In the late summer of 1978, I taped two TV episodes that became very popular. One of them was for the hit show Family, which starred my friend Kristy McNichol. A lot of the teen magazines implied that we were boyfriend and girlfriend, but in reality we were just friends. The other show I did was Wonder Woman. What made that special was that my sister, Dawn, was also on the show. She didn’t play my sister but rather a fan of the—you guessed it—teen idol that I was playing. She and I had played brother and sister before, but having her portray a semi-crazed fan was weird for me. The website Gizmodo named it one of “The 12 Most Ridiculous Episodes From the ’70s Wonder Woman TV Series:”
Real-life teen dream Leif Garrett plays Lane Kincaid, a fictional teen dream who gets kidnapped in the most Wonder Woman way possible, by a gang of chloroform-wielding dudes in ski masks. A groupie happens to see the grab, but she doesn’t see the second part of the plan: the teen dream’s long-lost twin brother is brought out of…wherever…to take his place, including behind the microphone at a huge concert, where he’s an unexpected sensation.
Fortunately, Wonder Woman makes sure both twins survive for their awesome joint performance in matching Spandex pants. And for no reason other than it looks freaking cool, she rides in to save the day on the Wonder Motorbike, wearing the Wonder Catsuit.
Overall it was a fun episode to shoot, except for one odd moment at the start of production. I was talking to someone, and Lynda Carter wandered by and heard me say the word “fuck.” (I didn’t curse a lot; she just happened to catch this one.) Indignant, she stopped, turned around, and said to me, “I’d better not hear that word again out of your mouth on this set.” This may have been during her born-again phase, but it still seemed a little harsh.