Positive thoughts on 3rd Season

[Scott Sebring]

Who's Siren?

[Dr. Shimel]

Did Yvonne Craig have a stunt double? I can always spot the doubles for Adam West and Burt Ward, but Batgirl always seems to be portrayed by Yvonne in the fight scenes.

Given that she never threw punches, nor obviously was punched, my guess would be no. In addition, her legitimate dancing ability allowed for easier movement that allowed her to escape any errant violence.

[High C]

Did Yvonne Craig have a stunt double? I can always spot the doubles for Adam West and Burt Ward, but Batgirl always seems to be portrayed by Yvonne in the fight scenes.

Her stunt double was named Audrey Saunders.

[Scott Sebring]

Did Yvonne Craig have a stunt double? I can always spot the doubles for Adam West and Burt Ward, but Batgirl always seems to be portrayed by Yvonne in the fight scenes.

Audrey Saunders was her stunt double for about five seconds. Well, not quite that short but barely for a full episode or so. She couldn't ride a motorcycle so Yvonne did that. Yvonne was more than keen to do her own "fight" scenes so shortly after they went into production for the third season, Audrey was picked up by another series and left.

[High C]

Did Yvonne Craig have a stunt double? I can always spot the doubles for Adam West and Burt Ward, but Batgirl always seems to be portrayed by Yvonne in the fight scenes.

Audrey Saunders was her stunt double for about five seconds. Well, not quite that short but barely a full episode or so. She couldn't ride a motorcycle so Yvonne did that. Yvonne was more than keen to do her own "fight" scenes so shortly after they went into production for the third season, Audrey was picked up by another series and left.

Interesting stuff, Scott, and backed up by the Dozier files, namely the shooting schedules for Wail of the Siren and the Londinium trilogy. For Wail, which was shot in early Aug. 1967, Hubie Kerns, Victor Paul and Audrey Saunders are listed as stunt players. But for the Londinium eps, which began shooting Aug. 21, 1967, only Kerns and Paul are listed.

[Scott Sebring]

Interesting thing, High C, is that Audrey wasn't used for "Sport of Penguins" that started shooting production on July 10,1967 well before "Wail". She was also left out in "The Ogg Couple" that shot from July 19th thru the 31st ending with "Dinosaur." Regretfully, my copies of the Dozier files (which I assume are the same that you have) don't include the stunt players page for "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin" or "Ring Around the Riddler" to see if she was utilized in those. She was utilized in "Louie the Lilac" that started shooting Aug.14,1967, just before they started shooting the Londinium Trilogy. So she did get used for at least two episodes for sure according to those files. Yvonne just mainly remembers her not being used much early on and then getting to do more work elsewhere.

[High C]

Scott, yeah, I remember being astonished reading Joel Eisner's book back in 1988 and finding out it was a stuntMAN riding the horse in The Sport of Penguins, although when I see that episode today, I'm not so surprised.
I do have the production notes for Ring (shocking, right?) and Audrey isn't listed, but neither are Hubie nor Victor. Just a generic 'STUNTS' is listed in the pay schedule.

The odd thing about that pay schedule is that Siren is listed as being portrayed by 'ERTHA KITT.' Some have taken that to mean Eartha was originally considered for Siren. I disagree. Given the obvious mistake in the name, I think it was written by a beancounter or somesuch who knew Eartha was skedded to appear at some point, and assumed incorrectly which role she might have, based on her history as a singer.

[Scott Sebring]

The odd thing about that pay schedule is that Siren is listed as being portrayed by 'ERTHA KITT.' Some have taken that to mean Eartha was originally considered for Siren. I disagree. Given the obvious mistake in the name, I think it was written by a beancounter or somesuch who knew Eartha was skedded to appear at some point, and assumed incorrectly which role she might have, based on her history as a singer.

I agree. A typo for sure.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

I liked that the writers often remembered that Batgirl, in her civilian identity, was a college graduate with a degree (I'm guessing a Masters) in library science, and depicted her as highly intelligent and resourceful. For example, in "Penguin's Clean Sweep," Robin (hilariously) describes the organisms under the microscope as "tiny tadpoles," but Batgirl immediately recognizes them as Lygerian sleeping sickness bacteria. (I always imagined that she would figure out Batman and Robin's secret identities long before they would figure out hers.).

That's something I did not like about that exchange, as it was way out of character for Robin, who had been portrayed as a young man intelligent beyond his years in several fields (he's a world class detective/scientist pretty close to Batman, so he would never make such a childish observation), and let's not forget he had a hand in building the Bat gadgets.

Part of the problem with Batgirl's addition, was marginalizing Robin in order to build up Batgirl as a crimefighter (on the intellectual side), which was too apparent when we recall Robin's many scenes displaying his intellect in seasons 1 & 2.

It's as though they tried to have Robin act like the usual cluless kid seen on 1960s sitcoms, instead of the character who regularly matches wits with intelligent super-villains--adult villains with years of experience--all to help Batgirl seem like she could stand on Batman's level. The right handling would be to treat all three as intelligent without dumping the established traits of Robin.

[Scott Sebring]

Friendly reminder - This thread is about "POSITIVE" thoughts on 3rd Season. Let's keep it to that please.

[John Mack]

Yes, I like the POSITIVE angle on this thread. Too much negativity on the board lately, especially with regard to the third season.

I liked the third season a lot as Billy May's music added a fresh feel for the show. WOW! His music was tremendous!

John

[High C]

I liked the third season a lot as Billy May's music added a fresh feel for the show. WOW! His music was tremendous!

I really liked his theme for Siren, which only was used on her two episodes. It was one of these cues which really screamed 'a beautiful woman is entering the room.' Well-done and quite fitting for Joan's entrances as Siren.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Friendly reminder - This thread is about "POSITIVE" thoughts on 3rd Season. Let's keep it to that please.

I hear you, Scott.

Probably a minor positive in the grand scheme of things, was a short piece of music which was used in the tease of Tut escaping his shrink; usually, it was heard at a season 3 episode's conclusion, but it was nice as it "felt" like it was saying "something is going to happen."

I wondered what was the title of that piece. Sigh...if only a TV soundtrack was available so we....heh, yeah, I know!

[Dr. Shimel]

"I'll Be a Mummy's Uncle" was the best episode of that final season. It has plenty of humorous moments, the usual amount of absurdity, and (for the most part) an absence of amaeturish-looking sets.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

"I'll Be a Mummy's Uncle" was the best episode of that final season. It has plenty of humorous moments, the usual amount of absurdity, and (for the most part) an absence of amaeturish-looking sets.

Despite Buono's over the top antics, the discovery of the Batcave, including Batman & Robin's exchange with Tut was a standout for the season. I've always found the threat of exposing secret identities fascinating, so Tut bellowing his discovery (and the heroes' reactions all throughout this chapter) was nice.

As much as I kick season three, I think this episode deserved a 2nd part--with Tut and his Tutlings escaping the Batcave (through the proper exit/entrance, since the shaft was blocked by the heroes) in part one's finale. But the search and fear of being exposed needed to mean something -- such as Tut leading the duo to a showdown, even questioning (for a moment) how and why a millionaire and his ward became B & R, before the usual end result of fists and feet.

I don't know if such a moment of self-reflection would fit the tone of that episode/season, but it would be something different, almost like the threat of a cliffhanger before the real finale.