Five Villains Made Up for the Batman TV Series

So before we turn to the holidays I wanted to continue my discussion of characters made up for franchises by TV or other media. In this case, it’s the colorful characters for the Batman TV series.

 

 Of course the 60’s campy Batman series had the familiar cast of villains Joker, Riddler, Catwoman, Penguin, Mr. Freeze (with three versions no less! FYI Otto Preminger was the best). But there were some which made for and by the TV series. And most of them were… pretty lame to be honest. Louie The Lilac? Really? Don’t get me started on Shame. I can still hear that kid calling his name in my head!!!



Here are five of these who, in my opinion, become a little more memorable than the others.





King Tut

The thing I like about this one is that this one of the few villains, new or otherwise, to actually have a background given to him. Something which makes him a more defined character. Which may be one reason he’s stuck around a little more than others. He was a well-respected professor until during a protest a rock hit his head. He then believed from then on that he was the reincarnation of King Tutankhamen, and his goal was to claim his city as his own. Course to make it even better the amazing and fun Victor Buono played him and hammed it up every second. I mean, reaalllyy hammed it up. He was just plan fun to watch.








Egghead

What the heck? Egg Head was a genius. So since the slang for genius’s was “egg head” I guess that made sense. And would have been fine if they hadn’t gone the full egg route, with egg puns galor and using eggs as weapons. How do you get away with something this silly? You get the lord of awesome Vincent Price to play him thus making all that silly dialogue just so much damn fun.







False Face

Can’t do Two Face? Then try False Face. I always remembered this because the episodes with his where all kind of creepy. As you’d expect from a villain who hid behind a mask. And I guess that scary mask is why we never saw him after that one appearance. And he could disguise himself as anyone too. Malachi Throne played him but I still don’t believe it. The best part is that when normally the creators announced the guest star every week, Throne’s name was never used instead we got “Special Guest Villain ??????”







Marsha Queen of Diamonds

Sort of the same gimmick as Poison Ivy except she preferred diamonds to plants. And obviously wasn’t fatal. But she appeared a few times to spin her spells. Played by Carolyn Jones which proves she could do more than just Morticia Adams. Not much to say except that her episodes with the Penguin were just adorable. They do share similar goals after all.







Colonel Gumm

Hey anything Roger C Carmel does is fine with me. Though what the heck is this guys back story anyway? He doesn’t even get a cool name! But the cool thing is that he needed to heroes to stop him. Yeah this was the big Batman/Green Hornet crossover that no one remembers happening. But give the credit for being one of the few Batman TV villains who wasn’t an obvious villain with an evil plan or henchmen or even a power and/or gimmick. He did things in secret and if not for The Green Hornet’s intervention Batman may never have caught him! And yeah he did have a stamp gimmick which was so lame even the episode made fun of it.








There are a ton more. But to be honest the more down the list you go the more sillier they get until they’re just goofy. I like The Mad Hatter but he wasn’t created for the show. Roddy McDowell’s Bookworm didn’t really grab me. Just a Riddler knock off with a silly hat (played a by a great actor). The Puzzler was even worst.  Sandman was straight up boring. And of course we had The Siren, and let’s just say she was a great example of why Season 3 was painful. . The worst of them? Probably John Astin’s awful Riddler. Even if he’d a totally different name it was bad, Astin obviously didn’t know what show he was on. But good or bad, you gotta admire how this silly little show managed to attract some real top A talent to play the villains (or just do a cameo).  And yes i could do another whole list on characters created for the animated series and even video games. but that’s another article my friends.




Next year is the 80th Anniversary of Batman and I’m not making the same mistake I made this year of not realizing a big anniversary is coming. So after Christmas I’ll be taking a closer look a the craze we all call “Batmania!”