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Lynda carter The new syndicated adventure series Hawkeye, about a brave and beautiful frontierswoman and the mountain man who lights her fire, will probably remind you of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Certainly it'll bring to mind The Last of the Mohicans, the James Fenimore Cooper tale on which it is based. Lynda Carter, who plays heroine Elizabeth Shields opposite Lee Horsley as Hawkeye, will be particularly happy, however, if it makes you forget for at least a moment about Wonder Woman (1976-79), with which the former Maybelline spokesmodel will forever be identified. ''Pretty soon people will look at me and say, 'That old woman was Wonder Woman?' '' says Carter, 43, shooting Hawkeye, her third series (No. 2 was 1984's Partners in Crime), in Vancouver. ''But it's kind of fun to be regarded as a cult figure. I could resent it and be miserable. Or not. What am I going to fight it for?'' What Carter did protest, fiercely, were fraud charges first brought in 1992 against her husband, Washington, D.C., lawyer Robert Altman, for his dealings with the scandal-ridden BCCI. ''A year ago today was our victory day,'' she says of Altman's acquittal, which cost the couple $10 million in legal fees. ''They tried to strong-arm my husband and bring him to his knees.'' After a decade of being a glamorous D.C.-based wife and mother of two, during which time she kept Hollywood gigs to a minimum, Carter is pleased to be on screen again, temporarily away from home and the whole political scene. $ ''Washington is an incredible city,'' she says. ''Interesting. Carnivorous.'' Compared with which, one assumes, Hawkeye's 18th-century wilds are a civilized delight. -Lisa Schwarzbaum

Melissa Gilbert ''Is there a movie-of-the-week I haven't been in?'' jokes Melissa Gilbert. ''There's not an illness I haven't conquered, no bad guy I haven't exposed. I've hung off cliffs, driven cars into stationary objects, had brain surgery.'' Perhaps the only thing she hasn't done on TV recently is a solid series. (Stand By Your Man, the 1992 Fox sitcom that paired Gilbert with Rosie O'Donnell for seven anemic episodes, definitely doesn't count.) That could change in September, however, when Gilbert, 30, stars as a former Wall Street lawyer who returns to the South to serve her hometown underdogs in NBC's Sweet Justice. ''I'm in grateful gaga land,'' she says, cooing about the show, fiance Bruce Boxleitner (they were re-engaged in June after a split in March), her 5- year-old son, Dakota (whose father is ex-husband Bo Brinkman), and a new, three-bedroom home in the San Fernando Valley. Of course, the California native is no stranger to righteous roles. She played the noble heroine in 28 tube flicks-she hopes Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story (Lifetime, Oct. 5) will be her last for a while-as well as for nine years as sweet Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie. Although the show ended in 1983, she still hears plenty of gushing for Half- pint, and that's fine with her. ''I don't want people to forget that I was on Little House on the Prairie,'' she says. ''It blows my mind that I'm still not 9 years old running around with pigtails.'' Ours too. -Dan Snierson


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