In the first of five BATMAN ’66 WEEK podcasts, John S. Drew and I talk about the best — and most underrated — Special Guest Villains! Plus: Listen to find out our first contest winner!
Each day this week, John S. Drew of The Batcave Podcast — a show that reviews every Batman ’66 episode and then some — and I will be doing a special Bat-podcast on a different topic.
Today? The bad guys!
Click here to listen to the show. It’s also on iTunes and Stitcher.
Plus, at the end of the show, you’ll find out the first winner of last week’s Batman ’66 Contest!
This episode’s prize? A Joker Wacky Wobbler from Funko!
November 4, 2014
Great podcast, but the villain showcase missed my favorites:
• Walter Slezak as Clock King (the episode had a great spoof of pop art, and lots of good gimmick-villain shtick, despite the low-budget costume); and
• David Wayne as Mad Hatter. His first outing, when he teamed with Diane McBain as Lisa, was the only episode, in my opinion, in which there was believable chemistry between a guest villain and a moll. And I’ve never been able to confirm it, but I’m convinced the hypnotic Super Instant Mesmerizer in his hat (a gimmick the TV producers grafted onto the existing Hatter character) inspired the mind-control technology the Hatter later developed in the comics.
Finally, a word on Egghead: In the first half of his first appearance — the second-season two-parter in which he was solo villain, without Olga — he was pretty darn scary as a super-smart criminal who deduced Batman’s secret identity. The second half of that story descended into silliness amid raccoon pelts and Chief Screaming Chicken, but the first half showed that Egghead had potential. They squandered Vincent Price’s “House of Wax” menace by making him Olga’s lapdog.