Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 7, 2026
13 COOL THINGS About BATMAN ’66 Season Two
1966 WEEK! The grooviest, ginchiest parts of Batman’s longest season… — UPDATED 9/7/26: It’s 1966 WEEK! The Adam West Batman series’ second season debuted 60 years ago, on Sept. 7, 1966. Perfect time to reprint this piece from September 2021! For more 1966 WEEK festivities, click here. Right on! — Dan — Last week, on Adam West’s birthday, we reminded you of the release of Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, a non-fiction anthology edited by Jim Beard, with Rich Handley, by bringing you Jim’s 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON ONE. Click here to check it out because it’s pretty dang swell. Anyway, we decided to go back to the Bat-well this weekend, with 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON TWO — because Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two is out now, featuring The Batcave Podcast host John S. Drew, 13th Dimension columnist Paul Kupperberg, Michael Jan Friedman, Bobby Nash, Chris Franklin, Ed Catto, and my own bad self, among the contributors. So if you want to order the books – and you do – click here for Season One and click here for Season Two. In the meantime, dig 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON TWO: — By JIM BEARD 1. Van Johnson’s Minstrel doesn’t get the attention he deserves, especially since he’s not only one of the few Bat-Villains that, within the fiction of “The Minstrel’s Shakedown/Barbequed Batman,” the Caped Crusader’s never met before, but he’s also said to be Batman’s equal or better in terms of being an electronic genius. How cool is that? — 2. Forget about the absolute insanity of Liberace being on Batman and take a moment to consider the absolutely cool badassery of Aunt Harriet in “The Devil’s Fingers/The Dead Ringer.” Now there’s one pistol-packin’ mama! — 3. It’s no surprise to me a hip show like Batman would include then-cool musical guest-stars like Paul Revere and the Raiders in “Hizzoner the Penguin/Dizzoner the Penguin,” but the group was actually working for the dirty bird on his crooked campaign? Wild! — 4. There’s something so incredibly cool in “The Impractical Joker/The Joker’s Provokers,” it often goes unnoticed by fans—Batman talks about the Clown Prince of Crime’s past as a hypnotist. What does that...
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