Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Batman: Fine Feathered Finks (1966)

KIDS! Who doesn't already know who The Penguin is? Exactly. Lorenzo Semple Jr. thought so too and decided to hit the ground waddling once again with only his third script and second shot at a villain. The Penguin is portrayed as an established criminal who's not only already in prison for previous crimes, he's already served his full length of time and is about to be released! Instead of introduction or developing the character he's just executed in his fully developed glory. What the script does take the time to do is poke some fun at the "progressive" changes to the prison system that the warden has implemented with The Penguin as his model prisoner. Although Commissioner Gordon and Robin cast doubts on the effectiveness of such programs Batman gives his full support. Of course The Penquin quickly proves to be unredeemed; much to the warden's dismayed reflection of "Where did I go wrong?"

Although Batman is quick to re-affirm the warden's faith in his progressive beliefs the over all message of the sequence is the futility of such measures. The facts of the situation and the parody nature of Batman's character make his statements hard to accept for any audience member. There is a strong conservative streak throughout the Batman series that ranges from not just crime/punishment but also to ineffective government, sexism, and the wise leadership of aristocracy. This is contrary to the spirit of the more well known anti-establishment pop art and comedic styles of the show. Batman takes the counterculture of the 60's only to parody every last bit of it. Yet the liberals at the time still ate it up. Today it can be seen more as a product of its era, a relic ripe for its own mocking. But that all fails to recognize the complex Jekyll and Hyde nature of this show.

The first appearance of The Penguin is similar to The Riddler's first appearance from Hi Diddle Riddle in the sense that writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. has once again used a plot device that is far more advanced then would typically be used in what can be considered as just the second episode. The Penguin has schemer's block and can't come up with a single plan for his next crime wave. So he decides to throw out a bunch of elaborate clues with no real planned connection in the hopes that Batman will make the connections for him. Could you imagine Warner Brothers backing a Batman Returns where Danny DeVito had no fiendish plot and relied on Michael Keaton to do if for him? With all the slack Tim Burton is able to cut for himself he could never get the green light on a script like Fine Feathered Finks. Once again Lorenzo decides to challenge the audience upfront and I commend William Dozier for supporting it.

The almost immediate success of the show helps to prove that giving the audience more credit than their typically due can pay out in dividends. This show mixes the high brow with the low brow in the most ingenious ways and the most ingenious thing about it was the fact that everyone took it to be simply low brow. Unfortunately Batman was a victim of its own success in this regard by making it look too easy. Even today it is seen as a dumb show and by the third season it was even treated as such by its own staff of writers who know longer "got" the true joke. Ren & Stimpy suffered a similar TV fate.

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