He’s fighting while holding a cat. Obviously I have to post it. 

Batman: The Movie

Batman: How much do you think a machine gun weighs, old chum?

Robin: I donno. How many hundreds of pounds of bullshit do you have in your belt right now?

Batman: Zero. Everything in my belt is batshit.

(Scene transition fanfare)

just finished watching the first two episodes of the 1966 adam west batman show and y’all the sheer amount -- the sheer quality -- of batdad and robin in this show is unmatched

Burt Ward, Adam West, Van Williams, Bruce Lee, with the Batmobile and Black Beauty / production stills from the Green Hornet and Kato’s appearance on Batman in the two-part second-season episodes “A Piece of the Action” and “Batman’s Satisfaction” (originally broadcast March 1 & 2, 1967.)

Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright from Lost in Space with Burt Ward from Batman on the 20th Century Fox Television lot (1966)

Batman (1966), "Fine Feathered Finks"

Adam West and Burt Ward Batman (1966 – 1968)

Batman - Season 1, Episode 5 (1966) The Joker Is Wild

So either I’ve posted this one before - in which case have another one. 

Or I haven’t - in which case shame on me. 

Season Two, Episode Three: Hot Off The Griddle

Egghead is caught by Batman and Robin

Batman (1966-67)

I’ve been diving a bit back into Batman 66 for research, and this is the cliffhanger from the very first episode. As such:

Jesus Christ

For context: Batman had his drink spiked by one of Riddler's goons at a bar he was investigating in, and he realized this just in time to call Robin to his aid, but Robin was tranquilized and kidnapped by the Riddler's gang just as he left the car. The scene above is what happens almost directly after Batman does the Batusi, and together they kinda form a microcosm for the whole show: That it is super silly and played for laughs and done with tongue-in-cheek irony, but when you’re a kid or just suspend your disbelief more easily, this is all extremely real and serious, there’s hardly much that funny or campy about the plot here

Adam West is so good here, drugged and despairing and worried bad enough that his composure is gone. The scene is funny in one way, because it’s drunk Batman handing the keys to the Batmobile to the police because he’s too sloshed to drive, but it’s also fucking horrible, because he’s just been roofied and has to stand by as his partner / son is taken by very, very bad people who want to do very bad things to him and he’s completely helpless to do anything about it. I don’t think even the movies (outside of maybe The Batman’s scenes with Falcone) ever got this dark

Frank Gorshin is so fucking good here, so goddamn creepy. The episode itself pivots hard tone-wise to get to this cliffhanger and most of Riddler’s scenes beforehand were all fairly comedic, with him trying to destroy the Batmobile or handing Batman the lawsuit, but he ping-pongs masterfully between affable conversational charm laced with uncurable arrogance, smug satisfaction and high-pitched manic giggling that causes his whole body to spasm and bend and curdle like the laugh is going to leave his body, and then he just as frequently punctuates those with ice-cold homicidal whispering with not one bit of humor in it whatsoever, and he shuffles these three multiple times per scene or even dialogue

I wanted to more personally confirm the stuff people have said about his performance, that he was the only villain in the show who conveyed genuine, chilling menace (not sure if he’s the only one as of yet), that he was the blueprint that 70s-onwards Joker ripped everything from, and yeah, forget just the Joker, he feels like a baseline for so much of modern film supervillains on a scale maybe only matched by Heath Ledger’s Joker (that I can think of right now)

Batman really doesn’t break composure in this show that much and that’s part of the charm, which helps make these two first episodes and his desperation with Robin more notable. I know there’s one major scene in the movie where he goes berserk around the villains to protect his date, but I’m liking how this matches something that's a fairly consistent pattern with Batman media, from the early comics to this show to the cartoons even all the way to The Batman, which is The Riddler’s ability to fucking piss off Batman to the point his composure evaporates and he goes berserk with violence.

Dick this week 012424

Batman '66

Art by Mike McKone

Batman - Japanese notebook covers (1966)