"King Tut's Coup"-Lee Meriwether's Busy Day

[epaddon]

Some of us have sometimes wondered how Lee Meriwether, after playing Catwoman in the feature film, then was brought back to the series for the less significant role of Lisa Carson in "King Tut's Coup/Batman's Waterloo."

Thanks to the documents available on the archive site the call sheets for this episode are available and the interesting thing about the sheet for the first day of shooting, February 6, 1967, is that there are no names listed for the parts of Lisa and for Tut's two henchmen ultimately played by Lloyd Haynes and Tim O'Kelly. Does this indicate a slowness of trying to get actors lined up for these parts? In the case of Lee's part, it might indicate that they weren't sure of who they were going to get until the last minute so that's why its blank for the first day (but there for Day 2) and that whoever was cast, would be needed for the shoot at 7:30 AM for makeup and 9:30 for on-set.

Keep in mind also that another reason why Lee wasn't the one likely to get called first is that this overlaps with her "Time Tunnel" shooting schedule. Per Martin Grams fine history on that series, we know that Lee always had to be available to do the Tunnel complex scenes for each episode which were usually done on the first or last day of a shoot for a particular episode. At the time of "Tut's Coup" shooting of February 6-13, 1967, the "Time Tunnel" episode "Attack Of The Barbarians" was in production but with Lee's scenes done on February 2. The next Tunnel episode, "Merlin The Magician" would begin on February 10, before "Tut" had wrapped up requiring Lee's presence at Stage 18 for the day's filming there but with a free schedule for four days before that.

Keeping in mind that Lee did no other guest star roles but this during "Time Tunnel", I am inclined to think that Lee was a late replacement who did the role because of her Fox contract (which I believe also accounts for her being a convenient casting choice for Catwoman the year before) and was made available when the Batman team needed someone for the part on short notice that they also had the luxury of a past working relationship with.

February 10, the fifth day of shooting on "Tut" was Lee's busy day. First, doing all her "Time Tunnel" scenes for the "Merlin The Magician" episode, and then getting over to Stage 15 for Batman work at 5 PM. In Grams' book she recalls that she had to get into her Cleopatra makeup for her shoot that day which only added to the hectic nature of it!

Watch "Tut's Coup" sandwiched in between the two Time Tunnel episodes and then you can envision the nature of what a week in the life of a studio was in those days with simultaneous productions!

[High C]

Terrific research! Well-done.

I agree. I have to believe that Lee came cheaply because she already was working for Fox. I also suspect they wouldn't have wanted to use her earlier in the season, because the movie still was in some theatres and obviously they still were pushing the fact she was Catwoman. By late in the season, viewers had gotten used to Julie in the role again.

[epaddon]

Thanks High C!

Supplementing the earlier points, I have learned about how the script for this episode was rewritten to eliminate the character of Mayor Linseed (the regular actor being unavailable) and how this changed Lisa from the mayor's daughter to the daughter of "John E. Carson", but that still doesn't mean that the part was written specifically with Lee in mind. Document #932 in the Budget section has a budget list for the cast and the only names that are written in at this point are Grace Lee Whitney as Neila and James O'Hara as 'Irish Pharaoh'. Every other supporting part at this point is blank. Even if Lee had been a first choice for this role, they would have needed to make absolutely sure she didn't miss a moment of a scheduled Time Tunnel shoot.

[Dr. Shimel]

Byron Keith (aka Mayor Linseed) was presumably filming an episode of the then-new ABC series, "The Invaders," since the episode was shown one night before Part One of the King Tut eps.

[High C]

Byron Keith (aka Mayor Linseed) was presumably filming an episode of the then-new ABC series, "The Invaders," since the episode was shown one night before Part One of the King Tut eps.

Thanks for the info! If Mayor Linseed (and for that matter, Warden Crichton) were space aliens, that would explain a lot about Gotham City's policies toward supervillain release and rehabilitation! (The Invaders was about aliens infiltrating the world in human guise.)

[Dr. Shimel]

Byron Keith (aka Mayor Linseed) was presumably filming an episode of the then-new ABC series, "The Invaders," since the episode was shown one night before Part One of the King Tut eps.

Thanks for the info! If Mayor Linseed (and for that matter, Warden Crichton) were space aliens, that would explain a lot about Gotham City's policies toward supervillain release and rehabilitation! (The Invaders was about aliens infiltrating the world in human guise.)

Never realized before looking at the cast for the infamous Nora Clavicle episode that Mayor Linseed's insufferable wife was played by none other than Jean Byron, aka Patty Duke's mother on the ABC sitcom that closed up shop in 1966.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Solid, interesting research, epaddon. Laying out Meriwether's work schedule really adds much to questions about production timelines for the Fox fantasy series. I wonder if any other Batman guest actors had similarly busy schedules during that period?

[epaddon]

Thanks BWH! So far I haven't been able to find one who had the same demands Lee did that one time, but Dee Hartford I noticed (courtesy of Grams TT book) shot her Time Tunnel episode (as Helen Of Troy) in late August 1967 and then did her Batman episode as Miss Iceland four weeks later, even though the two episodes aired relatively close together. It's possible her TT appearance indirectly led to the Batman job.

Many TV history books unfortunately don't give us production history schedules so this is why its great when there are exceptions like Grams for TT and when we also have the documents on the site that can give us those clues with Batman.

One other thing about the call sheets for "Tut's Coup" is that nowhere is the name of Suzy Knickerbocker, who had the window cameo in Part 1 present (not there under her real name Aileen Mehle either. Incidentally she just turned 90 the other day). I noticed how the dialogue for the window climb was not specific to the episode and it has me convinced that some window cameos were done totally independent of the episode shooting schedule and just inserted where appropriate. Next time you watch a window climb cameo scene, see if the dialogue is generic or related to the episode and that should be the giveaway.

[High C]

Thanks BWH! So far I haven't been able to find one who had the same demands Lee did that one time, but Dee Hartford I noticed (courtesy of Grams TT book) shot her Time Tunnel episode (as Helen Of Troy) in late August 1967 and then did her Batman episode as Miss Iceland four weeks later, even though the two episodes aired relatively close together. It's possible her TT appearance indirectly led to the Batman job.

I suspect Hartford's Batman appearance definitely was tied to her Time Tunnel turn, considering her characters are in almost identical predicaments. Both were abducted by a man who wants her to be his bride. (First Paris, and then Mr. Freeze.) This is not a knock on Dee, but if you watch the eps back-to-back, her line readings are quite similar, as one might expect. After all, both characters are angry at their captors, indignant about their situations, and refuse to return the love from their captors.

I don't see Dee's casting in both roles as coincidence, especially given they both were Fox productions.

[Dr. Shimel]

Diane McBain appears to have had a slight chance to catch her breath toward the end of 1966 and early 1967 with two straight roles, the latter of which was her second Batman appearance. She presumably filmed her role in WWW in mid-December, and then played Pinky Pinkston in the Green Hornet/Col.Gumm episodes in early to mid-January. I mention the WWW episode (The Night of the Vicious Valentine) because one of her co-stars in that one was a fellow Batman moll, the always lovely Sherry Jackson.

[epaddon]

And Sherry likely had not too much down time in between her "Lost In Space" episode ("Space Croppers") that aired exactly four weeks before her "Batman" appearance. Since both were airing late in the season that makes the shooting schedules likely within a month of each other. It's with episodes that air early in a season that sometimes you can see shows shot many months earlier.

Van Williams and Bruce Lee, I have to assume had filmed their last GH episode before they did their Batman guest shot. It wouldn't have made much sense to impose on the GH shooting schedule to make room for the guest shot (and I suppose at that point they didn't yet know if the show would be renewed)

[Dr. Shimel]

And Sherry likely had not too much down time in between her "Lost In Space" episode ("Space Croppers") that aired exactly four weeks before her "Batman" appearance. Since both were airing late in the season that makes the shooting schedules likely within a month of each other. It's with episodes that air early in a season that sometimes you can see shows shot many months earlier.

In between those two shows, she also squeezed in a guest appearance on My Three Sons, then followed up about a month after Batman with a spot on Death Valley Days.

[epaddon]

Those two appearances were likely filmed earlier than LIS because "Death Valley Days" was syndicated and thus episodes needed to be stockpiled much sooner and weren't always aired in production sequence (and likely aired at different times throughout the country).

"My Three Sons" also had a rather unique kind of production schedule in that all scripts for the season had to be written ahead of time so Fred MacMurray could literally film all his scenes for the season in two short block installments and freeing him to still take film roles the rest of the year. So if a guest had a scene with MacMurray they might find themselves doing their scenes for the whole episode weeks apart or even months. Brian Keith had a similar arrangement on "Family Affair" and in both cases it necessitated having one director of all episodes for the entire season to ensure coordination and continuity.

[epaddon]

Checking further, it's incredible to see the volume of different series Lee appeared on the previous year, 1965-66 leading into her doing the movie as Catwoman. She shot that in April-May 1966 at a point in time when she had already won the role for "Time Tunnel" the following year since the pilot of "Time Tunnel" was shot the first week of December 1965 and picked up by ABC in February for the Fall.

Meantime this is the volume of guest shots she did in the 1965-66 season alone in addition to those two projects.

The FBI (3 episodes as fingerprint expert Joanna Lauren. A small part usually requiring just one scene)

Hazel

Perry Mason

My Three Sons (2 episodes)

12 O'clock High (2 episodes)

F Troop

The Fugitive

And on top of that she had a guest star part in an unsold pilot filmed that season "My Son, The Doctor" which was burned off on the summer anthology series "Vacation Playhouse" (among the regulars for this unsold series was Batmoll Julie Gregg). Lots of work that year for someone not tied to a regular series at that point!

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

Those two appearances were likely filmed earlier than LIS because "Death Valley Days" was syndicated and thus episodes needed to be stockpiled much sooner and weren't always aired in production sequence (and likely aired at different times throughout the country).

"My Three Sons" also had a rather unique kind of production schedule in that all scripts for the season had to be written ahead of time so Fred MacMurray could literally film all his scenes for the season in two short block installments and freeing him to still take film roles the rest of the year. So if a guest had a scene with MacMurray they might find themselves doing their scenes for the whole episode weeks apart or even months. Brian Keith had a similar arrangement on "Family Affair" and in both cases it necessitated having one director of all episodes for the entire season to ensure coordination and continuity.

That's some interesting stuff, epaddon. Thanks for the info on the way Hollywood worked back then. Does anything like this go on nowadays? I know sometimes they'll have to write someone out of several episodes to accomodate a movie shoot or a pregnancy, but writing a whole season's scripts ahead of time and having an actor film their scenes for each episode all together like that ... not sure that goes on nowadays, but I'd be curious to know if it does.

And I've just taken this thing totally off the Batman topic. Feel free to PM me if you know of any instances nowadays.

Great research regarding Lee.