Batman

The CRIMSON, Harvard's own Dwight Macdonald, rarely reviews television series. Perhaps, out of deference to the Lampoon, we should have watched The Munsters, but we never cared for Yvonne deCarlo. Speaking of television, we think of escape, and our first thoughts must turn to Bogart. Everyone knows how and where Bogey was revived, but last year, we witnessed the resurrection of another escape. Literally dusting off an old can of film, the Brattle lifted "The Batman" out of a celluloid cemetery. Shortly thereafter, someone in film-land (who undoubtedly had read the Time article about camp) spliced this 1943 serial into a four-hour-and-eight-minute feature. Needless to say, the show was a smash in a number of midwestern college towns. Hence, it was with a sizable dollop of trepidation that we sat down Wednesday evening to watch the first episode of "Batman," TV's predictable next step.

The thirty minutes went much too fast. It started with the narrator's "put your gum under your seats," zipped through a catchy theme, and within minutes, the Caped Crusader and Robin the Boy Wonder were risking their dedicated lives in a effort to rid Gotham City of crime. Adam West stars at Batman; even lacking a size 48 chest, his portrayal is excellent. Batman's young ward is played by Burt Ward, who is everything we remember from drugstore newsstand days.

Supposedly a great deal of money was spent in preparing this series. If this is true, then certainly much was doled out to script writers. You'll have to watch to really get into the mode, but the lines are spoken almost as if they were still within the white balloons. Impossible speeches like Robin's "Holy ashtray!!!" and his mentor's "You've done it again, chum," should not come off, but undeniably, they do. Credit must be given to West and Ward, but some mention should be made of the superb direction. Someone must have read a lot of comic books.

For the first couple of episodes, at least, the Dynamic Duo will be matching wits with The Riddler (Three men are in a boat with four cigarettes and no matches ... How can they smoke? Toss a cigarette overboard and make the boat a cigarette lighter). Maniacally played by Frank Gorshin, he "contrives his plots like artichokes ... you must pull apart the spiny leaves to get to the heart." Alfred, Batman's butler, does not look at all like he should, the police commissioner has no moustache, and somehow an Aunt Harriet has sneaked into the Batman's life; other than that, the half-hour follows Detective Magazine without a miss. There's the Batmobile (now nuclear-powered), Batarang, Bathook, and Batcave. They even flash the Bat Signal the right way.

Critics had unanimously panned this season's TV fare for its consistent drivel, and so, surely a show with lines like "Stake out that art gallery like you would a circus tent!" will not go unnoticed. Commissioner O'Hara says, "I don't know who he is behind that mask of his, but I do know when we need him, and we need him now!" ABC's president must have said the same thing.