Well, it looks like we might have to give up on the whole idea of a Wonder Woman movie after all.  David E. Kelly, the man behind Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and my favorite obscure show of the 1990s Picket Fences, has has made a deal with Warner Bros. to bring out favorite amazon avenger to the small screen again. 

No word yet on what direction the series will take, when it will air, or who will be cast.  I don’t know if a TV series is the best place for WW.  We all know (and most of us love) the WW series with Lynda Carter, and it will be very hard to usurp in the minds of viewers.  I think a lot of people who will watch this new show will be fans of the old one.  Plus, TV’s recent attempt to make action series centered around women, from Bionic Woman to the new-and-horrible-and-Maggie-Q-deserves-much-better Nikita, have failed to produce anything that’s both successful and critically acclaimed. 

Then of course we have the whole issue of leaving the franchise in the hands of the man who gave us the dancing baby and William Shatner at a law firm.  Kelly’s quirky-philia served him well in Picket Fences, but it quickly became oppressive on Ally McBeal...and I could barely watch 10 minutes of Boston Legal.  Kelly’s cool and all, but he’s no Joss Whedon.

With that…let the speculation for casting begin.  I heard a couple people say the Amy Acker (Fred/Illyria from Angel) would be a good choice.  I also think Summer Glau could be a possibility.  Of course, Lucy Lawless is always available, although she’s probably too old by Hollywood standards to be cast.  Granted, Kelly is married to Michelle Pfeiffer, whose still as gorgeous and skilled as ever, so we’ll see.

Johnny M - 03 October 2010 05:10 AM

Kelly’s quirky-philia served him well in Picket Fences, but it quickly became oppressive on Ally McBeal...and I could barely watch 10 minutes of Boston Legal.

So I’m not the only one who noticed he seemed to try too hard making Ally’s friends quirky? I liked it the first couple seasons but it seemed like he has a fetish for fetishes, every character had to have one. The last year I watched was just basically a character showed up with their “quirk” as their only defining characteristic.

Still, I’ll withhold judgment- he could have a killer way of doing it or it could be JMS Wonder Woman:the series.

No doubt CW is looking at all possibilities to replace Smallville after it leaves, which did fairly well coming after Dean Cain, Christopher Reeve and George Reeves’ series. If Wonder Woman is good- it won’t matter if people also love Lynda’s version cause they can both exist.

Heck, maybe they can do a homage and have Lynda play Hippolita to the new Wonder Woman.

I was a big fan of Ally until right around the time the dancing baby showed up and Ally herself became too shrill to be likable.  I have to give the show credit for introducing the world to Lucy Liu, but it seemed like Kelly was intent on making the show quirkier with each passing season.  As much as I liked Picket Fences, that started to bring that show down as well…but really, where else can you go after your mayor spontaneously combusts?

If Kelly’s usual style can be reigned in by someone with a little more grounding, it could be fantastic.  The problem is not making it too dark and gritty but also not making it too campy or quirky.  It’s a balance that a show like Birds Of Prey never achieved (and they were canceled before they could try) and a show like Xena spent its whole run trying to straddle.

Ugh this scares me. I do think Kelly has a knack for complex female characters however he seems to push them into whackiness territory at some point. I am also afraid this will be on the CW (partly owned by WB) and I am not a fan of anything they do (Smallville included). They teen up everything and that doesn’t work for my particular viewing tastes. Now maybe if they want to bring her in as the teen daughter of Lyle Waggoner and Lynda Carter I could go for that