BATMAN - THE ANIMATED SERIES TV SERIES V. 1(1992):
The best of the animated Batman series', this has
probably the greatest collection of voice actors to
ever grace an animated show! And the stories are
all really engrossing!!
These sets are NOT in chronological order!!! So if you
want to watch them that way, I've put the air dates on
them so you can jump around and watch them that
way!!
As for the actors, Kevin Conroy is the best ever voice
actor for Batman, ever(IMHO)!! Also great here is Bob
Hastings as Commissioner Gordon, Efram Zimbalist Jr.
as Alfred & Loren Lester as Robin!
DISC 1:
EPISODE 1: ON LEATHER WINGS(Sept. 6, 1992):
It's interesting how this just jumps right in, as though the
series had been going on for a long time! However, this
first episode is about a bat-creature flying around Gotham
and breaking into phamaceutical companies for purposes
unknown, but it's causing people to blame Batman for
all the break-ins!!
Guest starring in this is Rene Auberjonois(Star Trek DS0)!
Also guesting is Merdith McRea(Petticoat Junction, My
Three Sons, Beach Party & Bikini Beach)!! Also here in one
of his few shows is Clive Revill as Alfred! A+
EPISODE 2: CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOKER(Nov. 13, 1992):
The Joker breaks out of jail during Christmas and starts
causing mayhem throughout Gotham, much to the
chagrin of Robin!!
Guest starring in his first stint as The Joker is non-
other than Mark Hammil(Luke Skywalker himself!!)!! A
EPISODE 3: NOTHING TO FEAR(Sept. 15, 1992):
The Scarecrow is the villain here!! He's out after revenge
on the local university for reasons unknown!! A
EPISODE 4: THE LAST LAUGH(Sept. 22, 1992):
The Joker's back and is using laughing gas to help him
rob, well, just about everybody and everything!!
This has Efram Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred, and Mark Hamill
as The Joker!! A
EPISODE 5: PRETTY POISON(Sept. 14, 1992):
The new D.A., Harvey Dent, is smitten with a pretty young girl!!
Bruce goes to meet up with them at a swanky restaurant
where she kisses Dent goodbye then he passes out, sending
him to the hospital!! A
EPISODE 6: THE UNDERDWELLERS(Oct. 21, 1992):
There's a bunch of kids, and one adult, who live underneath
Gotham City and make a "living" out of petty larceny! Batman
gets involved and tries to help the kids get out of the gutters!!
A really hilarious scene here has a couple of cops chasing after
one of the kids(not knowing that's what she is) and hops out
the cop car, turns on a flashlight so she can see what's going
on, and she has her eyes completely shut!!!! ROFLMAO!!!!! In
another scene, we have the kids being shown for the first time,
and as one of them get up, ooooooopppssss!!!!!!!
This is actually a really great episode!!! A+
EPISODE 7: P.O.V.(Sept. 18, 1992):
While doing a sting operation, Bullock gets way over zealous
and busts in without the rest of the team! Things go quite bad
for him, as well as the rest of the team, and they all get called
on the carpet by an investigating lieutenant who's out to find
out the truth!! Bullock tries to blame Batman for the bungled
operation, but the lieutenant isn't buying it!! A really different
kind of episode!! A-
DISC 2:
EPISODE 8: THE FORGOTTEN(Oct. 8, 1992):
Bruce Wayne goes to help out at a mission that he helps
support when a discussion with one of the other supporters
brings out that several of the guys that frequent the place
have disappeared, even another of the volunteers! He decides
to go undercover and try to find out what's going on, when
he's attacked, kidnapped, and taken to where the rest of the
missing dudes are!! During the attack, he gets hit on the head
and loses his memory!! A-
EPISODE 9: BE A CLOWN(Sept. 16, 1992):
At a birthday party being thrown for the new mayor's son,
a clown shows up to liven up the festivities! More to the
clown than meets the eye, it's really the Joker!! He's out
for revenge as the new mayor had just compared him to
Batman!!! A
EPISODE 10: TWO-FACE Part 1(Sept. 25, 1992):
How Harvey Dent became Two-Face! Basic story, Harvey is
running for re-election, but he seems to have two sides
to him, one the good guy everyone knows, while the other
is an angry man who's been hiding away his anger and it's
getting worse! And his main nemesis has caught wind of his
problem and vows to blackmail him to drop out of the race!! A
EPISODE 11: TWO-FACE Part 2(Sept. 28, 1992):
With Harvey now resigned to his fate of being scarred for
life, he turns to a semi-life of crime, using a two faced
coin to make his decisions on whether to be bad or good! A
EPISODE 12: IT'S NEVER TOO LATE(Sept. 10, 1992):
Batman gets in between the two crime lords of the city
and tries to get them to stop the insanity! A-
EPISODE 13: I'VE GOT BATMAN IN MY BASEMENT(Sept. 30, 1992):
The Penguin is set to make Batman pay for the many times
he's come between him and his ill gotten goods!! In the middle
of it all are two teens playing amateur detectives!! And they end
up with Batman, in their basement!!!
This is, um, cute, but not really a great episode!! Just a little
TOO cute!!
Guest starring voice actor is Paul Williams!! Not the best
Penguin in my opinion!! B
EPISODE 14: HEART OF ICE(Sept. 7, 1992):
Mr. Freeze is the name!! And freezing people, things, well
everything is his game!! He has a vendetta against a corporation
in Gotham and is determined to take his anger out on it!!
Guest starring here are Michael Ansara(Who played Kang in
not only Star Trek: TOS, but also in Star Trek: DS9 & Star Trek:
Voyager!! He also guest starred in the Babylon 5 episode "The
Geometry Of Shadows" and in Buck Rogers in three episodes)
and Mark Hamill(not here as The Joker this time!!)
A very good episode!! A+
DISC 3:
EPISODE 15: THE CAT AND THE CLAW PART 1(Sept. 5, 1992):
Two plots going on here: Selina Kyle(aka Catwoman) is laying a
trap for Batman, not to harm him, but to get him to like her; and a
group called The Red Claw is pulling all kinds of heists in Gotham!
Pretty soon, the two plots come together!!
Adrienne Barbeau(Maude, Escape From N.Y) guest stars as Selina/
Catwoman and Kate Mulgrew(Star Trek: Voyager, Mrs. Columbo,
Orange Is The New Black, Warehouse 13) guests as The Red Claw!!! A+
EPISODE 16: THE CAT AND THE CLAW PART 2(Sept. 12, 1992):
Continuing from part 1, with all the main characters returning,
Red Claw has shown her hand and is planning to steal a deadly
shipment of a plague that the government is shipping by train
through Gotham! A+
EPISODE 17: SEE NO EVIL(Feb. 24, 1993):
Batman's up against a thief who's invented a device that
makes himself invisible!! The man's whole agenda is to
be re-united with his daughter whom her mother is bound
and determined to keep away from him!!! A-
EPISODE 18: BEWARE OF THE GRAY GHOST(Nov. 4, 1992):
An old TV star that was in a series called The Gray Ghost
becomes involved with Batman when he tries to help
him with a case that is strikingly similar to an episode of
his TV show!
With a nod to the original 1966 TV series Batman, we have
here as The Gray Ghost/Simon Trent, Adam West!!
And another nod, or at least I think so! This episode is a
whole lot similar to the 1990 TV series The Flash episode
"Ghost In The Machine", where another retired hero comes
out of retirement reluctantly to help out The Flash!! A+
EPISODE 19: PROPHECY OF DOOM(Oct. 6, 1992):
A friend of Bruce's is taken in by a false prophet, who
seems to be out for the secret brotherhood that his
friend is a part of! A
EPISODE 20: FEAT OF CLAY PART 1(Sept. 8, 1992):
An actor who's had an accident and had is face disfigured
has gone to a company that makes a cream that helps
him get his, or any other's, face back!! The price for this
cream: to do whatever the boss man says, including
framing Bruce Wayne for purposes unknown! To get
rid of the actor after he's served his purpose, they
feed him a whole, very large, beaker of the stuff,
and that turns him into Clayface!!
(An aside here: This is NOT the true origin of
Clayface, as any long time Batman follower would
be able to tell you!!) B+
EPISODE 21: FEAT OF CLAY PART 2(Sept. 9, 1992):
Continued from last episode, Batman/Bruce Wayne tries
to find out who really attacked his friend! And Clayface
is out for revenge!! The only issue I have with these two
episodes is Clayface himself! One of the reasons I really
like Batman is because all of his foes are quite believable!
By that, I mean that they are all just really screwed up
dudes and dudettes that don't have any super powers,
like Batman himself! But this one is quite out there for
believability!! So, a little lower on the grading here!! B+
DISC 4:
EPISODE 22: THE JOKER'S FAVOR(Sept. 11, 1992):
The Joker's driving around and decides to make an
everyday man's life Hell! After running him off the
road, the dude is so shaken that he tell's Joker that
he'll do anything he wants him to!! Joker looks the
dude up later on to retrieve his promise! A
EPISODE 23: VENDETTA(Oct. 5, 1992):
While transporting a con to testify in court, the boat
he's on gets blown to smithereens!!! All evidence points
to Harvey Bullock, but the commissioner doesn't think
it's him, so Batman starts an investigation of his own!!
A nod to the WWF here!! A
EPISODE 24: FEAR OF VICTORY(Sept. 29, 1992):
Several top-notch athletes are having their worst time
ever while competing!! Batman brushes this all off until
while on a case Robin shows the same problems!! It
appears The Scarecrow is behind all of this!!
This has an interesting scene in which Batman is at Gotham
prison, and as he's walking past the cells, he catches
quick glimpses of The Joker, Poison Ivy and Two Face!! A
EPISODE 25: THE CLOCK KING(Sept. 21, 1992):
An efficiency expert is preparing for a trial and is quite
tense about it when he's given some advice by a lawyer
who's on the same train with him to "change up his routine"!!!
He decides to take this advice, and has nothing but bad
results!! He becomes so angry that he becomes the Clock
King and tries to take out his anger on the man who gave
him his advice, who's now the mayor of Gotham!!!! A
EPISODE 26: APPOINTMENT IN CRIME ALLEY(Sept. 17, 1992):
Rich man wants to build a mall! Problem: there's a lot of
people living in the run down area! Solution: blow the whole
place up, whether the people leave or not!!! He hires a dude
named "Nitro"(what else), to do the dirty dead!! What they
don't know is that this area is a personal project of Batman's!!
Guest starring here are Ed Asner(The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
Lou Grant) & Diana Muldaur(Star Trek: TOS episodes "Is There
In Truth No Beauty?" & "Return To Tomorrow", Star Trek: TNG
second season, as well as McCloud) in one of her five appearances
on Batman: TAS!!! A+
EPISODE 27: MAD AS A HATTER(Oct. 12, 1992):
Jervis Tetch is working for Wayne Enterprises, and he's
doing research on increasing the brain's power by controlling
mice!! He's also got a deep infatuation for his assistant, who's
got a boyfriend!! He decides to use his mind control invention
to proceed to get rid of all of his obstacles!!
This guest stars Roddy McDowell(Planet Of The Apes series of
movies and TV shows, he also guest starred in the original Batman
TV show in 1966 as The Bookworm!) in one of his four appearances on
Batman: TAS! Also guesting Loretta Swit(M.A.S.H.)!! A-
EPISODE 28: DREAMS IN DARKNESS(Nov. 3, 1992):
Batman interrupts a dude trying to put something in the
water supply at a health spa and gets infected by a hallucination
causing gas!! And he gets put into Arkham Asylum!! This all
comes down to The Scarecrow!! A
SPECIALS:
DISC 1:
THE DARK KNIGHT'S FIRST NIGHT:
This is a special discussing the beginnings of the series, with
a showing of he original promo submitted to the studio!! With
input from: Bruce Timm(Producer) & Eric Radomski(Producer)!
DISC 2:
BATMAN: THE LEGACY CONTINUES:
An overall discussion of the series!! With input from:
Mark Waid(Writer: "Kingdom Come", "JLA"), Geoff Johns
(Writer: "Teen Titans", "JSA", Paul Dini(Writer), Bruce Timm
(Producer), Eric Radomski(Producer), Bob Schrek(Editor:
DC Comics), Dan Didio(VP: Editorial - DC Comics), Alan
Burnett(Producer), Les Daniels(Author, Comic Historian),
Dan Riba(Director), Kevin Conroy(Batman/Bruce Wayne)
Mark Hamill(Star Wars, The Joker) & Andrea Romano(Voice
Casting/Direction)! This is very good!!! A+
DISC 3:
TOUR OF THE BATCAVE:
Batman
Alfred
Bat-vehicles
Utility belt
With a short explanation of each, along with a short
video featuring each!!
DISC 4:
On this one there's three previews of other DVDs!
From an IMDb.com customer
This is one of my all time favorite cartoon shows.
The two elements that made up the show had plenty
of action and just enough violence to keep you
interested. And even though it was violent, I still
turned out to be a normal adult and not a psychotic
killer. Too bad that parents groups thought that it
was too violent, or my generation would have been
spared such shows as Shazam, Isis and Super
Friends. - Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net