Episodes 83 & 84: Catwoman Goes to College/Batman Displays His Knowledge

Season 2 Episodes 83 & 84

Original Air Dates: 2/22/67 & 2/23/67

Special Guest Villainess: Julie Newmar as The Catwoman
Guest stars: Jacques Bergerac, Stanley Adams

Written by: Stanley Ralph Ross

Directed by: Robert Sparr

Catwoman is paroled and promises she'll go straight. In fact, she enrolls in the Gotham University. Of course, no one is fooled (well, maybe just the entire cast of characters) and the feline soon returns to her wicked ways. Her goal is to steal the Batagonian Cat's Eye Opals and she'll do anything, including framing the Caped Crusader, to achieve that end. 

PE: The last time we encountered The Catwoman, she had supposedly fallen to her watery death. This episode begins with her parole. Take a good long look, boys and girls (especially boys) as this is the last time Julie Newmar suited up as Catwoman. I'm not sure there'll be anything left to look at from here on in. 


JS: Okay, since you said so, I'll look... but I could have gone 36 more episodes without knowing in advance we were done with Newmar. That means only one thing—let the Yvonne Craig countdown begin!

PE: Things have gotten so busy at Police Headquarters that Commissioner Gordon must turn to Batman to find the thieves of ... Batman's full-size replica. Holy High End Crime!

JS: Hold on just a second. You're going to let it go without commenting on Bruce Wayne's signing up to be Catwoman's parole officer? I think our resident millionaire/crime fighter has finally crossed the line, with ulterior motives in mind.

PE: I'm impressed. Years before it was fashionable, Batman has created a Bat-Hair analyzer to study the one single red hair found in the beanie.


JS: I don't know if he was more proud of the analyzer, or the beanie, hair, and his tweezers. I must also comment on the dynamic duo's continued inability to speak to one another privately. When you shield your mouth with your hand, the goal is not to block your voice from the person you're trying to talk to, but that's what they both do.

PE: Granted, we're not supposed to notice things like this but since the Caped Crusader has already alerted Gordon to the fact that stealing the replica might be a way to initiate a bogus Batman, where's the mystery when a supermarket is knocked over by ... Batman? The entire plot thread is dropped after this scene. Yet another set-up that goes nowhere. 

JS: Well, once the real Batman is tossed in jail, the fake Batman has to go back into hiding. Darn shame that it interfered with the real Batman's first date with Catwoman.  

PE: Alfred dressing up as Batman isn't exactly the novelty it once was, is it Johnny? It's become a staple of the show just as much as the villain stealing the Batmobile. The laugh of the episode is that once Alfred has switched places in jail with "Master Bruce," we get a shot of Wayne, relaxing on his couch, reading a newspaper. When Gordon finds out our hero (actually Alfred, is this getting confusing?) has escaped prison, he gleefully exclaims "Good old Batman! No jail can hold him. Not even ours!"


JS: Yes, even I'll admit that chicken-leg Batman has worn out his welcome, but the real shocker in the episode was Bruce somehow having a spot-on Alfred costume. 

PE: There's actually a Bat-Calendar Computer taking up room in the Batcave? Couldn't Alfred simply hang up a Millionaires' Calendar on the Batcave wall?

JS: Batman is about ready to cry when he realizes Catwoman's 'lovey-dovey' business was all just a trick. Oh, really?

PE: How many times have the Dynamic Dupes fallen for the "Can I just powder my nose before you head me off to jail?" trick, only to be sprayed in the face by some knock-out gas?


JS: I guess this will be the last. Sniff.

PE: Our celebrity window guest this episode is "television personality"  Art Linkletter. Captain Courageous is played by Stanley Adams, a veteran of more TV show appearances than we can list here, perhaps best known by genre fans as Cyrano Jones, the salesman responsible for the troublesome tribbles on Star Trek. 


JS: How long before Captain Courageous gets O'Hara's job?

PE: "I don't know how we do it, Batman" says the Boy Wonder after they've narrowly escaped being scalded to death in a giant coffee cup. "The way we get into these situations and get out of them..." Indeed, I agree. If I was Batman, however, I'd be slapping the kid across the face a few times since just moments before Robin had thrown in the towel, proclaiming their situation hopeless (as he usually does). Batman even spends a nice moment or two getting close to the Boy Wonder while cutting his ropes. I wonder... Nah...

JS: I don't think so. Remember, after Batman speaks of Catwoman's... um, abilities, Robin proudly proclaims that, "I'm too young for that kind of thing."

PE: There goes Batman again claiming that Catwoman played right into his hands by stealing those jewels. Gotta keep face in front of his youthful ward.

JS: I just wish we got to see Catwoman use her Cat-ra-te on Batman.

PE: Best scene in the show is when Catwoman brings her stolen jewels to Jacques Bergerac (playing Freddy the Fence. Get it?) and the goofy Frenchman uses his fencing mask to strain his spaghetti. This guy was genuinely funny and so natural that the producers should have brought him back for his own show.

JS: Thanks, but I would have preferred the Adventures of Catwoman.

PE: The Bat-Syllable Device is ingenious. Alfred simply types in the words and the BSD pumps out Bruce Wayne's voice saying those words, very smoothly and naturally. It sounds just like a really bad robot voice but when the guy on the other end is as dense as Commissioner Gordon, why bother perfecting it? Gordon even jokes about this throwing his theory that Batman is actually millionaire Bruce Wayne out the window.

JS: So this is it, Newmar is done. I think I may have to pick up her new book, The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth. It's got pictures, right?

PE Rating: 

JS Rating: 

Next up... The Green Hornet and Kato! Same Bat Time, Same Bat URL!