Worst Bat Villain Cast

[BiffPow]

That reminds me: a few years ago, when my son was about 11, we were spending father and son time watching James Bond movies at night. Fun times and fond memories. However, when we started watching “YOLT,” we fell asleep. We tried watching it again the next night, and fell asleep again! On the third night, I asked my young son if we should try, once more, to finish the movie, he replied:

Well, “You Only Sleep Twice.”

[JimmyVale]

That reminds me: a few years ago, when my son was about 11, we were spending father and son time watching James Bond movies at night. Fun times and fond memories. However, when we started watching “YOLT,” we fell asleep. We tried watching it again the next night, and fell asleep again! On the third night, I asked my young son if we should try, once more, to finish the movie, he replied:

Well, “You Only Sleep Twice.”

Hahaha! Awesome story!

[epaddon]

Tallulah Bankhead by far was the worst casting choice in the entire run of the series IMO. She was by this point a decrepit shell of her former glamorous self and came off as a ridiculous caricature. The one person who would have been absolutely right for the part of Black Widow IMO would have been Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck at that point, even though her hair had gone white still exuded genuine glamour and channeling menace from her famous film roles like "Double Indemnity" would have been perfect. Even though she was starring in "The Big Valley" at the time, since she occasionally skipped some episodes, it would have been easy to get her for a guest shot without impacting her regular series commitment.

Bankhead's presence ends up dragging the episode itself down even further for me. The whole "Buttercup" moment to Black Widow "impersonating" Robin (may the original audio tracks of Burt Ward doing that dialogue NEVER surface!) just makes it unwatchable from my standpoint.

[AndyFish]

Well, one fan's favorite is another fan's worst-- so it's hard to really find complete fault. Art Carney was going through a divorce at the time, but he was hot off the heels of THE ODD COUPLE on Broadway where he played Felix-- hard to imagine he was so funny in that and so flat as The Archer. For me, the Big Four villains plus King Tut, Mister Freeze, False Face, Egghead and Mad Hatter are the classic Batman villains. The rest with the possible exception of Bookworm don't work for me on many levels.

[Jczernich]

John Astin's Riddler. Do not get me wrong, I love John Astin as a performer. Visual and actingwise, he may have been better suited to play The Getaway Genius, a villain who debuted in the comics the year before the show started: https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Getaway_Genius

[epaddon]

I give Astin's Riddler a pass only because the producers were forced into a bind because of Gorshin's decision to play hardball over money. The fact they waited only to the end of the season to finally go the recasting route and had scripts intended for Riddler rewritten (the Puzzler episode and one Joker episode) as a way of buying time showed how much they didn't want to be forced into that box but the fault for why Astin played Riddler has to rest with Gorshin's obstinance. And the one good thing about casting Astin is that it clearly forced Gorshin to reconsider and realize the need to re-establish himself as THE Riddler which was why he at least returned in S3.

[Jczernich]

I give Astin's Riddler a pass only because the producers were forced into a bind because of Gorshin's decision to play hardball over money. The fact they waited only to the end of the season to finally go the recasting route and had scripts intended for Riddler rewritten (the Puzzler episode and one Joker episode) as a way of buying time showed how much they didn't want to be forced into that box but the fault for why Astin played Riddler has to rest with Gorshin's obstinance. And the one good thing about casting Astin is that it clearly forced Gorshin to reconsider and realize the need to re-establish himself as THE Riddler which was why he at least returned in S3.

Which S2 Joker episode was reworked from a Riddler episode?

[epaddon]

My bad on that. I think I was erroneously recalling "The Impractical Joker" as something that had been Riddler originally but of course that was originally the proposed Two-Face script that then got reworked and transposed that on the fact that in S1 a Joker comic book story was reworked as a Riddler episode ("Death In Slow Motion").

[Yellow Oval]

Carney's Archer got on my nerves but NOTHING like Otto Preminger's version of Freeze with his pathetic "VILD!" every 2 seconds. He came across as much '60s hip as a square hoolahoop. I still can't watch that episode because he grates on me like there's no tomorrow. As for Astin's Riddler he seemed to be a better fit for Maxie Zeus if they would have put that character in the show instead of Tut, but I'm glad they went with Tut as I was always a fan. I also remember as a schnick it always bothered me that Astin's Riddler, like Romero's Joker, sported the mustache. It somehow took away from the visual credibility of the characters a bit. I was always bothered back then as well by Cesar's red-haired Joker; not knowing of the technical glitch they couldn't seem to overcome, so I was very thankful when the DVDs restored his proper look.

[JimmyVale]

Most of the Batman episodes are fun for me to relax and watch with the exception of the Liberace episodes and the puzzler episodes. Those get skipped when I’m watching the series in its entirety. The puzzler….ok, they had to do something to replace Frank Gorshin but c’mon…that “villain” was lousy.

[BiffPow]

For me it was Rudy Vallée as Lord Marmaduke Ffogg. Batman survives all of these diabolically dangerous villains and their meticulously methodical traps and yet he’s nearly defeated by a simple shove down the steps by an old man? I mean, that’s how you defeat a toddler - or Rudy Vallée!

And it was a three-parter, at that! I would much rather have seen a three part episode with any of the primary villains.