High Diddle Riddle / Smack in the Middle
In the early 1990s, Batmania swept the country. I was desperate to see the Keaton film. But I had one issue: the BBFC had classified it a 15. You could argue kids today see much worse on YouTube, but it turned out the Batman 89 was simply too dark for me… just yet.
But that was okay. Because we had Batman most mornings. I’ve looked at old listings and I still can’t remember if it was ITV, Channel 4, or satellite channel Trouble TV. More likely a mix of these (and usually the same episodes repeated). We had Batman 1966. It brought the heroes and villains to life in half‑hour episodes, and it was brilliant.
Batman starts with a couple of episodes that tell you everything you need to know about the series. If you enjoy the opening hour, you’ll enjoy the whole thing. This is the episode where Batman walks into a bar in full costume. Offered a seat, he deadpans: “I’ll stand at the bar — I shouldn’t wish to attract attention.” The line is deadpan, it’s played straight, and somehow that makes it even funnier. This is also the episode where Batman gets spiked in the bar, dances the Batusi, and has his keys taken off him by Gotham’s finest while drunkenly shouting, “I have to save Robin!”
As a kid, you only see the action adventure played out in front of you. As an adult, you see the humour.
The villain for these two episodes is the Riddler. This is before Paul Dano and Jim Carrey. This was Frank Gorshin’s Riddler — and if ever there was a poster villain for this series, Gorshin’s version was it. His performance even earned him an Emmy nomination.
Here he tries to frame the Dynamic Duo, drugs Batman, kidnaps Robin, and disguises his henchwoman Molly as the Boy Wonder. It’s far from the darker tone we know Batman for, but the story elements are there. There’s even a mention of Bruce Wayne’s parents’ murder — dropped casually into one of Bruce’s early scenes. And this is also the only episode with a body count: Molly falls into the atomic pile inside the Batcave (she got in using that disguise we mentioned earlier).
It’s not the Dark Knight. But does it represent those more light‑hearted Batman stories of the ’50s and ’60s? Absolutely.