The Mayhem Critic
Aloha, my fellow readers. It is I, the great James Stryker and I am here to bring you yet another great and hilarious chapter of The Mayhem Critic. Today, you're all in for a real treat because this is a very special chapter. Today, Sean the Mayhem Critic is going to talk about one of his favorite animated shows from his childhood… Batman: The Animated Series. And there will be a special guest, or guests for this review. To celebrate it's 30th anniversary, here's the newest chapter of The Mayhem Critic. Enjoy.
P.S.: I do not own anything involved in this story, including the show or scenes being reference in this story. All rights belong to their respective sources. If I did, then I would be a millionaire. Batman: The Animated Series is owned by Warner Bros. Television and DC Comics.
Episode 154
Batman: The Animated Series
(The intro to The Mayhem Critic starts. After the intro ends, we open with Sean J. Archer, a.k.a. the Mayhem Critic)
We open with our favorite residential movie critic Sean J. Archer, a.k.a. the Mayhem Critic, sitting on his red couch with a big smile on his face as he prepares to talk about today's topic for the show.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Sean the Mayhem Critic, the critic that rips movies a new one." Sean said after greeting the audience. "Let's talk about Batman: The Animated Series."
The audience groans, annoying Sean as he rolls his eyes.
"YES, I'VE TALKED ABOUT IT A LOT, SO SUE ME!" Sean yelled out.
(Clips from Batman: The Animated Series is shown while the theme music plays in the background)
Sean: (Narrating) In fact, most people have talked about it. It is one of the most groundbreaking animated shows I've ever seen. Not only did it give us some great action and some lighthearted humor, it gave us mature stories, serious issues, it's dark tone and some iconic episodes. There's little that I could say about this show, which I have said a lot about it in the past that I could add to it today.
"Which is why I have a little surprise in store. That's right." Sean said as he snaps his fingers and his shirt changed to a black Mask of the Phantasm t-shirt. "This Batman: Mask of the Phantasm t-shirt."
The audience starts booing at Sean.
"Hey, it goes great with the outfit that I'm wearing! And the creators of Batman: The Animated Series." Sean said as the audience starts cheering. "Yeah! You shouldn't have dissed the shirt. Live via satellite, give it up for Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski!"
(We cut to live via satellite Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, who are seen sitting in two chairs behind a table filled with mand BTAS merchandise)
"Hey, Sean." Bruce said.
"What's up?" Eric said, waving to the camera.
"First of all, thank you for creating a show that plays a big part of my childhood. And second, thank you so much for coming to celebrate the show's 30th anniversary and not just to sell me something." Sean said.
"Oh, crap." Eric said.
"He's onto us." Bruce said. "Quick! Get rid of everything."
Eric immediately grabs a bunch of BTAS merchandise before running out of the room with them.
"Okay, first off, I want to know about the show's history. I want to know how it all began." Sean said.
"It all started back in 1990 and I was the storyboard artist for Tiny Toon Adventures." Bruce said.
(The poster for Tiny Toon Adventures is shown superimposed along with a picture of former president of Warner Bros. Animation Jean MacCurdy)
Bruce: (V/O) Jean MacCurdy, my boss at the time, called a big group meeting and she got the entire studio together and since we've done a great job with Tiny Toon Adventures, they were looking to develop other properties to sell another series. So after that meeting, I went to my desk and I had Tiny Toons stuff to work on and I just shoved it out of the way and I started drawing Batman.
"And at one of her meetings, I've shown Jean some of the sheet of drawings that I've done of Batman and she loved them."
"And a month or two, she called me and Bruce into her office. I was the background painter on Tiny Toons." Eric said.
"You and Bruce worked on some background treatments for Batman? The drawings of what Gotham City would look like." Sean said.
(A montage of pictures of Gotham City from the animated series is shown)
Eric: (V/O) Yeah. We've shown them to Jean, and she wanted us to put together a little Batman cartoon, a mini pilot to show the studio. It was the first time we met each other and we thought we could see what we could do.
The Joker (Voiced by Mark Hamill): That's my cue!
"You've taken some inspiration from the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons from the 1940s, that was the strongest influence on Batman and the style of the animated series.
"We were pushing the envelope. We wanted to make this different than any other cartoon." Bruce said.
"Bruce pitched out the idea of what the scenario should be for the mini pilot." Eric said.
(Footage from the animated pilot promo "The Dark Knight's First Night" is shown)
Eric: (V/O) A couple of thugs on the roof, Batman shows up all dark and mysterious and he takes them out and flies of heroically.
Sean: (V/O) And I've seen the pilot promo in my Batman DVD set…
"Buy the complete series on Blu-Ray, ladies and gentlemen." Sean said while he's holding up his Blu-Ray DVD set of Batman: The Complete Animated Series.
"Hey!" Bruce exclaimed.
"Oh, come on now. Really?" Eric asked.
"What? I have to plug something in for the chapter. Or if you want, you can check out the pilot promo The Dark Knight's First Night on YouTube." Sean said. "Okay, back to the pilot promo."
(Cut back to the pilot promo)
Sean: (V/O) When I first owned the complete first season of Batman: The Animated Series on DVD. I was about 16 at the time and I was in my junior year of high school and Circuit City was going out of business and they had some of the DVD marked down and I bought the show's first season on DVD…
(A picture of the first season DVD of Batman: The Animated Series is shown superimposed, along with a poster of the movie Child's Play 2)
Sean: (V/O) …along with Child's Play 2. When I watched the pilot promo, I was amazed at how fluid the animation is compared to the show and you guys drew each and every one of those frames.
Bruce: (V/O) Why thank you. And you want to know what the ironic thing is? While we were putting this cartoon together, the studio decided that they were going to go ahead with the Batman project.
Sean: (V/O) If it wasn't for Jean MacCurdy, who championed the show, we wouldn't be able to have it. This is an awesome start to an awesome series.
Eric: (V/O) The studio heads came back to ask us if we wanted to produce the show.
"So, Batman: The Animated Series was different than any other kids show on Fox Kids. I mean, this show aired the same year as X-Men." Sean said. "What were some of the rules or core values that you tried to follow?"
"Well, we had a team of writers who worked with us on the show like Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Michael Reeves, they were known for working on shows like…." Eric said.
(Pictures of Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Michael Reaves are shown superimposed while the following stills of the different animated shows that they worked on are shown)
Eric: (V/O) …The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, , He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Smurfs, Ewoks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, shows for the Disney Afternoon.
"Jesus Christ! They've done a lot of good shows!" Sean exclaimed.
Eric: (V/O) And like X-Men, Batman was much more adult-oriented than any previous typical superhero cartoon series. It was our quest to make the series darker and we've pushed the boundaries of action cartoons. Fox did not give us a lot of notes and some overall general notes, but at least at first, they were pretty hands off.
Bruce: (V/O) We were pretty stunned at some of the stories that we got away with telling. We did push back, aggressively, because we kinda felt we had to make it a serious show for kids and adults. We didn't want the show to seem like any other adventure show on TV. We wanted it to be appealing to kids, they were our primary audience and at the same time, adults would watch it too. I mean, there were many times that I would drive home and think, "Oh, I'm gonna get fired tomorrow.". Yeah, it was our quest to make the show darker.
Sean: (Narrating) Avery Cobern, who was the vice president of Fox Kids BS&P was in charge of network standards for the show. She's in charge of network standards on what to show or not to show on the show.
Bruce(V/O) Yes. There were some network standards that we had to follow for a children's show. You can't have someone hitting someone with a frying pan because a child would have access to it. There's a general policy to make kids safe. We would go over scenes. Avery had great respect for us. You have some of the characters holding guns and getting in to shootouts but you can't show anyone getting shot and you can't show anyone bleeding.
"Oh, come on. You guys literally had Batman bleeding in the episode "On Leather Wings" and Commissioner Gordon getting shot during a shootout in the episode "I Am the Night"." Sean said.
Eric: (V/O) You're correct about that one. "On Leather Wings" was the only episode where Batman bleeds. Throughout the rest of the series, we don't see him bleed, we just see him get injured. Also, you don't see anyone getting killed. You can't have anyone killing someone in children's television.
"Because it worked so well in Mask of the Phantasm." Sean said.
Sean: (V/O) Now aside from the show's network standards, let's talk about some of the cast of characters. Let me just say this and I know that someone will come after me, Kevin Conroy is the best Batman ever aside from Michael Keaton. So, how did you guys cast Kevin Conroy as Batman?
(A picture of Kevin Conroy is shown superimposed)
Bruce: (V/O) Kevin has never done an animated voice before and he never auditioned for an animated voice before. He was a stage actor and he went to Juliard. Andrea Romano, who was the voice director for the show, she was looking for killer actors, actors with stage credits. Conroy has done commercial voice-overs in New York and when his voice agent called to tell him about the show, you know, give it a shot. And when he came in to audition, we had our eureka moment. Andrea and I found our Batman.
"Let's not forget, he gave us this badass line." Sean said.
Batman (Voiced by Kevin Conroy): I am vengeance, I am the night. I… AM… BATMAN!
"Okay, when I go to the Comic Expo next week, I am gonna recite that line to Kevin Conroy when I get his autograph." Sean said.
Eric: (V/O) Here's the thing about Kevin, he's the first person in animation to use two distinct voices to portray Bruce Wayne and Batman. It was his own idea. You have one scene where he's Bruce Wayne…
Bruce Wayne: Yeah, doc. See, I keep hearing squeaks in my chimney, and I found these in my empty fireplace. They look like hairs. I thought maybe you could tell me if I have a bat problem.
Eric: (V/O) …and then you have him voicing Batman in certain scenes.
Batman: Here's how it works, slimeball. I have questions, and if you have answers, I'll leave you alone.
"Oh, man. That's what makes him the best Batman ever." Sean said.
Bruce: (V/O) Aside from Kevin, you also have an incredible cast like Loren Lester as the voice of Robin, Efrem Zimbalist Jr as the voice of Alfred, Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon and Melissa Gilbert as Barbara Gordon and Batgirl. Then, you have some of the actor who voiced some of the villains in Batman's rogues gallery like Adrienne Barbeau as Catwoman, the late Henry Polic II as Scarecrow, John Vernon as Rupert Thorne, Richard Moll, Michael Ansara, George Dzundza, David Warner, John Glover, Paul Williams and Arleen Sorkin as the voice of Harley Quinn.
"And let's not forget the best Joker, Mark Hamill." Sean said.
Sean: (V/O) How did you guys cast Luke Skywalker as the voice of the Clown Prince of Crime? Was it true that Tim Curry was supposed to voice the Joker.
Eric: (V/O) Yes, that's true. Tim Curry was originally cast as the Joker before Mark Hamill took over. But he had bronchitis and his take on the role was deemed too scary for younger children.
Sean: (V/O) Pennywise too scary for children? (In his Balki voice) Oh, no. Don't be ridiculous. (In normal voice) Although, I thought it would be pretty cool just to hear Tim Curry as The Joker. But, I'm glad that we've got Mark Hamill as the voice of The Joker. You could tell that he's having a lot of fun voicing the character.
Eric: (V/O) Yeah, Mark had a ball voicing the character. The second we heard that scary laugh, we knew that he's The Joker. What makes the villain iconic is his laugh.
(Cut to a montage of The Joker laughing)
Bruce: (V/O) It's fun to watch Mark performing the character. You have all of the other actors all seated while Mark is the only one standing up and he gets into it.
Joker: Yes, well this is all tremendously boring.
"And I would just like to point out that we love writing for The Joker." Bruce said.
Bruce: (V/O) He has a lot of fun episodes and sometimes some serious episodes like The Laughing Fish, where we see The Joker going after innocent people who refuse to copyright his new creation, which involves him using a toxin that turns fish into Joker fish. Hell, it was also one of the episodes where we see The Joker getting killed off.
Sean: (V/O) Yeah, for a kid's show, he sure does get killed off a lot.
(Cut to a montage of clips featuring The Joker getting killed in the episode "The Laughing Fish", falling from a rollercoaster into the water in the episode "Be a Clown", then we see him getting killed in a vengeful rage by the Phantasm in "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" . Next, we see him getting killed in a fiery explosion in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "World's Finest Part III", then we see Batman uppercutting him into a smokestack)
"And yet, he cheats death every time. Well, except for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, but we'll get to that one later." Sean said.
"And so, the show premiered on Saturday September 5th, 1992 and the first episode that premiered on that date was The Cat and the Claw Part I, which is funny because the first episode of the series to be produced was On Leather Wings…." Eric said.
Eric: (V/O) …this was the second episode to air on the next day after The Cat and the Claw Part I. And we aired the episode Sunday night primetime. Which is funny because on the volume one DVD set, On Leather Wings was the first episode on Disc One and The Cat and the Claw was on Disc Three.
Sean: (V/O) Wait, so the show also aired on Sunday nights?
Bruce: (V/O) Yeah, Fox wanted us to air the show on Sunday nights as well. Not only that kids watch it on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons, adults watched the show on Sunday night. So, Fox did a couple of promos to promote the show on primetime.
(A promo for Batman: The Animated Series is shown)
Announcer: (V/O) In the shadows of Gotham City, there is good…
Batman: Going somewhere?
Announcer: (V/O) …and there is evil…
(The Joker laughs)
Announcer: (V/O) …and the struggle between them.
Batman: Now it's payback time.
Announcer: (V/O) …is eternal. Sunday nights, primetime begins at 7/6 central with Batman: The Animated Series.
Bruce: (V/O) The show aired Sunday nights from late December of '92 to early March of '93. Which is pretty unusual for an animated show for children. I know that Tiny Toon Adventures had a couple of primetime specials and those were Night Ghoulery and the Spring Break special.
(Eric laughs)
Bruce: (V/O) I've never thought that our show would be shown on Sunday nights as well, which will bring in more viewers. And then after we stopped showing the show on Sunday nights, we went back to showing it on Saturday mornings and on weekday afternoons. But when we showed it on Sunday nights for a while, the show's been getting excellent reviews from critics.
(Footage from X-Men is shown)
Sean: (V/O) Now, this show aired the same year as X-Men, which is another great show that I will be talking about later and it's also one of my favorites aside from BTAS. Was there any competition between Batman and X-Men?
(Bruce laughs)
Eric: (V/O) There was no competition, but only friendly, playful competition. With Batman, we had more time and development and we were tapping into themes and ideas. X-Men was also tapping into similar themes and ideas. Also, Alan Burnett was also friends with Eric Lewald and he worked with him on The Disney Afternoon. We knew what they were doing when they were working on X-Men. We motivated them because they saw early footage of Batman before they got started on the X-Men show.
Bruce: (V/O) And we had a budget and beautiful art and they didn't have the budget to compete with that but they made the shows twice as fast paced.
Sean: (V/O) Later on, when the show aired for their last season on Kids WB, the show went through several changes.
Bruce: (V/O) Yeah, the show had the same animation style as Superman: The Animated Series, another show that aired on Kids WB. We made some redesigns on several characters while some looked the same and there were some changes that some people didn't care for, like the changes that we made for The Joker. A lot of fans didn't care for that change.
"No wonder you guys never talked about his redesign, you guys are getting sick and tired of hearing fans complaining to you about it." Sean said as Bruce and Eric both laughed.
Sean: (V/O) This show has a lot of excellent episodes and a couple of episodes that are real game-changers, can you name some of your favorite episodes?
Eric: (V/O) Well, we have the episode "Heart of Ice", which is the first appearance of Mr. Freeze. Paul Dini wrote the episode and Bruce directed it. This was the episode that helped made this show iconic. In the comics and in the Adam West TV series, Mr. Freeze was a complete laughing stock, but all that changed when we made him into this tragic villain.
Bruce: (V/O) When we were casting the role of Mr. Freeze, I've first thought of Anthony Hopkins and Anthony Zerbe to play Mr. Freeze, but then I've thought of Michael Ansara to voice Mr. Freeze. Michael and I clashed a bit because he wanted the character to sound like a robot, without showing any emotion. Michael said that this would make the character sound flat. But eventually found the right voice for the character.
Mr. Freeze (Voiced by Michael Ansara): You… beg? In my nightmares I see my Nora behind the glass, begging to me with frozen eyes. How I've longed to see that look frozen on you.
Eric: (V/O) We gave Freeze a tragic backstory. It was very different and much darker because in this version, Freeze was originally a scientist who was trying to find a cure for his ill wife Nora, who he has cryogenically frozen to save her until he goes over budget and his boss tries to shut the experiment down.
Ferris Boyle (Also voiced by Mark Hamill): Victor… I'm sorry… I lost my temper. It doesn't have to come to this. We can talk!
(Fries calms down and Boyle kicks him into a batch of chemicals. Victor screams in pain as the chemicals destroy his bloodstream)
Ferris Boyle: (To the guards) Get out. Get out!
Dr. Victor Fries: (Clings onto the freezing chamber) Nora! NORA!
Eric: (V/O) Which is why you see him in the freeze suit and where his cold outlook on the world originates.
Sean: (V/O) Man, I just love Freeze's backstory, that every media in Batman uses it like the comics, the graphic novels, the TV shows and even the video games. And forgive me if I mention this one, even the movie Batman & Robin uses it. I cannot believe that I mentioned that damn movie. No wonder why this episode won a Daytime Emmy Award, it's that damn good.
Bruce: (V/O) We also worked on the episode Two-Face, which Randy Rogel and Alan Burnett wrote and we get an origin story of the villain Two-Face and before he became Two-Face, he was District Attorney Harvey Dent, who appeared in the episodes "On Leather Wings" and "Pretty Poison". There's also an episode that Randy Rogel worked on was the two-part episode "Robin's Reckoning", where we get an origin story of Robin which it shows flashbacks of him when he was young and him witnessing the death of his parents and Robin wanting to get revenge on the man who killed them. It was a pretty powerful episode and it's one of the best episodes of the show.
"Let's not forget about the episode "Beware the Gray Ghost", which was an episode that was written by Dennis O'Flatherty, Garin Wolf and Tom Ruegger." Bruce said.
Bruce: (V/O) This is the one where Batman must solve the mysterious bombings that are mimicking from an old TV show that he watched when he was young called "The Gray Ghost". And Batman teams up with the show's washed-up star named Simon Trent, and he's voiced by Adam West, the original Batman from the 1960s. We've got a lot of positive reviews from critics who saw the episode because you have two Batmans for the price of one. Oh, and I play the villain in the episode. (Laughs)
Sean: (V/O) Now, this show has become one of the greatest animated shows of all time and it still is till this day, it had an impact on us all. It certainly made an impact on me. I've watched this show when I was young and I'm now 30, I still watch it and talk about it till this very day with my friends. I've introduced this show to my girlfriend and we watch it together. This is a ashow that I want to show my kid. I know I don't have any children, but I will someday. It also spawned one of my favorite animated Batman films of all time. Have you guys looked back and think about what an awesome job that you've done.
"Oh, yeah." Bruce said.
"Yes, definitely. " Eric said.
"This show made an impact on people and it was a serious game changer. Fans talk about it and they also talk about their favorite episodes that they watch. We've delivered serious storyline and dark, Gothic animation and we did an excellent job of it." Bruce said.
"If you're new to Batman: The Animated Series, then check out this groundbreaking series on HBO Max. I would just like to thank Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski for making a great series that I grew up watching." Sean said.
"You're welcome." Eric said.
"Thank you for having us here and thank you for being a huge fan." Bruce said.
"Anyway, that's all the time that we have for today. I'm Sean the Mayhem Critic and guess what? October's coming and you know what that means… HALLOWEEN HAVOC IS COMING!" Sean yelled out before doing an evil laugh.
Mayhem Critic Tagline- Yes, well this is all tremendously boring.
And that is all for the newest chapter of The Mayhem Critic. I hope that you all enjoyed it. Also, me and my girlfriend Myca went to the Cincinnati Comic Expo which started last Friday. We went there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And speaking of Batman: The Animated Series, I got a chance to meet some of the cast members from the show like John Glover, he is so much fun to talk to, Diane Pershing, Loren Lester and Adrienne Barbeau and she is amazing. She even autographed my Escape from New York poster and it is one of my favorite John Carpenter movies. And they even autographed my Batman: The Animated Series poster. Sadly, Kevin Conroy didn't come to the Comic Expo because he was sick. Aside from the BTAS cast, there were other actors who we met and we got our pictures taken with them like Tom Arnold, Logan Kim from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Lurch from The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, John Noble, Jack Dylan Grazer, Mike McFarland, Robbie Daymond and even Cara Buono from Stranger Things, she is such a sweetheart. But the biggest highlight of the day and believe it or not you're all gonna love me for this, I met Christopher Lloyd and we got our picture taken with him! Until my mom decided to embarrass me in front of Christopher Lloyd and he was cracking up. The look on my face was priceless. Yesterday was the last day and Myca wanted to get her picture taken with Richard Dreyfuss, but he was about to leave. Sadly, we didn't get our picture taken with him. But hey, I met Robert Watts, he was one of the producers of the original Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies. He was also the producer of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of my favorite movies of all time. All and all, I had a fun week. Anyway, next time on The Mayhem Critic, it's the start of October and it's the return of Halloween Havoc! Sean kicks off Halloween Havoc V when he talks about The Silence of the Lambs to see how well it holds up. After the review of The Silence of the Lambs, I will be reviewing Misery. If you want to help me out with the Silence of the Lambs review, feel free to PM me if you're interested. Feel free to review this story, add it to your favorites and follow it for future updates. I'll see you guys next time. Till next time, my fellow readers.