The Batcave Podcast

It's July 29, 1966. The Batman movie is set to premiere the next day in Austin. The Austin Statesman provided a 16 page supplement filled with fun articles and advertisements for Batman. In an age of instant Internet access, we kids back then would have treasured such an insert.

Download the pdf.

Zelda the Great is free and back to her scheme of coming up with inescapable traps that she needs the unwilling help of Batman and Robin to solve. Plus, Shame and Batman have a showdown on top of a moving train.

​John and Dan talk about John's disappoint with Zelda returning to crime, the "poor deluded girl" lured into a life of crime and adventure, and how the Shame story could easily be a third season episode.

We conclude our look at the Filmation 68 Batman series. In it, we discuss the voice work, the animation, and our favorite stories. In addition, John and Dan Greenfield, creator and author of the 13th Dimension talk about the times the series aired on cable, how the show managed to take some of the better elements of the 66 series while also leaning on the comics, and how the series got better as it progressed.

​Comment on the episode here or write [email protected].

We pick up our look at the 1943 Batman serial with the second episode, "The Bat's Cave". In it, the Dynamic Duo bring a prisoner back to their secret base to interrogate and we see the grandfather clock entrance to the Bat's Cave. Plus, we learn that Bruce can be a little sadistic as he fires an unknown energy weapon near his butler, Alfred; we discuss the career and wig of Douglas Croft (Robin); and we comment on the duplicate cliffhanger so early in the series.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Jim Beard was introduced to comic books at an early age by his father, who passed on to him a love for the medium and the pulp characters who preceded it. After decades of reading, collecting and dissecting comics, Jim became a published writer when he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. Since that time he's written official Star Wars and Ghostbusters comic stories and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history.

His prose work includes GOTHAM CITY 14 MILES, a book of essays on the 1966 Batman TV series; SGT. JANUS, SPIRIT-BREAKER, a collection of pulp ghost stories featuring an Edwardian occult detective; MONSTER EARTH, a giant monster anthology; and CAPTAIN ACTION: RIDDLE OF THE GLOWING MEN, the first pulp prose novel based on the classic 1960s action figure.

Currently, Jim provides regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, and is a regular columnist for Toledo Free Press.

Websites

http://www.facebook.com/thebeardjimbeard

http://www.sgtjanus.blogspot.com

So how does one approach a Batman spoof that wasn't intended to be one? John and Robert are sitting in the Batcave and watching the infamous Ray Dennis Steckler film, Rat Pfink A Boo Boo. In it, our hero's girlfriend is being menaced in the first 45 minutes of the film. Based on the setup, one would think that our hero would turn detective to try and stop it, but when she's kidnapped at the halfway point, he and the gardener in his girlfriend's building enter a closet and come out as the masked avengers - Rat Pfink and Boo Boo.

​John and Robert Long are watching their Bat-Monitors and are cringing at the turn of the events for this film as well as the costumes our heroes wear, while marveling at some of the directing choices and laughing at some genuinely funny lines. It all adds up to a movie that leaves you scratching your head and wondering what it was you just watched.​

Take a listen and let us know what you think by commenting here or writing us at [email protected].

Robert Long is a full time graphic designer and independent filmmaker. As a first generation Batman syndication kid, he manages the 1966-68 Batman Television Series Group on Facebook. He has had the pleasure to meet and work with Adam West and Julie Newmar with various projects in the past. Visit Robert's production company - Smash or Trash Independent Filmmaking to learn more about it.

It's the start of a new series of podcast reviews looking at the serials of the 1940s. The serials are often cited as the inspiration for the 1966 TV series. John and writer Jim Beard sit down in the "Bat's Cave" to discuss just how true this really is. In the first episode, they discuss the racism of the time, the fighting style of the Dynamic Duo, the career of Lewis Wilson (Batman), and how Robin looks more like a Brady than a Greyson. Take a listen and let us know what you think.

Our final look at the Filmation Batman 68 series is a celebration of all that your hosts love about the series. It has a multi-villain story, Batgirl, Alfred, many nods to the Batman comics of the 50s, current pop culture references and so much more. In the first story, Riddler, Penguin and Joker team up to break up the team of the Terrific Trio by playing mind games with Robin. In the second story, the Joker thinks he has finally rid himself of the Dynamic Duo, but he finds himself haunted by their ghosts.

​In addition, John and Dan Greenfield, creator and author of the 13th Dimension discuss how the second half of the series really hit its stride in terms of story telling and lament that there wasn't more after that. They also give a brief wrap-up by talking about their favorite comics adapted and original villains.

​Comment on the episode here or write [email protected].

Dan Greenfield is the editor and co-creator of 13thDimension.com, a website devoted primarily to comics and pop culture, past and present. To him, the basic food groups are Batman, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek (the Original Series), James Bond, the Beatles and the Stones. But if he had to he'd be able to subsist on Batman alone. Channel 11 in New York was his favorite syndicated channel as a kid -- you can guess why -- followed closely by Channel 5. Channel 9 didn't really enter into it unless he was home sick and there wasn't much else on. He's married to his remarkably patient wife Wendy and his best sidekick is his son, Sam. They have two cats,Lex and Zod.

Links

13th Dimension Website

Facebook page

Twitter

Glitter Rock has a plan to take over the world with his hypnotizing music. But how can his music reach our to the entire world? John and Kevin Eldridge of The Flopcast are back in Electra-Base and talking about the "Electra-Chicks" and their latest adventure.

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This time around, they take a look at Electra Woman star Deirdre Hall, they talk about the potential backstory that was hinted at in this episode, and John clearly sees more hints not only of the Batman 66 series, but of the relationship between Adam West and Burt Ward compared to Deirdre Hall and Judy Strangis. Take a listen and let us know what you think by writing us here or at [email protected]

John and Robert Long take on a Batman inspired movie that clearly was trying to cash in on the Batman craze with a heroine that calls herself Batwoman, has an army of Batgirls who help her fight crime, and that's about it. Producer Jerry Warren exploited not only Batman, but the women in this movie about a mad scientist who wants to create a better world by having beautiful women mate with monsters he's created. (At least, that's what we got out of it.)

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John and Robert Long are watching their Bat-Monitors and are finding this one difficult to understand or appreciate even with thought it is in English.

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Take a listen and let us know what you think by commenting here or writing us at [email protected].

Robert Long is a full time graphic designer and independent filmmaker. As a first generation Batman syndication kid, he manages the 1966-68 Batman Television Series Group on Facebook. He has had the pleasure to meet and work with Adam West and Julie Newmar with various projects in the past. Visit Robert's production company - Smash or Trash Independent Filmmaking to learn more about it.

As part of the Krofft Supershow, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl ran for 16 weeks in two part installments. The series clearly borrowed a great deal in terms of concepts from the Batman 66 television show. John and co-host Kevin Eldridge of The Flopcast take on these episodes, discussing them scene and scene and exploring what the "Voltage Vixens" have in common with the "Caped Crusaders".

​In the opening episode, The Sorcerer escapes from a maximum security prison with a scheme to steal all the gold from Fort Knox. But there is something wrong with the scheme as it involves the use of mirrors. John and Kevin discuss the episode, the guest cast, and try to determine how the Electra Comps work and the extent of their powers. Let us know what you think by writing us here or at [email protected].