Superhero.

Always A Kid. Super Geek.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

I put my mind to the task today, threw caution to the wind and embraced Monday head-on with no worries, no regrets and bundles of energy.

Since I didn’t get a chance to audition for the Sci-Fi channel’s “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?”, I thought I’d just go ahead and feel like a superhero for a day.

For once I’m ready for Hallowe’en. Too bad it’s six months away.

I think it’s pretty clear that I am a complete superhero geek. I’m not into comic books so much as into the live-action stuff. I often feature John Davey’s “Captain Marvel” as eye candy, but I must say that JoAnna Cameron as “Isis”/”Andrea Thomas” has one of the most beautiful speaking voices I’ve ever heard. Small wonder she has the World Record for appearing in the most commercials ever!

“Oh, my Queen,” said the royal sorcerer to Hatshepsut. “With this amulet, you and your descendants are endowed by the goddess Isis, with the powers of the animals and the elements. You will soar as the falcon soars, run with the speed of gazelles, and command the elements of sky and earth.”

Three thousand years later, a young science teacher dug up this lost treasure and found she was heir to The Secret Of Isis. And so, unknown to even her closest friends, Rick Mason and Cindy Lee, she became a dual person: Andrea Thomas, teacher, and Isis, dedicated foe of evil, defender of the weak, champion of truth and justice.

Yes, I just typed that in by memory. And I have always loved the theme song, especially the flute playing in the lower register.

Here, have some video.

I’m *really* looking forward to the day that Isis comes out on DVD. At least it’s been officially announced and it’s in the good hands of Andy Mangels. Now if Universal would only release the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman on DVD in the states!

While I was surfing around the internet during lunch, I came across a website devoted to one my Saturday morning favorites, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl.

Diedre Hall doesn’t like to talk about this experience too much. In fact, the very first Rosie O’Donnell show I saw had Diedre as a guest and Rosie trying to get her to talk about ElectraWoman. She didn’t really want to chat about that role. Her twin sister was on the show too in one episode; it saved on the special effects budget when they had a good and an evil ElectraWoman.

For some reason, this villain scared the heck out of me when I was kid. Now that I look at her picture, I realize she looks a few of the people I used to see out and about when I was a DJ in the gay bar.

The Empress of Evil, picture courtesy of The ElectraWoman and DynaGirl Webopedia.

ElectraWoman and DynaGirl 2001.

I’ve mentioned that my favorite Saturday morning program from my childhood was The Shazam!/Isis Hour, which ran on CBS between 10 and 11 a.m. After Isis gave her moral of the story and flew off to another adventure, for a while we had to quickly change the channel to ABC to catch “ElectraWoman and DynaGirl”, featuring Diedre Hall and Judy Strangis as the female superhero team.

There were only six or seven episodes of EW/DG made in the 1970s and ABC ran them over and over and over during the Krofft Superhour (or something like that). The effects were super cheap and the show was campy in the spirit of Batman and Robin. Fun Saturday morning fare.

In 2001, a 15 minute pilot was made for Fox, intended to bring EW and DG to prime-time. In this pilot, DynaGirl had run off with ElectraWoman’s husband. ElectraWoman (as Lori) was divorced, an alcoholic and a bit of a floozy living in a trailer park. A college student she had rescued when she was a young girl tracks her down to make an appearance as EW and finds out the state of her life. She convinces her to become ElectraWoman again and joins her as the new DynaGirl. In this pilot, ElectraWoman is played by Markie Post and DynaGirl is played by Anne Stedman.

My own copy of this pilot arrived in the mail today and I’ve already watched it twice. The show isn’t half bad. It was produced by Sid & Marty Krofft and is bawdy as all get out. It’s really fun to watch. It’s a shame the show wasn’t picked up as a series.

Electra-Terrific! A new DVD for my live action superhero collection.