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MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

Bill Bixby could use this for his Dr. strange audition tape.

I don't usually watch these, is that funky 70s music in all these episodes?
 
I don't usually watch these, is that funky 70s music in all these episodes?

Not sure what music you're referring to, but Joe Harnell used a variety of styles depending on the focus of the episode. I wouldn't say a "funky" sound was typical, though it was part of his repertoire when it was called for.
 
Batman
"Hot Off the Griddle"
Originally aired September 14, 1966​
"The Cat and the Fiddle"
Originally aired September 15, 1966​

(And "The Countess of Criminality?" "The Marchioness of Misdemeanors?" "The Viscountess of Venality?" Wow.)
Maybe Commissioner Gordon should be writing comic books instead of leading an inept police force. This is what the taxpayers of Gotham City are paying for? This and the parachute pickup service....

I wonder what Glob's Drugstore is a pun on. Every location or business in this show tends to be a play on some New York location, like Lacey's department store for Macy's.
That much I found in the trivia section of the episode's IMDb page:
IMDb said:
Henchman Jack O'Shea telephones Catwoman from a phone booth in Glob's Drugstore; this is an apparent takeoff on Hollywood's famous Schwab's Drugstore, where Lana Turner is said to have been discovered while sitting at the lunch counter in a tight sweater. Indeed, this "tribute" is sarcastically elucidated by the lettering on a sign behind the lunch counter in Glob's Drugstore, which "proudly" proclaims that Glob's is "Where show business greats spend their unemployment checks."

Christopher said:
And is Jack O'Shea, the gossip columnist, a pastiche of anyone in particular? (I love Batman saying "He's a bit too theatrical for me" while brushing the edge of his cape.)
Given that he was portrayed as a criminal, I'm guessing that he was more of a type than a pastiche of a specific person. But if there's a clue to what real-life figures he may have been based on, it's probably in the names he drops when he thinks Batman is somebody playing a trick on him. My ears and closed captioning caught the names "Hubble" and "Leonard". I couldn't find a match for the former, but "Leonard" my be a reference to columnist Leonard Lyons, who was active in that period.

IMDb also says that this was first time we saw the Dynamic Duo putting on their seatbelts.

I have to agree with Catwoman...it did seem uncharacteristically ungentlemanly for Batman to immediately call her a witch the second she showed up. He treats molls of the week with much more courtesy.

The bit with B&R luckily falling into a net reminded me of the foam rubber gag in the movie.

The "rock 'n' roll" music that Dick makes a big deal about sounding so awful sounds more like jazz to my ear. Benedict Arnold & The Traitors has to be a play on Paul Revere & The Raiders, who'll be appearing later in the season.

Forget the rooftop deathtrap, you'd think that our heroes would have been severely injured falling unconscious on that stove-hot floor. And if they could move the magnifying glasses with their feet, they could have just gotten them out of the way entirely, though they would have had to find another way to escape their bonds.

Speaking of fictitious counterparts to real-world locations...the Gotham State Building was underwhelmingly generic, inside and out, as a counterpart for such a distinct landmark; even the view of the street doesn't make it look nearly high enough for them to be up 102 stories...less than 20, I'd say.

Here Catwoman survives, but there's still a potentially fatal fall involved...very repetitive.

She'll be out in 7-1/2 years? Try three months.
 
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The Sex Pistols weren't just a novelty act...
So they're a novelty act that inspired a novelty genre. :rommie: Yes, I know how influential Punk was and I do agree that it was part of what reinvigorated popular music in the early 80s, but it's still just a bunch of guys who couldn't play and couldn't sing. :D

Hmmm...admittedly not much to go on there, but it's a much stronger song to my ear than "Please Don't Go". :shrug:
Objectively, I'd probably consider them about the same: Pleasant love songs. But "Please Don't Go" had the virtue of being a step up, while "How Deep Is Your Love" had the misfortune of being a step down.

Artistic success is--of course--subjective, but post 60s songs (and i'll add Saturday Night Fever) songs were not all ass-shaking crap. As you point out, "Nights on Broadway" was not bad, and I would argue "How Deep is Your Love" is a quality song. The key is to not allow the idiot media culture of grafting disco-era stereotypes to the songs, when their creation had nothing to do with that.
Well... yes. I cannot disagree.
 
She played those roles because they wrote the story that way...and the same basic motivations could easily have been conveyed without, for example, devoting time to a flashback of her relationship with Cassidy. That was such obvious filler. Bottom line, I didn't find the character compelling enough to devote so much time to her POV.

Character development in the service of the story is not filler. Compare that with many of today's series, where there's no logic, no genuine motivation...its all just getting from one high school-esque reaction to another (I refer you to most CW series).


I've always entertained the thought that on some level, Banner was enjoying the opportunity to rough McGee up a bit...but I don't see him having any truly malicious intent toward McGee in that scene.

You cannot divorce anger, feelings of persecution from a violent act. You would have a point if the man slamming McGee was not Banner, but we are dealing with Banner--who had his entire life turned upside down by one man who refuses to leave him in peace, and drives him from one unstable, often dangerous situation to another. That cannot be underestimated.


He wasn't sending Cassidy after McGee...he was asking Cassidy, if McGee came around asking questions, to act like he'd met McGee before. I don't see any reason to read anything more into it than that. If anything, David was being fairly naive in his scene with Cassidy (not smelling the trap).

He was suspicious. Look at his gaze and how he was hesitant about accepting money and when looking around the construction site.

Regarding David's intention, again, David being the series protagonist does not make him a saint. He has more than one side. He knew Cassidy was a criminal wanted by others of his ilk as well as the police. No one would spin-job themselves into thinking "er...I don't know what this guy is." He knows Cassidy is dangerous, and for the criminal, there's no reason he--a man on the run--desires the attention of a nosy reporter, so he has nothing to lose. David knows that, and if you notice, he did not say, "Mike, scare this guy off" No--he effectively asked Cassidy to come to his own decisions. Would you have faith that a criminal would *suddenly* change his habits in that one case?


Between McGee's blindness in situations like this, and the routine "out of sight, out of mind" factor when it comes to David's transformations, I can only speculate that he was passively manifesting some form of "Gamma Hypnosis," which placed suggestions in people's minds to keep them from linking David to the Hulk. :p

Or McGee finally realized that dead men do not jump out of the grave to start an exciting life as a fugitive. ;)

Ah yes...saving McGee gives him a reason to live.

David has a reason to live--its called finding a cure. Looking at the entire series, that is his focus--particularly after his brief reunion with his family for Thanksgiving. That was a priceless moment in time, and that--more than anything else--would motivate his drive to survive and seek the Hulk's end.
 
Batman
"Hot Off the Griddle" / "The Cat and the Fiddle"

IMDb also says that this was first time we saw the Dynamic Duo putting on their seatbelts.

Between season and and two, Fox/Greenway shot a number of PSAs featuring West as Batman--seatbelt safety among them, hence the shot added to all episodes going forward.

I have to agree with Catwoman...it did seem uncharacteristically ungentlemanly for Batman to immediately call her a witch the second she showed up.

How Is uncharacteristic? She's a known "super criminal" who--by the way--tried to feed him (and Robin) to tigers the last time they met, not to mention plant land mines on the road she knew the duo would use to follow her. Batman was being generous in describing her as a witch. ..and let's not forget, TV Batman is not free from judging villains--even in "insulting" ways.

He treats molls of the week with much more courtesy.

Molls are usually misguided types, but the Catwoman--living up to her Rogue's Gallery status--is consciously evil and flaunts her many ways of exercising that life choice.


The "rock 'n' roll" music that Dick makes a big deal about sounding so awful sounds more like jazz to my ear.

Yes, it was a jazz-influenced piece from Riddle (with the Catwoman theme laid over), who did not deliver the era-typical rock/pop music heard in clubs with a young clientele.

Benedict Arnold & The Traitors has to be a play on Paul Revere & The Raiders, who'll be appearing later in the season.

Yep!

.Speaking of fictitious counterparts to real-world locations...the Gotham State Building was underwhelmingly generic, inside and out, as a counterpart for such a distinct landmark; even the view of the street doesn't make it look nearly high enough for them to be up 102 stories...less than 20, I'd say.

Details of that kind were generally ignored by an audience happy to tune in to the latest adventure of their heroes--at least they were at this point in 1966.

Here Catwoman survives, but there's still a potentially fatal fall involved...very repetitive.

How so? In "Better Luck Next Time," she fell--screaming--into a bottomless pit. The scene and its execution were different--intentionally dramatic to melancholy. Here, the creeping "sweep" of the new series tone was dissimilar, with the exception of the participants.

...and really, repetition is found with greater frequency than this episode. Ever see Star Wars (1977) and the shameless cloning of it found in The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens? That is repetitious.

She'll be out in 7-1/2 years? Try three months.

Sounds like the American justice system worked the same in '66 as it does today! :p
 
^ It's repetitious in that this series seems to feel like it has to have the Catwoman fall to an ambiguous fate or threaten to fall to an ambiguous fate every time she appears (I know there's at least one more such incident).

So they're a novelty act that inspired a novelty genre. :rommie: Yes, I know how influential Punk was and I do agree that it was part of what reinvigorated popular music in the early 80s, but it's still just a bunch of guys who couldn't play and couldn't sing. :D
New wave was an outgrowth of the punk scene...a record industry re-branding of the more commercial elements of punk because more notorious / badly behaving acts like the Sex Pistols had given punk a bad name in the entertainment business.

Character development in the service of the story is not filler.
It is when it's poorly done. The Lorraine interludes were boring and I didn't care.

David has a reason to live--its called finding a cure. Looking at the entire series, that is his focus--particularly after his brief reunion with his family for Thanksgiving. That was a priceless moment in time, and that--more than anything else--would motivate his drive to survive and seek the Hulk's end.
Not sure we're talking about the same thing here. @Christopher and I were referring to...
...when David is on the ledge, ready to take his own life because he thinks the Hulk killed a boy. The thing that brings him off the ledge is when Annie tells him that McGee's in danger of being killed.
 
^ It's repetitious in that this series seems to feel like it has to have the Catwoman fall to an ambiguous fate or threaten to fall to an ambiguous fate every time she appears (I know there's at least one more such incident).

It's a riff on the "cats have nine lives" thing -- she appears to die and come back repeatedly. Tim Burton did the same thing in more compressed form in Batman Returns. (Ironically, this was more of a Joker thing in the comics, going back to his earliest appearances.)
 
^ It's repetitious in that this series seems to feel like it has to have the Catwoman fall to an ambiguous fate or threaten to fall to an ambiguous fate every time she appears (I know there's at least one more such incident).

Reportedly, Catwoman was not intended to return after "Better Luck Next Time" until the audience response was so strong. Batman makes a reference to "nine lives" but there was no hint that she survived. Moreover, she did not fall or threaten to fall "every time" in the following cases:
  • The 1966 movie Catwoman was captured aboard the Penguin's submarine.
  • Newmar's final appearance ("The Catwoman Goes to College" / Batman Displays His Knowledge") did not have a falling scene at all.
  • Eartha Kitt's Catwoman never had a falling scene in all of her season three appearances.

It is when it's poorly done. The Lorraine interludes were boring and I didn't care.

To each his own.

Not sure we're talking about the same thing here. @Christopher and I were referring to...
...when David is on the ledge, ready to take his own life because he thinks the Hulk killed a boy. The thing that brings him off the ledge is when Annie tells him that McGee's in danger of being killed.

...which does not erase the fact he brought up McGee to a dangerous criminal who has no sense of morality, and did not give him a "do or don't" suggestion on handling the reporter.
 
David was assuming that McGee was going to be coming to Cassidy asking questions. He couldn't control what Cassidy did, nor did he even suggest that Cassidy handle him roughly...it was all David could do in that situation to implore upon Cassidy to support his alibi.

Reportedly, Catwoman was not intended to return after "Better Luck Next Time" until the audience response was so strong. Batman makes a reference to "nine lives" but there was no hint that she survived. Moreover, she did not fall or threaten to fall "every time" in the following cases:
  • The 1966 movie Catwoman was captured aboard the Penguin's submarine.
  • Newmar's final appearance ("The Catwoman Goes to College" / Batman Displays His Knowledge") did not have any falling scene at all.
  • Eartha Kitt's Catwoman never had a falling scene in all of her season three appearances.
Regardless, they went to that (Catwoman threatening to fall into the) well a few too many times. And they probably stopped doing it because they knew they were repeating themselves and there wasn't much of a point to it if she was going to keep returning like the other recurring villains.
 
David was assuming that McGee was going to be coming to Cassidy asking questions. He couldn't control what Cassidy did, nor did he even suggest that Cassidy handle him roughly...it was all David could do in that situation to implore upon Cassidy to support his alibi.

David did not have to say anything to Cassidy. If Banner left town, he vanishes as always, but he made a point to ask Cassidy--a dangerous criminal--to continue a certain behavior if he encounters McGee, aware that this man will do whatever he desires to one harassing him. He is--after all--a mobster, not some hapless lookalike.


Regardless, they went to that (Catwoman threatening to fall into the) well a few too many times. And they probably stopped doing it because they knew they were repeating themselves and there wasn't much of a point to it if she was going to keep returning like the other recurring villains.

Come on. That's not a case of repetition when you have that many Catwoman appearances with no fall scene. Heck, I can add Newmar's "The Cat's Meow" / "The Bat's Kow Tow" to that list, which only illustrates the character was not placed in falling / "ambiguous fate every time she appears" situations often.
 
David did not have to say anything to Cassidy.
Yes he did, because if McGee came around asking Cassidy questions, and Cassidy not only denied having ever met him, but told McGee that he had a lookalike who'd been in town recently...David's cover would be blown, McGee would know that the man he encountered was indeed a surviving David Banner.
 
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