Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (Complete Series) - Joe Ruby - (1976) DVD

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl are gorgeous superheroes who battle a bevy of costumed villains. They wear skintight outfits with capes, and operate out of the secret Electrabase, which is headed by Frank Heflin, who designed and built the heroines' sophisticated equipment.

Of all the various Sid & Marty Krofft endeavors, "Electra-Woman and Dyna Girl" is the one that sticks out in my mind as the grooviest. By total coincidence, it's also the only one to feature foxy babes in tight costumes, unless you count that one Bugaloo. The titular heroes are two gals who fight all evil deeds. They work for a magazine, hiding the life they lead. They don't have any super powers, save for the various Electra-gadgets designed by their lumpy live-in scientist Frank. Electra-Woman and Dyna Girl live together with Frank, who never leaves their basement. Their adventures don't make any sense. They're like fever dreams, with no logic to guide them. Each episode will have Frank introducing some new invention, and then a silly-beyond-words villain (like Glitter Rock, an incredibly annoying wannabe rock-star with a green afro and hypnotic music) shows up and the only thing that can stop them is? Frank's new invention. The bad guys always hide in abandoned theaters. Dyna Girl constantly uses "Electra" as a prefix, like "Electra-wow!" or "Electra-sneaky!", which makes me wonder why she isn't called Electragirl, or at least say "Dyna-wow!" Everybody acts like they're on drugs.

But for all it's pitfalls, it's great TV. I figured out why Sid & Marty Krofft are far superior to other live-action kids programming giants like Saban: They loved what they were doing, they weren't in if for the money. They might have had crappy effects, but they loved their crappy effects! They were proud of those shots of the Electra-Car taking off- so proud that they used it in every episode! They probably thought that optic flash when the gals changed into their costumes was the coolest effect ever. It didn't matter that their stories made no sense and they used the same sets over and over. They loved this sub-Batman camp. They loved Electra-Woman, Dyna Girl, and Frank. They even loved Glitter Rock.

In fact, now that I think about it, my respect for the Krofft Empire spans their whole body of work, except for maybe "Pryor's Place". I love the nutty drug-filled antics of H.R. Puffnstuff. I love Hoo-Doo, and Sigmund, and Dr. Shrinker, and I like Magic Mongo and the Far Out Space Nuts as friends. So the next time one of your high-minded contemporaries scoffs at the oeuvre of S&MK, you can tell them that they're scoffing at love, baby, and they can scoff all they want but they'll scoff alone! Those philistines! They'll never know the touch of a felt hand puppet, the passion of an over-the-hill child star, or the fragrant odor of sweaty, under-paid dwarf in a dumb looking sea monster costume. They'll never know about back when TV was good and every show summed up it's premise in the theme song lyrics.  

Episodes (including 2002 Unaired Pilot)

1. The Sorcerer's Golden Trick: Part 1
2. The Sorcerer's Golden Trick: Part 2
3. Glitter Rock: Part 1
4. Glitter Rock: Part 2
5. Empress of Evil: Part 1
6. Empress of Evil: Part 2
7. Ali Baba: Part 1
8. Ali Baba: Part 2
9. Return of the Sorcerer: Part 1
10. Return of the Sorcerer: Part 2
11. The Pharaoh: Part 1
12. The Pharoah: Part 2
13. The Spider Lady: Part 1
14. The Spider Lady: Part 2
15. Return of the Pharaoh: Part 1
16. Return of the Pharaoh: Part 2

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