Top 10 Women in Catsuits on Television

Aside from the bikini and "Daisy Dukes" one of the most popular outfits to be seen on sexy women on broadcast television is the catsuit, that skin tight jumpsuit made out of stretchable fabric ( usually shiny like Vinyl or PVC ) that shows off every curve of the female body. An online survey was taken asking who the top 10 television characters who wore catsuits were, an here are the results...

#10. Vallery Irons from "V.I.P."
Actress: Pamela Anderson
Vallery Irons is the head of the Vallery Irons Protection agency ( V.I.P. for short ) who are a team of mostly female bodyguards. Actually Vallery accidentally saved an actor at his movie premiere from an assassin, and after getting credit as the actor's bodyguard is hired by a failing bodyguard agency to be their figurehead. They protect the celebrity clients and solve crimes while Vallery hangs back at the office and does not have to get involved. Of course inevitably Vallery winds up getting involved in every case. Vallery Irons is pretty much a character based on Pamela Anderson who wears tons of sexy outfits. On multiple occasions she wears PVC or leather catsuits of different colors

#9. Leather Tuscadero from "Happy Days"
Actress: Suzi Quatro
In the fall of 1976 actress Roz Kelly was brought in to the series "Happy Days" play Pinky Tuscadero, a character who was suppose to become Fonzie's wife. Reportedly Roz was unable to get along with the show's producers and her character was quickly written out of the series towards the end of filming the two part episode that introduced her. A year later producers came up with the idea of introducing a new character, Leather Tuscadero, Pinky's kid sister. Leather was the leader of a rock band called The Suedes who gets her name from wearing leather outfits, some of which were apparently leather catsuits. Leather was played by real life rock star Suzi Quatro who's biggest hit was her duet with Chris Norman "Stumblin' In". Leather appeared in seven "Happy Days" episodes as a recurring character. Since my memories of the "Happy Days" series is a bit foggy ( I have not watched them since their initial run ) I do not remember if Leather actually did wear a catsuit in any of the episodes. Some publicity photos from those days credited as "leather Tuscadero" show Suzi posing in leather catsuits, but I can not say for sure if she actually wore the outfit on the show.

#8. Honey West from the series of the same name
Actress: Anne Francis
Here is another series I do not remember, specifically because as it was cancelled before I was born I never got the opportunity to see it. Thanks to some existing clips on Youtube I can confirm that Mrs Honey West did wear a catsuit most likely made out of wool. Based on a series of detective novels, Honey West was a private detective played by in the series by Anne Francis who regularly would get into fights with the bad guys wearing her black catsuit.

#7. Monica Geller Bing from "Friends"
Actress: Courtney Cox
Despite Courtney Cox wearing a Lycra catsuit in only one episode of "Friends" ( "The One With the Halloween Party" ) the costume made enough of an impression to land her at number seven on the list.

#6. Windy Watson from "The Middleman"
Actress: Natalie Morales
This is a story about frustration. While during the opening credit sequence to the spy series "The Middleman" actress Natalie Morales is clearly wearing a leather catsuit, to the frustration of most viewers she never actually wore the outfit during the episodes. The character Windy Watson's outfit was typically white shirt and tie with undersized green jacket. For the longest time those who wanted to see Windy Watson in her catsuit had to to be content with the few moments in the credits, then finally after two months of complaints by viewers on fan message boards executives from ABC Family called the producers of "The Middleman" and demanded that they write an episode where Windy wears the catsuit. For long time viewers it was an event worth waiting for. Unfortunately Natalie would not get the chance to make the catsuit a regular outfit. Soon after the episode aired ABC Family cut the season from the 13 episodes they initially ordered down to 12 then cancelled the series due to low ratings.

#5. Catwoman from "Batman"
Actresses: Julie Newmar ( season 1 and 2 ), Eartha Kitt ( season 3 ) and Lee Meriwether ( the movie )
Lets face it. It was Julie Newmar who viewers loved in the Catwoman costume, and they were disappointed in the third season when Eartha Kitt took over the role. Sure Eartha gave a far better performance as Catwoman ( In my opinion Kitt was the best actress to ever play the role, and that includes all of the movie adaptions ) but Newmar was far more sexy. Producers actually killed off Catwoman twice, one time having her fall into a bottomless pit in a cave, the other her falling off the roof of a warehouse into the Gotham river. But each time Catwoman would return in further episodes with no explanation as to how she survived.

#4. Seven of Nine from "Star Trek: Voyager"
Actress: Jeri Ryan
After wandering into a cosmic storm the star ship Voyager is hit with displacement waves and instantly transported into the Delta Quadrant, a galaxy so distant from Earth it would take the ship 75 years to make the return voyage. Worse of all the displacement wave phenomenon has killed at least half if not most of the crew. This was the premise for "Star Trek: Voyager" as the crew of the unfortunate starship spent the next seven seasons traveling through unknown space and past unknown civilizations as they attempted to make their way back to federation space. So when producers decided to add a sexy character in the fourth season to counteract sagging ratings they had a bit of a problem. With a limited crew and no other humans within 70,000 light years how could they explain the sudden appearance of a new character? The answer was the Borg, a hostile alien race of cyborgs that the humans had been fighting since the series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and who had the technical ability to travel great distances in space faster than the humans could. The Borg had captured many humans and assimilated them into more Borg cyborgs. While in a rare episode where the Borg and Voyager work together to fight an even more dangerous race of alien invaders the Borg send over one of their own called Seven of Nine who happens to be a former human. The crew of the Voyager end up keeping Seven of Nine, remove most of her cyborg components so she will once again look human, and stick her in a tight Lycra catsuit which she wore for the remainder of the series

#3. Aphrodite from "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"
Actress: Alexandre Tydings
Once again another character makes the list where a catsuit was only worn in one episode. Alexandre Tydings plays the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite, half sister of Hercules. Although Aphrodite is a recurring character who made many appearances during the series she always wore the same dress which was somewhat appropriate to the era which the show took place. In the episode "Reign of Terror" she is imprisoned in a temple by King Agues and is unable to walk past the guard. Using her powers she changes into a tight black latex catsuit and seduces the guard who lets her go. She only wears the catsuit for a minute in the entire series, but it was memorable enough that she was voted into the #3position on this survey

#2. Colonel Wilma Deering from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century"
Actress: Erin Grey
Buck Rogers was the story of a space shuttle astronaut who is accidentally frozen in 1987. It takes them 500 years to finally get around to rescuing the dude but eventually in 2491 his ship is recovered and he is thawed out. Now out of place in a new world Buck is put in the care of Colonel Wilma Deering as played by Erin Grey. As a futuristic colonel her uniforms were different colored tight Lycra catsuits. Those catsuits turned Erin into an overnight sex symbol and more viewers tuned in to the show each week to look at her than the special effects. ( On a side note I would like to point out that Deering was not the only female character wearing a catsuit on that show. Catsuits seemed to be the standard female outfit for humans in the future and you could count on seeing just about every girl on the show wearing one. But as Grey was the only actress with a weekly role on the show she is the one everyone remembers. )

#1. Emma Peel from "The Avengers"
Actress: Diana Rigg
Of course Mrs. Peel would be at #1. Her catsuit turned up as a costume she wore while under cover at a department store promoting space ranger inspired toys. Producers were so impressed with Rigg in the catsuit that they made it a recurring costume, even putting it in the opening credit sequence. Emma Peel is so identified with the Catsuit that to this day articles about catsuits always inevitably include references to The Avengers.