I am watching Batman on the Hub and John Astin is the Riddler in the episodes: Batman's Anniversary and A Riddling Controversy which is the conclusion to the other episode. I never knew he played the Riddler! Always thought Frank Gorshin always played him. Did anyone else know this or am I the only one?
Yeah that's right. Much as I love Astin, Gorshin owned The Riddler. This happened several times in the series. Julie Newmar/Catwoman became Eartha Kitt [and Lee Meriwether if you count the feature film] while George Sanders/Mr Freeze became Eli Wallach and Otto Preminger. Even as a kid, I found this sort of stuff distracting outside of DR WHO.
Major Bat-fan here. I loved seeing John Astin on the series, but he shoulda been given his own villain. Maurice Evans' The Puzzler, 2nd Bat-season, also was intended to be a Riddler episode.
Too bad they didn't use Two-Face' character in the series
I agree with you guys that John Astin should have been given his own character. Being biased, one that was a little creepy/kooky would have been cool-The Creeper, The Ghoul, etc. He is such a great actor, he could have "owned" anything. Unfortunately, Frank Gorshin defined the Riddler, and was an impossible act to follow. I had trouble with Nicholson's Joker in '89 because Caesar Romero was so imbedded in my head. He was an incredible Joker.
I agree that no-one could beat Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, but John Astin did a very credible job.
John Astin did a great job as the Riddler, even though he only filled in 2 episodes while Frank Gorshin was involved in a contract dispute. I really would have liked seeing Astin have his own character, especially in one of the episodes with Carolyn Jones playing the Queen of Diamonds.
Quote from: lblambert on March 04, 2012, 12:25:42 PM
John Astin did a great job as the Riddler, even though he only filled in 2 episodes while Frank Gorshin was involved in a contract dispute. I really would have liked seeing Astin have his own character, especially in one of the episodes with Carolyn Jones playing the Queen of Diamonds.
I agree that would have been great!
Astin was happy to take on The Riddler because his kids were huge fans of the show. That's why many celebs did "Batman," so their kids would be wowed.