Why didn't Julie appear in season 3?

[Larry A.]

Hey P.P.! I remember seeing My Living Doll, albeit vaguely as I was quite small. Up until 30 years ago, I actually had an 8mm film copy of an episode. I don't remember where I got it, but now that You mention it,
Julie wasn't in it except for the credit. Of course She may have been in the film as I was more interested in the flying car ( of which I now have a model of).
Anyone else out there have a copy of that 8mm?
Hey, P.P.! What do You know about the rumor that Lee was up for the role of Maureen Robinson on "Lost in Space"? Thanks, Buddy

[Dr. Shimel]

They were able to salvage at least 12 episodes of My Living Doll:

http://mercurie.blogspot.com/2012/03/my ... o-dvd.html

[Larry A.]

Thanks, Doc, I may see about them myself.

[epaddon]

Julie Newmar was equal or lessor to Lee Meriwether at the time of Batman. Remember, Dozier wanted Suzanne Pleshette for Catwoman originally! Also not a star.

Suzanne Pleshette, I would note, in 1966 had at least a resume of major roles in big-screen movies at the time. Most notably the doomed schoolteacher in Hitchcock's "The Birds." She also had done a series of significant guest roles on other TV series in the early 60s in very heavy dramatic parts including "Dr. Kildare" (where she plays a woman dying from a terminal disease and struggling with the issue of her mortality) and also a "Route 66". That again is a resume of focal point-lead type roles far deeper than what Lee had at that point in time, even if I do grant that she would have made a very unlikely Catwoman and wouldn't have been my first choice. But that again isn't a comment on whether she was a legit TV-star of the day or not because at that point in time she did fall in that category.

And I'm sorry but to suggest Julie Newmar was equal or lesser to Lee Meriwether in 1966 is an argument that isn't supported by the facts. Lee certainly had fame as a public persona from Miss America and The Today Show, but that was nearly a decade in the past and when she branched into acting that past success didn't get her choice parts, she had to start from the bottom getting the bit part roles first and working her way up. To her credit she did to the level of solid supporting player, but in 1966 she hadn't fully arrived at that level at that point. "Batman" along with "Time Tunnel" unquestionably helped elevate her to that level but never to that of true bona fide star.

Regarding a few other points:

#1-Victor Buono won an Oscar nomination for the 1962 movie "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?" which is what made him a "star" figure at that point in time.

#2-What Julie, Eartha or Adam did after "Batman" is not relevant to the issue being discussed which is explaining casting decisions made in 1966-67 based on the resumes that existed then, not to mention properly judging what followed. And I would note that Lee's career was not "winding down" when she got "Barnaby Jones". The year before she'd had a regular role in a failed Andy Griffith sitcom as his wife, so she had already been establishing herself as someone to go to for a supporting role in a series, but not as a lead.

#3-"My Living Doll" was Julie's show. It revolved around her so much that's the reason Bob Cummings finally quit and walked out on it before its run ended because even he knew that it revolved around her rather than him. But leaving that aside, you still have to familiarize yourself with what Julie had been doing before that show as well regarding "Marriage Go-Round" on Broadway and the big screen, not to mention her "Lil Abner" success, and the fact that she too had been appearing frequently as top level guest star on variety shows and game show panels in those days to.

#4-Frank Gorshin as an impressionist was a very familiar face on television from many appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and other variety shows and talk shows. It's easy to lose sight of how shows that were not part of our own rerun experience in life were very influential at one time in shaping perceptions of who was a "star" in the minds of audiences and producers at the time "Batman" first aired.

I'm not saying any of this to knock Lee because I think she did a great job as CW in the film. But if we want to ask why she wasn't considered as a replacement CW for S3 that requires taking a harder look at her career and what her usual acting range was at that point and then the context suddenly becomes a lot more clear.

[Aussie Batfan]

I love your explanations eppadon - thanks for the info and background provided.
Respectfully though I again disagree - in my opinion, the requirements of the scripts for the Catwoman episodes in Season 3 had far less weight than the film characterisation. If Lee could pull that off, Season Three would have been a piece of cake.
Take care,
Terry

[High C]

Have to agree with epaddon about Lee Meriwether. A few points:

1. When Newmar bowed out of the movie because of a back injury, as reported in Variety per board member Bob Furmanek, she had signed to do the movie for a fee of $10K exactly. (Another poster once posted an attachment showing the signed contract.) Lee was paid $5,500, barely over half what Julie had signed for. Clearly, in the eyes of Fox and Dozier, Julie was a bigger deal. Money talks.

2. epaddon mentioned Newmar's Route 66 guest shots. The second one, titled coincidentally, 'Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse, is a backdoor pilot setting up a potential series starring Julie as a free-spirited but troubled heiress. Not to mention My Living Doll. Newmar already was a TV star when she signed on for Batman. Lee was not.

3. I also would argue that Lee's innate goodness as a person worked against her in terms of landing a focal-point guest villain shot on any show (which, if you look at her credits, she never did). Consider that in the excellent Star Trek book, These Are the Voyages Season Three by Marc Cushman, Lee was interviewed about her Trek guest shot as a reluctantly murderous android/hologram, a siren-type character, essentially. The whole point of the role is that the android eventually feels remorse over killing because it retained some of the personality of the woman (played by Lee) it was based upon. In fact, at one point during filming, Lee admits she broke character at one point because she thought she had hurt fellow actor George Takei when she touched his shoulder because his reaction was so realistic, and she apologized. I would argue, while admirable, that attitude isn't what you want in a lead Bat-villain.

[Quarhog]

Nobody ever points this out, but the Kitka-Bruce Wayne 'romance' was purely a cynical ruse on Catwoman's part to lure Batman into a trap; and because the boring Kitka masquerade that squanders so much of Lee Meriwether's already limited screen time carries the weight of the 'romantic' element Julie Newmar so deplored, during her all too brief scenes actually in costume (and character) as Catwoman, Meriwether actually portrays the villainess as a far nastier piece of work - with zero playfulness or romantic interest in the Caped Crusader (and the lack of romantic interest shown in her on Batman's side is mutual) - than either Newmar or even Kitt were ever permitted to depict her. (Suzanne Pleshette, too, would almost certainly have been a much warmer, more sympathetic presence in the role). Hard, ruthless, mercenary, humourless and completely self-centred, Meriwether's Catwoman is irredeemably evil; she can't even get along with her fellow baddies. When Bruce Wayne tells the assembled villains that if they harm one hair of Kitka's head he'll kill them all, Catwoman is being included in the threat... and when unmasked at the film's conclusion she shows absolutely no compunction at all. Way to go, Lee...!!

(By the way, to return to the subject of production dates. Can anybody supply the exact dates that Newmar's original appearance as Catwoman was actually filmed? 'The Purr-fect Crime' and 'Better Luck Next Time' first aired on the weekend of 16-17 March 1966, which makes it possible that they were shot at the end of 1965, as Frank Gorshin's debut episode - aired 12 January - presumably was).

[Pengy]

I think Julie Newmar would have loved to play Catwoman the way Lee's was, since she so famously disliked the romantic element, which was genuine with Newmar's Catwoman, but with Lee's it was just an evil charade. And it wasn't even with Batman, it was with Bruce Wayne. With Batman she was straight up cold and evil. Catwoman has no room for love in her life, as Julie put it. And Lee's Catwoman fit that description. So did Eartha's come to that.

[elmrgraham]

Julie did a purrfect job playing The Catwoman.

[Larry A.]

I find it interesting, to say the least, that a character who was at least partially romantically linked to Batman in the comics upon which the TV show was based on (1950's Batman) isn't played the same way on the TV show. Might it might be possibly due to a left over attitude of fear of the "Hayes Commission"? Granted, I seriously doubt that Dozier was of an age at the time of "Batman" to have experienced the effect of the commission directly, but Dozier WAS old enough to have been under the influence of bosses who had. What say You all?

[Quarhog]

Poor Eartha Kitt. She gets no respect for her brilliant stand in as Catwoman in the third season. Her performance was absolutely purrrrrfect!

In 'The Traitor' - the 1967 'Mission Impossible' episode to which Dr.Shimel referred - Eartha's guest role called for a contortionist small and agile enough to curl herself up inside a packing case carried by Willy Armitage and then crawl through a ventilation system in order to break into a top-security section of an Eastern Bloc embassy in Washington; all naturally accomplished while wearing a standard-issue lady cat burglar's one-piece stealth suit. No wonder that when he set eyes on this William Dozier knew he need look no further for his replacement to play Catwoman!! (It's too bad that Ms Kitt was never required to do any equivalent slinking about on rooftops or through windows as the ultimate cat burglar herself: Catwoman!)

[Quarhog]

Julie did a purrfect job playing The Catwoman.

No arguments with you on that count!!

[Progress Pigment]

I think Julie Newmar would have loved to play Catwoman the way Lee's was, since she so famously disliked the romantic element, which was genuine with Newmar's Catwoman, but with Lee's it was just an evil charade. And it wasn't even with Batman, it was with Bruce Wayne. With Batman she was straight up cold and evil. Catwoman has no room for love in her life, as Julie put it. And Lee's Catwoman fit that description. So did Eartha's come to that.

I tend to think Julie Newmar only "famously" hated the romantic element in retrospect. Decades after the show ended. If she hadn't liked what Stanley Ralph Ross put in front of her (I sure didn't) she could have left the series in season two instead of season three. Certainly at the beginning of season two, before ratings went into free-fall, she had some leeway. When she saw her and Batman sipping soda's in a malt shop, she should have said no. Adam should have said no. William Dozier should have said no! I blame Stanley Ralph Ross, but really, they gave him too much rope. His only great script "Purr-fect Crime" was co-written! Oddly, by the time he was writing for 'Wonder Woman' his scripts were waaaay better. Not great, of course, not as good as 'Purr-fect Crime', but better.

[Pengy]

I tend to think Julie Newmar only "famously" hated the romantic element in retrospect. Decades after the show ended. If she hadn't liked what Stanley Ralph Ross put in front of her (I sure didn't) she could have left the series in season two instead of season three. Certainly at the beginning of season two, before ratings went into free-fall, she had some leeway. When she saw her and Batman sipping soda's in a malt shop, she should have said no. Adam should have said no. William Dozier should have said no! I blame Stanley Ralph Ross, but really, they gave him too much rope. His only great script "Purr-fect Crime" was co-written! Oddly, by the time he was writing for 'Wonder Woman' his scripts were waaaay better. Not great, of course, not as good as 'Purr-fect Crime', but better.

So you don't believe this was genuine? ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsL0aC3ORQQ

[Larry A.]

Maybe we should take Julie at Her word???????