Wonder Girl (portrayed by actress Debra Winger) appeared in a few episodes of the 1970s WONDER WOMAN TV series, but the character's given name was "Drusilla," not Donna Troy. Why did the showrunners go with this name when the comic books already established Wonder Girl's name as Donna Troy?
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Because Donnas backstory in the comics originally was that she was an orphan rescued by Diana from the outside world and raised by Queen Hippolyta as her daughter for a decade or so. The tv show went instead for a Wonder Girl who was Dianas younger sister who was 700 years old and was just as much a fish out of water with no familiarity with the outside world than Diana was. Because of this, they opted for just making a new Wonder Girl in Drusilla who was a completely different character instead of changing Donna Troys origin.
[QUOTE=Fuzzy Mittens;4315377]Because Donnas backstory in the comics originally was that she was an orphan rescued by Diana from the outside world and raised by Queen Hippolyta as her daughter for a decade or so. The tv show went instead for a Wonder Girl who was Dianas younger sister who was 700 years old and was just as much a fish out of water with no familiarity with the outside world than Diana was. Because of this, they opted for just making a new Wonder Girl in Drusilla who was a completely different character instead of changing Donna Troys origin.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for sharing!
Because other media (movies and TV shows) don't care about the comic books and will make up their own stuff. It's probably because the producers like the freedom to do their own thing. They'll adapt the original source material for the basic premise--and I think the Wonder Woman TV movie is one of the greatest adaptations of a comic book--but after that they want to go their own way. You see that with the Hulk, with Superman, with the CW shows. It's probably because they are artists, too, and want to have the freedom to create. And it's probably also because they're business people and see the benefit in owning their own product, which gives them exclusive rights over this iteration of the concept.
The TV crew might also not agree or like certain comic book parts, such as Donna not being a "true" Amazon by birth. They may see things as too complicated for the audience, such as Donna being rescued as a baby from a burning building in Man's world, then taken to Paradise Island to be raised as an Amazon who later returns to Man's world.. And they may also disagree with certain things, like Donna's name being too "Man's Worldly", instead going with a much older sounding name of Drusilla.
[QUOTE=Buried Alien;4315360]Wonder Girl (portrayed by actress Debra Winger) appeared in a few episodes of the 1970s WONDER WOMAN TV series, but the character's given name was "Drusilla," not Donna Troy. Why did the showrunners go with this name when the comic books already established Wonder Girl's name as Donna Troy?
[color=red]Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)[/color][/QUOTE]
Let me also add that the character (Donna) did not exist during WWII, which is when the first season of the TV show was placed. The show was creating their own sort of continuity (after the first pilot and two subsequent eps that followed the comics pretty closely) so they created their own WG ^_^
I read somewhere that producers of the TV show felt that Donna was too close to Diana and would be confusing to viewers so, the name was changed to Drucilla. Despite the name change and suit change, the character was modeled after the comic book version appearing in the Teen Titans. The costume similarities can be seen by the star configuration on the front of the red suit similar to the Cardy/Don Heck version of the red jumpsuit from around 1969. The actress who portrayed Wonder Girl, Debra Winger, was afraid to be typecast in the role and declined a spin-off Wonder Girl series and appeared only in the first season, set in the 1940's.
[QUOTE=donnafan;4324829]I read somewhere that producers of the TV show felt that Donna was too close to Diana and would be confusing to viewers so, the name was changed to Drucilla. Despite the name change and suit change, the character was modeled after the comic book version appearing in the Teen Titans. The costume similarities can be seen by the star configuration on the front of the red suit similar to the Cardy/Don Heck version of the red jumpsuit from around 1969. The actress who portrayed Wonder Girl, Debra Winger, was afraid to be typecast in the role and declined a spin-off Wonder Girl series and appeared only in the first season, set in the 1940's.[/QUOTE]
True. In addition, Debra Winger felt uneasy about her weight and how she looked in her Wonder Girl costume, especially next to the taller, leaner and more muscular Lynda Carter.
Speaking of Drusilla season 1 the WWII season is my favorite of the show and I remember an episode with Drusilla where Steve and Robert Hays from Airplane and voiced Iron Man in the 90's saved them and I was thinking "Why are they saving Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl geez 70's" then a scene or two later Wonder Girl asked the same question to Diana why did they let them "save them" and Diana paraphrasing here but men needed the ego boost every now and then lol.
[QUOTE=donnafan;4324829]The actress who portrayed Wonder Girl, Debra Winger, was afraid to be typecast in the role and declined a spin-off Wonder Girl series and appeared only in the first season, set in the 1940's.[/QUOTE]I have to wonder how common that really is. I know it has happened in some cases, but I also know of cases where it didn't.
Andy Griffith, Mark Hamill are examples that come to mind. I guess Lynda Carter would be another example. I wonder if it really applied to people who weren't "stars"? Maybe Debra was afraid that if she became a star by being a series lead she'd not get acting work later? That's kinda what happened to Mark Hamill. He did voice work for SO many things, but not much live action.
It's vaguely similar to why Shirley Temple quit acting. The people who liked her as a teen had less interest in her work as an adult. She didn't stop getting work. In fact she kept doing movies until some time in her 20s. But she didn't have the same star power appeal.
So what do Mark Hamill and Shirley Temple have in common? They're famous for certain specific things, and only those, even though they've done a wider variety of things. I mean how many people today are familiar with the name "Corliss Archer"? Much less know who played the role? Most couldn't tell you which of these people is that character.
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Typecasting is very real. While Debra Winger wasn't typecast as Wonder Girl she did become primarily known for not getting along with her co-stars. Shirley Maclaine, Richard Gere and even Lynda Carter were all victims of Debra Winger's antagonism and it hurt her career. That's why as a well respected Oscar nominated actress she donned the Wonder Girl costume again to poke fun at herself in an effort to rehabilitate her public image.
[video=youtube;qKQRIcRxIfw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKQRIcRxIfw[/video]
It didn't work.
Well, that's a different kind of notoriety, and probably worse than typecasting....
Has anyone figured out what that image I posted has to do with Shirley Temple yet? :p
[QUOTE=marhawkman;4330058]Well, that's a different kind of notoriety, and probably worse than typecasting....
Has anyone figured out what that image I posted has to do with Shirley Temple yet? :p[/QUOTE]
Well, not sure.......but Shirley temple was the template person on which Mary Marvel was based
[QUOTE=Phoenixx9;4330066]Well, not sure.......but Shirley temple was the template person on which Mary Marvel was based[/QUOTE]the person in the middle of the pic was the Corliss Archer character as portrayed by Shirley Temple. Like I mentioned earlier, Shirley Temple is famous for stuff she did before the age of 15, but didn't stop acting until the age of 22.
I thought I'd read somewhere that the media rights to Donna Troy had leased separately from Wonder Woman and that the TV show couldn't use her. I don't know that that's true, and I read it so long ago that I can't recall if it was in a fanzine or a message board.