“Hi Diddle Riddle”/ “Smack in the Middle”
Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Directed by Robert Butler
Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2
Production code 6028
Original air dates: January 12 & 13, 1966
The Bat-signal: We open at the Gotham City World’s Fair, specifically at the exhibit for the Republic of Moldavia, where the prime minister is holding a “friendship luncheon.” A cake is brought out, which is adorned with two figurines, one of a guy in a silly hat and overalls that is, I guess, supposed to symbolize Moldavia, shaking hands with Uncle Sam.
However, as the PM cuts into the cake, it explodes. It’s a small explosion, enough to ruin the cake (too bad, it looked yummy) and also shoot a message into the air, which then parachutes down. It’s a piece of paper with a riddle on it: “Why is an orange like a bell?”
The cops on the scene bring the riddle back to police headquarters, where Commissioner Gordon, Chief O’Hara, and a ton of other cops are all standing around with their thumbs in their ears. The prank indicates that the Riddler is back in town, and none of the gathered police think they can handle him. So Gordon goes to the red phone that will call Batman.
At Wayne Manor, Alfred gets the phone and says he’ll fetch Batman. In the sitting room, Bruce Wayne is speaking to a bunch of folks on the subject of helping fund anti-crime centers. He briefly laments that such places didn’t exist when his parents were killed by a criminal, but he’s interrupted by Alfred. After making excuses, he meets up with his ward, Dick Grayson, and they go to answer the phone. Upon being informed that the Riddler is at it again, he assures Gordon that he’ll meet him at police headquarters. He hangs up, pulls back Shakespeare’s head to reveal a dial that slides a bookcase aside to reveal a very clearly labelled pair of poles—one says “BRUCE,” the other says, “DICK,” and the wall behind says “ACCESS TO BAT-CAVE VIA BAT-POLES.” You gotta love the thoroughness.
By the time they’ve slid down to the Batcave, they’re in costume as Batman and Robin. They hop into the Batmobile and zoom off to Gotham City. They park in front of police headquarters and run inside.
Robin solves the riddle: they both must be peeled/pealed. (“What idiots we are!” says Chief O’Hara, and truer words…) Batman thinks Riddler’s target might be the Peale Art Gallery. And given that the cops couldn’t even figure out a stupid riddle, Batman advises that they sit this one out and let him and Robin handle it.
They drive to the gallery, parking at the back. Then a recording of the Riddler calls the Bat-phone in the Batmobile and asks Batman to riddle him this: there are three men in a boat with four cigarettes and no matches. How do they manage to smoke? (How Riddler got that number is left as a mystery.)
Unable to solve the riddle, they climb up the back wall to find the Riddler holding a gun to the head of Gideon Peale, the owner of the gallery, who’s handing him a cross. They burst through the window and put the Bat-cuffs on him for stealing the cross at gunpoint—at which point, two photographers show up, and Peale explains that the Riddler loaned the cross to the gallery for an exhibit, and the “gun” was a lighter. (Robin then figures out the riddle: throw one cigarette overboard, and it made the boat a cigarette lighter.)
The Riddler asks what it is that no man wants to have, yet no man wants to lose. Robin answers, “A lawsuit!” which is just what the Riddler is hitting Batman with. It’s a one-million-dollar lawsuit for assault, slander, and false arrest.
Bruce checks through his father’s law books, but can’t find anything useful. The Riddler has a case, and the suit will force Batman to reveal his true identity. Alfred reminds him how much the truth will devastate Dick’s aunt, Harriet Cooper. They go down to the Bat-cave and examine the legal documents the Riddler handed Batman, and they find two hidden messages: First, when is the time of a clock like the whistle of a train? (When it’s two to two.) Second, what has neither flesh, bone, nor nail but has four fingers and a thumb? (A glove.) Robin figures that it’s an address: 222 Glover Avenue, which is the address of a new discotheque called What a Way to Go-Go. Batman goes in alone (Robin is underage; he stays with the Batmobile), telling the maître-d that he’ll stay at the bar, as he doesn’t want to attract attention. (That ship, of course, has already sailed, as the entire bar is gawping at him.)
However, several of the staff are members of the Mole Hill Gang, whom the Riddler is using as his henchmen—as is Molly, a redhead who asks Batman to dance (after hitting him with a riddle of her own). Batman drinks his fresh-squeezed orange juice (which the Mole Hill Gang has spiked) and dances with her until he collapses. Robin runs to help him, but the Riddler hits him with a tranq dart before he can even get out of the Batmobile.
Luckily, Robin was smart enough to flip over the label that says “START BUTTON” over the label that says “ANTI-THEFT ACTIVATOR,” so when the Riddler tries to steal the Bat-mobile, the “start button” instead causes the exhaust pipes to shoot loud fireworks. Since he can’t steal the car, the Riddler settles for stealing the sidekick, as he, Molly, and the Mole Hill Gang take the unconscious Robin into the tunnels to their underground lair, where the Riddler puts Robin’s head in a vise and starts closing it slowly.
Batman is conscious, but still woozy from the mickeyed OJ, so he doesn’t notice the Bat-signal, and the cops (who take his keys away, as he’s in no condition to drive) think it’s better not to tell him, especially since he’s so busy lamenting the loss of Robin.
By morning, Batman has recovered, and he’s trying to locate Robin, to no avail. Down at the Mole Hill Gang hideout, we discover that the vise wasn’t to crush Robin’s head, but hold it still while the Riddler made a mold of it. He then wakes Robin up and tricks him into contacting Batman via Gordon to pose him two more riddles: What kind of pins are used in soup? (Terrapins.) What was Joan of Arc made of? (She was Maid of Orleans.) Batman figures out the clue: the old Turtle Mill on Orleans Cove. He hops into the Batmobile and drives off.
Molly has changed into a duplicate of Robin’s costume, and she’s used the mold to form a face mask. The Riddler gives her Robin’s belt, and then they head to Orleans Cove and activate the homing transmitter. Batman chases them down, disabling the Riddler’s car—but Riddler was expecting it, and he and Molly wore helmets. Molly lies on the ground pretending to be hurt as Robin while the Riddler runs off, and Batman takes her to the Batmobile.
Once in the Batcave, Molly reveals herself—but Batman knew it was her, as the breathing holes in the mold made the nostrils too big in the mask. Batman also used the hidden Bat-laser beam to burn off her revolver’s firing pin.
Molly panics and runs to the atomic pile that serves as the Batmobile’s nuclear power source. Batman tries to rescue her, but she falls into the reactor and is killed.
Batman goes to police HQ, where Gordon has a recording of the phone conversation between Batman and the Riddler from earlier. Batman and Gordon listen to it, along with O’Hara, and Batman hears subway trains in the background. Using the mobile crime computer, he figures out where the call came from (how is unclear), and heads to the subway station, using an explosive to gain ingress.
He almost captures the Riddler, but he manages to escape by cutting Batman off with bullet-proof glass. After Riddler and the Mole Hill Gang depart, Robin reassures him that he knows what the next caper will be, because he overheard the Riddler’s riddles for this one: how many sides does a circle have? (Two—inside and outside.) What President of the United States wore the biggest hat? (The one with the biggest head.) It means he’s going to rob the head office of the Gotham City National Bank. (Just go with it.)
However, the Riddler and the Mole Hill Gang are tunneling under the Moldavian exhibit at the World’s Fair. They pump laughing gas into the air vents, and then Riddler (wearing an elephant-shaped gas mask, because, why not?) goes up and tells awful jokes, which the PM and his guests only laugh at because of the gas, and then they fall unconscious.
The Mole Hill Gang join the Riddler, preparing to steal a mammoth made entirely of old postage stamps—but then Batman and Robin burst out of it, Batman having realized that Robin screwed up the riddles. (“A Trojan mammoth?” laments the Riddler.) Batman and Robin engage in fisticuffs with the Mole Hill Gang and the Riddler (with everyone still wearing gas masks, so it’s way easier to work in the stunt doubles), with the Dynamic Duo eventually being triumphant, though the Riddler gets away.
The lawsuit is dropped, as Riddler never appears in court. Bruce and Dick discuss the case, and while the Riddler did get away, Bruce is satisfied that they stopped an international incident by preventing the theft of the mammoth (though he never mentions the damage done to the artifact by Batman and Robin hiding inside it and then bursting out of it). However, he deeply regrets Molly’s death.
Fetch the Bat-shark-repellant! We get our first look at all the regular toys—the Batcave, the Batmobile (with its emergency Bat-turn-lever and Bat-ray projector and hidden Bat-laser beam), the Bat-phone (the one in Gordon’s office, the one in Wayne Manor, and the bat-shaped one in the Batmobile), the Bat-signal, and the Bat-a-rang so they can Bat-climb up the wall. We also get the Bat-laser gun that Batman uses to undo the cage over the window, the Bat-hook that he hangs it on, because Robin shouldn’t just drop the cage to the ground from that height (“Pedestrian safety!”), the Bat-scope (which Robin can use to spy on the discotheque in a manner that is probably illegal), the Batostat Anti-Fire Activator, the Bat-gauge, and of course the Bat-cuffs.
Holy #@!%$, Batman! When Bruce asks Dick if he wants to go “fishing,” Dick says, “Holy barracuda!” When the Riddler reveals that his gun is a lighter, Robin cries, “Holy ashtray!” And when Batman blasts his way into the Riddler’s hideout, Robin yells, rather boringly, “Holy smoke!” but when Riddler seals them in with bullet-proof glass, he cries, “Holy showcase!”
Gotham City’s finest. Gordon actually asks each of his top cops if any of them can handle the Riddler. They all look away shame-facedly, and Gordon then calls upon Batman. However, Gordon does do one useful thing: record the phone conversation between Batman and Riddler, thus providing Batman with the clue to find Robin.
These two episodes also have the only appearances of Inspector Basch (played by Michael Fox).
No sex, please, we’re superheroes. Batman tells Molly that she interests him “strangely,” and he does the Batusi with her after drinking the spiked orange juice. He deeply laments her death.
Special Guest Villain. Frank Gorshin makes his debut as the Riddler, arguably the best of Batman’s gallery of rogues, and certainly your humble rewatcher’s favorite. He’ll be back in “A Riddle a Day Keeps the Riddler Away”/”When the Rat’s Away the Mice will Play” later this season.
Jill St. John also gets billing as a special guest star, the only time someone other than the villain is credited at the beginning of the episode.
Na-na na-na na-na na-na na. “Poor deluded girl! If only she’d have let me save her! What a terrible way to go-go.”
Batman deciding that the violent death of a human being is a good occasion to make a pun related to the place where he first met her.
Trivial matters: This episode was discussed on The Batcave Podcast episode 1 by host John S. Drew with special guest chum, New York Times best-selling author Dayton Ward.
This episode was based on Batman #171 (May 1965), a story entitled “Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler” by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, and Joe Giella.
The cliffhanger voiceover simply said to tune in tomorrow, “Same time, same channel,” without the ever-popular Bat- prefix.
Gordon’s office looks different from how it will appear in subsequent episodes, with the bookcase in a different location, and no sign of the larger exit.
This is the only time Bruce ever mentions his parents and their violent death, the catalyst for his becoming Batman.
The opening shots of the Gotham City World’s Fair used footage from the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City.
Batman’s dance is only referred to as the Batusi in William Dozier’s voiceover at the top of “Smack in the Middle” that shows scenes from “Hi Diddle Riddle.” However, the dance became quite popular for a bit there…
Pow! Biff! Zowie! “Riddle me twice, Batman!” The first part of this initial two-parter serves as an excellent introduction to the series, giving us the standard setup, showing us a moralistic Batman who is mindful of the law and doing the right thing, fiercely protective of Robin, and a user of tons of gadgets. We get the Batmobile startup sequence, the meeting with the commissioner and O’Hara, climbing up a wall, and the climactic fight scene.
But the best thing we get is the Riddler. Of all Batman’s villains, Frank Gorshin is the finest, completely throwing himself into the part, from the Riddler’s acrobatic gyrations in his most manic bits, to his wide-eyed glee in his quieter moments, his odd gestures, and his constant giggling. Gorshin fully inhabits the role, and it’s an absolute joy to watch.
The riddles are, of course, quite lame, but to some degree, that’s part of the point. Batman even states in Gordon’s office that the Riddler gets his enjoyment from matching wits with Batman more than anything.
Unfortunately, Part 2 drags somewhat. Where “Hi Diddle Riddle” is well paced and includes some great moments (Riddler’s lawsuit, the Batusi, the hilarious ineffectiveness of the Gotham City Police Department), “Smack in the Middle” is slow and draggy. Molly’s death is clumsy and unconvincing (tragedy is a bad fit for the show’s daffy pop-art sensibility, and the show will stay away from character deaths for the most part going forward, probably in part due to how badly it fell over here), there are too many scenes of the Batmobile driving through the mountain roads, and Riddler and the disguised Molly driving on the same roads, and it’s just endless. For that matter, Molly’s death also takes too long, and the lawsuit plot, which actually promised to be an interesting twist on the usual hero/villain interaction, was completely dropped until it was waved off at the very end. In addition, the cliffhanger is kind of weak, although it’s possible that this one was written before they realized they’d be doing it as two separate episodes; indeed, this two-parter feels like it was written to be a one-hour episode, not two half-hour ones.
Still, this is a good introduction to the series, setting the tone for the show going forward.
Bat-rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido‘s Heroes Reborn eBook novella Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World is now available for preorder. One of six novellas tying into the new NBC series, Keith’s tale will be released on the 20th of November, and can be preordered from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo.
I was a big fan of the Batman comic books at the time of the series premiere. Even as a kid I saw that they were making light of my favorite hero and was disappointed that he wasn’t given a more serious treatment. Still, it was Batman in live action on a twice weekly series so I rarely missed an episode during that first half-season.
My memory is that the earliest episodes that featured the first appearances of the Riddler, Penguin and the Joker were the best of the run. Between the villains created especially for the show and the endless returns of the classic villains, the show soon lost its luster with me.
I was only 4 when this show first started, but I watched it all the time with my father. The only memory I have of that first time has to do with the Green Lantern crossover, but I’ve seen bits and pieces of the show and the movie many times.
Nobody can chew scenery like Frank Gorshin and he is an absolutely brilliant casting choice. He not only truly inhabits the character, he even looks a bit like the character design from the period. Just perfect in a way that none of the other villains are. Burgess Meredith comes close, as do most of the Catwomen, but the rest leave something to be desired.
Maybe it’s just the eye thing, but I wonder if the Batusi influenced the dance in Pulp Fiction.
I was always a huge fan of the show. Since I saw it in reruns, I never knew what order the episodes were originally produced. What is amazing is how fully-formed this series was from the very first episode. From “Holy Barracuda” to all the bat-gear, it comes out of the gate at full-speed.
I also agree that Gorshin was by far the best villain.
As I understand it, the show was originally planned as an hourlong series, but then the network decided on a half-hour slot late in the game, leading to the two-episodes-per week format and the famous cliffhangers. The reason the cliffhanger here is kind of weak is because it was originally just the end of Act 2 of the hourlong pilot. I think the next story was also shot as an hour and recut, but from then on, they were made with the two-parter format in mind.
I kind of like how the pilot is more serious in tone than the show later became, playing it more straight in some ways. Some of the scenes, like the one where Bruce, Dick, and Alfred were reflecting on the impact of the Riddler’s lawsuit, played like straight drama. (And it’s directed by Robert Butler, the same man who directed Star Trek‘s first pilot.)
But there’s no way the Riddler’s lawsuit should’ve stuck, is there? He clearly entrapped Batman and Robin, so he’d have no basis for claiming to be the victim.
And I love it that Batman basically invented the car alarm.
One noteworthy thing about Gorshin’s Riddler is that it’s pretty clearly the inspiration for Mark Hamill’s Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and beyond. They have the same grandiosity, similar speech rhythms, the same hair-trigger turns from manic to menacing, even similar laughs.
The Riddler isn’t my favorite villain, though. My favorite is Newmar’s Catwoman. And not just for her enormous sex appeal; Newmar did a fantastic comic turn in the role.
Keith, what’s with all the hyphens in the Bat-items? Shouldn’t it be Batmobile and Batcave and Batphone? I can’t recall seeing them hyphenated as a rule.
I was a child of the 70s, so I missed out on the whole Batmania thing. Growing up, “Batman” was just the stupid show that was rerun at 6:00 am every morning that you had to sit through to get to the much superior “Gilligan’s Island”. I mean, how was I to take this Batman seriously? The shark repellant? The holy exclamations? It wasn’t until I grew up a little that I finally realized that Batman was supposed to be that way on purpose. And it was brilliant!
This is one of my favorite episodes of the series. Everything about Gorshin is fantastic. He’s made for the role. What people sometimes forget in the wake of the silliness to come is how truly strange and bizarre these early episodes can be. Yes, there’s the Batusi, but the scene that struck me years later was the scene in the Riddler’s lair when he drops the manic act for a moment and berates Robin with an ironically serious “Ho ho haaaa!” – right before Batman blasts his way to the rescue. This wasn’t just some B-list celebrity playing dress up, this was almost dangerous. (Well, in its own silly way…)
The slow decline into pure camp will come soon enough, but for now, the balance is just about right a brilliant start to the series
Oh, and as much as the “camera on its side” effect has been derided and ridiculed, it’s still less silly than the “Adam West on wires” method of climbing the batrope used when Batman tries to save Jill St. John…
Another vote for the brilliance of Gorshin. As goofy as the Riddler was, he could be a genuinely scary character at times. Watching this as an adult, he’s the – only – ‘Batman ’66’ villian who comes across as someone who could be an actual threat in real life.
I believe either Quentin Tarantino or John Travolta said that Vincent’s dance in Pulp Fiction was influenced by Batman’s dance.
I’m with Christopher in #4; most of the Bat-hyphens should be vacuumed up and put in Bat-storage. (“Batmobile” and “Batcave” in particular should never be hyphenated.)
Yes, a third nod here. No need for hyphens as they are not hyphenated words. “It’s the Batphone, sir.”
Batmobile, sure. But many items are labeled on camera, and are either hyphenated or have a space after “Bat”.
I wonder how old I was before it occurred to me that there was anything odd about putting the prefix “Bat-” before every piece of equipment. Hmm… maybe 35. ;)
I basically used hyphens for consistency. Since I’m emphasizing all the things prefixed with “Bat-” I wanted to be more or less consistent in how I put them. But yeah, “Bat-mobile” looks silly. I will consider this between now and next week…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
^Same KRAD-time, same KRAD-column?
I’m sorry, but what is the point of recapping the plot scene-by-scene? A review should be opinion-based; any schmuck can recap the plot.
All these trivialities are already chronicled elsewhere on the web and in books. What is the point?
Bruce mentioned his parents deaths in a later episode too, not just this one.
Jill St. John’s character IS a villain. Plenty of dual-villain episodes opened with dual credits like that.
#14, I love the scene-by-scene by Keith! And there’s so much more in there than simply recapping the plot, there’s lots of commentary and opinion (and trivia). Recapping in great detail is sort of the point of Tor’s rewatches, I believe.
Count me as a wee youngster who thought the show was totally serious. I had no clue. I loved it. It wasn’t until years later that I found out it was campy. Ha! I still love it. :) Julie Newmar was my favorite, as Catwoman. It was so clear to me that she and Batman belonged together and I still believe that to this day. :)
@14 Well that is the point of this and every other rewatch KRAD has done over the years: It’s to explore these shows in his words and thoughts not the myriad of others who have done much the same. Go check his STTNG or DS9 rewatches for more of this.
@14/Antiprogressive: No, Jill St. John is a moll, a henchwoman. It was standard for most of the villains to have several male henchmen and one sexy moll, and none of the other molls or goons ever got up-front billing.
She was a moll. In fact, most Batman 66 fans look at her as the best moll, although Jim Beard’s MOLL WARS over at the Gotham City 14 Miles page on Facebook proved otherwise as she was voted out in the second round of voting.
And Keith includes comments as he is giving the synopsis, pointing out things other review sources (including my own Thw Batcave Podcast) missed.
Antiprogressive: It’s not a review, it’s a rewatch. The plot summary is part of it, as is the trivia and the review. The format for this rewatch is the same that I’ve been using for rewatches on this site since 2011 (for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the various Stargate series and movies, and currently for Star Trek The Original Series and Batman). I’m sorry if it’s not your cuppa.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I have decided to bow to the will of the majority and dehyphenate Batmobile and Batcave.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
As a kid, I never really liked Frank Gorshin’s Riddler. In pictures he was always pulling his mask off, or just wearing it around his neck. To a ten year old boy with who took comics seriously, this was criminal. I understand now Gorshin was just probably making sure he was seen so he could get more work, but to me, it was an outrage.
Still, I’d take him over Carrey any day.
I enjoyed Batman for what it was when I was a kid. I haven’t watched it for many years, but I still remember, episode after episode, I kept thinking, “What a stupid villain <insert name> is. They’ve successfully knocked out Batman or Robin (or both) and they don’t think to just pull off their bleeping masks.”
@18/John S. Drew: Oh, I can think of multiple molls I liked better than Molly. But we’ll get to them in time.
@20/KRAD: Looking at a season 2 episode just now, I see that the words “Batpoles” and “Batcave” on the sign behind the bookcase are not hyphenated. If they were hyphenated in the pilot, that was changed later on.
Also, I’ve just minutes ago discovered that Bruce Wayne makes a second reference to the murder of his parents by dastardly criminals in “The Joker’s Epitaph.”
@21/bythepowerofennui: As I recall, the Riddler generally only took his mask off when he was alone with his goons, at least in this one.
Actually, our first view of the Riddler, he wasn’t wearing a mask. When he was “robbing” Peale, he was wearing the green question-mark suit and a bowler hat. No mask at all.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@24 I meant why wouldn’t the villain just unmask Batman and Robin after capturing them? Instead of strapping them up to some contraption to kill them and then leave them alone to escape.
@25/richf: Because that was the conceit of the comics that the show was a remarkably faithful adaptation of. In the Silver and Bronze Age comics, Batman wasn’t Bruce Wayne in a mask, he was pretty much just Batman most of the time. There were plenty of times when he would just go out into an everyday situation in his cape and cowl, even just casually walking down the street, as in the meme-tastic “Batman digs this day” scene from The Brave and the Bold.
It’s the same reason the show never has Batman and Robin take their masks off in the privacy of the Batcave. They’re in full costume all the time and call each other “Batman” and “Robin” rather than “Bruce” and “Dick,” because that was the conceit of the comics. And villains not bothering to try exposing the masked heroes’ identity was another standard comics conceit. The show embraced such conceits because that was the basis of its comedy — playing out the silly comic-book tropes with utter and exaggerated seriousness and letting their absurdity speak for itself.
The Riddler has already been in prison by now, so his face and identity are known. So the mask is not desired in the trap scene with Peale, because his identity needs to be undisputed. But while In Public committing crimes, the mask presumably offers plausible deniability- “No, that wasn’t me! It must’ve been some copy cat wearing question marks and leaving riddles!”
Everybody knew villains were stupid when they caught the good guys, in every genre. But the only serious reference I can think of is Scott Evil telling Dr. Evil to “just shoot” Austin Powers (instead of the sharks with laser beams, iirc).
It’s not strictly true that Bat-villains never attempt to expose Batman’s secret identity. Indeed, that’s the objective of several villainous plots in the course of the series, and a side effect of several others. It’s just that simply pulling off the cowl while Our Hero is out cold is cheating in terms of the unspoken Supervillains’ Code of Evil Ethics.
Mind you, some of the villains are a bit brighter than others in this regard. I seem to recall that over the life of the series, the Penguin took explicit notice of the fact that Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred, did a lot of Batman’s field work, and occasionally took advantage of that fact to Batman’s detriment.
It’s easy to forget that the Batman comics were pretty campy and silly in the period leading up to the show. The producers didn’t make up the tendency to call everything the batfillintheblank. The utility belt always held whatever he needed just at the moment. Batman briefly had a dog who wore a mask and cowl. Batmite (*shudder*).
In the comics, Batman finally started to take a somewhat darker tone again in the very late 60s/very early 70s. They sent Dick Grayson off to college and he became Nightwing. Aunt Harriet just sort of disappeared and Alfred slimmed down and moved into the background while beginning his transformation into what he is today. The storylines got a little darker and grittier. Not Dark Night level, but more serious at least.
Batman went back to being a creature of the night and that affects the way we think about the character today. The show was so over the top that it’s easy to think it bordered on parody, but it’s a reflection of where the franchise was at the time. There are even a few episodes (like this one) where the story is basically taken straight out of the comics.
The question mark suit was Gorshin’s idea; he thought the leotard was silly.
And the Riddler was only a C-list villain before Gorshin. The manic obsessive psycho we all know today is mainly from his performance.
@27/sps49: Actually I kind of feel that the Riddler wore a mask when out on a heist more as a fashion statement than anything else. You often see the other villains wearing domino masks on their public capers even though their faces are well-known; I think this happens in the feature film in some scenes. A mask is simply what the well-dressed criminal wears while committing a public robbery.
@28/John C. Bunnell: I like it that in Egghead’s first appearance, he simply deduces that Batman must be Bruce Wayne, using much the same methods that Ra’s al Ghul would use in the comics a few years later.
And Penguin is smarter than Commissioner Gordon. There was one time where Gordon called Bruce Wayne and Batman within moments of each other and heard both Alfred’s and Bruce’s voices on the phone both times, and yet didn’t recognize that they were the same voice. Although in the episode where Siren brainwashed Gordon to sneak into the Batcave, he did recognize Alfred’s voice as the man on the Batphone. I guess he was smarter when he wasn’t in his right mind.
@29/DemetriosX: Yes — it’s really remarkable how accurate the show was in capturing the storytelling and dialogue style of the ’50s and ’60s comics. If anything, the show was a lot less absurd than the comics. No Bat-mite, no time travel stories, no visits by aliens, no periodic stories about Batman donning weird costume variants or being transformed into a baby or a mummy or a gorilla, no ongoing prank war with Superman. But other than that, it was really remarkably accurate, despite being a conscious parody of the source.
It’s recently occurred to me that the one really inaccurate thing is Robin. Burt Ward’s Robin is so intense and serious. He occasionally makes jokes, but no more so than Batman does. But the comics’ Robin was always the comic relief, the witty wisecracker who always had a quip or a bad pun ready to go, much like Spider-Man. He and Batman would banter and joke together, but Robin was the one taking the lead there. (The first actor to play Robin, Ronald Liss in the Superman radio series, captured this very well.) I suppose the fact that the show’s Robin is an expert at cracking riddles and wordplays is a version of that, but Ward doesn’t play Robin as a carefree jokester, so it doesn’t really come across as the same thing.
@30/jmeltzer: I don’t think the comics have usually portrayed the Riddler as a “psycho.” That’s more an invention of Joel Schumacher. The comics’ Riddler is eccentric, yes, but also a cunning and calculating individual. He has a pathological compulsion to leave clues to his crimes, but other than that, he’s entirely sane and mentally disciplined. See also Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman, which both painted the Riddler as a strategist and manipulator, a criminal genius pitting his massive intellect against Batman and the police.
The show raised a number of villains from obscurity. Before the show, the supervillains had mostly been abandoned by the comics, since the self-imposed censorship of the Comics Code Authority had turned the comics away from crime stories to bizarre sci-fi adventure stories. In the mid-’60s, editor Julius Schwartz began bringing back the rogues’ gallery, in part because he knew the show was being developed and he realized it would be better if it had strong villains (or so I’ve heard somewhere — I can’t provide a source). And several of the early episodes were adapted from comics that were published at the time the producers were developing and writing the show, including one that reprinted some old stories featuring obscure one-shot villains that got picked up by the show. The most notable example is Mister Zero, a one-shot villain that the show renamed Mister Freeze, raising him considerably in prominence — though he faded into obscurity again until Paul Dini re-reinvented the character for B:TAS and turned him into one of the great tragic villains of the Batman mythos. A more obscure example is Eivol Ekdal, the real villain in “Zelda the Great.” That was based on a comics story in which a male magician was working with Ekdal.
There were actually only nine villains from the show who originated in the comics: in chronological order, Riddler, Penguin, Joker, Mr. Freeze, Eivol Ekdal, Mad Hatter, False-Face, Catwoman, and Clock King. The majority of the show’s villains were created for the show — Zelda (sort of), King Tut, Bookworm, Archer, Minstrel, Ma Parker, Egghead, etc. Although most of the first-season villains were from the comics (only Tut and Bookworm were wholly original), while all the new villains introduced in seasons 2 & 3 were original except for Clock King. At the time, it was actually quite unusual for a mass-media adaptation of a comic book to reuse villains from the comic rather than creating its own. I think the only previous time it had been done was with Lex Luthor in the 1950 Atom Man vs. Superman serial. And it was rarely done in the ’70s. Wonder Woman featured two obscure comics villainesses in its WWII-set first season and none thereafter. The Superman movies used Luthor and Zod, but also used original villains. I don’t think it really became a default practice to use established comics villains until the Burton Batman movies.
Has anyone mentioned that Frank Gorshin’s Riddler is the best villain in the whole show? No? :)
@29 – DemetriosX: I’m not sure if you’re implying that the dog was called Batmite, you probably aren’t, but some might think it was. The dog was Ace, the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite was an imp from another dimension that idolized Batman. Oh, and Alfred had slimmed down ages before the 70s, in 1944.
@31 – Chris: Where the show didn’t include time travel or even superpowers, the Batman 66 comic that was coming out until recently, set in the show’s universe, did add these elements.
@32 lordmagnusen: You’re right. I knew the dog’s name was Ace, but forgot to mention it. I was just running off a bunch of things that the comics were doing that were as bad or worse than the show. The dog was not a great idea, but obviously came along at the same time as Krypto. How could the former owner not recognize his dog just because it was wearing a mask? (And these days when I hear the name Ace, I automatically think “What a guy!”)
Thank goodness the show didn’t try to do something with Bat-Mite. I can only assume he would have been played by Billy Barty.
@31 On a related note, Alan Napier’s autobiography, NOT JUST BATMAN’S BUTLER, originally written in the 1970s, is just now being published and is out in paperback from McFarland.
@33/DemetriosX: “Bad” is a matter of opinion. A lot of people in recent years have gotten past the self-conscious “comics need to prove they’re Serious and Grownup” phase and rediscovered the goofy charm of Silver Age DC. Heck, the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold was one long love letter to Silver Age comics and Batman ’66.
I think people sometimes forget to take a look at the word “comic” and think about what it means. It means funny. Certainly comic books don’t have to be funny, but humor and absurdity have always been part of the DNA of the medium. The comics of the ’50s and ’60s weren’t allowed to do dark or violent or lurid stories anymore because of the Comics Code, so they embraced the absurd. It wasn’t due to lack of talent or intelligence; it was what they had to do to keep the stories interesting and entertaining under the constraints of the Code.
And smoke me a kipper. I’ll be back for breakfast.
@35 CLB: Fair enough. I have to admit that although this show was my first exposure to Batman and I mostly read the books in the late 60s and very early 70s, I tend to prefer my Batman a little dark (not quite Frank Miller dark, but dark). I guess I tend to see the excesses, the things that people usually complain about with the show, when I look back at this period. OTOH, I prefer the older, more outrageous villains to the new overmuscled freaks like Bane or Killer Croc or flat-out psychos like Zsasz. Mark Hamill has certainly proven that the Joker can be extremely menacing and the modern Scarecrow is absolutely terrifying.
While I agree that comics don’t need to be serious (I write my own share of very silly comics), there’s a difference between not taking the story serious, and dismissing the medium altogether as something childish. Nobody in this discussion probably stands in the second group, but this TV show did a lot to cement that idea in the minds of the general public.
A lot of people think “superheroes” when they hear the word “comics”, which is ridiculous, because it’s like saying “soap operas””or “sports” are the only things on TV. But to those people, the foremost example of a superhero was on TV, and it was this Batman. So for those people, comics are unequivocally gaudy, silly, and childish, because they don’t realize this was a parody, and a parody of a certain kind of comic, to boot.
@37/lordmagnusen: Oh, believe me, I know that very well. That’s why comics have spent so much of the past 40 years trying to prove how serious and adult they can be. But they’ve taken that too far. Many comics today are so grim and violent that they aren’t accessible to children at all, and so it’s harder to get a new generation of readers interested and the comics audience has shrunk as a result. And comics movies have surely proven themselves worthy of being taken seriously with things like the Nolan Batman films. Indeed, DC movies are just as guilty of trying too hard to prove their seriousness as DC comics are these days. So it’s good that we’re getting a backlash against the backlash, that many creators and fans now recognize that comics don’t have to be afraid of being comical. They’re a respectable enough medium now that they no longer have anything to prove, or anything to lose by loosening up and having some fun.
So it’s William Dozier’s fault that Superman snapped Zod’s neck? :)
@39/StrongDreams: I wouldn’t say “fault,” but there’s a cause and effect there. Miller’s Batman was a reaction against Dozier’s Batman, and it’s shaped everything that followed. Although Dozier’s Batman was a reaction to/commentary upon the Batman of the Comics Code era, which was in turn a reaction of sorts (on the part of Fredric Wertham and a McCarthy-era Congress) against the lurid and violent comics of the ’40s.
Humans have a knack for overreacting. We keep reacting so forcefully against things that we swing too far in the opposite direction, which creates its own problems and provokes a counterraction that swings too far back the other way, and so on. It’s a constant cycle between extremes. We never seem to learn the value of the middle ground.
Humans, overreacting? YOU TAKE THAT BACK, MISTER!
Some early installment weirdness for this episode (which I only noticed after bingeing the entire series, then rewatching this one):
* The Riddler’s gang don’t have cute costumes or gimmicky names. They’re just “the Molehill Mob,” they wear suits, and if any of them even have names, I don’t think they get used onscreen.
* The pouches on Batman’s utility belt are labeled and so are the various buttons and levers in the Batmobile, but I didn’t notice any other labels in the entire episode.
* There is no deathtrap. The cliffhanger is simply that Robin has been captured by the Riddler.
* The Riddler has a third costume in the denouement that he never wears again, a green plaid suit with purple cravat, gloves, and bowler hat.
* During the inaugural fistfight, several of the Riddler’s punches are accompanied by sound effects. Traditionally, only the heroes’ strikes get sound effects.
* Both Molly and the Riddler carry guns. And not trick guns, like Penguin’s umbrella, just small revolvers. And both of them attempt to use the guns on Batman; Molly’s is disabled, but the Riddler gets a shot off.
Holy Springboard!
What a great start to a great adventure series. Also just for the record, an adventure series that despite how silly, campy, zany and cheesy it would increasingly become over time it has to be noted that this was one of those gems of adventure shows up there with The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Rawhide, Mission Impossible, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea & Star Trek, all of which have certainly faired well and stood the test of time.
As previously addressed this batch of first season episodes do have that edge. It’s a superb blend of comedy and drama fit for the calibre of a serial. There weren’t a great many episodes into Seasons Two & Three that presented this fine line into the stories but I must beg to differ that in particular there were several if not all the stories involving Catwoman, the episodes featuring Shelley Winters as Ma Parker, Walter Slezak as The Clock King, Vincent Price’s first turn as Egghead and in particular the three parter where The Joker & The Penguin join forces. These are all notable nods to the series trying to retain this balance later on.
On the topic of the obscurities of this series on A & E Biography documentaries there are archived interviews of producers, William Dozier & Charlie Fitzsimmons stating that they saw Batman as Alice In Wonderland played as though it were Hamlet. Hence Adam West and his deadpan delivery of lines such as ”SURRENDER! YOU….CRIMINALS!”.
There is obviously a surefire winner on the team’s hands when a piece of entertainment is created that can relate both on the levels of adults and children. Adults could sit back with nostalgia of both comic books recognising characters from their youth and guest stars such as Burgess Meredith, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bruce Lee, Andy Devine, Vincent Price, Cesar Romero, Joan Collins, Roddy McDowall, Ted Cassidy, Cliff Robertson and Sammy Davis, Jr. appearing. As for the kids it must have been a thrill to see their comic book heroes coming to colourful life on screen complete with energy and vibrancy.
This first story would introduce us to the infamous Batcave, Batmobile, Batphone, Batpoles and countless other wonderful gadgets used at the disposal of the Dynamic Duo, Batman & Robin (Adam West & Burt Ward). The story’s villain would ironically be a character that only appeared in the comics only two or three times previously, that of the zany yet deliciously dark Riddler played by the superb Frank Gorshin on deservedly Emmy Award Winning form. I always thought Gorshin’s riddles were solid brainteasers and no mistake such as ”There are three men in a boat with four cigarettes but no matches. How do they manage to smoke. They throw one cigarette overboard and make the boat a cigarette lighter”. Marvellous.
Riddler’s scheme to ensnare Batman & Robin into a trap with his scheme of suing Batman for false arrest was indeed thought provoking. We can only imagine Batman’s humiliation by having to reveal his true guise as bruce Wayne to the general public of Gotham City and the entire world. That being said, Bruce does acknowledge an aspect that maybe should have acted as the series opener, the murder of his parents. I think the series should have started with the origin story and murder of Bruce/ Batman’s parents. To be frankly honest I’ve always preferred doing origin stories chronologically rather than in prequel form but each to their own.
There are fine supporting roles making their debuts here too: The loyal yet easily baffled Gotham Police Force of Commissioner Gordon & Chief O’ Hara (Neil Hamilton & Stafford Repp) who even outrank Frank Drebin and Chief Wiggum in terms of ineptitude. Then there’s Alan Napier as the gentlemanly confidant and voice of reason to the dynamic duo, Alfred the faithful butler. Finally we come to Madge Blake as the doting yet oblivious Aunt Harriet Cooper (A character completely unaware of her nephew, Dick Grayson & his gaurdian, Bruce Wayne’s secret double lives as masked avengers, Batman & Robin. However I don’t know why Bruce, Dick & Alfred didn’t tell Aunt Harriet the truth from the start unless of course they were concerned about the effect the shock could have on her so I suppose there’s a plausible reasoning there). One-off appearances here come from The Riddler’s heavies in the form of the ruthless yet dull Mole Hill Mob. We also have a brief glimpse of another Gotham Police enforcer, Inspector Bash but after this episode he’s never seen, heard from or referenced again and that’s a riddle in it’s self. Lastly we come to Riddler’s righthand girl, Molly played by the very talented and immensely beautiful Jill St. John. Molly’s death at the hands of the atomic pile injected drama and hints of possible romance with Batman. I suppose there was a desire to keep the show to a family friendly level so that’s why the rest of the show’s run was scarce of any more on-screen deaths.
It’s also a nice nod to the Batman Comics to base Hi Diddle Riddle/ Smack In The Middle on the comic story, The Remarkable Ruse Of The Riddler published only one year previously in 1965.
In the cases of both hero actors and villain actors it’s a pity that Batman didn’t really springboard Adam West and Frank Gorshin to greater heights to play other heroes and villains for other TV Shows and Movies. I once read that Adam West was in the running to play James Bond after the departure of Sean Connery in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969 (A year following the cancellation Batman) and maybe he could have moved into his own Detective or Medical drama series into the 1980s while retaining an action hero presence in the standards of Roger Moore, Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. As for Frank Gorshin although he did go on to memorable stuff such as his equally chilling turn in Star Trek: The Original Series and his appearance in Bruce Willis’ thriller, Twelve Monkeys Gorshin could have been used in much bigger and better ways for abilities at both comedy and bad guys. It’s a shame none of this ever came to pass for either West or Gorshin and typecasting pinned them down somewhat.
On a hypothetical level had Frank Gorshin not got the role of The Riddler then it would have been interesting to see Richard Widmark take on the role of the Prince Of Puzzlers since Gorshin was inspired by Widmark’s performance in the film, Kiss Of Death bringing to life The Riddler’s maniacal laugh. Then again Kirk Douglas could have been another great candidate for he role to offer him more diversity.
Nevertheless Batman batapulted to colourful life for what would be the start of a 120 episode run of a very memorable adventure series and one which remained as iconic as ever.
To The Batpoles!
@43/RetroT1: Well, the comics didn’t give Batman even a cursory origin story until 6 months after his debut, making him one of the few classic superheroes whose adventures didn’t start with an origin story (I think Doctor Strange was another, but that wasn’t until the ’60s). And that was just a page and a half long. He didn’t get a fuller accounting of his origin story until 1948, nine years after his debut. The practice of obsessing endlessly over Batman’s origin didn’t really begin until long after the Adam West series ended. Besides, it would’ve been a poor fit for an overtly comedic take on Batman.
A side note: The idea of Frank Drebin as an incompetent buffoon was an invention of the Naked Gun movies, and didn’t really fit the original conception of the character in the short-lived Police Squad! TV series. That show’s humor was in the same vein as Batman ’66 or Airplane! — an absurd story played with deadpan seriousness by its characters. The TV show’s Drebin was a perfectly capable, serious, heroic cop by the standards of his lunatic reality, a parody of tough TV cops like Lee Marvin in M Squad and Howard Duff in Felony Squad. The whole reason they cast Leslie Nielsen in Airplane! and Police Squad! was because he had previously built his career as a serious dramatic actor and they wanted to contrast that seriousness with the ridiculousness of the stories, just like in Batman. So it never felt right to me that the Naked Gun movies inverted that and made Drebin a buffoon who was looked on with scorn by the people around him. Imagine if they’d done a Batman revival movie in the ’70s and turned Adam West’s Batman into a fumbling idiot. (Although West did play similarly buffoonish, self-parodying roles later in his career, e.g. on Family Guy and Kim Possible. He’s one of a number of ’60s actors who found a second career later in life by embracing comedy, along with Airplane! veterans Nielsen, Peter Graves, and Lloyd Bridges and Airplane 2‘s William Shatner.)