DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
BATMAN MARATHON
December 31, 2018  | By David Bianculli

IFC, 12:00 a.m. ET

 

Beginning exactly at midnight ET – Holy Happy New Year, Batman! – IFC presents a marathon of the entire first season of ABC’s mod, mad, improbably entertaining Batman series, starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as his sidekick Robin, the boy wonder.  The action begins with “Hi Diddle Riddle” and “Smack in the Middle,” the episodes introducing Frank Gorshin as the Riddler – with Jill St. John as, if my memory is correct, the only character to meet a fatal end in the entire Batman series. Burgess Meredith as The Penguin shows up next, at 1:06 a.m. ET in “Fine Feathered Finks” and “The Penguin’s a Jinx,” and Cesar Romero as The Joker is another early addition, at 2:12 a.m. ET with “The Joker Is Wild” and “Batman is Riled.” But it wasn’t until late in that first season, after actors portrayed such minor villains as Zelda the Great, The Mad Hatter and False-Face, that Julie Newmar came on to steal the show as Catwoman (pictured). You can see her, and you should, at 9:51 a.m. ET Tuesday morning, in “The Purr-Fect Crime” and “Better Luck Next Time.”

 

 
 
 
 
 
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