WHEN one is comparing the development and use of the "Special Guest Star" gimmick that Producer William Dozier and company used in the BATMAN Series (Greenway/20th Century-Fox, ABC TV, 1966-68) we must divide the villains into two types.
FIRST, there are those villains who were strictly a product of the TV Series. These would include such characters as names as Book Worm, King Tut Marcia: Queen of Diamonds, the Archer and the Minstrel. Even these and their ilk are essentially cut from the same cloth as the true Comic Book Villains; theirs is an origin of the Television Script Writer.
CONVERSELY, baddies such as the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman and even the Mad Hatter were all developed from the graphic printed page of the Batman stories; being either Detective Comics (Monthly), the Batman Comic Book (6 then later 8 times yearly) or World's Finest Comics (at first a quarterly publication, then a bi-monthly-6 times yearly).
THE classification of Mr. Freeze may seem to be problematical; for his origin is somewhat that of a hybrid pedigree. You must understand that the character was born as the new villain in "The Ice Crimes of Mr. Zero" in February 1959 issue of Batman Comics #121; being the main story of three and was cover featured. The character did not return until Detective Comics #373, March 1968 in the cover story, "Mr. Freeze's Chilling Death Trap." The name had been changed for some reason or other for the TV series. He hadn't made a second comic book appearance until over 2 years into the Batmania Craze on the Telly.
SO Mr. Freeze (nee Mr. Zero) is a bonaified Comic Book villain albeit a bush leaguer at that!*
OUR STORY
.The sudden occurrence of "icy pavement in July" as well as the melting of an indoor ice rink at the same time spelled trouble to Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton), Chief O'Hara (Stafford Repp) and the brain trust at the Gotham City P.D. They immediately summoned the Dynamic Duo via the red emergency Bat Phone.
BATMAN and Robin's arrival at Police Headquarters starts the story off in the manner that had become the standard; what with Batman relating the origin of the bad guy and how the accident in his laboratory is blamed on him by Mr. Freeze.
AFTER some cat and mouse type of encounters, Mr. Freeze manages to get Batman & Robin trapped and is able to freeze the twosome; both instantly and thoroughly. So, as the familiar narrator, Desmond Doomsday (really Mr. William Dozier, getting to really ham it up!) says the usual business about the cliff-hanger predicament, finishing with the quote of "Tomorrow, Same Bat-Time, Same Bat Channel!
AND remember gang, the Worst is yet to come! (Please see our review of "BATMAN" Rats Like Cheese! (Season 1, Episode #8.)
NOTE: * Please don't think that Mr. Zero/Freeze was the only "Bush League" Character to make it to the TV Screen. The Mad Hatter (aka Jervis Tetch) made his origin in Detective Comics #239, April 1956 and was not brought back until the February 1964 issue of the Batman Comic, #161. The same could be said of the Riddler, who had appeared in two issues of Detective Comics #'s 140 and 142 in 1948 before being brought back in the May 1965 issue of Batman #171! Why were these less used opponents who had been deem to be minor used again after such long sabbaticals?
OUR THEORY (If anyone cares): In the year or so before going to commit the Batman Show to the film canister, research by TV staffers (including main and supervising Writer, Mr. Lorenzo Semple, Jr., had looked through the DC Comics "Mug Books" (Back Issue Files) in order to see what characters looked likely to be apt subjects for adaptations.
This theory would apply to both the Mad Hatter (portrayed by David Wayne) and especially for Edward Nigma, the Riddler; for there was a great resemblance to the very popular Show Biz item, Actor & Impressionist Extraordinaire, Mr. Frank Gorshin.
POODLE SCHNITZ!!
