TO THE BATPOLES podcast #62: Batman vs The Green Hornet: Blue, Green, and Pink

[bat-rss]

In the latest To the Batpoles podcast, the Green Hornet and Kato visit Gotham City. Was it simply an attempt to (belatedly) promote the Hornet's series, or was there another reason?

http://tothebatpoles.libsyn.com/062-bat ... n-and-pink

[John Mack]

I believe it was all about promotion. Dozier was not going to let that get by him if at all possible. Although, did he do the same for his failed Tammy Grimes? Dunno. I know Wonder Woman would have been cross promoted if it had been green lighted I'm sure.

[bat-rss]

A Batman guest shot on Tammy Grimes? There's an idea!

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Tim & Paul, nice review of the first live action superhero crossover, and thanks for discussing Lee's obsession with Burt Ward! Someone needs to talk to Ward about that...

A few things...

Batman does not win the rivalry on every point. In fact in the opening of part two, GH & Kato remind Batman & Robin that in saving them, they let Gumm and his henchman go, with Kato saying, "not too smart for smart crime fighters." Fairly insulting, and a point the Dynamic Duo could not counter.

One of the great missed opportunities of the crossover was not allowing Ward & Lee to choreograph certain parts of the fight scene to take advantage of Ward's martial arts skills. It seems strange that Ward was allowed to use his training (to a point) in the Batman movie, and random episodes of the series ("When the Rat's Away the Mice Will Play" and "Penguin's Disastrous End" come to mind), but not when it mattered most.

Perhaps its wishful thinking, but I've always believed Ward and Lee would have jumped at the chance to work out their own scene as way of doing something memorable. To be clear, Victor Paul would stand in for the rough work (Robin kicked over the table), but the actors should have been able to contribute more.


About the absence of Hornet music: the opening of the crossover uses a piece of music from the Hornet TV series (during Dozier's narration), but not much else in part one.

You guys forgot to mention Alex Rocco as Gumm's henchman Block, perhaps best known as the ill-fated Moe Greene from The Godfather.

About Roger C. Carmel: he retuned to the Harry Mudd role for the animated Star Trek series ("Mudd's Passion"). I'm sure Paul is already on amazon ordering the series on Blu-ray...just for the Mudd episode!

Finally, both series seemed to be destined to breathe the same air from the start; aside from the "The Spell of Tut" window cameo, magazines such as the short-lived Teen Book (published one month before the crossover) sold the idea of the Bat & Hornet series (in front & behind the camera) were connected...











Of course, magazines of this kind were printed by the boatload during the 60s, but the feature story goes out of its way (perhaps at Dozier's request?) to link the two series.

[Jim Akin]

I just rewatched the episodes after listening to the podcast, and noticed something for the first time. It's never mentioned in dialogue, but there is an explanation for the way Pinky's alphabet-soup letters revert to uncooked noodles before Batman feeds them to the batcomputer in "Batman's Satisfaction." In that scene, a gadget is visible just below the Batcomputer Ingestor Switch that wasn't there when the Ingestor Switch was conspicuously displayed (for the first time ever) in "A Piece of the Action." It's labeled "Instant Bat Ray Alphabet Soup Dryer."

BatAlphabetSoupDryer.png (229.7 KiB) Viewed 2721 times

[bat-rss]

Wow, nice catch! Cool!

If I had been the guest on the Batcave Podcast episode about this arc, I would have to name that as my favorite Bat-gadget!

[robinboyblunderer]

While I definitely appreciate these shows more as an adult, they're not among my favorites.

The banter between Bruce, Reid and Pinky is enjoyable but I think they should have had Batman figure out Green Hornet and Kato are good guys; that never comes up, does it?

The worst element for me is Colonel Gumm. Definitely one of the least interesting original villains. It would've been better to have the Green Hornet and Kato meet the Joker.

They wouldn't have had to change the plot in any way; suddenly being into stamps is no different for the Joker than rigging High School Basketball games, becoming a surf champion, flying a UFO, creating a device that "makes time go backwards and forwards" or deciding to become a world famous painter.

It would've made for an interesting contrast, seeing the pulp energy of the Green Hornet and Kato meet the colorful craziness of the Joker.

What a pay off that would've been, having the Joker be the third one to say, "I'm glad these awful fellows aren't in town every week" after he's beaten.

[Dr. Shimel]

They wouldn't have had to change the plot in any way; suddenly being into stamps is no different for the Joker than rigging High School Football games, becoming a surf champion, flying a UFO, creating a device that "makes time go backwards and forwards" or deciding to become a world famous painter.

Basketball, actually.

[robinboyblunderer]

Nice catch, I fixed it.

[bat-rss]

The worst element for me is Colonel Gumm. Definitely one of the least interesting original villains. It would've been better to have the Green Hornet and Kato meet the Joker.

I'd have to disagree. In this TV format, I think the stage would have been even more crowded by the Joker than by Gumm, and there wouldn't have been enough time to develop the situation with so many characters around. (For that matter, you could argue that that was a big enough problem with this arc as it is.) Now, in a feature-length movie, then perhaps a Batman/Hornet/Joker story could deliver.

But I do agree that at least a suggestion that Batman isn't buying the Hornet's "criminal" charade would have been nice. Season One Batman probably would have.

[Mr. Glee]

I've been enjoying the podcasts. In this one, you mention Bruce's odd line from the opening, when he tell Gordon "We'll run wide open" - which sounds like a blooper or a flub. I thought you might be interested to know that the line was actually scripted that way (but it still doesn't make any sense to me!)

Also, in the episode as aired, after several references to the mystery of the missing "Gotham Gothic" stamp, the matter is dropped without any resolution...but in the copy of the script that I have, when Gumm is apprehended at the end of the episode, Batman demands to know what became of the "Gotham Gothic" - and Gumm confesses: "I accidentally used it to mail a letter." Not much of a payoff, if you ask me - I'm not surprised they cut the line.

[clavierankh]

Run wide open means to run with the throttle wide open. In other words they will be there as fast as possible.

[Golddragon71]

The interesting thing I noticed about this episode was that for the most part, anyone who refers to Kato does so by calling him the Green Hornet's masked accomplice/confederate etc... This of course means that the "enforcer" the green Hornet works with has no proper name. (oddly enough Batman actually refers to the enforcer as Kato when they rescue the pair from Gumm's machine

also of note Kato never appears in his civilian clothes with Britt Reid publicly. He's seen in the episode at Britt's hotel room wearing his usual white jacket and tie. but he's never with britt in public.

[bat-rss]

Golddragon71 -- yeah, I kept meaning to mention that Kato has the same name in both identities! But you're right, his "superhero" name is generally not known by other characters on the GH series. Having Robin call him that could be considered a slipup.

Mr. Glee and Klavier Ankh -- thanks for the info on "run wide open"! I guess it's not a flubbed "run right over", but rather language that's become a bit antiquated -- or at least, I'm certainly not familiar with the expression.