Rewatching the show-- characters reconsidered.

[dell]

If they had written season 2 Catwoman the way they did King Tut it would have worked much better. Have her careen instantaneously from a small flirtation to menacing after being rejected by Batman. This would actually be typical cat behavior. Some of our cats act all lovey dovey until you pet them once too often and then they turn and strike for what appears to be no reason.

[High C]

Continuing...

Egghead: The egg puns didn't bother me as a child, but now they take me right out of his season 2 story (not that it was any great shakes to begin with, other than the mad scientist-like aspect of the potential consciousness-switching. I wish they had done more with that). And the less said about his later teamup with the cartoonish Olga, the better.

Marsha: I get the camp aspects as an adult, especially now that marriage basically is presented as a deathtrap, but I still don't like the character. No menace whatsoever. And the plot has too many holes even by the standards of a Batman script.

Shame: It's kind of like Penguin, whom I mentioned earlier in this thread. I get it as an adult, and better understand what Cliff Robertson was doing, but the character still doesn't quite do it for me.

Black Widow: Much like with Marsha, I now understand the camp element in a way I didn't comprehend it in the mid-1970s, but I still don't like the character. Again, no menace whatsoever. And Bankhead's self-induced near-mummified state doesn't help. A less infirm performer could have made this a better arc.

Catwoman (Eartha Kitt): The change was jarring as a kid, but I really like Kitt's evilness in the role. And her hatred of Batgirl is off the charts, for some reason.

Nora Clavicle: I didn't like it as a child, but I couldn't yet grasp all the blatant misogyny in it. Worst of all perhaps, and not always mentioned, is that Nora claims women are superior to men, but her entire plan depends upon women being spectacularly INEPT. A poorly-written character, besides everything else wrong with this episode.

Minerva: I found her a bit boring as a kid, but came to understand it merely was Zsa Zsa playing Zsa Zsa. Which, to be fair, she knew how to do quite well. Although Carolyn Jones didn't do a bad job of playing Zsa Zsa as MQOD.

[bat-rss]

Next week; The Joker!

In the course of doing the podcast, I've found that the first Joker arc is possibly my favorite of the entire series. It's funny but also stands up in terms of story and action.

[elmrgraham]

The Catwoman and The Siren were the best Batman TV Villainesses.

[AndyFish]

If they had written season 2 Catwoman the way they did King Tut it would have worked much better. Have her careen instantaneously from a small flirtation to menacing after being rejected by Batman. This would actually be typical cat behavior. Some of our cats act all lovey dovey until you pet them once too often and then they turn and strike for what appears to be no reason.

Ha! Exactly why I'm a dog person! I don't mind cats and even drop in and feed the neighbors one when they are away but I've never had a dog suddenly turn on me.

[AndyFish]

The first Joker episode, which I've seen a dozen times, still offered some revelations now that I'm watching it on a 4K 55" TV;

Joker has no makeup on his neck or hands in the prison scene.
Batman and Robins eyes are flesh colored in the opening cartoon.
The emblem on Batmans chest is a wrinkled mess at the museum in his closeup.

[clavierankh]

The first Joker episode, which I've seen a dozen times, still offered some revelations now that I'm watching it on a 4K 55" TV;

Joker has no makeup on his neck or hands in the prison scene.
Batman and Robins eyes are flesh colored in the opening cartoon.
The emblem on Batmans chest is a wrinkled mess at the museum in his closeup.

They were using the silk screen emblem at that time instead of the stick on logo.

[AndyFish]

The first Joker episode, which I've seen a dozen times, still offered some revelations now that I'm watching it on a 4K 55" TV;

Joker has no makeup on his neck or hands in the prison scene.
Batman and Robins eyes are flesh colored in the opening cartoon.
The emblem on Batmans chest is a wrinkled mess at the museum in his closeup.

They were using the silk screen emblem at that time instead of the stick on logo.

The wrinkled one in the museum looks silkscreened--

But in the scene before it looks like the sticker version;

Interesting that after he leaves Police HQ he drives to the museum but his emblem is much further up his chest (more like the comics);

While were at it here is the opening cartoon with the flesh colored eyes

And here is the Joker with flesh colored neck and hands;

CESAR MAKEUP.jpg (88.73 KiB) Viewed 2524 times

It brings up an interesting question-- is The Joker supposed to be wearing makeup like Heath Ledger's Joker or has he been permanently deformed like Jack Nicholson's?

In the comics, his whole body is white. Obviously too much to do with Cesar but in the "reality" of the show I wonder what his origin would have been. In an interview Cesar talks about the Red Hood which was the Joker's identity in the comics before he fell into the vat which changed his skin and hair color, so he did his research even if it was never mentioned on the show.

[AndyFish]

The second half of the Joker episode held up very well. The scene where Batman and Robin are launching the ship it's clearly not Burt. Through most of the shot his back is to the camera and when we cut to Robin for his response he's been filmed somewhere else.

I never bought Burt's claim as shown in Return to the Batcave that he was always in the emergency room-- because if he was the bandages he's wrapped with are all miraculously only in the area of his skimpy costume.
But maybe this is a case of that and stuntman Victor Paul had to stand in for him.

Storytelling wise-- it's a solid pair of episodes and a nice introduction to The Joker but Batman uses the same trick to get free from him 2-3 times (pulling a gas bomb out of his belt) and Joker falls for it each time.

Next week: Mister Freeze!