Wonder Woman (TV Series) Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther (1976) User Reviews

Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 27 December 2015]

In "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther", the heroine Amazonian princess disguising herself as a Yeoman under the direction of Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) and Steve's boss, General Phil Blankenship (Richard Eastham) in the War Department of Washington, DC, in 1942, will need to thwart the efforts of a secret spy network of the Nazis known as the Abwher. Steve is targeted by a Nazi sympathizer currently in prison, Baroness Von Gunter (Christine Belford, coolly beholden to her Fuhrer and the Third Reich, while attempting to fool America into believing she's reformed), and an American steel magnate (Bradford Dillman)…considered a patriot, who is called on by the government to investigate Steve for sabotage (a series of armed deliveries linked to Steve are orchestrated by the Abwher), he is working in concert with Von Gunter to implicate "America's All-American Hero". Blankenship feels helpless as his guy seems to be considered working with the Nazis as a traitor. A kid, whose hero is Sherlock Holmes, could very well give an assist to Steve and Wonder Woman, as he is the prison warden's son (he spies on Von Gunter and her prison guard Nazi sympathizer, Hanson (Ed Griffith) as the kid learns of how she leaves the prison without detection) and is privy to details they are unaware of.

Lynda Carter does her spin from military uniform to superhero costume when no one is looking, lassos those in peril, flies around to rescue folks (like the kid climbing a ladder to get to the top of the prison (the episode stretches credibility with how the kid moves around the prison a bit too freely), and drives a jeep out of the confines of a burning barn to save Steve from certain harm. So Wonder Woman stays busy. There's even a fun catfight between Wonder Woman and Von Gunther, as Steve gets into fisticuffs with Dillman's Arthur Deal III! Deal and Von Gunther just get a bit too cute with their masterplan to implicate and kill Steve, not anticipating Wonder Woman's infiltration (sure a knock-out gas subdues WW momentarily, but they underestimate her strength when bound with strong chain) to cause them such trouble. The finale at Deal's mansion maybe was a mistake on the part of the villains.

more about the characters

[trashgang · 6/10 · 13 January 2013]

Once in the US she is working for Steve Trevor, the man she brought back to the army in the pilot. Of course she's out of her Wonder Woman clothes and guess what, Steve doesn't know that Diana Prince, his secretary is in fact Wonder Woman and is a bit in love with Wonder Woman. Steve has to go for another mission but things go wrong and is captured by the Nazis. Yes, it's Wonder Woman who has to do the job.

Just she how she changes from Diana into Wonder Woman, so campy and again this is what's it all about. The fight scene's are again ridiculous but loving the exploitation and drive-in genre this is exactly what it reminds me of.

Still here you have the feeling that the writers intended to get to know all characters throughout the series. It's still fun to see but not as good as the pilot.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

A Fall From Awesomeness

[pmullan-54285 · 7/10 · 2 July 2016]

"Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" I didn't think it was possible, but this is only the second episode to star Lynda Carter as the eponymous heroine, and she feels like an afterthought in the whole episode. This would later be corrected in later episodes of the first Season and more extensively in Seasons 2 and 3. I have no idea how WB thought that dumbing down the character would be of any use to the viewers. She is given simple dialogue and spends a good chunk of the tale tied up until the last few minutes. I don't see how the strong woman who was able to survive with no money and obvious capability, even in naivety, is side-lined in this episode. The only time I felt like she was being given something worth it was the last scene with the Baroness. That scene only lasts about a second and then it's back to bland Diana Prince who smiles and looks sexy, that's all that WB wanted out of Lynda at the time.

This, thank God, would be corrected when Lynda stood up for herself and the character when she felt that the company had no idea who the character of Wonder Woman was. I completely agree with her on this. Throughout this episode, she's just the poor man's Batman from the 1960's. No wit, no charm, just one funny line and that's it. Granted, the performance out of Lynda is still very gentle and her face at the end when she takes the Baroness away in the lasso is just hilarious. So, it did take them a while to pin her down, but luckily, Lynda was on hand to show just why we love the Amazon princess so much.

As for everyone else, ironically enough, Steve Trevor is the most stale piece of eye candy that has ever been placed on the screen alongside one of the most iconic characters. He is always captured and proves to be as useless as icing on toast. Lyle is doing the best he can with the role, but he is given nothing to work with that at some points in the show, he just becomes an annoyance to get rid of. He's okay here, but he'll leave you wondering how he was considered to be the best soldier in his rankings.

The villain is alright, the supporting cast are okay. Just an okay episode, but an insulting stab at the main lead, by not giving her any persona and just throwing her into the tale like she is just a damsel. Things can only get better from here.

7/10

Wonder Woman and her missing lasso

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 10 April 2022]

Steve is framed for charges of treason by Nazi spies and Wonder Woman finds herself in trouble when she loses her magic lasso while trying to rescue him. But with the help of a boy with Sherlock Holmes' aspirations, she takes on the Baroness who has major villainous plans.

A fairly good episode with secret prison doors and a solid plot - also Wonder Woman delivers a line about that bad people can change.

Delivers a Disappointing, Anti-Climactic Encounter

[darryl-tahirali · 6/10 · 18 April 2022]

Despite featuring a villain whom Wonder Woman had squared off against in the comics, "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" gives Wonder Woman busywork but doesn't give Baroness Paula Von Gunther (Christine Belford) even that in a lukewarm tale that previews the limitations of the first season of "Wonder Woman": Set following America's entry into World War Two, the series had to find variations on the theme of battling Nazi Germany, with the question being just how far could that go without becoming even more restrictive and formulaic than television was in the 1970s.

Here the premise, scripted by Margaret Armen, is sabotage perpetrated by Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists that is blamed on war hero Major Steve Trevor, working intelligence missions stateside for General Phil Blankenship while supported by Yeoman Diana Prince, Wonder Woman's alter ego introduced at the end of the pilot, "The New Original Wonder Woman."

The infiltrators are the Baroness, who in a neat misdirection is incarcerated in a women's prison near Washington, D. C., ostensibly renouncing her loyalty to the Third Reich while seemingly embracing democracy, and her henchman of sorts, prison guard Hanson (Ed Griffith). Both use a secret passage out of the prison to rendezvous with the fifth columnist, American steel magnate Arthur Deal III (Bradford Dillman), who is somehow pressuring Congress (in some indistinct plotting by Armen) to investigate Steve for treason even as Deal is fabricating evidence to prove Steve is responsible for various acts of sabotage, with Wonder Woman managing to save him from peril in the proverbial nick of time.

But watching the Baroness and Hanson's goings-on behind bars is the warden's (Edmund Gilbert) son Tommy (Christian Juttner), the proverbial Precocious Kid from Central Casting with a Sherlock Holmes fixation who also imagines himself a sleuth as he carefully documents their suspicious behavior, although he too must be rescued by Wonder Woman, which is how he gains temporary custody of her magic lasso in more hand-waving to fill time before the Grand Finale at which the Baroness and Deal expect to eliminate Steve, Wonder Woman, and even Tommy in One Swell Foop.

Lynda Carter spends much of her time in her iconic Wonder Woman costume, and perhaps not just for the T&A factor: In her first full outing as Diana, Carter is still feeling out that persona, painfully obvious in the early scenes in which her line readings are stiff and wooden, exhibiting the discomfort of an actress with minimal experience and, apparently, little guidance from director Barry Crane.

At this point, Carter clearly seems more comfortable as Wonder Woman and is more effective in that persona. One intriguing touch she attempts, when she spins into her Wonder Woman costume, is to find a place to discreetly stash her now-discarded street clothes, a gesture that was itself eventually discarded.

Top-billed guest star Belford does what she can in a boutique role while TV veteran Dillman similarly postures in a one-dimensional part and Juttner holds his own as "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" delivers a disappointing, anti-climactic encounter.

LOTS OF ACTION AND MYSTERY BETWEEN SECRET DOORS AND NAZI AMBUSHES

[asalerno10 · 8/10 · 8 May 2022]

A German baroness convicted of Nazi espionage in an American prison, contacts a traitorous tycoon to commit a series of sabotages and at the same time discredit Major Steve Trevor by passing him off as responsible for the attacks. A very good episode, with a lot of suspense and very good performances. Christine Belford is incredible as the haughty Baroness Von Hunter. Lynda still looks a little hesitant trying to find her character but she is starting to settle. The final fight scene between Wonder Woman and the Baroness may seem a bit ridiculous today, but there's no denying that it was iconic at the time.

Filled with errors inane plot line culminating in an obvious ending.

[WYAdams · 1/10 · 3 July 2022]

How brain dead would you have to be to not realize that Arthur Diehl was a traitor? The producers could not decide whether to target adults or children, as a result they made this disaster that appeals to neither. The inclusion of the annoying and unnecessary Tommy was an attempt to cater to children which did nothing but turn off adults.

The only attraction for adults is watching Lynda Carter hanging out of the low cut top on her costume. Even that is not enough to save the show.