Batman
The Second Season Part 2
by Billy Ingram

While the first season of TV's camp-o-liscious Batman was an unprecedented ratings winner numbers began to slide as season 2 unfolded. The network wisely loaded the second half of the season with villains the audience loved best - Catwoman, Joker, Penquin, Riddler, and King Tut.

The 30 episodes that comprise the second season are actually better than the first half with super-villain teamups like Joker & Penguin and Catwoman & Dr. Somnombula and Penquin & Marsha Queen of Diamonds.

World class comic actors Julie Newmar, Burgess Meredith, Victor Buono, Caesar Romero are seen in multiple 2 (and 3) part episodes to battle the Dynamic Duo and generally chew the scenery.

Best of all - as Black Widow - silent movie legend the notorious Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard) who even has a scene with W. C. Fields stooge Grady Sutton. More highlights: Pop singer Leslie Gore appears as Catwoman's protege Pussycat. Lee Meriwether, seen as Catwoman in the Batman movie, appears here as King Tut's Cleopatra (in an storyline where Ruta Lee makes a cameo).

And don't forget The Green Hornet and Kato, the latter played by Bruce Lee. Sucks they had a boring villain to play off of, Colonel Gumm. The bad guys created for this series were uniformly bad, the only ones that ever clicked had been staples of the comic books.

This compact DVD set (no extras) may contain the best episodes in the 3 season run of Batman although I enjoy many of the third season especially with Catwoman portrayed by Eartha Kitt.