instead of portraying Wonder Woman as either a classic era Army Wac & Super-heroine or as a mod era female adventurer with Martial Arts skills, Filmation re-imagined Diana Prince as Jan Brady's Math teacher, who moonlights as a super-heroine in her spare time!
The convoluted plot of this crossover episode is as follows: Marlon, the magic mynah bird accidentally sends The Brady Kids, as well as Jan Brady's Math teacher, Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, back in time to the first Olympic games in ancient Greece and Diana attempts to train the Brady Kids to compete in the first Olympics, while trying to keep her dual-identity a secret, as well as keeping the kids from radically altering history! (*WHEW!*)
Other than that Diana Prince wears her classic costume, Filmation's interpretation of Wonder Woman bears almost no relation to either the classic or the mod era of Wonder Woman. In fact, other than the fact she doesn't either wear the classic costume or have the classic hair color, Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman much more faithfully reflects the core Wonder Woman than Filmation's version does. Also, in terms of comedy, as painfully bad as the Ellie Wood Walker pilot is, it's still much funnier than The Brady Kids' Wonder Woman crossover episode!
Ultimately, Filmation's well-intentioned, yet woefully misguided efforts were all for naught. DC Comics preferred Hanna-Barbara's efforts over Filmation and Hanna-Barbara won the bid for the TV rights to the Justice League of America. After de-empathizing the violence, empathizing pro-social values, adding Scooby-Doo style teen sidekicks, and changing the name of the Justice League of America to the more family-friendly "Super Friends", all to placate the network, the Super Friends series premiered a year later, in September 1973 and the show ran, on-and-off, for thirteen years!
Even though Filmation previously made some reasonably faithful adaptations of the DC Comics superheroes in the mid-1960s, considering the very poor quality of Filmation's The New Adventures of Batman 1970's series, as well as the two Brady Kids crossover episodes/backdoor pilots, which indicate the mindset of Filmation at the time, perhaps it was for the best that Hanna-Barbara did win the bid for the Justice League America/Super Friends TV rights!
