Batman (TV series)

Adam West and Burt Ward turned out to be so iconic that it might seem hard to imagine Batman being done with anyone else but them. But the producers did consider two other actors as the Dynamic Duo: Lyle Waggoner was considered for the part of Batman, and Peter Deyell for the part of Robin. The contrast between the two actors is pretty stark. Both play the role well, yet West gives the character that brooding persona that is associated with Bruce Wayne. Waggoner performs as a more upbeat Bruce Wayne, giving him an old-school superhero feel. To his credit, this is spot-on given the time period. However, West's performance is definitely more nuanced and in line with the character of Bruce Wayne. Adam West and Burt Ward make a great Batman/Robin pair. The two of them are a dynamic duo who bring a sense of believability to the characters. On the other hand, Lyle Waggoner as Batman and Peter Deyell as Robin don't quite have the same effect. Their dialogue comes across as slightly more lighthearted and playful, making the dire situations the duo finds themselves in appear not as serious.

Batman is a 1960s Aerican action television series,based on the DC comic book character of the same name. Staring Adam West as  Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin – two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City from a variety of Archvillains. The series used a narrator (executive producer William Dozier, uncredited)

The typical story begins with a villain's caper (such as stealing a fabulous treasure, kidnapping a prominent person, or attempting to take over Gotham City. In his office,Commissioner Gordon, along with Chief O'Hara, learn of the crime and the culprit. Helpless to stop the villain, they contact Batman via the Batphone – a bright red telephone that provides a direct phone link to Batman at (Wayne Manor, the Batcave or the Batmobile). At "stately Wayne Manor,  Alfred (the butler) answers the Batphone and informs Wayne of the call. Frequently, Wayne and his ward, Dick Grayson, are found talking with Dick's aunt,Harriet Cooper, who is unaware of Bruce and Dick's secret identities. Alfred discreetly interrupts and they excuse themselves to go to the Batphone in Wayne's study. Upon learning the details from Gordon, Wayne turns a switch concealed within a bust of Shakespeare that stands on his desk to reveal two fireman's pole hidden behind a sliding bookcase. "To the Batpoles!" Wayne exclaims, and he and Grayson slide down the poles that lead to the Batcave.      The third and final season, introduced Yvonne Craig as Barara Gordon/Batgirl. Barbara Gordon is the daughter of police Commissoner Gordon. By day, she works for the Gotham Library; by night, she battles the under the alias of Batgirl. Barbara lives in a private townhouse near Gotham's trendy Park Ridge. A service lift in Barbara's bedroom closet runs down to the secret basement where Barbara stores her Batgirl crimefighting gear. In addition to costumes and weapons, the basement also serves as garage for Batgirl's highly advanced Batgirl-Cycle. A hidden button under her vanity activates a secret revolving door in her bedroom, which leads to the Batgirl-Nook. From there, she would don her ginger wig and change into the Batgirl costume. There is also another door, leading to the Batgirl-Cycle, which exits the building through a secret freight elevator.

120  episodes aired on the ABC network, from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968, twice weekly for the first 2 and weekly for the third. In 2016, television critics ranked Batman as the 82nd greatest American  television show . Every story was a two-parter, except for two three-parters featuring villainous team ups (the Joker and the Penguin, then the Penguin and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds) in the second season. The titles of each multi-part story usually rhyme. Each third season story ended with a teaser featuring the next episode's guest villain, except for the series finale. The cliffhangers between multiple-part stories consist of villains holding someone captive, usually Batman or Robin, with the captive(s) being threatened by death, serious injury or another fate. These cliffhangers are resolved early in the follow-up episode with Batman and Robin getting themselves out of every death trap.

The VilliaIns

• The Joker: Casar Romero a clown-themed, prank-loving villain and Batman's archenemy, who leaves behind jokes as clues to his next crime.
• The Penguin: Burgess Meredith, a penguin-themed gentleman thief who commits crimes using multipurpose umbrellas.
• The Riddler: Frank Gorshin (Seasons 1 and 3 and the movie. John Astin (Season 2) A criminal who leaves behind riddles as clues to his crimes.
• The Catwoman: Julie Newman (Seasons 1 and 2) Lee Meriwether in the movie, Eartha Kit (Season 3): A cat-themed jewel thief and cat burglar in a complicated love-hate relationship with Batman.
• King Tut/Professor William McElroy: Victor Buono a Egyptologist who developed a split personality after being struck on the head during a student protest. Each time he is hit on the head, he switches between the personalities of a university professor and a reincarnated version of the pharaohTutankhamun
• Mr Freeze/Dr Art Schivel: George Sanders (Season 1), Otto Preminger and Eli Walach, (Season 2): A mad scientist who, after exposure to a freeze solution, now needs below-freezing temperatures to survive. His weapon of choice is a freeze-blast gun, capable of freezing its target solid. In his first appearance, the gun could also produce a heat/incendiary beam.
• Mad Hatter/Jeris Tetch: David Wayne, a formally dressed villain with an obsession for collecting hats (he steals the hats from his victims, then knocks them out with a mesmerizing ray that pops out of the top of his hat).
• Egghead: Vincent Price, a smug, bald-headed genius whose crimes and speech patterns involve eggs.
• Marsha Queen of Diamonds: Carolyn Jones, a criminal with a fondness for jewelry.
• Shame: Cliff Robertson, Calamity Jan: Dina Merrill a western-themed villain, whose partners at various times include Okie Annie. The three of them spoof famous Western characters from the movies (namely Shane, Annie Oakley, and Calamity Jane).
• Olga Queen of the Cossacks: Anne Baxter, A Russian-accented, redheaded villainess often paired with Egghead.
• Zelda the Great: Anne Baxter, a master of illusion whose crimes are tied in with magic tricks.
•  Louie the Lilac: Milton Berle, a gangster with a fondness for flowers.
• The Bookworm: RoddyMcDowell, Like the Riddler, he left clues to lure the caped crusaders to the scene of his next crime
• False Face: Malachi Throne, The master of disguise
• The Clock King: Walter Slezak,  a master planner
• Ma Parker: Shelley Winters, not much is known about the master criminal, She has a long criminal record in other states.
• The Archer: Art Carney, a modern-day Robin Hood who robs from the rich and gives to the poor
• The Minstrel: Van Johnson, what made him so dangerous was he possessed a "level of electronic sophistication
• Chandell: Liberace, During a performance at the White House, he used a player piano to cover that he had sustained an injury to his hands beforehand. His twin brother Harry used this to blackmail Chandell into a life of crime, using the alias Fingers.
• The Puzzler: Maurice Evans, Like the Riddler, the Puzzler likes to keep the Dynamic Duo baffled by his puzzling clues.
• The Sandman/Dr. Somnambular: Michael Rennie, Sandman is an international criminal who uses hypnotic sand controlled sleepwalkers to do his bidding.
• Pussycat: Lesley Gore, found by Catwoman and recruited as her sidekick
• Colonel Gumm: Roger C. Carmel, flamboyant and hapless galactic criminal
• The Black Widow: Tallulah Bankhead, "Darlings, we are about to play a dear little game: The Spider and the Fly."
• The Siren:Joan Collins, the Siren has the ability to mesmerize any man to do her bidding by pitching a high note two octaves above High C
• Lola Lasagne: Ethel Merman, Lola is a childhood friend of the Penguin, apparently she used to steal kid’s braces.
• Lord Marmaduke Ffogg: Rudy Vallée, Lady Penelope Peasoup: Glynis Johns Brother and sister. They started a ladies' finishing school on their estate, which claimed to teach young girls how to fend for themselves, but in actuality trained young thieves.
• Nora Clavicle: Barbara Rush, she charmed Mayor Linseed's wife into making him give her Commissioner.
• Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft, Ida Lupino, Cabala, Howard Duff Husband & wife Does anyone really know?
• Minerva: Zsa Zsa Gabor, is a criminal that ran a health spa inGotham City.
• Killer Moth: Tim Herbert, Killer Moth's major claim to fame was being the first villain ever defeated by then-amateur heroine Batgirl

While most of the villains were from Batman comics, a handful originated as enemies of other heroes. The Archer and The Puzzler were villains from Superman stories, and Clock King was originally an enemy of Green Arrow.

 In the reoccurring Bat-climb, filmed by rotating the camera 90 degrees and building a set for the "side" of the structure along the studio floor. The heroes' capes were pulled back (to replicate the pull of gravity) with invisible lines. In many episodes,

a celebrity would pop his or her head out of a window, Jerry Lewis was the first, proclaiming, "Holy human flies!"  Dick Clark, the Green Hornet and Kato, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana, Sergeant Sam Stone from the series Felony Squad, Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes, Lurch from The Addams Family, Don Ho, Santa Claus, Art Linkletter, Edward G. Robinson, Suzy Knickerbocker, and "The Carpet King." The latter was a carpet salesman named Cyril Lord with a series of TV ads, who traded Dozier some carpet for the cameo

Despite the regular fighting on the show, Batman and Robin typically use non-lethal force; only three criminal characters die during the series: the Riddler's Moll Molly (played by Jill St. John in the pilot episode), who accidentally falls into the Batcave's atomic reactor, and two out-of-town gunmen who shoot at Batman and Robin, but kill each other instead, toward the end of "Zelda the Great"/"A Death Worse Than Fate". In the film, six criminals die in total: five henchmen are dehydrated by the Penguin in order to infiltrate the Batcave, but this plan fails when the henchmen unexpectedly disappear into antimatter once struck. A sixth henchman is presumably killed when he is caught in a trap meant for Batman and sprung into an exploding octopus. Twice, the Catwoman (Julie Newman) appears to fall to her death (into a bottomless pit and from a high building into a river), but returned in later episodes. In "Instant Freeze", Mr. Freeze freezes a butler solid and knocks him over, and sound-effects suggest that he is shattered into pieces. A later reference suggests the butler survived. In "Green Ice", Mr. Freeze freezes a policeman solid; it is left unclear whether he survived. In "The Penguin's Nest", a policeman suffers an electric shock at the hands of the Penguin's accomplices, but he is presumed to survive, as he appears in some later episodes.

The Batmobile Had Been on Screen Before. The series’ early debut forced a major change in plans regarding the construction of the show’s Batmobile, George Barris designed and build the car—in a matter of just several weeks. Barris was able to complete this formidable task because he chose not to design and build a Batmobile from scratch. Instead, he reworked an experimental 1955 Lincoln automobile called the Futura into the Batmobile. The Futura had already appeared on screen—in bright red paint — in the 1959 motion picture It Started with a Kiss, starring Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds.  Five Batmobiles were made during the series.

Jerry "Beaver" Mathers has an uncredited role in "The Great Escape.Mathers works the back entrance to the Gotham Opera House in this season three episode. "Pop?