The Secrets of Isis

This was a great Saturday morning show for more than the kids. The dads too enjoyed seeing JoAnna Cameron as Isis dealing with all kinds of 20th century trouble.

By day Cameron was Andrea Thomas mild mannered archaeologist who came into possession of an ancient amulet, purportedly the property of Queen Hatshepsut back in the day. Worked properly and the spirit of ancient Isis entered the body of presumably a female and could give one superpowers.

JoAnna Cameron was one drop dead gorgeous goddess. Many a pubescent teen had some fantasies about her. Like Clark Kent she kind of dressed down in Andrea Thomas mode and had the requisite pair of dorky looking glasses as I recall.

I wouldn't mind seeing this again sometime.

I remember this show like it was yesterday;a modern day high school teacher that see trouble coming and goes into a room has a secret ring on her finger and says,"Oh,mighty Isis!" and changes into a Egyptian princess named Isis with superpowers who helps out kids who get into trouble and fights off evil doers. It came on Saturday Mornings around 10:00am and I can remember this show being on. This was a dynamite show to watch by the way since it only was on for two seasons and went right off the air(and its reruns) for much of the decade(as part of the Shazam/Isis Hour). However,there was Isis who comes out at the end of the show to give a message or two about certain things(which became part of a Filmation staple and a big winner during its run on CBS). The series lasted two seasons on Saturday Mornings from September 6, 1975 until October 23, 1976 and it produced 22 episodes where CBS repeated it entirely until 1979 when it was combined "The Shazam-Isis Hour". Since the show's star was a fashion model before she became an actress,Joanna Cameron was a knockout to watch as Isis. She was beautiful. By the way,whatever happened to her after that? After her stint as "Isis" Joanna Cameron went on to star in the short-lived series based on "Spider-Man",and from there was a guest star in several television shows until she retired from show business and Hollywood altogether in the 1980's. Today,she does public appearances but she left Hollywood for the hotel marketing business based in Hawaii.

Revised on July 8, 2015

Entertaining show for kids with drop-dead-gorgeous JoAnna Cameron as a teacher who changes into the goddess Isis to fight evil. The show came on the air in the mid-70's, during what was then a public uproar over violence on children's television, so Isis defeated most of her villains non-violently and offered a moral at the end of the show. The show only lasted one season but was re-run for many years after that.

The show caught on in South America when it was rebroadcast there in the 1980s, and "Isis" has many Brazilian fans.

The show is mostly valuable today for the fun cornball factor and for the fact that Ms. Cameron, who bears a striking resemblance to Catherine Zeta-Jones, was a knockout who wore short skirts and had great legs. Neo-pagans and Wiccans will find much to raise an eyebrow over, as the goddess aspect is treated with unusual respect for the time and place the show came out.

JoAnna Cameron retired from show business in the 80's and went into nursing, specializing in geriatrics. Recently she has made appearances at science fiction and TV nostalgia conventions and by all reports is still a gracious and beautiful woman.

As a little boy in during the "70's; Isis (JoAnna Cameron) was my second crush, after Batgirl (Yvonne Craig). And then, after Isis; was WonderWoman; my crush on Lynda Carter was never broken after seeing her play the super-heroine. When they teamed Isis up with Captain Marvel; I was in kid heaven. I always thought there was something going on between those two; whenever they winked at each other. I'm after all; Isis is a goddess and of fertility;no less and then you have Captain Marvel; not really a god but man created and endowed with powers by the gods. The Immortals new what they were doing. I hope they release both Isis/Shazam! shows on dvd at the same time; when the long talked about Shazam! movie makes it to the theaters.

Today's tribal kiddies have nothing on Isis for piercing endurance. That woman wore earrings the size of soup tureens...and flew! How could she do that? I just don't know!

Seriously, it was a fun show, perfectly targeted for its audience.

Isis also had good advice for the kids, like "don't talk to strangers", "don't prank call the police", or "don't share needles with the junkie ho's on south avenue". She was way ahead of her time.

But I think Trinity could have kicked her ass.