Spand-X-Women
In the mid-1970s, Sid & Marty Krofft were kings of Saturday morning TV. Their animated and live-action shows were top rated (as was their prime time Donny & Marie Show). Noting the popularity of superhero shows like Shazam! at the time, they added a segment to their Krofft Supershow called “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl” – which eventually spun off into a separate series. The show was moderately popular with kids, but very popular with their older brothers. Especially with those with a fetish for spandex, as each show featured stars Deidre Hall and Judy Strangis cavorting about in tight super-outfits.
Connections: Judy Strangis – an alum of Room 222 who had been providing voices for Krofft cartoons – later co-starred with Markie Post in the 1982 TV movie Not Just Another Affair. In the new, revamped (and as yet unaired) version of the series, a still-hot-at-50 Post plays the alcoholic Electra Woman.
(UPDATE: A mini-series update of the show is set for a June 2016 release, starring Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart!)
Among those adolescent viewers was a young man named Don Cortier. The images of girls in spandex outfits being tied up and subjected to corny death traps by cackling villains burned into the mind of young Don. Twenty years later, he began shooting his own little superhero fantasies on video.
Shot in 1998, the highly satirical ElectroBabe and DynaChick is about two swinging gals who fight crime. Their method of crime fighting involves lots of sneaking down corridors and lots of getting captured, tied up, and subjected to silly, kinky torture scenarios. At one point, the villainous Debutante (ultra-bad actor Kia Fortner) forced the girls to get molested by a plant. Starlets Willow Lake and Katelyn Downey are darned attractive, and Cortier uses a lot of fine camera angles, but every shot and scene goes on far too long. Even at 45 minutes this feels padded out. Sound, editing and acting are all poor.
1999’s ElectroBabe and DynaChick 2 is an improvement in every way. For one thing, there’s a lot more going on. First DynaChick is rescued by ElectroBabe from getting blown up, then pop star niece Honey Spice (ultra-bad actor Monique Boudreaux) comes to visit. The “teen” warbler gets kidnapped by the villainous Glamorock (DynaHunk), and replaced with an even less talented robot double. EB and DC go to the rescue, but of course only get themselves captured and tied up again. The heroes look much cooler in fancy shades than they did in masks, there’s an arty flashback, and a general higher level of involvement by everyone. Both flicks feature the catchy theme song, that sounds like vintage Blondie.