Retro Gals: Charisma Carpenter, Tangi Miller, Amy Locane

There are a lot of actresses who stand out in supporting roles on television, yet fade away from the spotlight once the series is over.  Here are three TV actresses from the 1990s that I encountered recently on cable.

Charisma Carpenter, who most geeks remember from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spinoff Angel in her role as Cordelia Chase.  Charisma was red-hot during the Whedon years (1998-2003) and her character in the Buffyverse often stole the show with the best lines.  A few Cordelia zingers that really get me laughing...

Look, Buffy, you may be hot stuff when it comes to demonology or whatever, but when it comes to dating, I'm the Slayer. 


Whatever. They were cranky. So they're like, "Let's lose some heads." Uh! That's fair. And Marie-Antoinette cared about them. She was gonna let them have cake!


You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are 'cause I'm not a sheep. I do what I wanna do, and I wear what I wanna wear. And you know what? I'll date whoever the hell I wanna date. No matter how lame he is.

Of course, it didn't hurt Charisma's appeal that she was the hottest girl on Buffy and fell in love with the archetypical nerd, Xander.  When Cordelia migrated over to the Angel spinoff, I didn't think her character worked quite as well without the other women to counter her personality.   The writers kept trying to setup a romance with Cordelia and Angel, but that always seemed forced to me.  She might have had more fireworks with Wesley, the failed Watcher who was her complete opposite.  Throughout her Whedonverse career, you would have to think that Charisma was destined for rom-com superstardom.

At the same time she was on Buffy and Angel, Charisma was also in a variety of magazine spreads: FHM, Maxim, Fit, Edge, etc.  This culminated in her ultimate exposure in the June 2004 issue of Playboy magazine, where the headline read Naked Charisma.  If you were a fan, then you no doubt bought the magazine.  It was a great photo shoot, but in a way I think this killed the momentum in Charisma's career.  Instead of moving onto to another series, she made guest appearances on various shows (Charmed, Veronica Mars) and headlined some cheesy TV movies like Cheaters Club.  I do have to admit my Charisma-antennae pops up and I'll even watch her in a crappy show like Legend of the Seeker (fast forwarding the DVR to her appearance).  Charisma was on Supernatural recently with James Marsters (which I missed, darn it) and is back on the ABC Family show The Lying Game starting January 2nd.  Collider recently did an interview with Charisma about the show and what else she has been up to.  Carpenter Central is another good source.

Tangi Miller, from the 1998 JJ Abrams show Felicity.  Felicity was a show that I’m not embarrassed to say that I watched from start to finish.  It was an early indicator that JJ Abrams was a very good TV show creator and producer.  I got all caught up in Felicity’s early college life and it was a show I could watch with my wife.  Tangi Miller played Elena Tyler, Felicity’s lab partner who eventually becomes a close friend.  Miller played Elena with a quiet grace and attractive beauty, but I remember having some trouble with her character arc.  In the first season, she has an affair with a Professor (played by Chris Sarandon), where I expected major repercussions to fallout in later episodes.  But somehow the entire affair was forgotten!  I was certain the Tangi Miller would make it big after Felicity in another TV show, or at least to the level of someone like Gabrielle Union, but it hasn’t come to pass.  Miller has made several guest appearances, including a supporting role in Tyler Perry’s Medea’s Family Reunion.

Amy Locane, from the very first Melrose Place season 1.  She only lasted 13 episodes on that show.  Although what triggered my memory of Amy wasn’t MP but a 1997 movie called Prefontaine.  I’ve seen this movie about 5 times, each time I watch it, it makes me want to go for a run—or at least a brisk walk.  The movie is a biopic about Steve Prefontaine, a long distance runner who went to the University of Oregon and trained under coach Bill Bowerman, hilariously played by R. Lee Emery (from Full Metal Jacket).  Amy Locane played Nancy Allerman in this flick, a very natural and sweet performance. 

I wondered what happened to Amy after 1997—she had the looks, talent, and on screen charisma.  But amazingly, she never appeared as a regular in another TV series.  Her most notable role was in the 2002 film Secretary starring James Spader.  Sadly, Locane has recently been in the news about her involvement last year in a fatal car crash; she’s currently out on bail.



In case you were curious about Amy Locane’s short lived arc on Melrose Place, including her short lived romance with Grant Show (Jake), here is a video that sums it all up in 7 minutes!  Nuff Said!

Retro Gals: Lynda Carter

With the recent Wonder Woman TV news, a lot of fans can’t help but think about Lynda Carter.  Last week, the DC / Warners publicity machine released the first photo of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman.  The reaction from the interwebs, I have to say, was not positive, but Lynda Carter told EOnline that it looked just fine.  A classy thing to say—but for all of us who grew up with the old TV show, Lynda Carter will always be a tough act to follow.  Born of mixed Irish and Spanish heritage in 1951, Carter had the most amazing resemblance to Diana Prince even before the TV show was filmed.  The picture above was taken around the time she starred in Bobbi Jo and the Outlaw, a 1976 film co-starring Marjoe Gortner.  Was it a poster?  I can’t recall, but it’s an image that represents Carter in her youth before the WW avalanche occurred.  While I’ve never seen anything with Adrienne Palicki, it is interesting to note that her IMDB resume contains a lot more work than Carter had before WW.  Lynda was a virtual unknown in 1975, having made a few guest appearances on a couple of TV shows such as Matt Helm.

Wonder Woman was a big ratings hit on ABC TV when it debuted in November 1975.  All the kids talked about it at school the next day, and adults were talking as well.  A comic book collecting judge from Corpus Christi Texas was wildly enthusiastic.  I was amazed that the movie took place during World War 2!  That took guts on the part of the producers and it was appropriate, given the character’s first appearance in 1941.  But the biggest reason for the popularity of the show was Lynda Carter, and it wasn’t just because of her physical resemblance.  She owned the character of Diana Prince, in and out of costume.  I recently read about the casting of the new Superman.  Zach Snyder said that dozens of actors tried out for the role, but most of them failed to get the part after a costume test.  You have to be able walk out in front of people and not feel silly.  Carter gave off an aura of confidence, power, and noble grace when she wore Wonder Woman’s outfit.  And while she was sexy, Carter never came off as slutty—in fact, I can’t recall other women denigrating her during that time period.  I feel the exact same way about Christopher Reeve and Superman.  A perfect pairing of actor and super-icon.  I can’t say the same thing about the writing of the show, for the most of the episodes were downright silly.  It was also frustrating to see the low budget production.  In the comics, Wonder Woman could throw around planes and fought the Cheetah or other super-powered villains; she even battled Superman!  Despite the fact that the show never came close to the comic book version, Wonder Woman was good family entertainment.  I’ve heard that some of today’s kids watch the DVD sets (or repeats on cable) and have fun with it, largely in part because Lynda Carter is charismatic and fits the character so perfectly.  Over thirty years later, her name remains synonymous with Wonder Woman.  The other day I noticed that my Google Adsense results contained a link to Carter’s website on a WW article.

Lynda Carter became a big celebrity out of the Wonder Woman’s shadow when the show was over.  She was featured on many different magazine covers throughout the 1970s and 1980s and became the model for Maybelline cosmetics ads.  Carter had a singing career and appeared in a lot of made for TV movies and mini-series, most notably a biopic of Rita Hayworth in 1983.  In 1984, I was certain that Carter had found her next big hit TV series, a vehicle called Partners In Crime.  Co-starring Loni Anderson from WKRP In Cincinnati, the show was about two female private detectives in San Francisco.  What could be better than watching two beautiful women solving crime each week, one blonde, the other brunette?  It was like grown-up Betty and Veronica solving crime.  But the show was a failure, getting cancelled after 13 episodes.  I kept waiting for her to star in another TV series, or even take a supporting role in a show like Dallas or Dynasty.

I suspect that never happened because Lynda Carter settled down with her second husband, Robert Altman (an attorney, not the film director).  The picture above was from a magazine in the 1990s, around the time her kids were small.  She still looked like a Wonder Woman!  Some of her more recent film appearances include Super Troopers, The Dukes of Hazzard movie (very funny scenes with Willie Nelson), and Sky High—a movie that most comic book fans will enjoy.  It’s about a high school for superheroes, starring Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Lynda Carter as Principal Powers.  Powers has a line with a nod to Carter’s past: "I can't do anything more to help you. I'm not Wonder Woman, y'know."  Nuff Said!