King Tut/Victor Buono: What's your opinion?

[TP-6597]

It seemed by "Shoot a Crooked Arrow" the die was cast. Starting off the 2nd season with the worst episode up to that point, Art Carney badly miscast, and the script bulging with some of Stanley Ralph Ross' worst writing -- and that's really saying something! Basically it was Bill Dozier & team saying, "We've established a 'Batman' format and not it's all about amping up the camp and cutting costs. You people will watch anyway." And people didn't. "Cat & The Fiddle" was nearly as bad. Neither show had any excitement whatsoever. Nothing, to me was even close to as good as the final episode of the first season (starring Pengy), except for The Clock King, The Minstrel, The 2nd season Mad Hatter, Otto Preminger's Mr. Freeze, The Sandman, and to some extent The Siren. Really, in the end nothing really killed Batman but Dozier. In later interviews he made excuses. That Batman wasn't a show expected to last long. But really he had lightning in a bottle and never really understood how he'd done it.

That pretty much sums it up as far as I'm concerned. Season One is awesome, Season Two is hit or miss, Season Three is saved by Yvonne. I watch them all, but skip a few episodes that just don't seem worth the trouble.

To the topic; Didn't like Tut 49 years ago, don't care for him now. Not sure why, but I'd venture to guess that even in a show where someone dressed up as a bat to fight cosplay villains, to me as a four-year-old, Tut seemed silly and one-dimensional. Once Joker, Riddler, and Catwoman showed their villains to have depth and internal conflict, those who followed had some big shoes to fill.

I don't skip Tut episodes, but I don't seek them out the way I do Joker, Catwoman, and Riddler.

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

King Tut has always been my favorite villain. I've never owned a comic book in my life, so the appeal of Batman to me as always been the over-the-top camp, and he was perfect in that regard.

I found the juxtapositions of Ancient Egypt and modern society hysterical; such as Tut and crew waiting to hear about the Bruce Wayne kidnapping, sitting around eating hot dogs and watching destruction derby.

I, too, have also found myself Google-ing things like "Theban Pebble Torture" and "Abu Rabu Simbu Tu" to see if they were actually real.

[Larry A.]

I would think that if Tut had been a big player in the "after T.V.-Fan life", We'd have heard more about him on the fan forums. Is He amusing? In a unique sort of way, but if one notices, Tut, like so many other villains, doesn't show up on things like the Moebius models.

Cheers,

[chrisbcritter]

Buono's performance as Tut sometimes seems like he's channeling W.C. Fields a bit (and I mean that in a good way). His costume was my favorite when I was a kid; loved the elaborate details and I would have loved to have a mini-me version of it for Halloween (years later, as an Aztec dancer, I was finally able to wear outfits that were even flashier...)

[AndyFish]

Back from Japan with serious jetlag and a major remodel n my art studio so we've been running the blu Rays to entertain us, a lot of these I've not seen in years since I tend to watch the same first season episodes over and over again. The second Tut appearance is even better than his first and had us all laughing out loud at some of his quips. He's quickly becoming the office favorite.

[Progress Pigment]

Sadly and surprisingly he was only 43 when he died. I remember seeing him on The Tonight Show, and you'd have guessed he was a 60 year old man. Had he lived, probably he would have eventually seemed more his correct age. Sean Connery seemed to age quickly, then stopped aging for a decade or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYJNgESEsPg

[Larry A.]

Heck, I'M 62 YEARS OLD AND I DON'T LOOK IT!!!!!!! May be 59, Yes, but NOT 62





Cheer!

[WaltP]

Tut has always been my favorite villain. AS a kid, the -- subtlety -- if the character was missed, but the antics were hilarious. Even then I knew Buono's overacting made the character.

As an adult, the way he delivered his insults/lines, and his dialog was clever and so over the top:
"Boiling Oil"/ep 2-54,
"Bubble Bubble little bat"/2-53,
"I know."/3-23,
"break every tooth"/2-54
"mortal enemies"/2-53
No other criminal had such colorful lines.

Even after he became the Professor, the way he said "Why do you have a purple mask on, lady" to Batgirl was just priceless!