To most people, she was Lieutenant Maria "Dish" Schneider, a nurse from the 1970 Robert Altman film M*A*S*H. To fans of cartoons and comic books, however, she was the very first Sue Storm, better known as the Invisible Woman.
Hailing from Atlanta, Pflug was, like most of the other major cast members from Hanna-Barbera's Fantastic Four, a newcomer to cartoons. Indeed, Fantastic Four was the first cartoon she did, and it was also the last. That being said, it makes sense she was cast considering her resume. Back when she attended the University of Miami, she hosted her own radio show, crafting a new story with every installment. Her experience behind the mic, coupled with her great looks, made her an excellent choice for Sue.
Jo Ann Pflug had limited acting experience before playing the Invisible Woman, but that didn't stop her from doing great in the role. Sue has always been like a mother to the group, and Pflug did an excellent job capturing that core aspect of her character. Since Sue is also a member of the group, she also had the benefit of getting more interesting material to work with than many other actresses in superhero cartoons of the time, who were usually relegated to the role of the damsel. That's not to say Sue was never a damsel in the show, but she could easily hold her own in a battle, too.
Though she left voice acting behind once Fantastic Four ended, Jo Ann Pflug's career was only beginning. She appeared in films like the aforementioned M*A*S*H, and many popular TV shows, such as Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, and more. She worked in the industry until 2011, with her own radio show being her final work, a fitting finale to her career.
As of 2025, Jo Ann is the only surviving cast member of Fantastic Four. When asked about the series decades after it ended, she remarked that she had never actually seen an episode, but enjoyed working on it nonetheless. She saw it as a natural extension of the work she had done in radio and was honored to work alongside the iconic Paul Frees. Below is a short story focusing on her career that appeared in the Kenosha News Courier on October 24th, 1978. There's no mention of Sue Storm here, but there is a lot of insight into her body of work.
Jo Ann Pflug splits personality
As if two shows were not enough, Jo Ann is also a wife— married to game show host Charles (Wheel of Fortune) Woolery— and the mother of three-year-old Melissa.
Happily for her home life, Jo Ann's stint on "Candid Camera" is one of the easiest gigs in show business. She flies to Nashville twice a year to knock off 13 segments in a week's time.
Juggling the two shows, however, has given the slender, 5-foot-10 beauty a slight case of split personality.
On "Candid Camera" she is her own bubbly, chatterbox self. On "Operation Petticoat" she is the somewhat starchy Lt. Katherine O'Hara in charge of nurses on a World War II U.S. submarine.
"'Candid Camera' is a lot easier for me to do," Jo Ann said, taking time out from her busy schedule. "I majored in radio and TV communications at the University of Miami and I've done a lot of live television.
"I was hostess of 'Tempo I,' a talk show here in Hollywood for a year. And I was among the first women to do interview talk shows before female personalities were being used for news, sports, and interview programs.
"So when I'm doing 'Candid Camera' I'm relaxed and at ease. I just sit back and enjoy myself.
"It's altogether different on the set at Universal for 'Operation Petticoat.' I've got to get into the role of Katherine O'Hara. Until just recently I've thought of her in the third person. It's important that I think and behave automatically as the Navy nurse and not as Jo Ann Pflug.
"The two jobs require different disciplines and challenges even though Nurse O'Hara is very much like me.
"The difficult thing about my part is that I'm playing a straight character rather than in a dramatic or a comedy role.
"'Operation Petticoat' and 'Candid Camera' are my first series. When I first started out I wanted to concentrate on movies. After doing the original 'M*A*S*H' I did get a lot of movie work.
"I didn't know it at the time, but my agents kept turning down TV series without even letting me know about them.
"Now television is where actresses are working most. And at the moment I guess I'm as busy as any other actress in the business.
" In a situation comedy, the more real I play the character, the funnier everyone else in the cast is."
Jo Ann, along with Mindy Naud and Hillary Thompson, provide the sex appeal in the series but Jo Ann is mightily pleased that "Operation Petticoat" does not fall into the jiggle show category.
"The women in the cast are mostly around for decorative purposes," she said. "But we're not being exploited as sex objects. The scripts don't go in for those kinds of jokes. We have to walk a fine line between realism and comedy."
If you'd like to know more about Jo Ann Pflug, she used to have her own website. Thanks to the Internet Archive, you can visit it with this link. There's also this archived interview she did in the early 2000s, which does touch on Fantastic Four, though the second part of the interview is unfortunately lost. Both are great resources that are well worth your time.
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