Things you didn't notice or remember until seeing the DVDs

[Kite Kid]

In "Penguin's Clean Sweep," we see Penguin's henchmen Dustbag and Pushbroom throughout the episode, but when he arrives at Gotham City National Bank right before the batfight, he suddenly has three more. At first, I thought they were wearing the black shirts that say "Henchman" -- recycled from "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin" -- but they're not. Their shirts show that all three have names: Washrag, Wetmop and Soap.

I posted the above before I had my cataract surgery and I realize now that I misread one of the extra henchmen's names: It's Washpan, not Washrag. Whoops!

[Batfanman]

If you cue up E1 to +7:00 and play until the scene transitions at +7:09, there's a big drop in color brilliance that lasts for the remainder of the scene as they depart the Cmsr's office. This is on the WB D1 fix DVD. Makes me think that the scene was edited in from a lesser source.

Curious if anyone else notices this - especially on the Blu-Rays (which I don't have.) Top photo is before; bottom is after scene transition.

[Ben Bentley]

If you cue up E1 to +7:00 and play until the scene transitions at +7:09, there's a big drop in color brilliance that lasts for the remainder of the scene as they depart the Cmsr's office. This is on the WB D1 fix DVD. Makes me think that the scene was edited in from a lesser source.

Curious if anyone else notices this - especially on the Blu-Rays (which I don't have.) Top photo is before; bottom is after scene transition.

So what we're seeing here is an example of when they had to cut away to a 16mm print as opposed to the 35mm source that is used predominantly for the cleaned up DVD/Blu Ray realease. Why do they switch sources sudddenly mid-scene? Well, usually this will be because of an issue on the print that is not easily rectifiable if, at all.

[Bat Mitch]

I've noticed this kind of color degradation in older shows and movies whenever some kind of optical effect was overlayed on top of the footage (e.g. opening or closing credits).
In this scene, there is an expanding bat that's overlayed during the transition. Perhaps it's a side effect of the optical process to insert the bat overlay.

[Batfanman]

If you cue up E1 to +7:00 and play until the scene transitions at +7:09, there's a big drop in color brilliance that lasts for the remainder of the scene as they depart the Cmsr's office. This is on the WB D1 fix DVD. Makes me think that the scene was edited in from a lesser source.

Curious if anyone else notices this - especially on the Blu-Rays (which I don't have.) Top photo is before; bottom is after scene transition.

So what we're seeing here is an example of when they had to cut away to a 16mm print as opposed to the 35mm source that is used predominantly for the cleaned up DVD/Blu Ray realease. Why do they switch sources sudddenly mid-scene? Well, usually this will be because of an issue on the print that is not easily rectifiable if, at all.

Thanks, Ben - great insight.

[Jim Akin]

In "He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul," writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. serves up one of his favorite motifs—Batman spreading his cape and throwing a bat shadow against a wall to "terrify" criminals. In this instance, however, the move is undermined by a continuity glitch.

It's in a scene at the Woodrow Roosevelt High gym, where Joker is gloating about a photo his Bad Pennies have just snapped of the basketball team with exam answers from his rigged vending machine. Batman shouts offscreen, and the camera cuts to him up on a catwalk, where he drops his spread cape. When the camera cuts back to Joker and his goons we see the bat shadow for the first time, even though Batman is no longer casting it. The crooks are clearly startled when they hear Batman's voice, but they never even acknowledge the shadow, so the whole effort kind of fIops.

Incidentally, in some other episodes ("Zelda the Great," "The Penguin Goes Straight," etc.) Adam West (or, more likely, a stand-in) clearly "performs" the bat shadow and makes it move, but this one is motionless and looks to be generated by a lighting effect—what we used to call a "gobo" when I was on high school stage crew. (The Batsignal works on the same principle—or would if it were possible in the real world to focus a lamp on clouds.) I'm pretty sure we see the same motionless shadow again, used to much better dramatic effect, in "Give 'Em The Axe."

[clavierankh]

He does the shadow at the end of "Riddler's False Notion" too.

[Jim Akin]

It's long been established (at least among us batgeeks) that King Tut was given his civilian surname because McElroy is batboss William Dozier's middle name—a name Dozier liked so much that he bestowed it on his pet poodle. More recently, it's been noted that Dozier shortened "William McElroy" to "Willy Mack" when filing the publishing on the Batgirl theme lyrics.

I think I've found a previously overlooked prior instance of "McElroy" popping up on Batman, In "Better Luck Next Time." After Robin stows the irradiated cat statues in the Batmobile's lead-lined compartment, the Batoscope stops pointing in all directions and draws a bead on Catwoman's whereabouts. When Robin sees the instrument settle down, I believe he says it indicates Catwoman is at "McElroy Point," but instead of pronouncing the name "MACK-ul-roy," as Tut (and Dozier) would, the Boy Wonder says "Muh-KELL-roy."

I searched the board and couldn't find any earlier references to this, but I wonder if anyone noticed this before. Has anyone seen the episode script?

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

I noticed this watching a different DVD - It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

I mistakenly thought Andy from Come Back, Shame was Christopher Shea, who voiced Linus in the early Peanuts specials. He would've been around the right age and the voice sounded the same. And according to his bio, he was in Shane, which Batman was spoofing.

But apparently I was wrong.

Andy was played by brother Eric Shea, who was two years younger. And according to credits, Andy would also voice Linus after his brother.

I think I got all that right.

I also didn't realize Christopher Shea passed away ten years ago.

[Jim Akin]

When Minstrel appears incognito in the final Gotham Stock Exchange scene in "Barbecued Batman?" I believe he's wearing Bookworm's glasses.

[Bryan Grantham]

Just recently rewatched "Death In Slow Motion" and noticed at the opening, during the Riddlers' performance, Mr. Van Jones, for all his apparent anger, is smiling and laughing along with the lobby crowd at some point. Once you notice it, it's a bit jarring to see him get so angry. Of course, when later it's revealed that he was in collusion with the Riddler to obtain a silent film starring B & R, you realize he's a bit of a nutcase anyway.

[chrisbcritter]

Guess he was embarrassed to admit he enjoyed it, so he overcompensated to show he was a Serious Connoisseur of the Arts™.

[JimmyVale]

I rewatched some episodes from seasons one and two this week and realized they used pink/purple tape over the Batmobile pinstripes in certain areas. The pink pin striping is on the grill and on the doors. I forgot which episode, but I could actually see the edge where they put the tape on. It wasn’t a very neat job, either.

It doesn’t match the rest of the pinstriping on the car. On the bottom and back, it’s orange, on the doors and grill, it’s pink!

I believe the pinstriping got rubbed off or damaged and they had to fix it ASAP so they broke out some tape that sort of matched.

That always was a mystery - sometimes the outlines looked orange, sometimes, pink/purple....the reason is it’s because it was BOTH!

Anyone else notice this?

[Batman65]

Ok, so maybe this was mentioned before, maybe it wasn’t. If it was, I apologize. I was watching H&I yesterday morning and they were running episode 43, Penguin Sets a Trend and halfway through, I noticed something really disturbing. After they head back to the bat cave, Batman and Robin are trying to figure out things, as they always do, and when Batman moves, there is what looks to be, a BiG noticeable dent in the Batmobile.. I immediately had to pop the DVD in to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and yep, there it was.

My first question was, why wouldn’t they have turned the car so the dent was not noticeable. My next thought was Who would dent this awesome car? Has anyone else noticed this? Also, it’s really cool that the army general is none other than Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flintstone.

[Jim Akin]

In "Holy Rat Race," as Batman guns the Batmobile after pausing at the entrance to Bioscope Studios, a sign on the cyclone-fence gate behind the car reads "NO TRESPASSING: Desilu Studios."