It’s April 1st in Gotham City, and a bank heist has the Gotham Police perplexed. Batman has a hard time finding clues as well, so he plants a story in the next day’s newspaper, promising the public display of a dazzling emerald that surely his mysterious new nemesis can’t resist. But Zelda the Great, master illusionist, is already watching, and she knows the emerald is a trap. So she decides to make her next illegal windfall happen by other means…such as kidnapping Aunt Harriet and holding her for a ransom.
written by Lorenzo Semple Jr.
directed by Norman Foster
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), Anne Baxter (Zelda), Jack Krushcen (Eivol Ekdal), Barbara Heller (Hilary Stonewin), Frankie Darro (Newsman), Jim Drum (Clancy), Stephen Tompkins (Bank Guard)
Notes: Even for 1960s Batman, this episode breaks the fourth wall an awful lot, with everyone from Zelda to a newspaper vendor taking time out to address the audience.
LogBook entry by Earl Green