Forgotten Television: Electra Woman and Dyna Girl 1976

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, fighting all evil deeds
Each writes for a magazine hiding the life they lead
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl
Summoned to electrabase by electracoms they wear
Lori and Judy dare to face Any criminal anywhere
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl

Lori (Deidre Hall) and Judy (Judy Stangis) are reporters for Newsmaker Magazine but secretly they are also the superhero duo Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.  Whenever an evil doer is on the loose, they are summoned to the ElectraBase by Professor Frank Heflin (Norman Alden) who utilizes the supercomputer CrimeScope to analyze and predict when and where a crime may take place.  Frank also built and designed the duos ElectraComs, a large bracelet type device that gives them their superpowers.  ElectraComs can scan locations of their enemies and emits a variety of energy beams each one producing a different result.  They can defy gravity and produce force fields to both detain villains and as a defense against projectiles and energy weapons.  Their vehicle, the ElectraCar can convert into the ElectraPlane and fly at high speeds.  Each week, Lori and Judy don their bright colored spandex outfits and keep the world safe from a vast list of superpowered enemies like The Sorcerer and his assistant Miss Dazzle; The Empress of Evil and Lucretia; Ali Baba and the Genie; Glitter Rock and Side Man; The Spider-Lady with Leggs and Spinner; and The Pharaoh and Cleopatra.

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl is a 1976 live action children’s television series created by Sid and Marty Krofft and was part of the Kroft Supershow on Saturday mornings.  The Kroft Super show ran for two seasons with season one consisting of Dr. Shrinker, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and Wonderbug, plus reruns of the Lost Saucer.  Season two dropped Dr. Shrinker and Electra Woman and replaced them with Bigfoot and Wildboy and Magic Mongo. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl had a total of 8 storylines each divided into two 12-minute segments creating 8 half hour episodes.  Deidre Hall is best known for her roll of Marlena on Days of Our Lives which she played from 1976-1987, 1991-2009 and 2011-present.  She had to get special permission to play Electra Woman having just been cast as Marlena in the ongoing soap opera.  She has won several awards for her portrayal in that show but was also nominated along with Judy Strangis in 2005 for TV Land Awards for Superest Superhero, but didn’t win.  Judy was also well known for her role of Helen Loomis in the primetime comedy drama Room 222 from 1969 to 1974.  Although the series was cancelled after the first season, it is the only one of the Kroft Supershow’s to get two reboots.  The first was a WB series pilot that takes place 20 year after the original and starred Markie Post as a bitter, chain-smoking, alcoholic, promiscuous retired Electra Woman, who is convinced to return to crimefighting by a fan who becomes the new Dyna Girl.  The series was not picked up by the studios.  The second was a web series starring Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart as the electric duo.  This series does not resemble or have any real connection to the original with the characters having completely different backgrounds and motives.

I have the fondest memories of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl as I was around 6 when the series came out and I watched it religiously (along with the other Kroft shows).  Back then, Saturday mornings were magical for children, without streaming services, cable channels running a variety of content continuously, kids had Saturday morning, and the programming was chock full of live action and animated shows aimed at this one target audience.  Each Saturday morning was an event, sitting down with a bowl of Cap’n Crunch or Frosted Flakes and watching Electra Woman was a high point of my and most of my friend’s week.  The show was a female version of the 1960s Batman television series, with a variety of “Electra” gadgets and the corniest of supervillains who loved to laugh maniacally.  The acting was purposefully over the top with nothing being done to mimic real life.   But even with the simple storylines, awful special effects, and the cheesy acting it was just pure fun!  As an adult, when I watch it (and I still do from time to time) those nostalgic times flood back to me and I see a show that had a magic as a kind of tongue in cheek melodrama parody and to me, even after all these years, it is still fun to watch.