The Secrets of Isis

The Secrets of Isis
Title card
Also known as	Isis
Genre	Adventure Drama Superhero
Developed by	Marc Richards
Starring	Joanna Cameron Brian Cutler Joanna Pang Ronalda Douglas
Theme music composer	Yvette Blais Jeff Michael
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	22
Production
Executive producers	Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer Dick Rosenbloom
Producer	Arthur H. Nadel
Running time	22 minutes
Production company	Filmation
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 6, 1975 (1975-09-06) – October 23, 1976 (1976-10-23)
Related
Shazam!

The Secrets of Isis, originally broadcast as Isis, is an American

Episodes of the series featured crossovers featuring Captain Marvel from the companion series, Shazam!. Likewise, Joanna Cameron appeared as Isis on Shazam! in return; since then DC Comics has adopted the character of Isis into their mainstream continuity for modern comics.

Premise

Isis starred Joanna Cameron as Andrea Thomas, a science teacher at Larkspur High School who found an ancient mystical gold amulet, the "Tutmose amulet", on an archeological dig in Egypt. The Isiac amulet, which resembled the headdress of Hathor, had originally belonged to Queen Hatshepsut, an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh. The amulet gave the wearer (specifically, Hatshepsut and her descendants, of which Andrea was one) "the powers of the animals and the elements", which would be bestowed upon such wearer by the goddess Isis whenever it was exposed and her name invoked. Whenever Isis was needed, Andrea would reveal the Isiac amulet (which she wore as an everyday necklace) and recite an incantation—"Oh mighty Isis"—transforming her into the goddess/super-heroine.

The series co-starred Brian Cutler as fellow teacher Rick Mason who acted as Andrea's potential love interest, Joanna Pang as student Cindy Lee, and

Three episodes of the series featured crossover appearances by Captain Marvel (of the show's companion series, Shazam!). Likewise, Joanna Cameron appeared as Isis in three episodes of Shazam!.

Most of the program's storylines involved Isis coming to the rescue of high school students who found themselves in danger due to unwise choices. A notable exception was the two-part series finale, "Now You See It...", and, "...Now You Don't", which had an espionage-related plotline revealing that Rick Mason has been working secretly for the US government on a weather-making machine. This two-parter introduced a trio of crime-fighting teens, The Super-Sleuths; the double episode was intended as a backdoor pilot for a Super-Sleuths series, which never materialized.^[4]

The Secrets of Isis often "broke the fourth wall", with Isis/Andrea winking at the camera or otherwise acknowledging the audience at pertinent moments in a story. In signature Filmation fashion, each episode featured an epilogue with Isis directly addressing the camera and imparting a moral lesson derived from the preceding events of that episode. These moral-message segments were later deleted from syndication prints.

Powers and abilities

Isis displays a vast array of superpowers, usually invoked through incantation of a rhyming couplet. For example, Isis can take flight by reciting "O zephyr winds which blow on high / Lift me now so I can fly". Among her many powers, she exhibits superhuman strength, command of the elements (earth, air, fire, and water), and control of the weather. She can control the molecular density of her body and other matter, passing herself through walls, and in one instance, causing a car to pass unharmed through a road grader. She can divine the recent past,^[5] which is manifested for the viewer in the jewel of her diadem. Isis can cause living things, including trees and animals, to appear and disappear at will. She can increase local gravity, and stop and reverse the flow of time.

Isis's superhuman abilities are limited when in her Andrea Thomas form. She is still able to communicate telepathically with her pet crow, Tut,^[6] and in one instance, the reflection of light off her amulet restored a forgotten memory to a person.^[7]

Episodes

Season 1 (1975)

Season 2 (1976)

Chronological list of crossover episodes with Shazam!

• Shazam!, Season 2: "The Odd Couple" (Oct. 18, 1975)
• The Secrets of Isis, Season 1: "Funny Gal" (Nov. 22, 1975)
• Shazam!, Season 3: "Finders Keepers" (Oct. 2, 1976)
• Shazam!, Season 3: "Out of Focus" (Oct. 16, 1976)
• The Secrets of Isis, Season 2: "Now You See It ..." (Oct. 23, 1976)
• The Secrets of Isis, Season 2: "... Now You Don't" (Oct. 30, 1976)

Broadcast history

Twenty-two episodes of Isis aired as part of The Shazam/Isis Hour on CBS from September 6, 1975, to October 23, 1976, with 15 episodes in the first season and seven in the second. The success of the show led to CBS returning and rerunning of the series starting in October 1977 for the 1977-78 season as The Secrets of Isis (replacement for a failed series). The character also appeared in three episodes of Shazam!.

Home media

On July 24, 2007, American DVD distributor BCI Eclipse (under its Ink & Paint classic animation entertainment label) (under license from

In September 2011,

Savor Ediciones, S.A. released El Secreto: La Serie Completa as a 4-disc Region 2 DVD box set on July 15, 2009.[10] Unlike the BCI set, this release only contains the episodes, no bonus features (not even the extant morals). Being a Region 2 release for Spain, the soundtrack is the dubbed Spanish version. The original English soundtrack was not included, even as a secondary option. The discs are encoded in the PAL video format, which is the same format as the currently-existing masters, so there is a small amount of additional picture area not present on the NTSC conversions released by BCI Eclipse.

Other appearances

Isis later appeared in animated form (voiced by

Despite sharing a program block with Shazam! and appearing in 1970s DC Comics publications, Isis was an original Filmation property. The rights to the character are today controlled by Universal Television, which owns the rights to most of the Filmation catalog and characters. A considerably reworked comic-book version of the character, still connected with Captain Marvel and given the alter-ego "Adrianna Tomaz" in honor of the television character, was introduced in the 2006 DC weekly maxi-series 52.^[11] This version of Isis becomes the wife of Captain Marvel's nemesis Black Adam, attempting to reform him before her death and resurrection later drive both Adam and Isis into villainy.^[12]

Grammnet, actor/producer Kelsey Grammer's production company, has reportedly obtained the rights to produce a movie based on the character, to be called The Legend of Isis.^[13]

Isis appeared in the season 10 episode "Isis" of the