The Joker Goes to School

Infobox Television episode | Title = The Joker Goes to School


Series = Batman
Season = 1
Episode = 15
Airdate = March 2, 1966 (ABC)
Production = 8715-Pt. 1
Writer = Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Director = Murray Golden
Guests = Donna Loren,
Kip King,
Greg Benedict,
Bryan O'Byrne,
Tim O'Kelly,
Cherie Foster,
Linda Harrison,
Sydney Smith,
Glenn Allan,
Donna Di Martino,
Dick Bellis,
Joan Parker,
Breeland Rice,
Jim Henaghan
Special Guest Villain: Cesar Romero as The Joker
Prev = Batman Stands Pat
Next = He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul

"The Joker Goes to School", a first-season episode of the "Batman" television series', first aired on ABC March 2, 1966 as its fifteenth episode, with an encore telecast occurring on August 10, 1966. It guest starred Cesar Romero as The Joker

Plot Synopsis

The Clown Prince Of Crime, The Joker, attempts to undermine student morale at Woodrow Roosevelt High School in order to recruit high school dropouts for his gang of Bad Pennies by rigging the school vending machines to give out silver dollars and negotiable stocks and bonds instead of milk. Alerted by Commissioner Gordon, Batman races out to the school; an immediate assembly is made by the school's student leaders: including Richard "Dick" Grayson, Pete, and Susie, the school's head cheerleader.

Batman shows up to show slides of mug shots of The Joker, when suddenly, out of the blue, he pops up right in full view of everyone! The Batman attempts to arrest him for loitering on school grounds, but The Joker manages to get off on a mere technicality. Meanwhile, across Gotham City, a bar is held up by a gimmicked jukebox which when activated spouts a double-barrel shotgun; then two stocking-masked hoodlums, actually two of Joker's Bad Pennies, Nick and Two-Bits (high school dropouts both!), rush in to rob the bar's receipts from the register!

The Joker reconvenes with Nick and Two-Bits at their hideout, The One-Armed Bandit Novelty Company; unbeknownst to everyone else, Susie is also a member of The Joker's Bad Pennies! She arranges to swipe some important exam papers to that The Joker can use them in a blackmail scheme, and also leads The Dynamic Duo into a trap set by The Joker. The Homicidal Harlequin and his Bad Pennies snag The Duo with one of the rigged vending machines which, instead of giving out silver dollars, locks them in shackles and emits sleeping gas!

Batman and Robin are transferred to the inside of an insidious moving van, where they are strapped to electric chairs; on the wall is a one-armed bandit, which when activated will win them their freedom and $50,000 cash with 3 liberty bells; just their freedom with 3 oranges, and instant and inescapable 50,000 lethal volts of electricity with 3 lemons, automatically on the last lemon! And as bad luck would have it, 2 lemons have turned up already...

Cliffhanger Text

::HORRORS!! ONE LEMON!!::DOUBLE HORRORS!! DOUBLE HORRORS!! TWO LEMONS!!::AND IF IT'S A THIRD...INSTANT AND INESCAPABLE 50,000 VOLTS!!::CLOSE YOUR EYES! WHO DARES TO SEE IT?? TRY US TOMORROW! SAME BAT-TIME!! SAME BAT-CHANNEL!!

Trivia

* Donna Loren's main claim to fame was the fact that she was the only real teenager in the "Beach Party" films.
* Linda Harrison later portrayed Nova in the 1968 20th Century-Fox sci-fi classic "Planet of the Apes" with Charlton Heston. Ironically, they were the only 2 people that returned to the 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes" starring Mark Wahlberg.
* In November 1965, Semple concocted a new villain named The One-Armed Bandit, "whose peculiar kick is gimmicked coin machines of all sorts." The idea ultimately wound up in these episodes with Joker in charge of The One Armed Bandit Novelty Company and vending machines that churned out silver dollars, quarters, answer sheets to exams and knockout gas.
* The Joker originally was scheduled to be the first "Bat Villain" to appear, but a scheduling conflict prevented Cesar Romero from appearing on the debut episode.