This article was originally written by Charlie Mason for Soaps She Knows. To view the original article on Soaps.SheKnows.com, click here.
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl holds a special place in the hearts of many of us who were kids in the 1970s. But making that particular segment of The Krofft Supershow wasn’t exactly a fantastic voyage for Deidre Hall. The daytime legend tells Soaps.com that her even taking the part of Lori, aka Electra Woman, “was just a goof. I was not yet on Days of Our Lives,” where she’d earn the status of icon for her portrayal of Marlena Evans, “and I got a call saying, ‘Do you want to play a superhero?’
“I went, ‘Eh, I got nothing else to do.’”
Cruel Summer
Alas, Hall was thrown into the fire all but literally. “I did not realize in that moment that it would be a brutal summer. It was hot in L.A.,” she says, and “the Kroffts didn’t rent a studio with any air-conditioning.”
On top of all that, the leading lady and sidekick Judy Strangis “did pretty much our own hair and makeup” — an impressive feat, considering how well-shellacked their locks were! “We were just sweltering all the time.”
A Hit In Spite of Itself
Hall is astonished that Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, which almost got a reboot in 2001 and became a web series in 2016, has remained such a cultural touchstone. “It has no right to be a hit,” she exclaims. “How bad was it!”
The TV vet still marvels at how dreaful the working conditions were. The set was so hot that she and her cohorts would sneak over to the adjacent Donnie & Marie (Osmond) soundstage, which had an ice rink — what with it being the Dorothy Hamill era — and therefore had to be kept cold. In fact, guest star Jane Elliot (who’d later take on her career-defining role of Tracy on General Hospital) “brought her ice skates to work” during her stint as the villainous Cleopatra.
A Parting Gift? As If!
Did Hall at least get to keep her Electra Woman costume? Puh-lease. “They made three costumes [for Electra Woman and Dyna Girl],” she says, “none of which were given to us.”