Actors you wish would have been casted as villains

[BatmanFan102]

For me, I would have loved to have seen Jonathan Harris cast as a villain on Batman. He was quite nefarious and scheming as the legendary Dr. Zachary Smith from "Lost in Space" fame.

Goldie Hawn as Harley Quinn, a sidekick for Joker.

I wish they would have had a Bookworm episode during season 3. That would have been perfect since the Gotham City library was a common setting during that season.

Would have been cool too if Chandel, Minstrel & Siren all teamed up together for some kind of music related crime, to take on the terrific trio.

[Dr. Shimel]

Unfortunately, Lost in Space's lifespan pretty much mirrors Batman's, so finding time for Harris to leave his show to guest star on another would have been very difficult, if not impossible.

[High C]

Similarly, Harley Quinn wasn't invented until 24 years after the show left the air.

Here's what I posted in another thread about potential villainesses that could have been used:

My suggestions for Poison Ivy would be either Tina Louise or Jill St. John.

While it's true Jill was doing movies by 1967, she obviously was terrific in the pilot and thus had a pre-existing relationship with the show. She also was good friends with Adam. It's not unrealistic to think she could have been coaxed back to play a starring role in Poison Ivy, who was created in 1966. Honestly, I think the obvious choice had they used Poison Ivy would have been Tina, who was just coming off Gilligan's Island before season 3. But if she were cast, I would hope that she wouldn't have made Ivy just a Ginger variation. We'll never know, of course.

Anne Francis. Coming off Honey West, where her private eye character had a pet ocelot, maybe she could have been Silver Fox, whatever that would have been. I also think she could've been a better Marsha, Queen of Diamonds.

Dana Wynter. Dana, a Fox contract player in the late 1950s at the same time as Joan Collins, often 'played' much the same as Joan on screen--a beautiful Brit who also could be cold and calculating. She was one of very few women to actually play a female mastermind on The Wild, Wild West. [Most of the female guests on the show were henchmolls or damsels in distress]. I see her as a glamorous socialite jewel thief. Or perhaps a younger, slightly hipper Lady Peasoup? This time, MARRIED to [let's end the confusion once and for all] a younger Ffogg. (English actor James Mason, who wanted to do the show, was 8 years younger than crotchety American Rudy Vallee.)

Lee Meriwether. Take the oversized, silly Olga character and meld her with the Miss Kitka alter ego Meriwether played in the movie, and I think you've got something, a Cold War type of Soviet [or nameless, made-up eastern European country] villainess. Only problem is it's not slapstick enough for what the show had become by season 3.

Antoinette Bower. A European actress who did plenty of villainess and temptress guest shots in the 1960s and 1970s, including two roles as alien temptresses in 1967, on Star Trek and The Invaders. Forget about Joker's UFO---let's bring in a real alien villainess!!

Anne Bancroft. I first suggested this in the Burt Ward/The Graduate thread. Anne Bancroft was just about to play that world-weary seductress, Mrs. Robinson, but this idea isn't all that far-fetched as that of some movie stars. She actually made one TV appearance in 1967, in an anthology series called ABC Stage 67.

Shirley Jones was interested in playing a villainess, per a Dozier memo. Can't think of anything for her at the moment but am open to suggestions. She was my favorite TV mom of the late 1960s-early 1970s.

I'd add one more that I hadn't mentioned before:

Tammy Grimes. Also could sing. Had and I would assume still has a very unique voice. I could see her as a woman obsessed by dolls, perhaps, and wanting to turn the heroes into dolls, of course. However, she had a failed sitcom in 1966 that was produced by William Dozier, so I wonder if those two preferred not to work together again. I think she would have been a natural for the show.

[High C]

Would have been cool too if Chandell, Minstrel & Siren all teamed up together for some kind of music related crime, to take on the terrific trio.

I would have signed up for Minstrel and Siren together. I think three is too many unless it's a movie.

[epaddon]

The "wish" category for me has to have the caveat of are they realistic possibilities for the era when the show was on and the state of the actor's career at that point? Goldie Hawn got her first break in 1967 in a supporting role on the sitcom "Good Morning World" which meant she wasn't a viable choice with Batman was on the air. Her fame only started with "Laugh-In" just as the show was leaving the air. That said, I do think it is possible that if "Batman" had that mythical fourth season on NBC we might have seen a lot of the "Laugh-In" cast members like Hawn or Arte Johnson popping up in cameos (especially Johnson as the soldier going "Verrrry interesting" during a window cameo!)

Here are some of my choices and the type of roles they could have played.

Barbara Stanwyck. Although appearing at the time as Victoria Barkley on "The Big Valley" the ensemble nature of the show sometimes meant she didn't appear in several episodes which would have given her time to do a guest shot. To me, she would have been the perfect Black Widow, because unlike Tallulah Bankhead, who sorry to say was in decrepit health, Stanwyck still could exude her old glamour even with her hair completely white now. Plus, her track record of playing villainesses in films like "Double Indemnity" would have served her well in the role too.

Barbara Rhoades. My number one choice for Poison Ivy even though she couldn't have played it before 1969 when she at least would have been on a radar screen for a show that had it still been on would have been willing to go to a more low-budget choice. If anyone has seen Rhoades in her numerous TV guest shots in the 70s, I defy them to name someone who better fits the template of an Ivy who could be a formidable threat (and most likely win a fight!)

Julie London. Those who only know her from wearing a nurse's uniform on "Emergency!" probably don't know that she was perhaps the sultriest of nightclub popular singers in the 50s and 60s. The pity is that very few of her films and TV guest shots allowed her to use that singing image of herself in a specific role (one of the few exceptions is a "Big Valley" episode "They Called Her Delilah"). Julie had a quality that would have made her a viable alternate candidate for Siren and even Poison Ivy for that matter (though Siren would have been the perfect template for her). One caveat though in having Julie is that her husband, Bobby Troup (her accompanist and who also appeared with her on "Emergency!" as Dr. Early) would have had to play her henchman since Julie was known to be quite nervous and subject to stage fright without his presence to give her support (and given how she could make her seductive songstress image on stage look so natural that ultimately reveals just how good an actress she could be!).

Lee Grant. Another Poison Ivy choice for me but she also had the gravitas to play another kind of nasty villainess part too. Was 40 at the time but could pass for a decade younger.

And here are the men who I think would have fit into the world of Batman villains effectively.

Jack Cassidy. The man who personified preening ego at the ultimate level. He had played a villainous columnist in the "Superman" musical on Broadway in 1966 and then went on to play a guest killer on "Columbo" three times. Was married to Shirley Jones at the time.

Robert Preston. I could see him in a role sending up his famous "Professor Harold Hill" role from "The Music Man". The point being if you're going to get him then use him properly in a way that calls attention to what he's most famous for. This was the big mistake with Merman. If they'd cast Merman in a part that obviously called attention to her Mama Rose role in "Gypsy" she would have fit right in.

[epaddon]

I'm also going to add one 99% not likely to have been on, but still 1% possible name.

Raquel Welch. The only reason why she has a 1% possibility is she was under contract to Fox so after her white-hot fame began with "One Million Years BC" if Dozier were ever owed a favor from Fox production chief Richard Zanuck, she *could* have been had. Fox in fact did make her do a cameo as herself on their failed prime time soap "Bracken's World" which took place at a film studio.

Raquel could easily have played a villainess along the lines of Catwoman or Poison Ivy though an original one more suited to her persona would have been better (I''ve even come up with one for her in fanfic but it's not a realistic idea to have realized on-screen so I won't be plugging that here). One thing in making Raquel a villainess is that she was never the type to project pure evil. She always would underneath demonstrate a more vulnerable "I'm not really so bad" side underneath as she showed in her "Mork and Mindy" guest shot a decade later. That's the kind of persona that would have *really* worked for Batman.

[elmrgraham]

I agree that The Siren,The Minstrel,and Chandell would have been an excellent team up against The Terrific Trio.I still think that the Batman show budget could have been expanded to include The Sea Hag,a Scuba Diving Villainess from the 1966 Batman Topps Card 14a:"Danger In The Depths."Zale Parry would have been excellent as her.

[High C]

Sigh.

[epaddon]

"Still thinking it" won't make it so. And I would like to point out that a prerequisite of playing a guest villainess is a requirement to *act*, not duplicate a look on a trading card.

Supermodel Suzy Parker would have looked terrific in a publicity picture as the Siren or Poison Ivy, but she lacked the ability to be a focal point villainess based on her resume of what she did as an actress. That's why I wouldn't put her on the final wish list.

[elmrgraham]

Zale Parry would have acted excellent as The Sea Hag.That is my opinion.

[epaddon]

People are entitled to hold any opinion they like. But it usually helps for a discussion like this to consider names of people who had the ability to *act* and recite dialogue and handle the rigors of being a focal point on-screen for the bulk of the story, which a stunt person whose resume consisted of small parts a decade earlier on a niche show does not have.

[elmrgraham]

Zale Parry was excellent on "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea," even though she did not speak.I think that she could have handled speaking and acting on Batman pretty well.As an alternative choice to play The Sea Hag:Anne Francis.

[epaddon]

Zale Parry was excellent on "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea," even though she did not speak.I think that she could have handled speaking and acting on Batman pretty well.

[elmrgraham]

I guess we agree to disagree.I respect that.

[High C]

People are entitled to hold any opinion they like. But it usually helps for a discussion like this to consider names of people who had the ability to *act* and recite dialogue and handle the rigors of being a focal point on-screen for the bulk of the story, which a stunt person whose resume consisted of small parts a decade earlier on a niche show does not have.

I have to agree with epaddon, with all due respect to elmrgraham. I know you'll never admit defeat, so to speak, and that's your prerogative. But to consider someone who didn't even have a speaking role on an Irwin Allen show to be a focal-point villainess on Batman is, quite frankly, ludicrous. And your refusal to acknowledge that factor, not to mention the fact that Batman didn't have the budget for underwater scenes, makes it difficult, if not impossible, to have a meaningful and interesting discussion.