A possible fourth season of Batman.

[epaddon]

Exactly, the whodunit formula being described is not Batman but "Ellery Queen" (a great series BTW where David "Mad Hatter" Wayne played the police inspector father to Jim Hutton's title character). That's not a formula that works for an action type/comic book series unless you turn it into "Scooby Doo" style stuff and "Batman" isn't the place IMO for an unmasked villain to glare at Batman and Robin in the last second and go, "And I've gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling Caped Crusaders!"

[weirdkorey]

I think it would have been cool to have a few episodes where it was kind of a mystery as to who the villain was until the very end. I think it would have worked for 2 reasons:

1) I think Batman was always best when displaying his incredible detective skills (like he did in several 1st season episodes).

2) It could have worked with the limited budget a forth season would have had because you techinically could just have the guest villain only have 2 or 3 lines as more of a cameo & they wouldn't have had to pay them as a full guest villain. You could have a crime committed at the beginning of the episode without revealing who commited it, then go the whole episode with Batman & Robin finding clues & deducing who the villain was at the end. It would have worked for a once a week time slot.

I get your point, but one of the fun things about Batman was the flashy villains, their overacting and the bizarre traps. When you take that away I think the show would be a lot more dull. If they did it once or twice it would probably have been OK, but too often and it wouldn't be Batman.

Exactly, I completely agree I was just suggesting it for maybe 2 or 3 single part episodes dispersed through a season, not for this to be the norm.

[clavierankh]

I think Zelda The Great and Chandell were similar to this concept of the villain being unknown. We knew who they were and they go special guest villain billing but Batman had to use detective work to fiure tings out and really didn't catch on until part two.

Someone in another thread mentioned the plot hole of Batman not recognizing Zellda. We don't know what kind of costuming or make up she used on stage.