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My favorite non-comic book Bat-villain may be King Tut. Always been a Victor Buono fan. Tut's right-hand gals always had neat names, too (Nefertiti, Cleo Patrick, and Florence of Arabia come to mind).

Another fun non-comic book villain was The Archer.
Art Carney had some nifty verbal exchanges with Barbara Nichols (Maid Marilyn).

(Carney) "Oh, Marilyn, if only thou would'st learn proper English. We could'st make such beautiful speeches together.

(Nichols) "Aww, come off it Awwwwcha. Everybody knows we was born in the same neighbuhood."

(Carney) "Be silent, wench."

Burgess Meridith as Penguin may be my favorite overall Bat-villain of the moment, but Gorshin, Romero, and Newmar rounded out the "big four" beautifully.

I loved it when Alfred had to BE Batman and no one ever thought any different! That was a scream!

When I first met Alan "Alfred Pennyworth" Napier we laughed a lot about that. Our friendship lasted 9 years... and my favorite villian was truly THE JOKER and for villianesses both Newmar and Kitt filled that bill for me. Lee Meriweather wasn't purrrfect enough for me.

I had part of the Sci-Fi Bat-Marathon on yesterday while I did other things, but caught part of the Joker/Penguin three-parter (Romero: "Ah, Boy Wonder, what a succulent hors d'oeuvre you should make," as he prepares to feed Robin to the giant clam.). And there was the two-parter where the Penguin ran for mayor (a plot used in BATMAN RETURNS). Much more fun here, though, as Pengy (Burgess Meredith) threatens his pollsters over the outcome of the election ("You'll be taking random samples of RIVER water,
...from the BOTTOM.")

While Newmar edges out the other Catwomen, I enjoyed them all. Kitt seemed more an adversary for Batgirl (same height and all), though I did enjoy Kitt's mannerisms and speech. The towering Newmar could have probably flicked Batgirl away with one claw.

The TV version of the Mad Hatter WAS truer to the 50's & 60's comic book version, right down to the red hair and handlebar mustache. David Wayne gave him a memorably frantic personality. A fun characterization.

In the 80's the Batman comic books revised the Hatter as an even more deadly psychotic, less interested in hats than with messing with the heads UNDER them. Actually, this was the ORIGINAL Hatter from the FORTIES, who came back and claimed to have "disposed of the imposter." In a continuity flub, the SECOND Hatter came back in at least one story. The ANIMATED version seems to be a brooding combination of BOTH comic book Hatters. I much prefer the one on which the TV show Hatter was based.

A bit of TV bat-trivia. Norma Varden appeared in the first Mad Hatter two-parter as a hat store customer as she did about ten years earlier in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.
And I may be wrong, but now that I think of it, did she play Hattie Hatfield in the OTHER Mad Hatter two-parter?

I only know that BOTH Hatters went by the name Jervis Tetch. Must have been part of a thorough impersonation on the part of the SECOND. Or just a snappy name he could'nt resist. OR an astounding COINCIDENCE! OR one of those Earth-One/Earth-Two deals. A guy could wind up in ARKHAM trying to figure it out.

<<KING TUT(the underrated & missed VICTOR BUONO)>>

According to the sci-fi channel (in one of their pop-up factoids) King Tut was the only NON-comic book Bat-Villain that really caught on with audiences. While I think many of the other stars brought something to their roles, Tut's a favorite of mine, too. Coincidently, I was just talking to someone whose father was one of Victor Buono's teachers in San Diego. They also saw Victor perform Shakespeare in the park. Buono had a theatricality that made him larger than life, but he could also make you care, such as when Tut would revert back to the kindly Yale professor.
I enjoyed Buono in about any role, and I miss the guy.

A couple other Bat-facts I tumbled to:

Suzanne Pleshette was offered the role of Catwoman for the TV show, but negotiations broke down. I can picture her in the part, though.

And Julie Newmar had apparently never heard of BATMAN when she was offered the Catwoman role.

I rather thought Gorshin's Riddler was very one-dimensional in the series, fun, but always had that feeling of Deja Vu when his episodes were on. Maybe it was because at the time Gorshin wasn't exactly a world-famous film star. Unlike Romero, Meredith, Price and others. The "unknown" guest stars to me at the time also included Walter Slezak, Malachi Throne and Roger C Carmel