Batfink

Batfink is an animated television series, consisting of five-minute shorts, that first aired in September 1967. The 100-episode series was quickly created by Hal Seeger, starting in 1966, to parody the popular Batman and The Green Hornet television series which had premiered the same year.

The cartoon was produced at Hal Seeger Studios, in New York City. It was syndicated by Screen Gems and continued to air on local stations throughout the 1980s. Nickelodeon briefly aired episodes of Batfink on its Weinerville and Nick in the Afternoon series in the 1990s. In the UK, Batfink was introduced to a new audience in 2004 when it was included in a number of episodes of Dick and Dom in da Bungalow, and as of April 2006 is enjoying another repeat run on BBC Two.

Batfink's life and wings are explained in the final episode, "Batfink: This Is Your Life", in which he is shown his boyhood, and how his real wings were replaced.

Batfink was made quickly and cheaply by re-using many common scenes to the series, instead of having to re-animate almost identical scenes for each episode. Although most serial animations do this to some extent, Batfink did it more than most. Commonly repeated scenes include the intro to the initial briefings by the Chief (the TV screen buzzing into life), Batfink and Karate getting into the Battilac, the Battilac going round mountain bends, the Battilac going over a bridge, Batfink's super-sonic sonar radar and others.

Some scenes were reused every episode, some appeared sporadically and some were only repeated once or twice out during the entire series. Often, a scene would be used in more than one scenario, e.g. the Battilac going over a bridge on their way to get to a crime would also be reused during a chase scene or when they are looking all over the country for a specific item or person. Sometimes the repeated scenes would be cut short so that only sections of them could be re-used to fit the storyline more closely.

Batfink had at his disposal two main superpowers - his super-sonic sonar radar and his metallic wings. At least one of these would feature in every episode in order to help him catch the bad guy. His super-sonic sonar radar played upon his being a bat. Bats use echolocation to detect their prey and home in on it. Batfink's super-sonic sonar radar was the superpower version of this and usually took the form of the letters "BEEP" emanating from his mouth and then flying wherever he needed them to go, accompanied by a distinctive beeping noise.

The "BEEP" acted as a person, was able to see, be scared, evade capture and report back to Batfink on what it had seen. In one episode, the "BEEP" even gets beaten up after being ambushed from behind a tree. The "BEEP" also gets confused, misdirected and lost and Batfink has to rely on other means to find out what Hugo A-Go-Go has been up to.

Batfink's main defense were his metallic wings, which Batfink was able to curl around himself as a protective shield against most attacks, thereby spawning the most famous catchphrase of the show: "Your bullets cannot harm me, my wings are like a shield of steel". (He claimed in some episodes that the wings were stainless steel, but in other episodes he explicitly stated that they were NOT stainless steel.) The wings would also help Batfink fly at enormous speeds and were often used to help him escape certain death or cut through bonds when he had been captured.

Batfink's sidekick, Karate, was his backup in case his superpowers couldn't help him out of a sticky situation. Unfortunately, Karate was a bit clumsy and not the brightest sidekick but was highly trained in martial arts, most famously his Karate Chop. Usually, when Karate did help Batfink escape Hugo A-Go-Go's clutches, it was more by dumb luck than judgement and sometimes it was Karate that landed them both in a situation in the first place.

In many episodes events would come to a head with Batfink in a seemingly fatal situation. At this point the action would freeze and the narrator asked dramatically whether Batfink would survive. Then the action would continue with Batfink surviving, either through use of Deus Ex Machina or through him using his superpowers.

Cast

* Batfink (Frank Buxton) is a bat with superpowers. He uses his "super SONIC sonar radar" and metallic wings ("Your bullets cannot harm me, my wings are like a shield of steel!") to fight crime. He drives a customized car called the "Battillac" (rhymes with "Cadillac.")
*Karate (Len Maxwell) is a martial arts expert and Batfink's sidekick. He is overweight and isn't very bright but is strong enough to help Batfink out of any situation.
*The Chief (Len Maxwell) is Batfink's consultant and informs Batfink of all the latest crimes.
*Hugo A-Go-Go (Frank Buxton) is the main villain of the series, who spends his time in his laboratory creating inventions to defeat Batfink and dominate the world.
* Other villains have included Queenie Bee (with her army of bees) and Goldyunlocks (with an obsession of unlocking every lock she sees).

Episodes

# "Pink Pearl of Persia" (pilot)# "The Short Circuit Case" (pilot)# "Ebenezer The Freezer"# "The Sonic Boomer"# "Big Ears Ernie"# "Batfink on the Rocks"# "Manhole Manny"# "The Mad Movie Maker"# "Nuts of the Round Table"# "Skinny Minnie"# "Fatman Strikes Again"# "The Kitchy-Koo Kaper"# "The Dirty Sinker"# "Gluey Louie"# "Brother Goose" # "The Chocolate-Covered Diamond"# "Crime College"# "Myron the Magician"# "Brain Washday"# "M P F T B R M"# "Gloves on the Go-Go"# "Sporty Morty"# "Go Fly a Bat"# "Ringading Brothers"# "Out Out Darn Spot"# "Goo-Goo A-Go-Go"# "Crimes in Rhymes"# "Stupidman"# "A Living Doll"# "Bat Patrol"# "Dig that Crazy Mountain"# "Spin The Batfink"# "Greasy Gus"# "The Mark of Zero"# "Swami Salami"# "The Human Pretzel"# "Jumping Jewelry"# "Roz the Schnozz"# "Karate's Case" # "The Wishbone Boner"# "Hugo for Mayor"# "The Indian Taker"# "The Devilish Device"# "Goldstinger"# "The Shady Shadow"# "Party Marty"# "The Beep Bopper"# "The Super Trap"# "Bride and Doom"# "Topsy Turvy"# "The Rotten Rainmaker"# "Gypsy James"# "The Kooky Chameleon"# "Beanstalk Jack"# "The Time Stopper"# "The Kangarobot"# "Presto-Chango-Hugo" # "Curly The Cannonball"# "Robber Hood"# "Slow Down! Speed Up!"# "Sandman Sam"# "Yo-Yo A-Go-Go"# "Hugo's Hoke"# "Backwards Box"# "The Great Escapo"# "Watch My Smoke"# "Daniel Boom"# "Queenie Bee"# "The Thief from Baghdad" # "The Mean Green Midget"# "Double Double Crossers"# "The Baffling Bluffs of Hugo A-Go-Go" # "Napoleon Blownapart"# "The Atom Boom"# "Magneto the Magnificent" # "Hugo the Crimefighter"# "The Trojan Horse Thief" # "The Zap Sap"# "Unhappy Birthday"# "Buster the Ruster"# "Karate's Day Off"# "Mike the Mimic"# "Cinderobber"# "Bouncey Bouncey Batfink"# "The Bomber Bird"# "The Copycat Bat"# "Old King Cruel"# "Victor the Predictor" # "Goldyunlocks and the Three Bears"# "Jerkules"# "Hugo Here, Hugo There" # "Bowl Brummel"# "Fleiderfink"# "Blankenstein"# "Whip van Winkle"# "Tough Macduff"# "Judy Jitsu"# "Ego A-Go-Go"# "Father Time Bomb"# "Batfink: This Is Your Life"

External links

*Official UK Batfink site
*Dave Mackey's Batfink site (complete episode guide, with screenshots)
* (with links to each Batfink episode)