Batman--
Teased in
"The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," the series finale,
"Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires" was a sad, uninspired send off for a TV series that at one time, was one of the most significant cultural events in 1960s television.
Zsa Zsa Gabor phoned in a half-hearted performance as Minerva, not even caring to
become the villain like so many other guests (e.g. Romero, Meredith, Newmar, Winters, et al.) before her. The plot has Minerva using her hairdyer...or a
Deepest Secret Extractor to force the Gotham City gentry to reveal the location of their valuables. Sigh. What's the deal these Gotham City criminals? One would think anyone capable of creating a working mind reading/control machine would have power-mad governments pouring out billions just for one working model...or the patent. But yeah, high risk crime guaranteed to land you in prison until the end of time was the better option.
Anyway, Minerva is on a roll, using the device to access money, jewels, etc. from anyone coming through her doors, including
Batman PTB William Dozier and Howie Horwitz. Knowing well in advance that episode #120 would be the last, they decided to join in the fun.
Eventually, this plot-free episode has the Dynamic Duo placed in giant percolators....or Persimmon Pressurizers, with Alfred and Batgirl also getting their turn in the not-so-deadly death traps.
The rest follows the same pattern: Batfight, Batgirl races off again...the end.
One minor nod to continuity was the return of Jacques Bergerac as Freddy the Fence, a character introduced in season two's
"Catwoman Goes to College" / "Batman Displays His Knowledge," best remembered as Julie Newmar's swan song from the series. Unfortunately, Bergerac only served as a reminder of how much the series had crashed and burned since that Catwoman story.
If there's anything good to be found in the episode, its the moment when Minerva refers to Robin as Batman's son, with Batman revealing that he would be proud if that happened to be the case. At the very least, this moment sums up the layers of character built over 120 episodes and the 1966 movie.
There were and remain many myths and rumors about the fate of the
Batman TV series. What is not myth is that the third season, with the troubled Batgirl addition, mass budget cuts (including a reduction in the number of directors used), and a rapid decline to scripts that made the average talking animal cartoon seem like high art all contributed to ABC's easy decision to cancel the series.
Additionally, Dozier / 20th Century Fox Television stood to make much off of the series, since it had passed the episode mark for syndication (at that time), and Batman & Robin
as characters, were still popular (more on that in a moment), despite the failures of season 3.
Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig have both said NBC was interested in picking the series up, but Fox demolished the standing sets, so NBC was not willing to pay for restoration of the Batcave, etc. It seems odd for NBC to make such an offer for an expensive, ratings-dead series, since this is the same network that would (only a season later) eventually cut the multiple Emmy winning, not as costly series--
Get Smart--after four of its eventual five seasons.
Whatever the case, as of March 14, 1968,
Batman was over. But its influence would be felt in the next significant Batman production, Filmation's
The Batman / Superman Hour, making its debut in September of the same year on CBS.
To be sure, Filmation had a distinctive style seen in all of its DC adaptations, but their Batman was a sort of stepchild of two sources: the comics of the period, with the title design, brighter cowl color, and utility belt--
--and the Dozier series--
1: Like the Dozier series, many episodes would see the Dynamic Duo drive up to police headquarters, to...
2: ...check in with Commissioner Gordon. Filmation made an interesting choice to update the exterior & interiors, with a clear, post Mid Century style to architecture and furnishings.
3: The broad-winged, dramatic use of the Batsignal was another feature taken from the live action series, only Filmation had the luxury of having it appear amongst the city buildings.
4:The Glastron Batboat created for the 1966
Batman movie was an obvious influence on the cartoon version, although the latter actually has the edge for its use of color, and not appearing so "car and boat show" as the Glastron.
5:Even the animated running sequence from the main title was borrowed, and used in numerous episodes.
6: Perhaps the greatest West/Ward legacy were the plots or action pieces. On the left, Batman selected the wrong door, and ended up fighting a tiger in the 1st Catwoman episode,
"The Purr-Fect Crime." Filmation picked up where that left off in
"The Nine Lives of Batman," with the Caped Crusader--once again in a Catwoman trap--selecting the wrong door, and facing off with (you guessed it) a large cat.
Of course, the voice talents of veteran actor Olan Soule as Bruce Wayne / Batman, and famed disc jokey / man-of-many-voices Casey Kasem as Dick Grayson / Robin cannot be glossed over. From the use of Batman's
"old chum" to Robin's endless
"holy-isms," there was no doubt Soule & Kasem were the unofficial successors to West & Ward.
Although
The Batman / Superman Hour or
Batman with Robin, the Boy Wonder were not a spin-off of the live action series (in the way
Star Trek:TAS was considered a direct follow up to TOS), children would not find it difficult to feel much of the same excitement, at least in the comic color, familiar trappings and action department.
Sort-of a comeback--
The 1970s was the decade of the TV reunion, with everything from
Gilligan's Island,
The Wild. Wild West and
The Addams Family (and other series) returning as TV movies. Everyone knows about the transformation of
Star Trek from planned TV series to actual movie in that decade, but of all popular, even "cult" shows,
Batman was the odd man out.
Still, for fans, there was a brief spark of in the form of a PSA for the U.S Department of Labor / Wage & Hour Division. In 1973, the USDoL initiated a campaign on equal wages for women holding the same job as their male counterparts--using the TV
Batman characters to sell the point. The show had been a phenomenal success in syndication, its 120 episodes (and movie) running constantly in American markets, so it was not rocket science to conclude that a popular superhero could reach people (and teaching children about basic equality) in a way that some stodgy spokesperson could not.
Not much is known about the fine details of the production, but what is known is that 20th Century Fox distributed the spot, the Hefti theme (modified) was used and William Dozier returned to provide his "Desmond Doomsday" voice over, not missing a beat. The biggest "win" in this production was the participation of Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig. According to some interviews, it was Ward who simply kept many of the original costumes from the series, and provided them for the spot, adding a great sense of continuity with 1966 show.
There were two versions--the longer form with the Fox logo, and Dozier closing:
..and the short form with Craig's closing, heavily distributed in American markets, which is (alleged by some) the only surviving version held by the National Archives:
The equal pay PSA would have counted as a true "reunion" (particularly because Fox and Dozier were involved, unlike the 1979
Legends of the Superheroes travesty) if not for the absence of Adam West. According to Ward, at the time, West was trying to escape the typecasting curse, so he refused to don cape and cowl--even for a worthy cause.
Needing the tights to be filled, Dick Gautier (Hymie the Robot from
Get Smart) stepped in--
--and did not do a bad job, with his take on the solemn West performance.
There you have it--the last genuine
Batman get together made at a time when all involved were closer to the look of the '66 series. As noted above,
Legends was garbage (even with Frank Gorshin stepping in as the Riddler), and the TV movie
Back to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt was based on the West and Ward bio books, than any "next chapter" of the original series.
