MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[The Old Mixer]

I also liked the gag of the little old lady from Pasadena buying a used car.

And I'm surprised that you'd get that reference...!

Sorry I haven't been contributing much lately, but I haven't been tuning in much to speak of the past few weeks. On the general topic of how they're handling Diana's double identity, I recall that in this era she pretty much did away with the glasses while out on assignment, but made a point of wearing them around Steve. Like he'd be the only one who knew them both well enough to place them as the same person...which might work if you wanted to rationalize there being an additional factor helping her to distinguish her identities, like Amazonian magic or Wonder-Hypnosis....

 

[Christopher]

About the Shame episode of Batman, I forgot to mention -- the window cameo by Colonel Klink raises all sorts of problematical questions. Why is a Stalag commander from WWII still at large more than 20 years after the war? Why is he apparently still active and hunting enemy agents? Why is Batman, the world's greatest champion of law, order, and justice, so blase about it? And what's with the implication that Colonel Hogan is still Klink's prisoner?

Of course, it's not meant to be taken literally; it's just a sitcom essentially breaking the fourth wall (or at least opening a window in it) to nod at another current sitcom. Still, of all the window cameos, this is one of the freakiest. Even considering that the next one will be Lurch. (Hey, the Addams Family is no weirder than Marsha's Aunt Hilda.)

Come to think of it, this might've worked better if they'd flipped the formula and had Shame be the one to run into Klink peeking out of a window. One villain acknowledging another would've felt more organic than Batman being uncharacteristically civil to another show's villain.

 

[Silvercrest]

Naah, it wasn't a case of the Batman show breaking the fourth wall to us. It was a case of Hogan's Heroes breaking the fourth wall to Batman. Batman was just being polite to a TV character he liked.

Batman's world is meta enough that TV characters occasionally come to life in it and no one bats an eye (sorry). This also explains how he could team up with the (otherwise-fictional and incompatible) Green Hornet.

 

[Christopher]

Batman: "The Penguin's Nest"/"The Bird's Last Jest": Hold on, since when did the Penguin have "jests"? The Joker won't be pleased to hear that!

Once again, we see the familiar trope of the Penguin putting on a respectable front for his criminal activities -- but it only lasts a minute before they flip the script and have the Penguin actually trying to ruin his own reputation and get sent to prison. Some marvelous comic twists on the formula, first with the telephone relay between Gordon and Batman/Bruce in adjacent phone booths (a gag that would never work today), then with Batman, Robin, and the cops conspiring to ensure that the Penguin can't get arrested in this town.

But why did Penguin think his fake murder of "Cordy Bleu" would work? Obviously Batman wouldn't just send him to jail without examining the body.

Once again, James O'Hara is playing a cop, but this time his name's Hoffman rather than O'Leary. And I don't think I ever caught the gag -- after he's knocked out, Batman and Robin leap into the room over his body and say, "Odd -- the door was open." Not like them to be so oblivious.

In contrast to the clever start of the episode, the cliffhanger is kind of sloppy. Both a machine gun and electrocution? What's the point? I guess to make extra-sure, but it just feels slapped together. (Although it's freaky that apparently the well-labeled "Pool Electrifier" is apparently a pre-installed piece of equipment at the city pool. What do they use it for???)

Oh, and we're back to the full recap at the start of part 2. Maybe it was running short?

Turning the pool into an anti-magnet? Once again, reversing the polarity solves everything!

Perry Mason joke: The absentee DA is "Jefferson Hamfurter," a pun on Hamilton Burger.

Another case of B&R not being on the ball: They forgot that Penguin has met Alfred at least twice before. Still, overall it's kind of a nice story, with both sides trying to outwit and stymie each other, as opposed to B&R just trying to figure out the criminal's plan. It's a fun back and forth.

Aha, and we get confirmation that the costumes are changed automatically by some device midway down the Batpoles.

Rare instances of women getting in on the physical action (sort of): Chickadee trips O'Hara in part 1, and Aunt Harriet knocks out Chickadee with a vase in part 2. And of course we can count Chickadee waving guns around all the time, a trait she shares with Okie Annie from the Shame 2-parter. The molls are starting to get more aggressive.


Wonder Woman: "Diana's Disappearing Act": Okay, it's Diana Prince versus the evil magicians. And it's really rather boring. Dick Gautier is not a particularly convincing archvillain, and Ed Begley, Jr. is just kind of annoying, though that's more the script's fault (ahh, the 70s, when stalking was considered endearing). The title is kind of apt, for Diana is absent for quite a lot of the first half.

I notice they've fixed Wonder Woman's tiara. It isn't wrinkly anymore. But they've also broken her backstory. Apparently Wonder Woman has been fighting villains for centuries, even though she never adopted the Wonder Woman identity until 1942?

 

[JD]

Was that the only time Aunt Harriet got in on the action in a fight scene?

 

[Christopher]

Was that the only time Aunt Harriet got in on the action in a fight scene?

I imagine it probably is.

And it's amusing that at this point, Aunt Harriet has been more effective in action than Chief O'Hara. In the Minstrel episode, Gordon and O'Hara were right there for the climactic fight, and O'Hara spent the whole thing knocked out in the corner.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Tonight's Batman 2-parter, "The Cat's Meow" / "The Bats Kow Tow" is usually remembered for the appearance of rock duo Chad and Jeremy, but there were a couple of additional trivia notes:

1. "Mr. Oceanbring" was portrayed by then-famous hair stylist to the stars, Jay Sebring, forever remembered as one of the victims of Charles Manson's "family" in the same night of crime which took four other lives, including actress (and Mrs. Roman Polanski) Sharon Tate. Sebring was Batman producer William Dozier's hair dresser, and was responsible for making him aware of Bruce Lee (via the 1964 International Karate Championships). Dozier saw the potential, and eventually, Lee was cast as Kato in Dozier's other masked hero series, The Green Hornet (1966-67).

2. One of the giddy female fans in part one was actress Judy Strangis--the daughter of Batman's production manager, Sam Strangis. Ironically, Judy Strangis would portray the Robin-like teenage sidekick Dyna Girl (using "Dyna!" as much as Robin used "holy") in Sid & Marty Kroftt's 1976 Saturday morning superhero series, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. The influence of the '66 Batman was still strong at the time, as EW/DG was heavily patterned after the Dozier series, from the senior/junior relationship of the leads, to a fantastic super-car, to an older mentor figure ("Frank Heflin") who was a cross between Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, in that he (like Alfred) was aware of their dual identities, but informed them of crimes (or select adversaries) like Gordon.

 

[Christopher]

Tonight's Batman 2-parter, "The Cat's Meow" / "The Bats Kow Tow" is usually remembered for the appearance of rock duo Chad and Jeremy, but there were a couple of addiotional trivia notes:

1. "Mr. Oceanbring" was portrayed by then-famous hair stylist to the stars, Jay Sebring, forever remembered as one of the victims of Charles Manson's "family" in the same night of crime which took four other lives, including actress (and Mrs. Roman Polanski) Sharon Tate...

Good notes, thanks. Part 2 of this is celebrity cameo central for this series. Not only Chad & Jeremy and Don Ho as themselves and Sebring as a pastiche of himself, but Steve Allen appeared as his own pastiche, "Allen Stevens."

This is one of those episodes that makes you wonder if it was written for no villain in particular and adjusted to fit whoever was available that week. It's a Catwoman episode, but the gimmick is music and voice-stealing; what's that got to do with cats? But I do like Catwoman's savvy; instead of the usual trope of the villain leaving a clue that points blatantly to themselves, Catwoman has the sense to plant a clue pointing at everyone else, and to present herself as a reformed woman. Although I do wonder why she then blew it by stealing Gordon's voice. He could still write, as we saw later.

But man, Julie Newmar is sexy here, and gives one of her most lively amd fun performances to boot. I love it when she dons a disguise and gets to play a character role. Catwoman even finally gets in on the physical action, tackling Batman and getting the drop on him in the climax. It's the most physically aggressive move we've seen from a woman on this show -- even if she then reverted to more conventional behavior, letting her feelings for Batman get the best of her. Well, at least that's consistent with her comics characterization.

This is a fun and clever script by Stanley Ralph Ross, with lots of fun gags -- like a butler named Rhett, and "I'll get your voice back before you can say 'Jack Robinson.'" Although I probably would've gotten more of the jokes if I knew more about Chad & Jeremy. Although I did get the general drift; they seemed to be sort of Beatles Lite. It's odd that they were supposedly seen as unruly, incomprehensible young ruffians, when their songs were fairly sedate to my ear.


Wonder Woman: "Death in Disguise": I'm barely paying attention to this one. It's quite dull. The whole thing with the cross-dressing assassin is rather pointess, the direction is lackadaisical, and it's not very entertaining to watch Diana fending off relentless advances from a sexist pig, even if he is played by a guy from West Side Story. Some interesting guest stars here, like Lee Bergere, Arthur Batanides, and Christopher Cary, but they don't get anything very interesting to do.

For the record, 47 miles in 4 minutes is 705 miles per hour. But Wonder Woman got there with over a minute to spare, so that'd be about 950 MPH, which is about Mach 1.24. Are we really supposed to believe she ran fast enough to generate a sonic boom? It sure didn't look that way. And why did she run 47 miles to the office instead of a couple of miles to the nearest pay phone?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Tonight's Batman 2-parter, "The Cat's Meow" / "The Bats Kow Tow" is usually remembered for the appearance of rock duo Chad and Jeremy, but there were a couple of addiotional trivia notes:

1. "Mr. Oceanbring" was portrayed by then-famous hair stylist to the stars, Jay Sebring, forever remembered as one of the victims of Charles Manson's "family" in the same night of crime which took four other lives, including actress (and Mrs. Roman Polanski) Sharon Tate. Sebring was Batman producer William Dozier's hair dresser, and was responsible for making him aware of Bruce Lee (via the 1964 International Karate Championships). Dozier saw the potential, and eventually, Lee was cast as Kato in Dozier's other masked hero series, The Green Hornet (1966-67).

2. One of the giddy female fans in part one was actress Judy Strangis--the daughter of Batman's production manager, Sam Strangis. Ironically, Judy Strangis would portray the Robin-like teenage sidekick Dyna Girl (using "Dyna!" as much as Robin used "holy") in Sid & Marty Kroftt's 1976 Saturday morning superhero series, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. The influence of the '66 Batman was still strong at the time, as EW/DG was heavily patterned after the Dozier series, from the senior/junior relationship of the leads, to a fantastic super-car, to an older mentor figure ("Frank Heflin") who was a cross between Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, in that he (like Alfred) was aware of their dual identities, but informed them of crimes (or select adversaries) like Gordon.

I mostly think of her as Helen Loomis from Room 222.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

2. One of the giddy female fans in part one was actress Judy Strangis--the daughter of Batman's production manager, Sam Strangis. Ironically, Judy Strangis would portray the Robin-like teenage sidekick Dyna Girl (using "Dyna!" as much as Robin used "holy") in Sid & Marty Kroftt's 1976 Saturday morning superhero series, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. The influence of the '66 Batman was still strong at the time, as EW/DG was heavily patterned after the Dozier series, from the senior/junior relationship of the leads, to a fantastic super-car, to an older mentor figure ("Frank Heflin") who was a cross between Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, in that he (like Alfred) was aware of their dual identities, but informed them of crimes (or select adversaries) like Gordon.

And look what I found googling Dyna Girl: http://spinoff.comicbookresources.c...man-dyna-girl-kicks-out-a-new-teaser-trailer/

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Interesting. I'll certainly give it a chance. EW&DG fans shouldn't forget to check out the unaired pilot from 2001 with Markie Post.

 

[DWF]

Wonder Woman[/I]: "Death in Disguise": I'm barely paying attention to this one. It's quite dull. The whole thing with the cross-dressing assassin is rather pointess, the direction is lackadaisical, and it's not very entertaining to watch Diana fending off relentless advances from a sexist pig, even if he is played by a guy from West Side Story. Some interesting guest stars here, like Lee Bergere, Arthur Batanides, and Christopher Cary, but they don't get anything very interesting to do.

You forgot about Jennifer Darling, they stole her from, the bionic shows.

 

[Christopher]

Batman: "The Puzzles Are Coming"/"The Duo is Slumming": Hmm... just occurred to me to wonder if the part 2 title is a wry acknowledgment that they had to settle for a substitute for the Riddler this week. Still, I think the Puzzler manages to be a pretty distinct villain from the Riddler, thanks largely to Maurice Evans's classy performance, as well as the oddly mismatched Shakespeare and aviation gimmicks. Overall, though, I found this one a little underwhelming this time around, though I've had a good impression of it in the past.

I love it that Robin was as outraged about the henchman littering as he was about the whole attempted murder thing.

Blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail: Early in part 2, the wall switch that the henchman throws to release the fall of balloons to cover their escape is labeled "Not Labeled."

Man, that is one of the creepiest Santa Clauses I've ever seen.


Wonder Woman: "IRAC is Missing": Anyone else have a problem with the audio lagging a second behind the picture, or was it just some problem with my DVR? The ads seemed to be in sync, though.

I love the computer science in here. Siphon the information out of computers in the form of electricity, then feed the electricity into another computer. Slow down, I can't handle the sophisticated jargon!

Oh, look, it's a cute robot sort-of-dog-thing mascot, just what we needed. I hope Mel Blanc got royalties for the use of his "Beep-beep."

I call foul on the guy getting away from the magic lasso when WW was distracted. The lasso's supposed to leave people totally submissive. I suppose maybe the idea was that it needed her will to operate, but I'm not sure that's right.

Ross Martin as a master of disguise? What a wild, wild idea. And the bad guy who wants to have it all is named "Havitol." Ohh... kay. (And for some reason IMDb thinks he's Bernard Havitol instead of William.)

 

[Commander Richard]

Willy Havitol?

 

[The Realist]

I call foul on the guy getting away from the magic lasso when WW was distracted. The lasso's supposed to leave people totally submissive. I suppose maybe the idea was that it needed her will to operate, but I'm not sure that's right.

That threw me for a second too, but the next scene shows him escaping the facility with Havitol's other henchman. The implication is that the second guy freed him while WW was otherwise occupied.

 

[Silvercrest]

Wonder Woman: "IRAC is Missing": Anyone else have a problem with the audio lagging a second behind the picture, or was it just some problem with my DVR?

Same problem here.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I call foul on the guy getting away from the magic lasso when WW was distracted. The lasso's supposed to leave people totally submissive. I suppose maybe the idea was that it needed her will to operate, but I'm not sure that's right.

That threw me for a second too, but the next scene shows him escaping the facility with Havitol's other henchman. The implication is that the second guy freed him while WW was otherwise occupied.

Syndication edit possibly?

 

[Christopher]

Sorry I'm late -- other commitments this weekend.

Batman: "The Sandman Cometh"/"The Catwoman Goeth": Another one to mix up the format, starting with the villains planning together. And good grief, Catwoman has a "cat-skin comforter" on her couch? Clearly this is not the animal-rights activist we know today.

Anyway, it's interesting to see the GCPD actually being proactive by sending an undercover officer into Catwoman's employ -- although you'd think they'd have more of a plan for coming to her aid than "Call Batman."

I think that, despite the episode title, this is the first time Julie Newmar has been billed "as Catwoman" rather than "as The Catwoman."

I really shouldn't ask where the Batcomputer got the spaghetti. Maybe Alfred loaded it in there as a gag, expecting that someday Batman would ask it about J. Pauline Spaghetti. That's what you call the long game, folks. (But why was it cooked? And red?)

It seems incongrous that they added actual "boing" sound effects to the bedsprings in the Bat-fight in addition to the textual sound effect cards. A written BOING card would seem more appropriate.

Ooh, the Batmobile has GPS! Okay, it's a giant lucite map in the Batcave, but still. And I'd ask why Bruce just couldn't ride in the limo and change back to Batman upon arrival, but then we wouldn't have gotten the Alfcycle gag. This is a particularly silly one.

I've always been disappointed by the cheesy set for Catwoman's "maze." Catacombs should be more impressive.

This one kind of fizzles out toward the end, with Catwoman being too easily disposed of. But the humor went really dark there with all of J. Pauline's husbands and their grisly fates. Is Batman overlooking a truly murderous villain in the guise of a harmless old lady?


Wonder Woman: "Flight to Oblivion": I'm running out of ways to say an episode was mediocre. I'm honestly not sure why I'm even still bothering to watch. Why were Diana and Steve going undercover under their real names? Why were they even needed there? Why not just alert military intelligence that there was a threat?

Dante was able to hypnotize Stonehouse and Steve with ridiculous ease. Just hitting a cymbal or bell half a dozen times? That's all it takes? And if Steve could resist hypnosis enough to activate his watch alarm, why did he need to activate the alarm to "snap himself out" at all? The most interesting thing about this was that little pocket snow-toy thingy that Alan Fudge had in the teaser.

And wait, wait, hold on. Just two weeks ago, we were told that Wonder Woman could run 47 miles in 3 minutes, which is faster than Mach 1. Now she can't outrun a fricking tour bus? Meanwhile, it's still funny how much stockier Wonder Woman's stunt double is than Lynda Carter.

 

[Silvercrest]

I'm honestly not sure why I'm even still bothering to watch.

You mean you wonder why?

Hey, if title drops are all you have left, then use them.

 

[Christopher]

Batman: "The Contaminated Cowl"/"The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul": This is kind of a weird one. The radioactivity turning the cowl pink is quite strange. It's very comic-booky, but I'm a bit surprised they went for pink rather than the green that's usually associated with radioactivity (because radium watch dials glowed green, though that was fluorescence from the other ingredients in the coating). I guess they just chose it because it was silly-looking. Still, of all the times when it didn't make sense for Batman and Robin to keep their masks on in the Batcave, this was the most extreme.

And why did Batman and Robin fake their deaths in the fluoroscope chamber? That was never actually explained. I mean, the Hatter went away and came back the next morning. Why would B&R need to fool him in order to escape? Why not just leave as soon as Professor Overbeck let them out? The bits about the reaction to their "death" were kind of fun, but the setup just wasn't there.

Conversely, the water tower finale had plenty of setup, but no payoff. We were told that Tetch had his goons set up some kind of deathtrap in the tower, but all we got was just a fistfight in very constrained quarters. I can see why they wanted to set up the tower fight -- the altitude made it exciting, and the tight constraints made it an interesting choreographic challenge. But the story just failed to justify it -- or much of anything else -- adequately.

I did like the gag about how it was criminals that had made Batman and Robin famous, so they were honoring their memory by committing a crime. And I liked Jean Hale as Polly. Her lines suggested she was intended to be ditzy (like "A picnic? At a time like this?"), but the actress came off as smart, poised, and classy, and she was rather attractive too.



Wonder Woman: "Seance of Terror": Just one syllable removed from "Balance of Terror," but not nearly as good. A Romulan or two might've livened things up. There was a seance, sure, but where was the alleged terror?

What a convoluted scheme to manipulate foreign delegates. I'm not sure whether the kid actually being psychic makes it more or less convoluted. I was annoyed when it turned out not to be a hoax, but then I realized... this is a show about an immortal Amazon with magic powers, so maybe I should set my standards accordingly. Even so, they never bothered to explain how Koslo faked the ghosts actually speaking. Was that his psychic power? Did they get Matthew to do it? But he didn't know what they were doing, so it couldn't have been him.

I don't recognize the character of Diana anymore. Wonder Woman used to be so compassionate and kind and saintly. Agent Diana Prince has become sarcastic, snide, and angry. In principle, a sharp-edged character like that can work; indeed, more recent portrayals of Wonder Woman often tend toward the tough warrior woman approach. But I don't feel it works in this case, perhaps because it's such a departure from the memorable, iconically wise and saintly Wonder Woman of the first season. Or maybe because Carter just didn't have the charisma or talent to make such an abrasive character appealing. She was somewhat more convincing, or at least more charming, as the warm and compassionate Wonder Woman. It was certainly a better fit for that blinding smile. (Although in that final freeze frame, it didn't look like the smile reached her eyes.)

When Diana fell off the conveyor and only changed to WW after she hit the ground, how did that work? Did transforming heal her injuries? (Well, it worked for David Banner and the Hulk.) Later on, how did the "psychic traps" around and within the house call Diana by name if the Koslos didn't know who she was? For that matter, how did Theodora not recognize her after having seen her before? Then again, nobody recognizes her when she lets her hair down and puts on a tiara. I think people in the DC Universe must be face-blind. They can only recognize people by their hair, clothes, and glasses.

And how come Koslo just sighed when Wonder Woman asked him "What do you think?" at the end? Okay, it was a rhetorical question, but he was bound by her lasso. He should've been compelled to answer.

Looks like Rover's going to be an ongoing "character." I actually don't mind that. There's not much else going on that's at all interesting, so I'll take what I can get. Good grief, there are 27 more episodes of this. Though only three left this season. Any chance season 3 gets better?