KING TUT: I’m Sorry VICTOR BUONO, I Was Wrong About You
A (very) posthumous birthday salute… — UPDATED 2/3/25: This first ran in 2018. I wouldn’t change a word. — Dan — My love of the Batman TV show is deep and abiding, just as it was when I was a child. Of course, it’s a different kind of love. As a kid, the show was an immersive experience, a source of adventure and whiz-bang action. It’s still those things, but now it’s all tinged with a certain nostalgia, knowingness — and appreciation for campy kitsch. As I’ve rewatched the show over the last several years, and written extensively about it, I’m repeatedly struck by how my tastes have changed since I watched it on Channel 11 after school in the 1970s. There are things I loved then and roll my eyes at now, and things I could barely tolerate then that I have come to realize were some of the greatest parts of the show. One of the best examples? Victor Buono’s King Tut. When I was a boy, I watched his episodes with a bit of a set jaw, annoyed by his high-pitched declarations and broad displays of criminal haplessness. It was still Batman, so I watched, but it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. Bring me more Riddler, I’d think. Enough with this guy. Oh, how wrong I was. For starters, those bombastic pronouncements that put my teeth on edge when I was, oh, 8 years old, now make me laugh out loud — especially when set against his W.C. Fields-like sarcastic asides. Buono didn’t just walk through scenes; he thundered through them. Then there are the outfits — all bright reds, golds, blues and purples — a cacophony of faux Egyptian grooviness heaped on a larger-than-life frame. Whether he’s calling for Robin to be boiled in oil or bursting triumphantly into the Batcave, Buono’s robust physicality commands your attention: King Tut will not be ignored. Oh, and let’s not forget that he set the stage for a Batusi even better than the one in the show’s premiere: It’s remarkable to me that Buono was only 28 when he joined the show. He looked — and behaved — like a much older performer. It’s tragic that he only lived to 43. (He was born Feb. 3, 1938.) I’m often reminded of all that when I watch the show...
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