Is it just me, or do Tim and Paul sound really chilled out in this episode? It's almost sedated compared to when you're thousands of miles apart. What happened? Were you just high on nostalgia from being in your home town? Or was there a little bit of [strictly medicinal] Bat-herb being passed around before recording?
The question in the title is an interesting one. I'm not sure it's one that can be answered... But I guess that's what makes it so darned interesting! My opinion is, with the path the show took, the slide in quality was inevitable, yes.
The second season had almost twice as many episodes as the first. In less than two years, Dozier produced almost 100 episodes AND a feature length film! Quality was traded for quantity, I'm afraid. I think it's safe to say that the budget wasn't doubled to reflect increased output. Otherwise, I think Nelson Riddle would have stayed on the payroll. His music (and later, the lack of it) made a big difference in the later episodes of S2 for me. Heck, maybe they could have thrown some extra cash Gorshin's way to get the REAL Riddler back on set.
The second point that sealed the fate of the show is the departure of Lorenzo Semple Jr., which you also mentioned. Semple was the lifeblood of Batman and the pilot script proves it. Almost everything that made Batman
Batman came out of this man's head. It's a shame that he wasn't very interested in T.V. work at the time. In interviews he says he only wanted to work in movies. Had he stayed on, I think we would have seen a very different Season 2. Although, working under the time and budget constraints that come with producing twice as much content, even
with Semple I doubt we would have gotten a true Season 1 encore.
