Let’s be honest, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl is a show you can only enjoy out of nostalgia or by being very accepting. For some reason Sid and Marty Krofft’s adventure shows were hit hard by their limited budgets. However, while Land Of The Lost made it work well enough to be well-received today and even spawned a excellent return in the 90s (we’ll just ignore the Will Ferrel movie), the adventures of the lady crimefighters were definitely hurt by what it had to work with. While I won’t be as harsh to it as my fellow Reviewers Unknown refugee, Rowdy C, was, it’s not exactly on my must-watch list of superhero shows either.
(Speaking of Rowdy, I’m waiting for him to take a look at that horrible unsold pilot. If you haven’t seen it I envy you. Actually, I didn’t make it through the whole thing, and I can put up with a lot.)
Legendary Pictures has a digital arm and they’ve decided to bring Electra Woman and Dyna Girl back to the world. I’m not sure they understand the source material. Kind of like that pilot.
Wildly Popular Comedians Star in Modernized Reboot of Classic Series from Sid and Marty Krofft
Burbank, CA – February 26, 2015 – Legendary Digital Media and Fullscreen have partnered with YouTube phenoms Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart in an updated version of Sid & Marty Krofft’s classic 70’s TV series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, bringing the property to a new generation of viewers. Fullscreen will debut and exhibit Electra Woman and Dyna Girl in the U.S. with Legendary Television Distribution overseeing global distribution. Sid & Marty Krofft will executive produce the project.
The announcement was made today by Legendary’s President of Television & Digital Media, Bruce Rosenblum, and Fullscreen’s CEO and founder George Strompolos.
I’m not here to judge the quality of a show that hasn’t aired. Could it be good? Maybe. I have not seen any of Helbig or Hart’s work individually or together so I don’t know if they’re the right choice for this production. However, we do have part of the story and it doesn’t sound right.
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl follows two superheroes as they move from Akron to Los Angeles in hopes of making it big in the crime fighting world, only to find competition with other vigilantes and infighting amongst themselves.
But will they actually fight crime? This sounds like the basis of a comedy…or a DC Comics movie. Fighting with each other? Competing with outher superheroes? Looking to “make it big in the crime fighting world”? The original show may have been a parody and maybe the new show is a parody of modern superheroes but can still do that with the original premise, can’t they?
Of course we’re going to talk about the outfits. Above is the classic outfit, again a product of the budget. But really it’s not that bad for the time. It could be cleaned up a bit and adapted for the modern time, even in this era where we swapped foam rubber outfits for basketball covers, they’ll try and get the outfits correct, right?
Seriously? Ignoring the hairstyle on Dyna Girl (because I doubt the pigtails would work nowadays) there is nothing that matches the original except a few hints of color. No capes, it looks like they went shopping at the same place as the current Batgirl 52, and where are the electrocoms, the source of their “powers”? That’s kind of the signature tool of the show? It’s like Power Rangers without morphers, He-Man without a magic sword, or Spider-Man without webshooters. (Remember the flack Sam Rami took for that? And people liked…two of those movies.) Are they at least going to have a helper with a supercomputer? (I suspect it will be a laptop that will make the guys from Person Of Interest jealous and probably a joke about playing Candy Crush on it.) It feels like this is going to be another case of an original concept using a famous name to help launch the show, and I am getting real tired of that so I hope I’m wrong.
That said, the costumes aren’t bad for the modern aesthetic, since Batman and Superman keep their capes thanks to being created at a time when capes weren’t looked down upon. They just don’t feel right for the source material.
There is no launch date yet for this new take on the show. The Kroffts are supposed to be signed on to this show. Then again they said the same thing about the Will Ferrel Land Of The Lost movie so take that for what it’s worth. I may watch it if I hear about it and feel like reviewing it, but I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t trust anything that doesn’t resemble the show it claims to be based on, whether it turns out to be good or not. Remember, when a production uses the name of something you like but doesn’t resemble the something you liked, you’ll NEVER get to see that something get a proper adaptation.
Remember that when Hollywood screws up something from YOUR childhood!
BW Media Spotlight 
In some on set photos/Grace and Hannah’s social media, they do wear the original spandex (or a very close replica) for at least part of the final product, and then modernize it, presumably because a) functionality and b) we aren’t in the 70’s anymore. Additionally, they do seem to have the helper with a super computer too, played by Andy Buckley, although I might be wrong about his role. It’s all out there and easily accessible if you look for it a little.
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I looked at a few different articles but I didn’t see any of those pictures and I don’t follow their Twitters. I didn’t even know about the project until it came up in the weekly Bleeding Cool e-mail. I’ll have to see if I can find those images, though and I might do a follow-up if I find new info. I don’t expect an exact replica of the original outfits but as cool as they look it doesn’t invoke even a modernized feel of the original show. Again, it might not be bad but in light of all the re-imaginings out there I get very picky about this stuff. Thank you for the extra info.
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[…] If you missed it yesterday I went over my concerns about the upcoming online remake of Electra Woman And Dyna Girl, Sid & Marty Krofft’s low-budget parody of superhero shows like the Batman of the time. Now say what you will about the show it had some good ideas and the theme song is one that stays in my head rather nicely. […]
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