Ma Parker

By allowing her sons and other gang members to be captured one-by-one, Ma Parker has slowly infiltrated and taken over the Gotham City penitentiary: there are more of her men there than there are actual prison wardens. One of them has left a little surprise for the Caped Crusaders under the hood of the Batmobile, set to detonate when the speedometer hits 60 miles per hour, but they haven’t counted on Batman’s conscientious observation of the posted 55mph speed limit. When Batman discovers the dynamite under the hood, he returns to the prison, but still doesn’t discover Ma Parker’s plan. It takes a bomb blast and a bank robbery in downtown Gotham City for Batman to realize that the inmates are now controlling the prison…and when he and Robin arrive at the prison, Ma Parker’s expecting them.

written by Henry Slesar
directed by Oscar Rudolph
music by Nelson Riddle / Batman theme by Neal Hefti

Cast: Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin), Alan Napier (Alfred), Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon), Stafford Repp (Chief O’Hara), Madge Blake (Mrs. Cooper), Shelley Winters (Ma Parker), Tisha Sterling (Legs), David Lewis (Warden Crichton), Michael Vandever (Mad Dog), Peter Brooks (Machine Gun), Robert Biheller (Pretty Boy), James Griffith (Trusty), Lee Meriwether (Catwoman)

Notes: Though the theatrical movie between seasons can lay claim to being the first all-star villain team-up against Batman and Robin, Catwoman’s (uncredited) appearance here marks the first hint of such a joining of forces in the TV series. The Joker and the Penguin are said to be in solitary, but Ma Parker opts to leave them there so they know she’s running the prison now…which also handily means that the show’s guest star budget isn’t blown wide open in the middle of the tenth episode of the season! The prisoner number on Legs’ uniform looks suspiciously more like her costume measurements than the numbers on any of the other prison uniforms.