Batman - Episode Guide
The Episode Guide is Split Between Three Parts, to see the other seasons click below
Batman Episode Guide First Season Batman Episode Guide Third Season
Batman Show Credits - Thanks to Aaron Handy !
Also To see the guest Appearances by episode Or by last name of the actor, click below !
Batman Guest Stars By Last Name - PDF File
SECOND SEASON
35 - SHOOT A CROOKED ARROW
36 - WALK THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW 9/7/66, 9/8/66.
Starring Art Carney as The Archer
"You dipped your dipthong. People from Philidelphia are known for that." -Batman to Dick Clark
Written by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by Sherman Marks. The Archer pillages stately Wayne Manor and distributes his loot to the destitue. Batman and Robin bag Archer, but impecunious Gothamites manage to raise bail with $50,000 in milk bottle deposit money. The Archer then commandeers an armored truck containing $10,000,000 in cash earmarked by the Wayne Foundation for distribution to Gotham's poor. Archer, Bookworm and Minstrel are probably the most ill-conceived villains in the series. All three stories show a lack of understanding about Batman's ` history, about supervillains and at times, even about camp. All are handicapped by modest origins, but Archer, a Robin Hood retread complete with merry men henchmen, simply seems too anachronistic. Dialog coach Milton Stark remembered that Art Carney "was very sad," during his stint as The Archer. "Something was happening in his personal life then. I went to a dressing room to help him. He said, 'Gee, kid, I hope you don't mind, but I don't feel up to it at the moment. I'm comfortable, I know my lines. I'll call you when I'm ready.' But the moment he got in front of the camera, he turned it on. That's like a racehorse when they hear the bell, off they go. It's amazing." BatBits: Watch for a Batclimb cameo by Dick Clark in #35. A villain named "The Archer" first appeared in Superman #13 (November-December 1941). The criminal wore a green archer's costume and worked alone, extorting money from wealthy victims whom he would murder if they refused to pay.
37 - HOT OFF THE GRIDDLE
38 - THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE 9/14/66 9/15/66.
Starring Julie Newmar as Catwoman
"I'm not just pussyfooting around this time, Batman!" -Catwoman
Written by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by Dan Weis. Catwoman hits the Gotham Guardians with her paralyzing Catatonic cat-darts and tosses them out of a 12th story window. At the Pink Sand Box club the Duo is surprised when their table suddenly spins around, throwing them into a metal chamber with super-heating floor. BatBits: Watch for James Brolin as driver Ralph Staphylococcus in #38. Brolin was roomate to the show's casting director, Michael McLean, which accounts for his appearance in several episodes.
( To See A Video Clip Of The Bat Trap- Try Clicking Here ! )
39 - THE MINSTREL'S SHAKEDOWN
40 - BARBECUED BATMAN? 9/21/66 9/22/66.
Starring Van Johnson as The Minstrel
Written by Francis and Marian Cockrell. Directed by Murray Golden. The Minstrel, a lute-playing electronics genius, threatens to sabotage the computerized Gotham City Stock Exchange. The Dynamic Duo is captured and hoisted onto a rotating spit over an electronic radar grill. A weak episode: Van Johnson's Minstrel is just too dumb a villain, with extremely awkward motivations and origins. BatBits: Watch for Phyllis Diller as Scrubwoman in #39.
41 - THE SPELL OF TUT
42 - TUT'S CASE IS SHUT 9/28/66 9/29/66.
Starring Victor Buono as King Tut
Written by Robert C. Dennis and Earl Barret. Directed by Larry Peerce. From ancient scarabs, King Tut plots to distill Abu Raubu Simbu Tu, a deadly potion capable of paralyzing the will, enough to debilitate Gotham City. Tut has Robin walk a receding plank overlooking a crocodile pit, and Chief O'Hara high on a window ledge performing acrobatics. Probably the best Tut episodes, with #117 ranking very close. From Victor Buono's delivery to O'Hara's flagpole flips, there is a steady stream of nutty events, more comedy than camp, largely due to Buono. BatBits: Watch for the Batclimb cameo by Van Williams as The Green Hornet and Bruce Lee as Kato.
43 - THE GREATEST MOTHER OF THEM ALL
44 - MA PARKER 10/5/66 10/6/66.
Starring Shelley Winters as Ma Parker
Written by Henry Slesar. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. Batman incarcerates Ma Parker, but she takes over the prison, capturing the warden. The Dynamic Duo are captured and strapped into electric chairs. Shelley Winters as Ma Parker is a stronger series villain than Minstrel or Archer, in a spoof on gangster movies and TV shows. A 1966 issue of New Zealand TV Weekly quoted Shelley Winters as saying, "We didn't even get to read the script or rehearse before shooting. No wonder that Adam West and Burt Ward look about dead. You hardly have time to eat lunch." She also complained about unsafe conditions on the set. BatBits: Watch for Julie Newmar's cameo as Catwoman, a fellow prison inmate. During a prison Batclimb, Milton Berle makes a cameo as Lefty.
45 - THE CLOCK KING'S CRAZY CRIMES
46 - THE CLOCK KING GETS CROWNED 10/12/66 10/13/66.
Starring Walter Slezak as The Clock King
Written by Bill Finger and Charles Sinclair. Directed by James Neilson. Disguised as a pop artist, Clock King tries to rob a gallery of a time-related surrealist painting. The Dynamic Duo are stuffed into the bottom of an oversize hourglass and left to be drowned in sand as Clock King plots to filch Bruce Wayne's collection of antique pocket watches. Clock King existed in comics books as a Green Arrow villain but works well here as a foil for the Dynamic Duo. The giant clock in #46 is a classic Batman story-telling element. Scripter Bill Finger was the co-creater of Batman with cartoonist Bob Kane, and wrote Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939.) In "Batmania", Mark Hanerfeld reported Finger's comments in 1966 about writing for the show. Finger noted how "the story had to conform to the established format," and how he had to accent the input of producers Bill Dozier and Howie Horwitz and their story editors, plus the approval of ABC. "Every one of them contributes something, a piece of paper, saying he doesn't like this or he doesn't like thakat. By the time the writer gets it, he goes absolutely out of his mind trying to please everybody! This happened to me." BatBits: Watch for the Batclimb cameo in #45 of Sammy Davis Jr.
47 - AN EGG GROWS IN GOTHAM
48 - THE YEGG FOES IN GOTHAM 10/19/66 10/20/66
Starring Vincent Price as Egghead
Story by Ed Self, teleplay by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by George Waggner. Egghead attempts to wrest ownership (and therefore control) of Gotham City from lease holder Chief Screaming Chicken, the last of the Mohicans. Egghead attaches Bruce Wayne to an Electro-Thought Transferrer which will not only egg-stract Wayne's knowledge but leave him "an empty- headed fop." BatBits: Watch for Bill Dana's cameo as Jose Jimenez in #48's Batclimb.
49 - THE DEVIL'S FINGERS
50 - THE DEAD RINGERS 10/26/66 10/27/66
Starring Liberace as Chandell
Written by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. Directed by Larry Peerce. Famed pianist Chandell, also known as Fingers, puts the make on Aunt Harriet, hoping to marry her, bump off Bruce and Dick and thereby have access to the Wayne fortunes. Batman and Robin are plopped onto a conveyor belt, about to be perforacted into human piano rolls. Liberace accomodatingly overacts as Fingers. "Liberace was so kind," said Milton Stark. "At lunch periods he'd sit at the piano and say, 'What do you want me to play?' He'd play anything for them. He was very congenial, very nice and a real professional." BatBits: Work on the second season became so hectic that Adam West began to use cue cards. "We were there 15 hours most every day, five days a week," recalled makeup man Bruce Hutchinson. "[If on a] Friday night we had four-and-a-half pages to do and everyone was dead tired, they'd just start writing cue cards. Adam had pages of technical dialog to try to memorize."
51 - HIZZONNER THE PENGUIN
52 - DIZZONNER THE PENGUIN 11/2/66 11/3/66.
Starring Burgess Meredith as The Penguin
"Plenty of girls and bands and slogans and lots of hoopla, but remember, no politics. Issues confuse people." -Penguin to his election crew
Written by Stanford Sherman. Directed by Oscar Randolph. The polls show overwhelming support for Penguin in his run for mayor, thanks to his rescue of a baby from a runaway carriage, a contribution of $100,000 to the Gotham City Charity Fund and other equally outstanding efforts. Since the only alternative to Penguin for Mayor is Batman for Mayor, the Caped Crusader enters the race, but cannot match Penguin's flair, snappy jingles and willingness to kiss babies. Batman and Robin are waylaid and strung up over a vat of acid. Noted stuntman Victor Paul, who doubled for Robin, "Batman was fighting a bunch of guys in derbies. I said instead of bringng in six guys, bring in five. I've never been photographed without a mask on so I'll put on one of these black outfits with a black turtleneck and a derby and I'll do a fight. Bing! I got nailed from Batman. My friend Hubie Kerns nailed me right in the schnoz. It rocked me, laid me back. The producer was standing there. He said, 'That's it! Victor, you never again fight in a scene unless you're doing Robin. I can't afford to get you hurt and then you can't work.' The only guy that hits me is my own partner." BatBits: Watch for cameoes in #51 by Little Egypt and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
53 - GREEN ICE
54 - DEEP FREEZE 11/9/66 11/10/66.
Starring Otto Preminger as Mr Freeze
Written by Max Hodge. Directed by George Waggner. Mr. Freeze kidnaps Miss Iceland, freezes Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara and discredits Batman and Robin by routing wimpy doubles of the Dynamic Duo. The genuine crimefighters find Mr. Freeze in a seemingly abandoned Cold Storage Plant but are jumped and then placed in giant frozen popsicle containers, soon to be turned into Famous Frosty Freezies. "When we ran over time, the director would decide what [to cut]," recalled dialog coach Milton Stark. "I told him [Preminger] we have to cut some of his speeches. 'You're taking out my best lines!' he said. I started to laugh. He asked 'What [are] you laughing about?' I said, 'How many times have actors said that to you?' He laughed and said, 'By G-d, it's true, you know.'" "Otto Preminger: you can have him," noted makeup man Lee Harman. "They were smart. They hired a director [George Waggner] that was older than Otto, that had done a lot of things. Otto didn't like anybody being touched up and this guy just said, 'Hey, you're just acting in this. I'm directing it.' He told him who was the boss; we all loved that." Otto Preminger was too-far-over-the-top in his portrayal of Mr. Freeze. For camp to work best, all roles had to be played perfectly straight, as Neil Hamilton did Commissioner Gordon so successfully throughout the series. Anything else and the show began to stall. BatBits: Preminger had a problem to solve before appearing on the show: he owed $11,000 in back dues to the Screen Actor's Guild.
55 - THE IMPRACTICAL JOKER
56 - THE JOKER'S PROVOKERS 11/16/66 11/17/66.
Starring Cesar Romero as The Joker
Written by Jay Thompson and Charles Hoffman. Directed by James B. Clark. Joker is on a crime spree involving keys and manages to incapacitate Batman and Robin with a mysterious little box; in reality, the Duped Duo had been hypnotized. They discover Joker in an old key factory, and are captured. Robin is placed in a maching that will spray wax him to death while Batman is strung out on a giant human key duplicator. Jay Thompson's original script, "Hickery Dicery Doc," was substantially more fascinating and entertaining than what ended up being broadcast. Charles Hoffman's rewriting contributed to a confusing episode, probably the worst pair of Joker episodes in the series. "Charlie Hoffman was probably 70 when we were going the show," recalled regular series scripter Stanley Ralph Ross. "He had been a great friend of Howie Horwitz. They used to do 77 SUNSET STRIP over at Warner Bros. Charlie was made the story editor when Lorenzo [Semple] left." BatBits: Watch for Howard Duff in a Batclimb cameo. Kathy Kersh, Burt Ward's second wife, plays the Joker's moll, Cornelia.
57 - MARSHA, QUEEN OF DIAMONS
58 - MASHA'S SCHEME OF DIAMONDS 11/23/66 11/24/66.
Starring Carolyn Jones as Marsha Queen Of Diamonds
"Batman's never rude to a lady. But you're no lady." -Robin to Marsha
Written by Stanford Sherman. Directed by James B. Clark. Marsha wants the Batdiamond, a monstrous gem which provides power to the Batcomputer. In the process, she manages to leave Chief O'Hara, Commissioner Gordon and a roomful of lovesick men behind her. Batman resists her charms but Robin is hit with one of Marsha's love darts and orders Batman to surrender. Batman demands the Boy Lover's freedom, but it can only be had by marrying Marsha. And so the Caped Crusader proceeds to join Marha at the altar... Carolyn Jones plays Marsha, a thief who must foce men to love her and thrives on jealousy. Although a good change from the bank robbing, riddle dropping, costumed male capitalists who covet world domination, Marsha is perhaps more deserving of psychoanalysis than a Batman script, especically one so flawed in consistency and logic. BatBits: For the 1966 Emmys, BATMAN was nominated as Oustanding Comedy Series while Frank Gorshin was nominated for Outstanding Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In A Comedy ("Hi Diddle Riddle"). A third nomination was made for editing.
59 - COME BACK, SHAME
60 - IT'S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME 11/30/66 12/1/66.
Starring Cliff Robertson as Shame
Robin: "But he knows that we know about his hideout there!" Batman: "Correct! However, knowing that, he'd think that we'd think he would not return there, therefore he did and so will we."
Written by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by Oscar Randolph. Shame and his cohorts are stealing car parts in order to soup up their truck so it can outrun the Batmobile. Batman and Robin track the car rustlers to their hideout, but the Duped Duo end up staked to the ground with stampeding cattle bearing down on them. Cliff Robertson as Shame, a western parody, fails to be much of a supervillain. A pity the show didn't turn more often to the comics for inspiration, rather than concoct its own menaces. According to an ABC press release, Cliff Robertson arragned to take his seven-year-old daughter to visit the Batman set. On the way home, she said, "Daddy, I never knew you knew such important people," noted Robertson. Robertson called producer Bill Dozier and told him his daughter wanted to know why he wasn't on the show. Recalled Robertson, "He just laughed and said, 'I'll send you a script.'" BatBits: Watch for Werner Klemperer's cameo as Colonel Klink in a Batclimb in #60.
61 - THE PENGUIN'S NEST
62 - THE BIRD'S LAST JEST 12/7/66 12/8/66.
Starring Burgess Meredith as The Penguin
Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. Directed by Murray Golden. Once again, Penguin appears to go straight (also see #51/52 and #73), opening Then Penguin's Nest, a restaurant catering to the wealthy, a ruse to collect handwriting samples for forger Ballpoint Baxter. Batman and Robin come to the aid of Chief O'Hara, locked in a trunk and tumbling into a pool which Penguin is about to electrify. This teleplay has its foundation in a good comic book story, Batman #36 (9/46), with the same title as episodes #61, written by Alvin Schwartz. The published version moves along more quickly, unencumbered with the baggage of a cliffhanger. After many requests of Bill Dozier for an acting role in the series, writer Stanley Ralph Ross finally managed to capture the highly coveted, non-speaking role of Ballpoint Baxter in #61. "If you're real funny, you're going to get laughs without lines," Ross recalled Dozier telling him. "I tripped and I was wearing these thick bottle glasses," said Ross. "From that point on, the crew called me Ballpoint." Ralph Ross was the most frequent series writer with his name appearing on 27 episodes. Batbits: Watch for Ted Cassidy's Batclimb cameo in #61 as Lurch.
63 - THE CAT'S MEOW
64 - THE BAT'S KOW TOW 12/14/66 12/15/66.
Starring Julie Newmar as Catwoman
"Why, you're no dance teacher! You're Catwoman!" -Dick Grayson to Miss Klutz Boff! Z-zwap! Uggh! Cr-r-a-a-ck! Ooooff! -fight scene from #63
Written by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by James B. Clark. Catwoman plots to appropriate the voices of Chad and Jeremy with a Voice Eraser when the singing duo stop over at Wayne Manor. She locks the Dynamic Duo inside a huge echo chamber where the sound of a dripping faucet is magnified ten million times. Chad and Jeremy were good friends of casting director Michael McLean, who asked that they be worked into a script. Jay Sebring portrayed the operator of Mr. Oceanbring's Salon for Men. "He was a famous hairdresser," recalled Charles FitzSimons. "He had his own salon and was very expensive. And he was a friend of Bruce Lee's." Among the stylist's star clients were Bill Dozier, Stanley Ralph Ross, Milton Berle, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra. At the time, a Sebring original ran $50 with subsequent trims at $26. Along with Sharon Tate, he was one of the victims of Charles Manson and friends in 1969. BatBits: Watch for Steve Allen's cameo as TV host Allen Stevens, and Don Ho's reverse Batclimb cameo, both in #64.
65 - THE PUZZLES ARE COMING
66 - THE DUO IS SLUMMING 12/21/66 12/22/66
Starring Maurice Evans as The Puzzler
Written by Fred De Gorter. Directed by Jeffrey Hayden. Shakespeare-spouting Puzzler gasses guests at the christening of a new supersonic plane and relieves them of their jewelry. At the Puzzler's balloon factory the Dynamic Duo are sent skyward, unconcious in an aerial balloon, the basket holding our heroes set to fall back to earth when the balloon reaches 20,000 feet. Fred De Gorter's script actually began as a Riddler vehicle entitled "A Penny For Your Riddles/They're Worth A Lot More!" probably intended as an early second season episode. Frank Gorshin was unavailable, so De Gorter rewrote the script for a new villain, Mr. Conumdrum, titled "The Conumdrums are Coming/The Duo is Slumming," changed to the Puzzler (actually a Superman villain in the comic books). As a result, the Puzzler is merely a lightweight Riddler copycat. Robin's stuntman Victor Paul remembered filming the fight on the Lear Jet in #65. "The owner is standing there watching us. They're trying to shove me into the engine. The fat henchmen got on the wing and the plane titled down. It actually leaned way over, and touched the ground. The owner ran out and said, 'What are you doing? This is a two-and-a-half- million-dollar-plane and you guys are going to ruin it!'" BatBits: Watch for Andy Devine's cameo as Santa in a Batclimb in #66.
67 - THE SANDMAN COMETH
68- THE CATWOMAN GOETH 12/18/66 12/29/66.
Starring Julie Newmar as Catwoman
Starring Michael Rennie as The Sandman
Story by Ellis St. Joseph. Teleplay by Ellis St. Joseph and Charles Hoffman. Directed by George Wagner. Catwoman and Euro-crook Sandmakna, disguised as Dr. Somnambula, plot to relieve billionaire noodle queen J. Pauline Spaghetti of some of her wealth. Sandman puts Robin into a trance, pushing a button that brings the needle of a giant button stitching machine down on Batman, tied to a mattress. Michael Rennie as Sandman makes for another weak willain, even with the help of Julie Newmar's Catwoman.6 BatBits: Watch for former stripper Gypsy Rose Lee as a newscaster. William Dyer, Adam West's lighting stand-in got screen credit as a policeman, and often played cops on the show without credit.
69 - THE CONTAMINATED COWL
70 - THE MAD HATTER RUNS AFOUL 1/4/67 1/5/67.
Starring David Wayne as The Mad Hatter
Written by Charles Hoffman. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. Posing as the Three-Tailed Pasha of Panchagorum, Jervis Tetch, The Mad Hatter, heists Hattie Hatfield's valuable ruby. The Hatter's radioactive fumes turn Batman's cowl a contaminated pink. The Dynamic duo are locked inside an X-Ray Accelerator Tube and Fluoroscopic Cabinet, facing obliteratyion. Charles Hoffman's script makes little use of the Hatter's hat motif. Hoffman based his material on a comic book story, "The Mad Hatter of Gotham City" from Detective Comics #230 (4/56), but did little to develop the material. BatBits: Hoffman, the series story editor, wrote 22 scripts for the series, second only to Stanley Ralph Ross.
71 - THE ZODIAC CRIMES
72 - THE JOKER'S HARD TIMES
73 - THE PENGUIN DECLINES 1/11/67 1/12/67 1/18/67.
Starring Cesar Romero as The Joker
Starring Burgess Meredith as The Penguin
Story by Stephen Kandel, teleplay by Stephen Kandel and Stanford Sherman. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. Joker and Penguin collaborate in a series of crimes inspired by signs inspired by signs of the Zodiac. The Joker's moll, Venus, turns from her evil ways to assist Batman and Robin, but all three are chained in a shallow pool, about to be eaten by a giant clam. With the Penguin apprehended in Part One, this makes for a pretty weak collaboration. Howard Hughes' former girlfriend Terry Moore plays Venus. BatBits: These episodes were the series' first three-parter, simultaneously, simultaneously celebrating the show's one-year anniversary and helping to open ABC's second season. "You know I'm violently opposed to police brutality." -Commissioner Gordon
74 - THAT DARN CATWOMAN
75 - SCAT! DARN CATWOMAN 1/19/67 1/25/67.
Starring Julie Newmar as Catwoman
Written by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. Catwoman's aide, Pussycat, attacks Robin with cataphrenic, turning him to the Feline Fury's side of the law in a plot to buy plans for the Gotham City Mint. Batman tracks Catwoman to her hideout but is bound to a mousetrap with Robin cutting the rope... One of the series' highlights, with Leslie Gore as Pussycat and interesting twists including a captured and brainwashed Robin. Writer Stanley Ralph Ross's numerous wonderful wordplays alone warrant a close listen. BatBits: The test reel for the series used Burt Ward in several situations. Recalled Ward, "I did Dick Grayson in the civvies outfit, Robin doing a scene, and, because I'm a blackbelt in karate (they wanted a very athletic type of person), I broke a brick with my hand and broke a board over my head."
76 - PENGUIN IS A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND
77 - PENGUIN SETS A TRENT
78 - PENGUIN'S DISASTROUS END 1/26/67 2/1/67 2/2/67
Starring Burgess Meredith as The Penguin
Starring Carolyn Jones as Marsha Queen Of Diamonds
Written by Stanford Sherman. Directed by James B. Clark. Batman and Robin are coerced by Penguin to appear in a movie with Batman forced to do 100 takes of kissing scene with Marsha, Queen of Diamonds. The Dynamic Duo is tied to a giant catapult and readied to be launched across Gotham City. But Batman remotely commandeers the Batmobile to eject a safety net. Rejoining the production, they are dressed in chain mail armom and about to be pulverized as scrap metal in a high-pressure hydraulic crusher. Another multi-part show that would be improved if condensed. Robin stuntman Victor Paul recalled shooting the huge trash chutes in #77. Said Paul, "This magnetic crane picks up Batman and Robin [in armor] and takes them over this giant trough and drops them in, and [they] go through a giant funnel into a trash bin. We're up about 20 feet, when the director tells them to let go. I said, 'Let us go, bull. You can't let us go in the funnel with all this junk and metal? You can't do that.' He said, 'Gee, you're stuntmen.' And I said, 'Yeah, but we're not idiots.'" Ultimately, dummies were sent through the tunnel. BatBits: Carolyn Jones returned as Marsha. Several shots of the Batman set and crew can be found sprinkled throughout #76. "Only the Riddler and his ilk would have such a flagrant disregard for private property. This door will have to be repaired." -Batman to Robin
79 - BATMAN'S ANNIVERSARY
80 - A RIDDLING CONTROVERSY 2/8/67 2/9/67
Starring John Astin as The Riddler
Written by William P. D'Angelo. Directed by James B. Clark. Riddler robs Batman's charity dinner and the Gotham City Bank to raise funds to purchase a destructive De-Molecularizer. Batman and Robin, thinking they are posing for life-size marshmallow figures of themselves, discover they are sinking into quicksand atop a giant cake, a classic comics riff. John Astin takes over the Riddler role, but is not as nutty and over the edge as the Prince of Puzzlers demands (or at least as Frank Gorshin has accustomed us to). "The reason John Astin played the Riddler," recalled Gorshin, "was because I had a night club commitment which I couldn't cancel. They wouldn't let me out and the sudio wanted to do that episode at the same time. So, instead of waiting for me to be available, they figured I wasn't indispensible; they put my clothes on somebody else. I was really offended that they did. Of course, I understood the logistics and everything. There was nothing they could do. They had a schedule and so forth. BatBits: During 1966, Thursday installments of the series were rated the fifth most popular TV show while Wednesday segments were tenth. BONANZA was the series at #1. "Robin, warm up the Bat-spot analyzer while I take a sample of this affected cloth." -Batman
81 - THE JOKER'S LAST LAUGH
82 - THE JOKER'S EPITAPH 2/15/67 2/16/67
Starring Cesar Romero as The Joker
Story by Peter Rabe, teleplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. On the trail of phony phunds, Batman discovers that the chief teller at Gotham National Bank is a Joker-controlled robot raising funds for the Joker's Penthouse Publisher comic book company. Robin is captured and about to be pressed flat into a comic book. BatBits: Oscar Rudolph directed 36 episodes, and 30 of the final 52, the most of any of the 19 directors credited on the series. Producer Charles FitzSimons recalled that Rudolph directed the entire Ann Sothern series, PRIVATE SECRETARY. "He was very proficient, very responsible and a very good friend of mine." "The way we get into these scrapes and get out of them, it's almost as though someone was dreaming up these situations; guiding our destiny." -Robin to Batman
83 - CATWOMAN GOES TO COLLEGE
84 - BATMAN DISPLAYS HIS KNOWLEDGE 2/22/67 2/23/67
Starring Julie Newmar as Catwoman
Written by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by Robert Sparr. Catwoman steals a life-size statue of Batman to design a Batcostume and robs a supermarket. The real Batman is arrested, but escapes with Alfred's help. Catwoman then lures the Dynamic Duo to teh top of a building where they are dumped into a giant coffee cup. A huge percolator filled with sulfuric acid is about to pour liquid death over our subdued heroes. Another fantastic deathtrap from the mind of Stanley Ralph Ross, sandwiched between more modest material. Noted makeup man Lee Harman about Batman and Robin's costumes, "Those tights were so tight that they'd get sweaty. You'd have to use a hairdryer to keep them dry so that wouldn't show through." Added supervisor Bruce Hutchinson, "When they cut the scene and went onto something else, the cowl, the cape and the belt would come off; it got too hot. Every take. The cowl would just lift off. Adam perspired a lot. Burt's mask would come off and he had to have his hair combed over the mask every time." A segment with Batman in prison (second half of #83) shows exactly how Batman's cape and cowl were removed. BatBits: Watch for Art Linkletter in a Batclimb cameo in #83.
85 - A PIECE OF THE ACTION
86 - BATMAN'S SATISFACTION 3/1/67 3/2/67
Starring Roger C Carmel as Colonel Gumm
Written by Charles Hoffman. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. Batman and Robin team up with Green Hornet and Kato to stamp out counterfeiting at the Pink Chip Stamps Factory. Batman and Robin end up stuck to a glue table, while the Hornet and Kato are fed into a machine, about to be pressed into stamps. With four major heroes, several crooks and a handful of secondary characters to write for, little room was left for strong plot and character development. BATMAN and THE GREEN HORNET were filmed on the same Culver City lot, and shared the same network and producer. THE GREEN HORNET did poorly during its single season, often ranking in the bottom 20 of the Nielsen ratings. "It may be because we turned Batman into a camp character," observed Bill Dozier in 1967, "that people refuse to buy Green Hornet, or anyone else in a mask, who isn't treated in the same way." Robin stuntman Victor Paul remembered filming the climactic fight between the two Dynamic Duos. "We had quite an incident, because Batman and Robin didn't want to lose the fight. Bruce Lee didn't want to lose the fight [either]. They had a big to-do about that. Bruce Lee said, 'Nobody beats me.' Finally, we had to get the producer to come down and straighten out the whole deal. We just sat there and waited. He said, 'Look, it's a Mexican standoff. Nobody wins. You have this big fight. At the end of it, you just stop it and stare at each other; that's the end of the fight.' So that's how we did it. "I talked to Bruce Lee," added Paul. "Bruce, whatever you do, don't nail me because I'll come back with a chair on you.' He was fast; if he hit you, he'd knock your head off and he was used to making contact. I said, 'Don't make any contact with me because that's not right.'" BatBits: Watch for Edward G Robinson's Batclimb cameo in #86.
87 - KING TUT'S COUP
88 - BATMAN'S WATERLOO 3/8/67 3/9/67
Starring Victor Buono as King Tut
"If the Caped Crumb is here, the cowled creep can't be far behind." -King Tut
Story by Leo and Pauline Townsend. Teleplay by Stanley Ralph Ross. Directed by James B. Clark. Tut and his Tutlings cop a sarcophagus from the Gotham City museum and plot to kidnap Lisa Carson (Lee Meriwether), dressed as Cleopatra for the upcoming Egyptian Costume Ball. Batman is sealed in the royal sarcophagus and dropped into a large vat of water. Robin's fate: to be boiled in oil. Includes a Tut origin segment at the beginning of #87. Highlight: Carson inviting Bruce Wayne into her hotel room for milk and cookies, one of the few times Wayne kisses anyone on the show. Heavyweight Victor Buono was in his late 20's. "I was about 300 pounds at that point, also," observed scripter Stanley Ralph Ross. "So we looked like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I was about 30. We palled around together. I really liked Victor. He could make me laugh by saying hello. The guy was a genius. He wrote poetry and he did an album called 'Heavy'." Buono died January 2, 1983. BatBits: For the first time in the series, Commissioner Gordon discusses his daughter Barbara Gordon with Batman (#88), a precursor to her debut third season as Batgirl.
89 - BLACK WIDOW STRIKES AGAIN
90 - CAUGHT IN THE SPIDER'S DEN 3/15/67 3/16/67
Starring Tallulah Bankhead as The Black Widow
"I never touch spirits. Have you some milk?" -Batman to Black Widow"I never touch spirits. Have you some milk?" -Batman to Black Widow
Written by Robert Mintz. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. After Black Widow robs the American National, Beneficial, Commercial, Diversified, Empire and Federal State Banks, Batman concludes she is robbing in alphabetical order. The Gotham Guardian are caught in a giant web as two huge black widow spiders crawl towards them. As with Shame and Sandman, Black Widow does not rank among the classic Batman villains. Tallulah Bankhead's Popeye-esque mumbling in the role is all but inaudible. "She was a riot," said hairstylist Katheryn Blondell about Bankhead. "In the morning we spent two-and-a-half hours getting her ready and never stopped laughing the entire time. Wonderful stories, [a] funny person; charming and quite a character. She was the first person [who made me] realize that an actor is an actor no matter how old. This woman would be hunched over and kind of look like a little old lady sitting on the side of the set, but when they said 'action', she straightened up and she was sensational. BatBits: Watch for George Raft's cameo in #89. Batman sings in #90. In real life, Adam West cut a single, "Miranda," for 20th Century-Fox Records. Additionally, in 1966, The Marketts' version of the series' theme charted at #17 in Billboard's top 60, while an arrangement by Neal Hefti and his Orchestra made it to #35.
91 - POP GOES THE JOKER
92 - FLOP GOES THE JOKER 3/22/67 3/23/67
Starring Cesar Romero as The Joker
Written by Stanford Sherman. Directed by George Waggner. Joker joins the world of pop art when he disfigures paintings in a gallery with twin guns of spray paint, leading to a plot to steal the Renaissance art collections of imprisoned millionaires, including Bruce Wayne. Robin attmeps a rescue but ends up in a giant rotating mobile of deadly palette knives that will slice apart the Boy Wonder-bread. A fantastic pair of episodes that shows the staff's creativity at colorful lighting and design at its best. Some knowledge of art history will enhance and enjoyment and understanding of some of the less-obvious gags such as Jackson Potluck and Vincent Van Gauche. What knocks a piece of the ear off these episodes is perky overacting by Diana Ivarson as Baby Jane Towser, whose art contest helps launch the winning Joker on a new career as art instructor to the millionaires. BatBits: Dialog coach Milton Stark played several small roles in the series including the second browser in #92, as well as the second zoologist (#72), Mr. Tamber (#76) and Irving Bracken (#89).
93 - ICE SPY
94 - THE DUO DEFY 3/29/67 3/30/67
Starring Eli Wallach as Mr Freeze
"I'll call Batman on the red phone, you get Mr. Wayne on the other." -Commissioner Gordon to Chief O'Hara
Written by Charles Hoffman. Directed by Oscar Rudolph. Mr. Freeze kidnaps Professor Isaccson hoping to obtain an instant ice formula. Meanwhile, Batman discovers the connection between Freeze and ice-skating star Glacia Glaze (Leslie Parrish). The Dynamic Duo get shoved into a Sub-Zero Temperature Vaporizing Cabinet, shortly to become part of the Bruce Wayne Ice Arena. Though the story is up to bat-par, Eli Wallach as Freeze (continuing the character's Geman accent) doesn't match George Sanders' substantially cooler characterization (#7/8). Wallach was influenced by (or directed to emulate) Otto Preminger's previous silliness (#53/54). BatBits: The series' final Batclimb featured Carpet King, a cameo earned supposedly for selling producer Bill Dozier some Persian rugs. These sequences usually were written on a short deadline. "I would have to come up with stuff that ran 22 seconds or so," recalled scripter Stanley Ralph Ross. "They would call me up and say, 'Stanley, we've got so-and-so coming in tomorrow.' Sometimes I wrote it on the set. More often than not, I had a day. That was all decided by [producer] Bill Dozier and Howie Horwitz and it was all personal friends. People were waiting in line to do it. Everyone wanted to be on the show."
Batman Episode Guide - First Season
Batman Episode Guide - Third Season
HOME - HISTORY - HEROES - VILLAINS - GUEST STARS - BAT VEHICLES
BAT VIDEO - TRIVIA - EPISODE GUIDE - LIBRARY - MUSEUM
