TO THE BATPOLES podcast #90: Surf's Up, Joker's Under, and Al's On

[bat-rss]

New TO THE BATPOLES! We're joined by "Married with Children" podcaster Al Edwards to discuss "Surf's Up, Joker's Under"! Why is this episode ranked as being both among the best and among the worst? Also, the winner of our "Batgirl Theme Alternate Lyrics" contest! http://ow.ly/Ulbn30leBU4

[Dr. Shimel]

It appears that "It's Getting Harder" was a popular song lyric in 1967. Earlier that year, one of the last scenes in "To Sir With Love" had this song from Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk0LY1EcwCM

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

Looking forward to checking this out. Before I do, I'll share my random thoughts on this episode, which may agree or disagree with some of your points.

I put this episode in the 'One of the best' categories. I'm probably alone at this board in that I'm not a superhero guy, but I love absurdist humor. The maligned-for-most third Batman season obviously is the most absurd of the bunch. Like others including Green Acres and The Munsters, sometimes the absurdity is on point; other times not so much.

Some reasons why I love this episode:

Sivi Aberg - Yes, I'm a shallow guy. In this day and age when beautiful women in bikinis are abundant on Instagram, I still do a double take when seeing Aberg in this episode. So I can only imagine its effect in the 60's.

With the music, the dialog, the bathing suits, it's a glimpse into the era, or at least how some perceived it.

It was nice to see the shark repellent Bat-spray make another cameo.

Gordon and O'Hara trying to be beach bums!

Some reasons I didn't like it:

I know it was a cost cutting move and not unique to this episode, but having one of the two surfer henchmen not say a word is awkward.

Like a lot of the third season, it took a lot to suspend disbelief that none of these intelligent people could figure out the true identities of the crime fighters. Batgirl vanishes then Barbara Gordon, who had been missing, instantly emerges? Robin is missing but Dick Grayson is there?

[Jaws63]

On the subject of the alternate music played at the hang five, the bootleg version is the same as the METV broadcasts. I do not have my bootlegs anymore, but I am sure someone here on the boards does. It would be quicker to figure out what the songs were and who performed them this way than by waiting for METV to play the episode.

[Dr. Shimel]

Actually, METV just replayed the episode a few weeks ago

[Jimmy L. 66]

This is one of my favorite episodes of all time..
For the absurdity of it all, but it ranks high mostly for one reason.
"Care to put on our baggies, Joker?" might be my favorite moment of the entire run.
Like he is challenging him to a duel at noon, but with shorts.
also the Hot Dog phone in Hi Def is pretty cool.

[robinboyblunderer]

This is a pretty funny episode. Undercover Gordon and O'Hara are hilarious. Yes to the baggies quote above. The whole lunacy of the plot; I think it makes sense for the Joker, why not have a completely pointless plan? King of the surf, sure why not, it's crazy.

Sivi Aberg is great in that bikini. It's just a fun episode and I think it's also helped they filmed outside on a real beach, there's something very refreshing after all that sparse black backgrounds.

[bat-rss]

On the subject of the alternate music played at the hang five, the bootleg version is the same as the METV broadcasts. I do not have my bootlegs anymore, but I am sure someone here on the boards does. It would be quicker to figure out what the songs were and who performed them this way than by waiting for METV to play the episode.

What's the source of these "bootleg" versions?

[BATWINGED HORNET]

The episode...its the worst. Even the Fox trashcan would stick a finger down its throat to barf it up.

There's a reason why anti-1966 critics have used this episode--repeatedly--to "prove" the entire series was childish nonsense of no value. Its such a volcanic eruption of stupidity, lacking any of the drive and spirit that made Batman a breakout hit in early '66. The episode feels like a late night sketch show's intentionally bad parody of a bad parody, and that's dominated the cultural conversation about Batman, to the point where DC's '66 comic took so much from the third season's tone, arguably due to certain fans believing the third season was the true heart of the show. That's passed on to readers, and anyone else just thinking about '66 Batman, so once again, Batman is some clown show about surfing, flying saucers, fashion shows, dinosaur eggs, someone trying to be king of the flower children and other terrible blows to the series' identity.

Some "silly Batman" defenders love to refer to Batman dancing in the pilot, but conveniently leave out the fact the only reason he acted in such a bizarre manner was due to Batman being drugged, meaning it was abnormal for Batman to break out in a dance. The same applies to his dance in "The Pharaoh's in a Rut", only in that case, he was pretending to be under Tut's spell--the opposite of how too many have tried to hang the undeserved (at least in season one) "oh, he was always a campy goof" weight around the TV character's neck.

Tim...you could not remember Van Williams' last name? Oh, the horror. May you find yourself strapped to a chair, with your eyes forced open A Clockwork Orange style, watching season 3 AND Legends of the Superheroes in a loop!

[robinboyblunderer]

The episode...its the worst. Even the Fox trashcan would stick a finger down its throat to barf it up.


Some "silly Batman" defenders love to refer to Batman dancing in the pilot, but conveniently leave out the fact the only reason he acted in such a bizarre manner was due to Batman being drugged, meaning it was abnormal for Batman to break out in a dance.

I think worst goes to Nora Clavicle or the alvino ray gun episode or any of the Olgas in my opinion.

However, while true Batman dances after the drug, he does the I don't' want to attract attention line before the drug which is for comedic effect, so the show was always a mix of comedy and action-adventure.

I realize this became unbalanced as the series continued, they ruined Batman's character etc. But the show wasn't just action adventure the way Green Hornet had been.

Again, I think surfing and flying saucers fit the Joker's character but I can see why some don't care for it.

cheers

[Jaws63]

On the subject of the alternate music played at the hang five, the bootleg version is the same as the METV broadcasts. I do not have my bootlegs anymore, but I am sure someone here on the boards does. It would be quicker to figure out what the songs were and who performed them this way than by waiting for METV to play the episode.

What's the source of these "bootleg" versions?

That's a question I'd like to know as well. I bought two of these bootlegs, both through I offer. The first one, when the set arrived, not only was the box damaged but was missing one disk. The picture quality was poor but at least watchable. I could tell these were taken from earlier tv broadcasts because I noticed channel water marks and the editing was done clumsily....this was back in 2006. Thank god for this message board, because after talking to some of the members back then, I was directed to a much better bootleg version than what I had. I bought this "better" version a year later.

I seem to remember this forum having bootleg comparison conversations back then. I'm pretty sure it was determined as far as episode content, that no matter which version you owned, the episodes were identical.

The alternate music in that Hang five scene seems to be exclusive to the official DVD release. Now that crappy copy went missing and gave the other version to my son, so as mentioned...I know longer have my bootlegs. All one needs to do is Shazam the music from any of the bootlegs and from this new release...not sure this will work but is a thought.

[High C]

This was another fun podcast, and I thought Al contributed some interesting points. I had never noticed the way Yvonne is smiling while looking at Cesar in that scene. If you took a screengrab of that shot, you would think Undine and Barbara Gordon were both Joker's molls. Again, this is an example of the mediocre direction of Oscar Rudolph, a sitcom director who wasn't as talented as some of the season 1 helmers who went on to bigger things.

Or maybe they cut out this scene:

RIPTIDE and WIPEOUT seize BARBARA GORDON.

BARBARA: Unhand me. I'll call my ex-husband Penguin.

JOKER: Put Miss Gordon in the Affection and Adoration Transferometer. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

(Five minutes later)

BARBARA: (impressed) I've never dated a man with a pasty white face and green hair, but you really pull off that look, Joker.

Piggybacking on another of Al's points, concerning the woodenness of Ronnie Knox's (Skip) acting, I'm wondering if Joker's surfing gizmo also drained some of his acting ability. Collateral damage, if you will.

Al also noticed something I never did, even though I remembered both scenes. It's absurd for Hoffman to have Joker think that 'finishing first' would win the surfing contest when the rules were explained to him in the script. As the saying goes, Joker is crazy, but not stupid.

Paul made a good point about Batman's 'let's follow them and see where they go' line about the tracks after Robin already had established where the tracks ended. To me, that's a case of Hoffman trying to do Sempleian dialogue and failing miserably. I think it's also worth noting that Hoffman is the common thread in the season 3 episodes you guys talked about in which a villain thinks taking over one small segment of society somehow will lead to world domination.

Consider that Hoffman wrote both this ep and the Riddler boxing one, and it's more than likely he rewrote Dwight Taylor's Louie script. You'll remember that the flower children weren't a part of Taylor's original concept. Hoffman wasn't good at plotting and he just never got the right feel for the show.

I would disagree with Al about the amount of navels on Star Trek. I'm not a Trekkie/Trekker but I only recall one episode with a woman showing her navel, Diana Ewing in The Cloud Minders. I'll try to keep it PG here, but it seemed to me Trek's approach was to show a lot of skin on the back and sides as opposed to in the front. I guess they felt that was easier to get past the censors.

Also, kind of a tangent, but Al mentioned how Preminger is his favorite Mr. Freeze (mine too) and noted, as Tim and Paul had when they did the arc, how repetitive the Freeze/Miss Iceland scenes were. I'd note that only three weeks before that arc, Dee Hartford (Miss Iceland) had guested on The Time Tunnel as Helen of Troy and her scenes with her captor played out much the same as the ones with Freeze. 'You will love me'/'I will never love you,' etc.

Interestingly, both shows were Fox and Hartford also did two eps of Lost in Space in 1966-67, another Fox production, so perhaps it was a package deal of some sort for her.

[bat-rss]

Tim...you could not remember Van Williams' last name? Oh, the horror. May you find yourself strapped to a chair, with your eyes forced open A Clockwork Orange style, watching season 3 AND Legends of the Superheroes in a loop!

Just got my Batman-related "Vans" mixed up! And, well, we're gonna hafta endure LOTSH for the podcast at some point...!

[Mr. Glee]

I enjoyed the podcast, as always, and will declare unashamedly that "Surf's Up" is my favorite Season 3 episode. It just seems to have more energy than all the others, and it's one where the silliness actually makes me chuckle instead of groan. (Has anybody else noticed that, in the scenes inside the Ten Toes surfboard shop, the saw horses have sea horses on them?)

As for the music heard in the Hang Five, I checked an old bootleg DVD-R and an ancient off-air VHS recording from the late '80s against the Blu-ray and the music sounds identical in all three, at least to my ears.

[P “Junior Batman” Y]

Dozier missed his chance to assemble a supervillain team composed entirely of evil Vans. Van Williams! Van Johnson! Van Heflin! Van Morrison! And last but not least (he said anachronistically), the deadly doe-eyed stare of...James Van Der Beek! And who would appear as the guest band (for it would have to be a skateboarding episode in the manner of "Surf's Up," thereby requiring each of the bad guys to wear a pair of Vans)? Camper Van Beethoven, of course.