To celebrate the July 28 Season One release of Joss Whedon's action-drama "Dollhouse" on Fox, we've assembled a list of Top 10 Action Heroines throughout television history. If she kicks butt, saves the day or otherwise steals the show, you'll find her here!
10. Buffy Summers, Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Joss Whedon's television adaptation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" birthed the career of Sarah Michelle Gellar, who took the Buffy reins from the actress who played her in the film, Kristy Swanson.
Who's Buffy Summers? Oh, just your average high school cheerleader chosen to battle the undead. Together with the Scooby Gang, she kicks supernatural ass up and down the screen while getting herself tangled up in vampire romances and alliances with the "mortally challenged".
9. Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels are a three-in-one deal, because nobody splits up the Angels! These three female super agents at a private investigation agency, who took orders from a mysterious man named Charlie through a speakerbox, set the standard for action heroines when the series debuted in 1976, lasting five seasons and spawning a series of movies and remakes.
The Angels frequently (and conveniently, to the young male viewers) went undercover as models, strippers or cocktail waitresses in their investigations. Their sexuality was only part of their repertoire for crime-fighting in the wildly popular action-drama, and the show's longevity was extended by a new wave of Angels in later seasons. Fans of Farrah Fawcett will remember that the seventies icon got her start as an Angel.
8. Wonder Woman
So what if "Wonder Woman" aired before most of us were born? By squeezing into the iconic costume, Lynda Carter became the first - and by far the most popular - comic book heroine to ever grace television. Amazonian Princess Diana would spin to transform into Wonder Woman, a crime-fighting heroine armed with a magic belt, tremendous strength, bullet-deflecting bracelets, a tiara that can be thrown as a lethal boomerang and a unbreakable magic lasso that can force anyone to tell the truth. Practical? Not really. Awesome? Absolutely.
