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July 30th, 2005
BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT (WELL TWO OF YOU DID ANYWAY) CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT IS PROUD TO FINALLY PRESENT LYLE WAGGONER: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE STEVE
Let's take a look at Steve Trevor for a little
while, shall we? Now I'm calling on all the die hard comic book fans out
there to answer this question: what can you tell me about Steve Trevor?
Let's see... Steve is a pilot who was shot down near Paradise Island
during World War II and saved by Princess Diana who then fell in love
with him which prompted her to leave Paradise Island. In the old school
Wonder Woman mythos he is Diana Prince's boss and, in the classic comic
book cliché, thinks that Diana is a mousy coward while his heart
belongs to her alter-ego. What else do we know about Steve? He's good
looking, brave, can handle himself in a fight but is always getting
captured and Wonder Woman needs to save his sorry ass time and time
again. Can you tell me anything else about Steve Trevor? Anything? The
honest truth is that the character of Steve Trevor was always kind of
underdeveloped and cardboard. Aside from being the man that Wonder Woman
is helping out, Steve Trevor had very few qualities that made him stand
out. While characters like Superman and The problem facing the Hollywood casting directors would have been similar. The man who played Steve had to be good looking and charismatic enough for the viewers to like him, but he couldn't be more interesting than the female lead. So his screen presence, at best, had to be likeable but mediocre. Furthermore, you had to have an actor that could hold his own in a fight, but be able to believably be overtaken by bad guys so Wonder Woman could save him every week. So, while the character couldn't be a super ego tough guy (a la Steve McQueen) he couldn't be a wimp either or the audience wouldn't like him. So there was the problem. Steve Trevor has no defining characterization, he has to be charming but not overly charismatic yet still appealing enough for the viewer to like him, he has to be strong but not look like a pansy when he gets his ass kicked, and both likeable and forgettable all at the same time. And to think that people think casting Superman is hard! Steve Trevor is a far bigger enigma. Enter Lyle Waggoner. In 1975 Lyle
Waggoner was no stranger to show business. First gaining the public
spotlight as the announcer and occasional actor on "The Carol
Burnett Show", Waggoner had hosted the popular game show "It's
Your Bet" and had even been featured as the very first nude male
centerfold in Now why Lyle Waggoner probably isn't
remembered among the A-list of actors in comic book productions is this:
he was a mediocre actor playing a lackluster character. However that's
where his brilliance lay! The viewer didn't hate Steve enough to see him
die but at the same time you had to roll your eyes when he said lines
like, "Oh! Hi Wonder Woman! What are you doing in the depths of
Lebanon? And where did Diana go?" prompting you to scream back at
the TV, "God dammit Steve! That's just Diana without her glasses
and wearing a lot less clothing! Gah!" There was also something
kinda cool about Lyle Waggoner in his wide collared
However anyone who lived in the 1970s will always remember him as Steve Trevor. They might not remember how good he was because his character was unmemorable. They might not remember watching him much because they were too busy watching Linda Carter (god knows I was). So next time you talk comic book casting, throw a bone to Lyle Waggoner. Nobody could have been a better Steve. Oh - and best of luck to the poor bastard that has to cast Steve Trevor in the upcoming Wonder Woman film. You have a hell of a time ahead of you. Lyle Waggoners don't come around everyday you know.
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Transferring
comic books to the screen can be a perilous thing to do. In an era where
Hollywood is bringing more and more comic books to the silver screen
and, to a lesser extent, to television, there is one thing that can make
or break the studio's efforts: the comic book fan. Oh, the comic fan is
a fickle sort who takes their dedication to this art form to new
heights. They demand perfection in both story, characterization and,
most importantly, casting. To miscast a character is the worst crime a
Hollywood casting director can commit (i.e. David Hasselhoff as Nick
Fury - what was THAT casting director thinking?). Sometimes the roles
are obvious. Actors like Hugh Jackman, Christopher Reeve, Jack
Nicholson, Toby McGuire, Michael Rosenbaum and Patrick Stewart are
Hollywood casting directors' wet dreams. Then there are actresses like
Yvonne Craig and Noel Neill who were so successful in their roles as
Batgirl and Lois Lane that the comic book themselves changed to write
the character to be more like their screen counterparts. Yet in all the
debates of "who should be cast as who" and "who was the
best [fill in the character's name] ever" one piece of brilliant
comic book casting goes unnoticed and unappreciated in the history of
bringing comics to the screen. The actor - Lyle Waggoner. The character
- possibly one of the hardest roles to cast for - Wonder Woman's
romantic interest Col. Steve Trevor. What? Am I serious? Lyle Waggoner?
Steve Trevor? Before you ask what kind of crack I put in my Fruit Loops
let me explain in what I call:
Lyle
Waggoner was many things. Actor. Game show host. Announcer. Playgirl
centerfold. Politician. All 'round 1970s stud. However to most people he
will forever be remembered as the heroic Col. Steve Trevor, the lucky
bastard who got to make puppy dog eyes at Linda Carter every week on
"Wonder Woman" in the late 70s. Now stories have been told and
tales have been related about the difficulty in casting Wonder Woman.
However, although most probably have never thought about it, the casting
of Steve Trevor would have been difficult, if not even harder.
Spiderman
have supporting casts that are often more interesting than the heroes
themselves, Wonder Woman was hanging out with a man who was about as
interesting as melba toast. However the reason for this might not
obvious. In the case of Wonder Woman, in an industry that had not yet
gotten used to female characters being the hero, the male character
couldn't overshadow her. If Steve was made more
charismatic than Wonder Woman it may have no longer been her strip -
especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Playgirl's
1973 premier issue. The prospect of being in a television series
featuring super heroes was not an alien concept to Waggoner either as he
was actually one of the original actors that was considered for the part
of Batman in the 1960s TV series, losing the part to the even more
cardboard Adam West. However Waggoner not getting the part of Batman was
fate's way of leading him to the part of Steve Trevor. Lyle Waggoner was
perfect for the role. Let's put it this way, he was good but not what
one would call the biggest leading man in the history of television.
Most importantly, he had a twinkle in his eye and a gleam in his huge
teeth that made everyone like him. He was not Steve McQueen, but then
you didn't want Steve McQueen overshadowing Linda Carter anyways. Nope.
Not anybody could play Steve Trevor but Lyle Waggoner was up for the
job.
shirts,
brown suits and big hair. He was a stud, but the type of stud that you
wouldn't mind your sister with. He was the kind of guy men wouldn't mind
going out for a beer with and that women wouldn't kick out of bed for
getting cracker crumbs in the sheets. But most importantly was that
Steve never seemed to mind when he didn't save the day. He helped a bit
but Wonder Woman always caught the bad guy and Steve was man enough to
realize that the point wasn't being the hero as much as that the crooks
were caught. As the series went on and Linda Carter's popularity grew,
the Steve Trevor role got smaller and he went from co-star to 
supporting
cast. The producers obviously wanted more Linda Carter and less Lyle
Waggoner. The fact that Lyle Waggoner was also adding running for office
as mayor of Encino, CA to his busy schedule may have had something to do
with his stepping down in screen time during the second season of
"Wonder Woman" as well. However, in the episodes after the
first season, when the series jumped from the 1940s to the 1970s and
Waggoner was now playing Steve Trevor Jr, a revolutionary thing happened
in action/adventure shows in the 1970s. Diana and Steve were no longer
employee/boss as much as they were equals. Sure, Steve had a higher
position for the government agency they worked for, but Steve was not so
much a boss as he was just the guy sending Diana out into the field to
take the cases on her own. For a 1970s stud like Lyle Waggoner to be
billed as an equal to a female character showed a lot of integrity. You
didn't get that kind of thing going on over on Starsky and Hutch.
But it should be pointed out that in his three years as Steve Trevor,
Lyle Waggoner never advanced the role's characterization any further
than it was in the comics. What could you say about the TV Steve Trevor?
He was a good guy. He was strong and capable in a fight. He dug Wonder
Woman and that was about it. The most important thing was that you liked
Steve Trevor enough - and Lyle Waggoner succeeded in giving us that.
Bringing a cardboard two dimensional character to life, leaving him two
dimensional and not making us realize it is why Lyle Waggoner was
brilliant!
And
what has happened to Lyle Waggoner in recent years? Sure, he's not
exactly at the tip of our tongues or a daily presence on our television
sets. However you can often glimpse Lyle Waggoner guesting on various
television shows. He is also active in movies - although most are
B-films such as "Dead Woman in Lingerie", "Cyber-C.H.I.C."
and "Wizards of the Demon Sword". Yet Lyle Waggoner's current
way of making a living is as owner and president of "