The UK newspaper The Guardian’s newsblog has a nice appreciation of Frank Gorshin, the impressionist and comic actor who played the Riddler (or at least the first one) on the “Batman” TV show in the 1960s. Here’s a more straightforward obit for Gorshin, who died earlier this week.

Even as a kid I could tell that the fatuous Batman played on the screen by Adam West had only the dimmest connection to the dark knight I had admired in the comics. The real stars of the show, on the occasions when it was worth watching, were the villains. And Gorshin’s Riddler, together with Burgess Meredith’s brilliantly realized Penguin, and Julie Newmar’s impossibly sexy Catwoman, represented the cream of the crop.

Cesar Romero’s Joker was never terribly interesting as a TV villain, even though the Joker was the quintessential Batman foe in the comics. My theory for this? Gorshin’s wild, manic laugh as the Riddler was so distinctive that it kept Romero from using the same gimmick, even though in the comics the Joker’s haunting laugh was one of his trademarks. The TV Joker was bland — it was the TV Riddler who had the real anarchic presence.

By the way, check out the lovely Wikipedia entry on supervillains, which is my source for the handy Neal Adams pic of a laughing Joker. This isn’t exactly something you’d find in the Britannica.

—–