This Week's Batman TV Almanac (10/2-8/05)

[AaronHandy3]

OCTOBER 5, 1966

"The Greatest Mother Of Them All" (prod. #9707-Pt. 1) first aired @ 7:30 p.m. (EDT) on ABC as the 43rd episode of Batman.

Milton Berle (seen here as Lefty) will be seen as Louie The Lilac in Season 3. The actual Batmobile couldn't travel faster than 45 mph! Ma Parker and her felonious family is based loosely on for-real gangstress Kate "Ma" Barker and her sons, Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred, who teamed up with Alvin Karpis (whom Fred met in the penitentiary) and several other criminals, thus forming The Barker-Karpis Gang, nearly a crime wave in themselves, which rampaged across the Midwest from 1931 to 1935.

Ironically, the actress who portrayed Ma Parker in these episodes, Shelley Winters, would go on to actually play the real Ma Barker in the 1970 American International Picture Bloody Mama! Winters also portrayed Elvis Presley's mother Gladys Presley in the biographical TV movie Elvis (1979) starring Kurt Russel as Elvis.

Oscar Rudolph directs for the first time. He directed a total of 36 episodes, and 30 of the final 52, the most of any of the 19 directors credited on the series. Peter Brooks (Machine Gun) appeared in the movie Girl Happy (1965) starring Elvis Presley as Brentwood von Durgenfeld. Tisha Sterling was the daughter of film legend Ann Southern and Robert Sterling. Among her credits was the 1965 Bert I. Gordon teenage giant flick Village Of The Giants with Tommy Kirk, Beau Bridges, Bat-guest Joy Harmon ("A Riddle A Day Keeps The Riddler Away") and a young Ron Howard.

OCTOBER 6, 1966

"Ma Parker" (prod. #9707-Pt. 2) first aired @ 7:30 p.m. (EDT) on ABC as the 44th episode of Batman.

In the scene where Batman and Robin rush back to the prison, listen to The Batmobile's real engine! Features a cameo of Julie Newmar as The Catwoman in stir during the meeting.

Ma Parker's crankiness can be attributed to back pains Shelley Winters sustained from a nasty spill she took on the set.

OCTOBER 5, 1967

"The Sport Of Penguins" (prod. #1703-Pt. 1) first aired @ 7:30 p.m. (EDT) on ABC as the 98th episode of Batman.

Joe Brooks (Visor) played the nearsighted Vanderbilt on F Troop (ABC, 1965-67).

Although not used in the TV series, Penguin's real name was Oswarld Chesterfield Cobblepot, first revealed in the Sunday, February 17, 1946 Batman and Robin newspaper strip, written by Alvin Schwartz.