Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 3, 2021 | 7 comments

From Batclimbs to walk-ons…

Our buddy and pal Jim Beard is back with another groovy TOP 13 Batman ’66 list — this time tackling those wonderfully wacky cameos, from Batclimbs to straight-up walk-ons.

Oh, and don’t forget: Since it’s the holiday shopping season — I highly recommend Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, an in-depth episode guide edited by Jim, with Rich Handley. There’s also the sequel — Biff! Bam! Eee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two — and both editions feature courageous chroniclers such as 13th Dimension columnist Paul Kupperberg, The Batcave Podcast host John S. Drew, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Chris Franklin, Ed Catto, and yours truly, among many others.

So dig the 13 GROOVIEST BATMAN ’66 CAMEO APPEARANCES — in no particular order:

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By JIM BEARD

If it weren’t enough that Batman boasted of a bevy of stars in its firmament as Special Guest Villains week in and week out, the famous 1966-68 show captured even more luminaries for extra-special cameos sprinkled among episodes. It became a “thing”—who would show up on Batman next? The sky was often the limit.

I’ve gathered together some of my favorite cameos here, not only the well-known, at-the-window Batclimb guests, but a few other walk-ons that are nonetheless pretty damn cool… or weird.

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Didja know the first season only sported one window cameo? It wasn’t until the Season 2 opener, “Shoot a Crooked Arrow/Walk the Straight & Narrow,” that the idea hit home and TV host Dick Clark got off his bandstand to “dip his diphthong” to the Caped Crusaders.

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It was an incredible moment for television super heroes—or at least an incredible example of product placement—when none other than the Green Hornet and Kato wagged their masked faces at Batman in “The Spell of Tut/Tut’s Case is Shut,” months ahead of their famed full crossover on the show. Holy hatted Hornet!

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Here’s where things start to get strange: In the middle of 1966’s “Come Back, Shame/It’s the Way You Play the Game,” the Dynamic Duo meet a German army colonel who still thinks it’s World War II… and Batman plays along with the delusion. The weirdest thing of all is Werner Klemperer was Klink-ing around on a different network at the time.

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A Batman-Hogan’s Heroes might’ve been weird at the time, but along came “The Penguin’s Nest/The Bird’s Last Jest” and The Addams Family said, “Hold my beer.” Towering titan Ted Cassidy assayed his Lurch look in a window for Batman and Robin, but hey, at least he and his gruesome gang were on the same network.

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The hits just kept on comin’. In a sort-of hat trick of odd Batman window cameos, Hawaiian crooner Don Ho lei-ed it on the Dynamic Duo in “The Cat’s Meow/The Bats Kow Tow” and the idea of Batropes in Hawaii didn’t seem like too big of a stretch. Only in the Swingin’ Sixties…

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Wait, did I say hat trick? What’s the hockey term for four way-out window cameo episodes in a row? In the otherwise lackluster “The Puzzles are Coming/The Duo is Slumming,” we got the wonderful weirdness of Santa Claus at a window… played by perennial sidekick Andy Devine. Watch this one, old chums; it’s incredibly strange.

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Gotham City suffered through a long drought in window cameos after those four, but after a forgettable Art Linkletter look-see, viewers were rewarded with infamous gangsta Edward G. Robinson in “A Piece of the Action/Batman’s Satisfaction.” I’m not sure exactly what it is about it, but I love this one. A philosophical discussion on art in the middle of a caper with the Green Hornet. Yes, please.

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I’m feeling too contained within windows, so let’s start looking at cameos that will allow us to stretch our legs. Howabout exercise guru Jack LaLanne and his rooftop beauties in the Batman feature film? Nothing like a little Bat-voyeurism on a clear, sunny day in Gotham City.

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“The Minstrel’s Shakedown/Barbecued Batman?” spotlights an oddball cameo by crazy comedienne Phyllis Diller, playing a kooky cleaning woman — or is she? Phyllis may cause some younglings to scratch their heads in befuddlement, but for us ’60s-’70s kids, she was de riguer. Kind of like Carol Burnett, but with wilder hair. And a husband named Fang.

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Can a recurring star actually cameo on their own show? Julie Newmar proved that pudding by popping up as the wily Catwoman in another arch-fiend’s episode, namely “The Greatest Mother of Them All/Ma Parker.” It’s a really fun moment.

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I suppose if I have to explain Phyllis Diller, I probably should explain Little Egypt in “Hizzoner the Penguin/Dizzoner the Penguin.” Y’know what? No, go ahead and look her up yourself. I think you’ll find it fascinating after watching this hoochee-coochee cameo.

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Actor George Raft wasn’t about to let his fellow gangsta Ed Robinson get away with cameoing on Batman, and so the garrulous gunsel guested in “Black Widow Strikes Again/Caught in the Spider’s Den.” Old gangsters never really die; they just flit away to Gotham City, apparently. Funny thing is, he did nearly the exact same thing the same year in a cameo in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale.

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What’s the greatest Batman cameo of all, you ask? Different scribes will subscribe to different opinions, but for my simoleons I’m going to pick the William Dozier-Howie Horwitz cameo in the series’ final episode, “Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires.” The captains always go down with their sinking ship, eh?

Dozier (left) and Horwitz

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Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One is published by Crazy 8 Press and lists for $14.99. Click here to order.

Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two is also available, at $15.99. Click here.

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MORE

— 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON ONE. Click here.

— 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON TWO. Click here.

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Jim Beard has pounded out adventure fiction since he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. He’s gone on to write official Star Wars and Ghostbusters comics stories and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history. His prose work includes his own creations, but also licensed properties such as Planet of the Apes, X-Files, Spider-Man, Kolchak the Night Stalker and Captain Action. In addition, Jim provided regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, for 17 years.

Check out his latest releases, a Green Hornet novella How Sweet the Sting, his first epic fantasy novel The Nine Nations Book One: The Sliding World, and the most recent Batman ’66 books of essays he’s edited: Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One and Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two.