#bionicwoman

The 1970s ushered in many changes to the television landscape. It was the decade when the majority started watching in colour. It was the decade when increased use of the remote control popularised the channel flipping habit. It was the decade when affordable domestic video recorders started to appear. But most important of all, it was the decade when women in tv drama stepped up from being decorative eye candy or damsels in distress, to become powerful lead characters in their own right.

Tv's glass ceiling -- or should that be glass screen? -- had suffered many tiny cracks since the 1960s, but the 1970s was when it finally shattered. The result was several highly rated tv shows across the prime time schedules with women at their core, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Charlie's Angels, and Police Woman.

But there are two particular shows from that era that are especially fondly remembered. Both were among the first wave of female-lead action/adventure series to really break through, and their origin stories criss-cross each other in the timeline, to the point that even their stars debate who came first.

We're talking, of course, about The Bionic Woman starring Lindsay Wagner, and Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter (who FYI is surprisingly active and accessible here on Tumblr as @reallyndacarter .)

The sci-fi and superhero genres were not exactly renowned for their inclusiveness at the time, yet both of these female superhero shows drew big audiences in the 70s, and have attained cult status in the decades that followed.

But which lady deserves the crown of the first woman to lead a superhero tv show? Let's see if we can get some answers. But take a deep breath first, because it turns out to be quite a quest, and there may well be more questions than answers at the end.

Round one: Bionic brawn vs. Amazon magic

The Bionic Woman's timeline is pretty straight forward. As a character Jaime Sommers debuted in a two-parter during the second season of The Six Million Dollar Man, the first part of which ran on 16th March 1975. She then returned the next season for another two-parter on 14th September 1975. Finally, on 14th January 1976, The Bionic Woman was spun off as its own tv series.

Wonder Woman's journey on tv, meanwhile, weaves a bit more of a tangled path. Cathy Lee Crosby starred in a tv movie that ran on 12th March 1974, but the movie was inspired (very loosely) by Wonder Woman's powerless Diana Prince run in the comics, when she was more super-spy than super-hero. Many fans therefore have chosen to ignore this oddball pilot. The classic Wonder Woman we all know and love, in the guise of Lynda Carter, appeared thanks to a feature length pilot aired on 7th November 1975. Two regular length episodes were commissioned based on the pilot, and those two were then expanded into a truncated first season of 13. The first of these regular episodes was broadcast on 21st April 1976.

Let's review our timeline:

16th March 1975 : Lindsay Wagner debuts as Jaime Sommers in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, in a supporting role.

7th November 1975 : Lynda Carter stars as Wonder Woman in a feature length pilot movie.

14th January 1976 : The Bionic Woman, as a tv show, airs its first episode.

21st April 1976 : Wonder Woman, as a tv show, airs the first of two one-off episodes which become the basis of its first season.

So who was first?

Well, it depends upon on what you mean by "first".

If we're talking about the first appearance of a character then Lindsay wins, because Jaime Sommers appeared on tv before Lynda's Wonder Woman. But if the qualifying factor is being the title character in a show, then Lynda wins because the Wonder Woman pilot appeared before The Bionic Woman was spun off into its own series. However, if we exclude pilot movies and focus specifically on episodic tv, then Lindsay wins again because The Bionic Woman was the first to get a proper series. (Of course neither women win if we factor in the Cathy Lee Crosby movie!)

But wait! There's someone we've forgotten.

Round two: Who's that lurking on Saturday morning tv?

We've focused thus far on just two contenders, and even with just those two it is already difficult to know what factors qualify someone as being the first. We've assumed that supporting characters don't count -- but is that fair? Yvonne Craig as Batgirl was written as an equal crime-fighting partner with Batman and Robin, so why should she not count? But even when sticking to characters that headlined their own tv show, there's options other than just Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman.

The first episode of Isis (aka The Secrets of Isis) debuted on Saturday morning tv on 6th September 1975 with JoAnna Cameron in the title role. That's two full months before Lynda Carter's pilot movie, and seven months before Linsday Wagner began in her own series. So presumably this makes JoAnna Cameron the first superwoman to lead her own show. Right?!

But wait again -- there's even more potential twists and turns!

We've only really been looking at American tv. What if we broaden our horizons a little to consider superhero tv in other parts of the world? If we do that, then we immediately see that Japan has two possible challengers to the crown.

The first challenger is Red Angel, who was a costumed supporting character added into the 1960 kids tv series Marine Kong (怪獣マリンコング.) There's little information online on this show, and only modest amounts of footage, but episode guides suggest the masked heroine was added in episode 17 and became a semi-regular part of the show thereafter. However she was, as noted, a supporting character, not the show's lead.

The second challenger is Andro Mask, who was the lead character in the 1971 kids series Suki Suki Majo Sensei (魔女先生), aka We Love You! We Love You! Witch Teacher! The so-called witch teacher acquired the ability to transform into a costumed secret identity at the start of her show's second season, creating a character that is often considered to be the inspiration for modern series like Sailor Moon and the Toei Magical Girl series of the 90s.

These three new characters are from kids tv, not prime time, but they still count, surely?! So, let's update our timeline to add in all the new information:

24th July 1960 : Hisako Tsukuba plays Red Angel for the first time (we assume) on Japanese tv, as a supporting character.

12th January 1966 : Yvonne Craig's Batgirl is introduced into the Batman tv show, as a supporting character.

2nd January 1972 : Yōko Kiku first plays Andro Mask on Japanese tv, as the series' title character.

12th March 1974 : The Cathy Lee Crosby version of Wonder Woman airs.

16th March 1975 : Lindsay Wagner debuts as Jaime Sommers in The Six Million Dollar Man, as a supporting character.

6th September 1975 : JoAnna Cameron first appears as Isis, as the series' title character.

7th November 1975 : Lynda Carter stars in the Wonder Woman pilot movie, as the title character.

14th January 1976 : The Bionic Woman series airs its first episode.

21st April 1976 : Wonder Woman airs its first regular series episode.

The aftermath

A picture begins to emerge that is rather complicated. Do we assume that Lindsay's guest role on the Six Million Dollar Man qualifies, given that the character subsequently went on to have her own show? Or does Lindsay only count when she actually gets her own show? Do the Japanese characters qualify, or should we stick to just English speaking characters? Is a pilot movie sufficient or do we only count episodic tv shows? If pilots count, does the Cathy Lee Crosby movie win out over the Lynda Carter one? Should we really be discounting supporting characters, even when they play a very heroic role in a show?

Depending on the qualifying factors, the crown could go to either Hisako Tsukuba (who was first tv superheroine in the world, as far as I know, but only as a supporting character), or Yvonne Craig (who was first in the US, but only as a supporting character), or Yōko Kiku (who was first in the world as a lead character in her own series), or JoAnna Cameron (who was first in the US as a lead in her own series, but not in prime time), or Lynda Carter (who was the first in prime time as a lead, but in a pilot not in a regular series), or Lindsay Wagner (who was first in prime time as a lead in a regular series.)