Week of July 2: All-American Entertainment

By Sylvia Gurinsky

It's almost Independence Day. And what could be more American than the Beaver, Wonder Woman and the Boston Pops?

All three have been in the news.

*The entire series of "Leave It To Beaver" was released in a box set this week. Today, people often poke fun at the sunny (and not too diverse) depiction of the life of the Cleaver family in the show that ran on CBS, then ABC from 1957-63, but it remains popular - probably because of that optimistic outlook. Quite a few of the things that happened to Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (played by Jerry Mathers) were based on real-life incidents of the children of series producers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher.

Certainly, Mathers, Tony Dow (Wally Cleaver), Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) and the rest of the young cast have provided fine examples in the years since of child and teen actors who grew up to have happy, fulfilling lives.

*"Wonder Woman" has been in the news this week because DC Comics is giving the character a clothing makeover. It's a good chance to take a look at how the character has been portrayed on television.

Three probably stand above all:

-The first is in animated form, as part of the ABC series "Super Friends." Shannon Farnon, a character and voice actress whose sister is Charmian Carr (who played Liesel in "The Sound of Music"), did the voice of "Wonder Woman" during the 1970s and 80s.

-In 1974, ABC would air a television movie - and potential pilot - called "Wonder Woman," starring Cathy Lee Crosby ("That's Incredible") and Ricardo Montalban. Some may wince at a blonde title character, and the film wasn't widely embraced. But......

-One of those who auditioned for the role in the ABC film was a young actress named Lynda Carter. The network didn't forget, and cast her as the lead in "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman" a year later. She's been the quintessential Wonder Woman so far.

Working with her on the show, which ran on ABC and CBS from 1975-79, was Lyle Waggoner, who had been part of "The Carol Burnett Show." Another cast member was Debra Winger, who played Drusilla, the sister of Wonder Woman's alter ego Diana Prince; Winger would later win an Academy Award for "Terms of Endearment."

The entire series is available on DVD.


*Finally, the Boston Pops, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary, has become a summer tradition; while CBS currently carries the orchestra's July 4 concerts, the Pops made their national name via "Evening at Pops" on PBS, which ran from 1970-2005 (Blame parent Boston Symphony Orchestra for not continuing to fund the telecasts.) and featured the three men who have been the orchestra's official conductors: Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Keith Lockhart.

The program has featured a Who's Who of classical, popular and jazz music for the last half-century. Incidentally, during the Fiedler and Williams years, one of the orchestra's primary arrangers was Morton Stevens - composer of the theme for "Hawaii Five-O."

Here's a link to Williams conducting John Phillip Souza's "Stars and Stripes Forever" in a 1980 performance (alas, in Tokyo, and not from "Evening at Pops," but what the heck):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqh4hksjAdA

See you in two weeks! Until then, Happy Independence Day and Happy Viewing!