Electra Woman and Dyna Girl

I managed to acquire a copy of the presentation/pilot for the proposed series of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (starring Markie Post). I was very impressed. The show took all the best parts of the original series and ditched a lot of the bad ones. Having Electra Woman/Lori be a drunken sleaze that lives in a trailer was so funny (she became that way because DynaGirl/Judy became a supermodel and left with Electra Woman's husband). Overall, the show was VERY entertaining and I could definitely see where it was headed. From what I understand, villains from the old series were supposed to return (I know there was talk of the return of Glitter Rock) and the biggest villain to come to the show was going to be the ORIGINAL DynaGirl (they were going to see about getting Judy Strangis to reprise the show - now what could be cooler than THAT?!). I think the cult status the original series has gained would have attracted an audience; but the show itself would have carried it beyond that. It was almost like showing you the grown-up version of the show now that we're older. The Network Definitely missed out by not picking up this show. This was done in 2001 and the new series costumes were sold at an auction - I doubt there's going to be a second chance for this,... pity.

The original ELECTRAWOMAN AND DYNAGIRL was a very self-aware pastiche of the BATMAN series from the preceding decade. By airing as a Saturday morning kiddies' show, it was able to get away with being deliberately cheesy, campy and over-the-top in a way that other similar fare of the time, such as the truly terrible AMAZING SPIDER-MAN series with Nicolas Hammond, could not.

The producers of the 2001 revamp correctly understood that a direct remake of the original series stood no chance of success. They realized that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to translate the program's intentionally camp nature into something acceptable to a more contemporary audience, nor would a more realistic take, such as the DARK KNIGHT series of films, be of much service to the property.

Their final reimagining of the characters and situations was clever, entertaining and apt. In a period when so many "comic book" characters were being reinvented to exist in a darker, harsher world this was hardly a bold move. Obviously depicting the formerly ridiculously white bread ElectraWoman as drunken trailer trash, a decade past her glory days, meant that this new take was not intended for a new generation of kids, but to draw in the now adult audience who's younger selves had watched and enjoyed the original series. The result is irreverent, outrageous, entertaining and filled with series potential. Purists might be offended by the brash take-no-prisoners approach, but the majority of the audience, old and new, would have got the joke and been willing to go along with it.

Likely the pilot was rejected due to a lack of courage on the part of the network; a fear of the controversy that might result from not only skewering a scared cow, but from the risqué nature of much of the humor. While it can be lamented that only this brief tryout for a new ELECTRAWOMAN AND DYNAGIRL was ever produced, at least this much does exist so that it can be judged by the public at large on its own merits, which are considerable, rather than on the hearsay of second and third hand reports.

Look for the video online and decide for yourself.