Season 3 a breath of fresh air?

[looneyguy85]

I just got to the much maligned season 3 and honestly I don't think its quite as bad as what everybody makes it out to be. I really love the new episode format which immediately makes the whole show seem fresh. Halfway through season 2 I really started to get tired of the cliffhanger (heroes in danger) ending. This throws that gimmick out the window almost immediately. Having the villains of the next episode being introduced in story at the end of the episode is also a nice touch.

[Progress Pigment]

My main problems are that the humor went from what was perceived as "camp", to a badly written "Get Smart" imitation. I did like the faster pace and the music was a nice change up, but the 30 minute episodes were choked with so many cast members that it blunted what might've been a fresh start for the show. And Alfred's collusion with Batgirl was just painful. The Alfred of the comics would have packed his bags without explanation and gone back to England before fooling master Bruce! And Batman not being the star of a show called Batman, is not alright with me.

[Dr. Shimel]

I can't get past the low-rent look to the show.

[epaddon]

Even leaving out the more idiotic tone of the humor in S3 the problem with the cutback to a half hour is that it ruins the pacing of the show and that problem was still evident even in shows with stronger scripts like the Siren one.

1-It means we lose a lot of familiar trappings like a "To the Batpoles" moment.

2-We also don't get enough detailed background into the villain's scheme, why they are doing it, etc. It has to be dropped in our laps on short notice and when you also have to find room for giving BG dialogue as well that also takes away the chance to let the story breathe.

I think if the show had been one hour on one night, eliminating the need for a cliffhanger trap at the half-way point, the show might have taken on a fresher quality in that you could have the freedom to do a trap at the halfway point but if you didn't want to, you didn't *have* to.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

I just got to the much maligned season 3 and honestly I don't think its quite as bad as what everybody makes it out to be. I really love the new episode format which immediately makes the whole show seem fresh.

Too many of season three's plots were 1/3 the effort of the previous year, with a rush to get to the action (now more parody than action) without any sort of coherent set-up. Batman had too many answers sans the detective work seen in earlier seasons, while Robin--once as solid a detective as his partner--was pushed to the back often, in order to inflate the hollow Batgirl character--a character never revealed to have any understanding of criminology, or offensive/defensive training.

Then, there was the continued downgrading of Batman by turning him to a paternalistic, finger wagging crossing guard, which (probably) had much to do with the negative impression sold by critics of the series.

[chrisbcritter]

A breath of fresh air would have made the sets sway in the breeze!

[Progress Pigment]

Then, there was the continued downgrading of Batman by turning him to a paternalistic, finger wagging crossing guard, which (probably) had much to do with the negative impression sold by critics of the series.

That began in season two, but the third season really sealed it. When you sacrifice your hero to a bunch of stupid Stanley Ralph Ross one-liners, the thrill is basically dead. If the series had ended in season one (with a Clock King finale ), the series would've been hailed as a classic by Bat-fans & comics fans alike. It would have been considered a work of genius that closely mirrored the comics of the 1960's. As much as I love the show, the season 2 and especially 3 episodes have very often made me quite ashamed of it.

[robinboyblunderer]

I respect you for sharing your honest opinion of the Season but a lot of the previous posts in this topic share my opinion of Season 3. I think it's much maligned cause it ain't much good!

Besides my dislike of forcing Batgirl into the show, probably my number complaint is making Batman the butt of the joke, making him seem stupid, lesser and so on.

Yeah, I could see Alfred keeping Batgirl's secret for an episode but very quickly finding a way to alert Batman to what was going on. Maybe they were planning on Batman figuring it out, by the time of the Londinium eps it seemed like he was aware Alfred knew more than he was letting on but this was never developed further and resolved.

The first season had the right style of humor, yes it was absurd but it was also witty.

And yes, having more room for the stories to breathe would've been good.

If I had to take an episode from the second season to cap off the show, like a series finale, I'd probably go with the Joker/Penguin team-up, two of the biggest villains and a giant fight scene in the Batcave. Heck, they could've had the Joker and Penguin fall into the atomic pile the same way Molly did.

Ironically though, I love the Londinium Trilogy.

cheers

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

A breath of fresh air would have made the sets sway in the breeze!

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

I just got to the much maligned season 3 and honestly I don't think its quite as bad as what everybody makes it out to be. I really love the new episode format which immediately makes the whole show seem fresh. Halfway through season 2 I really started to get tired of the cliffhanger (heroes in danger) ending. This throws that gimmick out the window almost immediately. Having the villains of the next episode being introduced in story at the end of the episode is also a nice touch.

I agree that Season 3 isn't as bad as it's often made out to be (opinion, of course).

The sheer absurdity of some of it is great - Egghead trying to hatch a 40 million year old egg, Penguin stealing a horse from a glue factory and entering in a race, Joker attempting to blackmail Gotham City via flying saucer, etc.

And I actually like the Nora Clavicle episode.

[John Mack]

I was 5 in 1968 and season 3 episodes are the ones I remember first run from that early age. As I got older and understood what had happened, it didn't matter to me. I was forever intranced. The best epsiodes in the series? Hardly. But I am emotionally attached to S3. So condemn me.

John

[whatever_gong82]

As I grew up in the past few decades, I (I won't say which) I found out though I enjoyed Ms. Craig's Batgirl, the season she was in didn't do much for me.

And, I'm in agreement with others here. The First Season was the best, because it had it all: satirical humor, a sense of adventure, fun death traps, well styled action, location shooting, NO Black Backgrounds, and the best plots, along with Frank Gorshin there as The Riddler for his 4 2-parters during the First Season.

Also, the First Season kept everything running smoothly along with out too much camp, or underwritten characters. Stanley Ralph Ross is a good writer, for example, but I felt that he works best when he doesn't go too far into camp or lame comedy. His Catwoman Two-parter from the first Seaosn was quite good, but he had it co-written with Lee Orgel, and it's probably the best that he did on the show. His other Catwoman ones, to me, made Catwoman too much a lovesick woman that wanted to hook up with Batman. I like the Catwoman of the First Season episode: she was evil, and was willing to get rid of Batman and Robin to accomplish her goals.

(You could also note how good quality-wise, his other non-Catwoman stories as well. The Siren one was ok, but it needed another episode to flesh it out. I will admit that I liked his Shame episodes, but both Shame 2-parters were allowed to be 2-parters, which allowed Stanley Ralph Ross to flesh out the plot.)

EDIT: I just remembered that he did the last few King Tut episodes. And they were good. But again, he didn't go too far into camp, in my opinion, and had time to work out the plot of the story.

[brightknight]

The first two seasons are much better, obviously. But I have to agree the new narrative structure for season three was a breath of fresh air. Batman was a very formulaic show and even though the budgets were poor, I appreciate how they tried different things towards the end.

[TheBlueHombre]

I just got to the much maligned season 3 and honestly I don't think its quite as bad as what everybody makes it out to be. I really love the new episode format which immediately makes the whole show seem fresh. Halfway through season 2 I really started to get tired of the cliffhanger (heroes in danger) ending. This throws that gimmick out the window almost immediately. Having the villains of the next episode being introduced in story at the end of the episode is also a nice touch.

I totally agree with you about Season 3. I just watched the whole series and I found Season 3 to be very refreshing. My favorite season is the first one by far because the stories were very creative. Season 2 got into a familiar pattern that became very predictable. Season 3 helped the series become more focused on getting through the story.