And it’s not from the Batman: The Animated Series…
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UPDATED 9/14/24: Filmation’s The Adventures of Batman premiered 56 years ago, on Sept. 14, 1968! Perfect time for this reprint from 2017, which has been updated slightly. Dig it! — Dan
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I’ve been having a great time reviewing all of the 1968 Filmation Batman cartoons with John S. Drew over at his awesome Batcave Podcast.
In the most recent episode — which you can listen to here or here (or on iTunes or Stitcher) — we jumped into the full-length Partners in Peril, which works pretty dang well as a de facto sequel to the 1966 Batman movie.
Now, the inherent appeal of the Filmation cartoons is that they are cheesy and hokey. It’s really why I love them as much as I do. But every once in a while there’s an episode that rises above the clunky production values and stands as entertainment in its own right.
Partners in Peril is one of those episodes — 16 minutes of whiz-bang fun that manages to cram in just about every major Bat-character of the time: Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman, not to mention members of the supporting cast.
The set-up is standard Silver Age goofiness: Joker, Penguin and Riddler have a contest to determine who should run Gotham. Because that’s what supercriminals do. But the ultimate mastermind proved to be (SPOILER ALERT) Catwoman.
I don’t want to go into greater detail here because I really want you to hear what John and I say about it here. We had a great time and I think you will too. (We also talk about a separate short paired with it, The Underworld Underground Caper, featuring a rare Catwoman/Riddler team-up. That’s a kick too.)
Fans rightly look at Batman: The Animated Series and its successor, The New Batman Adventures, as the be-all, end-all of Bat-animation. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other diamonds out there.
So go dig out the newly remastered cartoon on Apple TV or pop in your Blu-ray and bask in it. And don’t forget to check out The Batcave Podcast too.
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MORE
— The FILMATION BATMAN Index of Features and Podcast Episodes. Click here.
— The Most Unsettling BATMAN Cartoon of the ’60s. Click here.
July 5, 2017
I just found your blog with this article. I think it’s a shame that too many Bat-fans only seem to care about what happens from 1989’s Tim Burton Batman onwards. They miss out so many gems like this one.
I definitely need to check this episode out, though. Thank you for suggesting me!
July 6, 2017
This show, the live action BATMAN series and the cartoon SUPERMAN series at the time definitely were good ads in that every time we were at the store I wanted BATMAN or SUPERMAN comics if I saw them. So DC being first on TV got me going to them before Marvel! Fun times!
July 22, 2019
“Partners In Plunder” was the name of this 1968 episode of “THE BATMAN-SUPERMAN HOUR” segment.
July 22, 2019
The cartoon episode was “Partners in Peril.” “Partners in Plunder” was the title of a late-1964 comics story (cover-dated February 1965) featuring The Penguin. “Plunder” provided the blueprint for the first Penguin episodes of the 1966 Batman series (“Fine Feathered Finks” and “The Penguin’s a Jinx”).
September 14, 2023
It’s interesting that Warner released this on blu-ray but no sign of the Filmation Superman series on blu-ray, and will I live long enough to see Superboy released in any format?
September 15, 2023
I really loved this show as a kid.. and as an adult I still do the super campy goofiness of it at times just works… yeah yeah The Dark Knight but there are many versions of Batman.. this is Batman of Earth-77 lol
September 15, 2023
Earth-68, actually.