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1966 Batman DVD Coming! See Post 649 (1 Viewer)

David Lambert

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darkrock17 said:
John Astin, I think was good Riddler, his take the role was very Gomez Addams in some parts.
As a kid who watched every episode (or I suppose it was) of Addams Family before first catching Batman...I loved, loved, LOVED Astin as Gomez. Did then, do now. But when I first saw him as The Riddler, little kid me was like, "Whyyyyyyyyyy??????....." I'm looking forward in November to seeing it all over again, and judging anew, but his take on it was SO different than Gorshin's that I was upset, confused, hurt and angry. It just was not right. It was no good. It did not work for little me. I did watch Astin's episodes again, in endless reruns of the era...but I do recall one time as one of those two parts came on I freaked out my brother and sister by changing the channel, telling them it was a bad episode.Years later I saw Astin show up in the TV series version of Operation Petticoat, and loved him all over again. Then of course years later from that, as "Buddy" in Night Court. Etc., etc. LOVED my son's reaction when I pointed out "Gomez Addams' son" in Lord Of The Rings films. :)My gut feeling these days is that his performance as The Riddler would have been fine for young me, if I had seen it first, except that Frank Gorshin had already defined the role, and that I simply wouldn't accept anyone else in the part.As a side note, it's worth mentioning here that the first episode of Star Trek I ever remember tuning in to was "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," because I was flipping channels and I saw this half-white/half-black/colors-split-down-the-middle guy running through some corridors with images of fires burning being overlayed. I realized it was "The Riddler" (Gorshin) under all that makeup, and I was like, "Huh?" So I left it on. I watched the end of the episode, and my mom and dad came in the room and watched it with me, and told me it was a rerun of a show called Star Trek. They made sure I caught the next rerun, and I was hooked ever since. They had no idea at the time what a monster Trek fan they were creating...all thanks to Batman. :D
 

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