Batman The Complete TV Series Limited Edition (11/11)(Blu-ray)(DVD) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Tony Bensley]

To be honest, I'm not especially looking forward to the final two Series Episodes!


In my opinion, BATMAN should have ended with "The Joker's Flying Saucer" extended to a three parter. Fake as that Saucer actually looked, I never get tired of the Joker, as portrayed by Caesar Romero, Mustache and all! For that matter, there really wasn't enough of Frank Gorshin's Riddler character in Season 3, either!


What I miss most in Season 3, are the Captioned Cliffhangers between parts 1 and 2 (And occasionally 2 and 3!), and watching the Dynamic Duo climb the same Building time and again, and encountering a different celebrity, who invariably stuck their head out of the same window so often during the Second Season! Hey, I think it's better than the cheap looking sets from Season 3, which in my opinion, looked their worst in the "Londinium" three parter! These were seriously the same sets that were too expensive for NBC to replace? Hearing that false Londinium name for London repeated through the rest of the Series, has also grown rather tiresome for me!


CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

I actually found "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra" to be pretty entertaining.


Aside from the invisibility element, along with the "appearances" of the arch Bat-Villains (Actually doubles!), Batman's "Opening thrust of manhood" line alone, is well worth the price of admission, in my opinion!


Curiously, Catwoman as she appeared in this episode, isn't at all modeled after Eartha Kitt, who had portrayed the Feline Villainess only a scant few episodes prior to this one!


Now, for "Minerva, Mayhem And Millionaires." After that, the remaining Bonus Features that I haven't yet viewed!


CHEERS!

 

[Jack P]

They brought back Julie Newmar's stand-in for that "Catwoman" appearance. Incidentally, Lupino's outfit is the same outfit worn by Minstrel's moll Octavia in S2 and also by Joker's henchmoll Josie in another S2 episode.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Maybe it's just me, but more of the camp seemed to reappear in the last few Series Episodes!


In "Minerva, Mayhem And Millionaires," the stunned look on Bruce Wayne's Face as Minerva attempts to extract from his memory (Hey, when viewing the Episode, it makes sense!), is priceless! This is also one of the Episodes in which Commissioner Gordon gets taken in by yet another Beautiful Woman! How many times has he conveniently forgotten that he's a married man, anyway? It seems that by Series end, Mrs. Gordon doesn't even rate a mention--Ouch! At any rate, viewers get to experience a taste of Neil Hamilton as he must have been in his leading man roles during the late Silent Era, when he...well, I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the Episode!


In my opinion, Zsa Zsa Gabor was never as good an actress as her sister, Eva was, but she gets by in this final BATMAN Episode. I still would have preferred if the Series had ended with one of the Arch Bat Villains instead, but so it goes!


At least there was no annoying plot integrated intrusion of next week's Villain to mar the good feeling of another crime solved!


CHEERS!

 

[Jack P]

Actually, there was only one mention of Gordon being married in S2, and I think by the time they decided to introduce the character of Batgirl, the idea was now that Gordon was a widower. These kinds of inconsistencies are quite common to TV of that era.

There's not a lot of good I can say about S3. The pacing of the show at a half hour was just off, and you had far too many stupid plots with next to nothing of the blend that S1 had (an exception being the Siren episode which is as close to a more earlier Batman episode than any other that year). One of the problems was that you had by that point most episodes being directed by Oscar Rudolph whose background was in sitcoms (he'd been house director of "My Favorite Martian" before "Batman"). It's no coincidence that the better episodes of "Batman" were the ones directed by veterans of the one hour show format who at least had a better sense of pacing and performance and who could also be better at toning things down too much whereas with Rudolph the humor and camp tended to get far more out of control.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Tony Bensley, on 04 Sept 2015 - 11:21 PM, said:

Hi Lou!


Both scenarios are definite possibilities. What strikes me however, is that the compromised footage doesn't occur anywhere near either a reel change, a commercial break, or tag ending, which would seem the likeliest spots that this would happen.


On a side note, "The Joker's Flying Saucer" looks about as convincing as a School Project, in my opinion!


CHEERS!


Tony

Tony, is that the episode where Batman rides on the surfboard along with Joker?

Hi Richard!


No, that would be "Surf's Up! Joker's Under!" from earlier in Season 3.


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[brynmill]

Actually, there was only one mention of Gordon being married in S2, and I think by the time they decided to introduce the character of Batgirl, the idea was now that Gordon was a widower. These kinds of inconsistencies are quite common to TV of that era.

One early episode (not sure if it was s1 or s2) which Gordon mentioned having grandchlldren. Either Barbara had a sin fling and had her kids removed by the authorities......... or Gordon had another son or daughter which he doesn't talk about

 

[Tony Bensley]

One early episode (not sure if it was s1 or s2) which Gordon mentioned having grandchlldren. Either Barbara had a sin fling and had her kids removed by the authorities......... or Gordon had another son or daughter which he doesn't talk about

Most likely by order of the Commissioner, himself!


Oh, those inconsistencies!


CHEERS!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched the Catwoman episodes from Season 2 that guest starred Leslie Gore as Pussycat last night. I do vividly remember the episodes from my adolescence, but I did not understand who Leslie Gore was at that time. When Leslie initially came on screen and soon started singing, I knew she was a '60's pop singer, but it took my awhile to figure out it was Gore.


All these cameos have been one of the best things about revisiting this series after so many years. My parents were in town and staying overnight with us, so we watched an episode that featured "Santa Claus" popping out the window as Batman and Robin batclimbed the building. We recognized the distinctive voice, but just couldn't recall the actor's name. It took an Internet search for me to find that it was Andy Devine.

 

[dvdclon]

When I watched through the set a few months back, I was surprised how few of those Bat-climb scenes with cameos there actually were. I had thought they were just about every week.

 

[Jack P]

Gore's uncle was Howie Horwitz, the producer of the show.

The Batclimbs were unique pretty much to Season 2. I think Jerry Lewis was the only one in Season 1. Some of the cameos would sometimes be filmed separate from the main episode and they would just be inserted where appropriate (the giveaway is if the dialogue prior to a cameo during the climb is generic and not episode specific). For the most part, they would also try to have these cameos take place in a big skyscraper but on two occasions we had the oddity of Sammy Davis's cameo taking place in the building where Clock King's hideout is located and Dick Clark's cameo takes place while they are climbing down outside Police HQ!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched the John Astin Riddler episodes today. He was as bad as I remembered. I am not sure what that flexing of his arm was supposed to be, but it looked as ridiculous as Otto Preminger playing with his eyebrows. You could just imagine Frank Gorshin laughing his Riddler laugh watching Astin's performance and thinking "this is what they ended up with instead of paying me?"

 

[Tony Bensley]

I'm sure that John Astin did his best, but he was just so miscast as The Riddler, it quite literally wasn't even funny, and was in my opinion, an obvious desperate move on ABC's part!


I can't help but wonder whether the airing of those two Riddler Episodes were what marked the start of the late season 2 sharp ratings drop?


CHEERS!

 

[KPmusmag]

I like John Astin, but I agree, he wasn't right for The Riddler. Too bad they didn't create a new villain tailored for his talents.

 

[Jack P]

I think the powers that be had reached a point where after rewriting two Riddler scripts first for Puzzler and then Joker, they decided they weren't going to wait for Gorshin any longer. Astin I believe had an ABC contract that needed to be burned off because of Addams Family's cancellation the previous year (which is why Jones also appeared on the show and even explains Ted Cassidy's Lurch cameo in one episode) so he was conveniently available.

The ratings decline had started long before that episode though.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Don't get me wrong -- I do not have anything against John Astin. He was, as others have stated, just horribly miscast in the role of Riddler. It still looked like he was playing Gomez Addams. Sort of like asking John Wayne to do Shakespeare.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Don't get me wrong -- I do not have anything against John Astin. He was, as others have stated, just horribly miscast in the role of Riddler. It still looked like he was playing Gomez Addams. Sort of like asking John Wayne to do Shakespeare.

Or Genghis Khan....


Uhhh, wait a minute, Pilgrim!

 

[Tony Bensley]

I think the powers that be had reached a point where after rewriting two Riddler scripts first for Puzzler and then Joker, they decided they weren't going to wait for Gorshin any longer. Astin I believe had an ABC contract that needed to be burned off because of Addams Family's cancellation the previous year (which is why Jones also appeared on the show and even explains Ted Cassidy's Lurch cameo in one episode) so he was conveniently available.

The ratings decline had started long before that episode though.

Hi Jack P!


I realize that a gradual ratings drop had initially began late in the first season.


What I'm referencing is one of the Bonus Features, within which was stated that the ratings fell very sharply late in season 2. It was something to the effect that, when the ratings dropped, they really dropped!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[ponset]

I see the BATMAN 66 comic book is being cancel with #30.

I have enjoy reading most of the issues. and I thought the introduction of Poison Ivy in #26 was handle well.

Although her southern drawl got annoying after a bit.


With an ending there is also a begining, as in December they are starting a 6 issue BATMAN 66/MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. crossver

mini-series.


I agree that John Astin was ill suited to play the Riddler.

Perhaps a villain like Prof Milo would have been better for his talents.

 

[Tony Bensley]

For those who still want the "Batman: The Complete TV Series (Limited Edition)" Blu-ray set, it's currently selling for $99.99 Canadian at Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LW7B0I6/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=0A9EE694P5S49507JN3G&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2055621862&pf_rd_i=desktop


CHEERS!