High C wrote:
You make some interesting and valid points, but do you really think the 1966 Catwoman was a former prostitute??? I hope you are kidding.
I don't think there's any Frank Miller in the 1966 Batman, thank goodness.
We certainly don't know that she wasn't! And do you think that she would have have been above trading her obvious assets for money? In 'Batman Displays His Knowledge', when she places her feet apart, her hands on her hips and promises Batman that she could give him "more happiness than anyone alive", it's pretty obvious what's on offer...!
You're obviously seeing the 1966 Batman through a different prism. And that's fine. But it's not one I see it through, nor would I recommend to others.
Epaddon's fanfic gives a much better option for a Catwoman backstory than former prostitute, and I enjoyed it very much.
Could I believe she used to be a dominatrix, for instance? I sure could, given the costume and the whip. But not a prostitute, sorry.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'
My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.
'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
High C wrote:
You make some interesting and valid points, but do you really think the 1966 Catwoman was a former prostitute??? I hope you are kidding.
I don't think there's any Frank Miller in the 1966 Batman, thank goodness.
We certainly don't know that she wasn't! And do you think that she would have have been above trading her obvious assets for money? In 'Batman Displays His Knowledge', when she places her feet apart, her hands on her hips and promises Batman that she could give him "more happiness than anyone alive", it's pretty obvious what's on offer...!
You're obviously seeing the 1966 Batman through a different prism. And that's fine. But it's not one I see it through, nor would I recommend to others.
Epaddon's fanfic gives a much better option for a Catwoman backstory than former prostitute, and I enjoyed it very much.
Could I believe she used to be a dominatrix, for instance? I sure could, given the costume and the whip. But not a prostitute, sorry.
We ARE talking about a woman who is sheer male fantasy, after all. In reality a woman as beautiful, greedy and unscrupulous as the one portrayed by Ms Newmar wouldn't bother with dressing up in wet-look lamé to pursue the physically dangerous life of a cat burglar with the chance of a long stretch in jail at the end of it; she'd simply find herself a ninety year-old billionaire with a heart condition and manoeuvre him into marrying her... (And we can guess what name other women would have for a woman who does that!)
A couple points though, when analyzing CW as she existed in 1966:
#1-Catwoman was a character who had fallen into disuse in the comic books since the early 1950s. Just like the Riddler, it was the TV series that elevated the character into the pantheon of the "Big Four" Rogues Gallery. As a result I think when trying to infer backstories regarding a Julie Newmar TV era CW, the darker tone material of later years isn't a good place to start.
#2-We had seen basically two origins for CW in the comics prior to this. First, Selina Kyle the simple society jewel thief "The Cat" who didn't even wear a costume, and then in about the last CW story in the early 50s, we got some back story of Selina Kyle a former flight attendant who'd been suffering from amnesia. Nothing uber-dark or racy (though the comics code of the 50s certainly prevented that).
It's because this is how things stood regarding CW's back-history from a comics standpoint that I didn't think it was plausible or necessary to assume Julie's CW was Selina Kyle. There is no reference in the series to such a name, or even any alter ego, period. Simply because we're conditioned to the name of Selina Kyle because of post-TV series comic books and movies etc. doesn't have to make it so since after all the TV series had in other cases discarded comic back stories or altered them as we saw with Mr. Freeze. (OTOH, Lee Meriwether's CW I think is someone who does fit more the initial Selina Kyle jewel thief type of template)
So this is why I felt that it was better to instead look for an alter ego that describes something that conforms to what Julie Newmar could perform on-screen. Julie Newmar I could not envision as either version of Selina Kyle that existed in 1966 comics wise, so instead I thought it was more intriguing to explore the dynamic of one Julie Newmar character played memorably by her believably transforming into another character she played even more memorably. In the end, I see what I've attempted to do as more a tribute to the actress and giving the CW she played some more depth by calling to mind what Julie had done elsewhere.
This of course necessitated a few adjustments from CW as established later in the series to conform to a VIcki becomes CW dynamic. Because Vicki is an heiress who is not living the good life but is the free-spirit trying to live life on the edge, her becoming CW can't be a motive for simple greed but a reason to maintain her philosophy of living to the edge. While it requires changing to a degree some aspects of CW as written later on, is it out of character for Julie Newmar as CW to be like this? That's the guideline I operated by. Likewise, I tried to diminish what I felt was the overly square aspects of Batman by giving him a more wry edge that I felt was still a credible way that Adam West as Batman could have played the role (if one reads the early 40s comic books which are loaded with Batman making one-liners in fights and having a distinct wry edge, even in the first "Cat" story, it's quite easy to envision Adam's voice coming off the pages).
I hope these things will be clear to those who as they read the stories wonder if I was ignoring certain points about CW as the series established her, and rest assured I wasn't, it was just a case of adjusting the template slightly without smashing it to pieces I felt so it could still be a recognizable and credible Batman 66 kind of story.
epaddon: Well I finally finished your origin story, and I must say, you certainly made it very believable to turn Vicki Russell into the infamous Catwoman. Your story was very imaginative, and yes I did believe in the credibility of the transformation from free-spirited Vicki into the angry and rejected Catwoman. Very good job! You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this. One thing though: the link you set up to "Route 66" was helpful and quite honestly needed to set up your story. However, are the entire episodes about Vicki Russell available anywhere? I don't see it on Netflix, and You Tube doesn't seem to have much more than the introductory snippets.
I look forward to reading the sequel sometime this weekend.
Thank you very much, Gorshin! Glad you enjoyed it. "Route 66" has been released on DVD in its entirety so both episodes are available on DVD. I have also discovered that both are available on Hulu.
Season 2, the first episode is called "How Much A Pound Is Albatross?".
This second episode incidentally is where the character of "Pogo" comes from. Presumably, if there had been a regular series centered on Vicki, the "Pogo" character would have been the other regular always bailing her out of trouble.
Gorshin Romero wrote:epaddon: are the entire episodes about Vicki Russell available anywhere? I don't see it on Netflix, and You Tube doesn't seem to have much more than the introductory snippets.
Decades has just started their Route 66 marathon, and Julie's first episode is on Monday at 8pm Eastern time, and her second episode is on Tuesday at 11pm Eastern.
Having watched these eps, I will say Julie's Route 66 character is fascinating, even though I don't like her (the character). It's a testament to Newmar's charisma and talent, in addition to her obvious physical assets, that a network was willing to even greenlight a backdoor pilot featuring a female character who wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. Having become more familiar lately with 1960s TV, I can say there weren't a lot of roles like that for women in 1962, when Julie's Route 66 episodes aired.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'
My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.
'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
