EPISODE NUMBERS: 29-30, Production Code 8717

PLOT SUMMARIES:

The Bookworm Turns:
In order to lure Batman and Robin to Police Headquarters, The Bookworm, a nororious master of stolen book plots, stages a phony assassination attempt on Commissioner Gordon during the dedication ceremony of the new Amergio Bridge. Once The Dynamic Duo enter Police HQ, Bookworm has his moll Lydia Limpet planting a book bomb in The Batmobile. After discovering that Gordon is very much not dead (he was ticketed for overtime parking while leaving a luncheon), The Batman is alerted by The Batmobile Bomb Detector of an impending explosion and immediately pushes The Batmobile's Radiocontrolled Ejector Button, the bomb is ejected and it explodes in midair before it does any damage! The Duo quickly return to their unharmed Batmobile to discover a literary clue in the form of the book bomb's cover. They race back to The Batcave, where they deduce from the book cover that Bookworm is planning to blow up the new bridge. The "blow-up," however, is a photographic ruse: Bookworm projects a large image of the bridge onto a warehouse wall!

Our momentarily befuddled crimefighters trace the projection back to a giant projector mounted on top of a nearby bookmobile, where they get into a fracas with Bookworm's henchmen. The crooks escape along with their craven leader, but they leave the lovely Miss Limpet bound and gagged inside the bookmobile. The Dynamic Duo wisely suspect a Bookworm plot, and they knock her out with Batgas and spirit her away back to The Batcave, where they employ the use of The Hypermetric Lie-Detector in hopes of divining The Bookworm's plot. They learn what they can from Lydia, and they return her to the bookmobile, where Batman activates a Battrap for Bookworm. Leaving The Boy Wonder behind to guard her, The Batman pretends to speed off on the trail of Lydia's fatally false clues. In his absence, Lydia uses a trick book to gas Robin to sleep and she contacts Bookworm, who, along with his henchmen Printer's Devil, Typesetter, and Pressman, transfer Robin to The Wayne Memorial Clock Tower, erected in memory of Dr. Thomas Wayne, Bruce's late father (oh, the treacherous irony!), where The Boy Wonder is strapped to the clapper of the giant bell of Big Benjamin. When the clock strikes @ midnight, the bell will begin to toll the hour. The Bookworm departs, leaving Robin to be "rung" out!

While Gotham City Burns:
Recalling one of Lydia's cryptic remarks ("He strikes at midnight," she said) Batman divines the meaning, and, with Chief O'Hara (whom he met on the way), races to Big Benjamin to attempt to stop the clock and save Robin before it's too late. O'Hara fails to shoot out the clockworks, and, with but a minute to spare until 12 midnight, The Caped Crusader uses The Batzooka to shoot a line to the lightning rod on top of the clock tower and the second to the clock's hands; he then connects the ends of both lines to The Batmobile's nuclear power source into the positive terminal, in hopes of positively charging the clapper and the bell and thus repel each other! Just as Benjamin's clapper is about to strike, Batman's plan is successful, and Robin is saved. After the rescue, The Peerless Pair repair to The Batcave, where they research their foe's methods. Simultaneously, Bookworm is upstairs in Wayne Manor pilfering a rare alchemical text from Bruce's library; he then arranges for a giant-sized cookbook (the name of it is called The Delight Of Cooking by Suzan Barrie) to appear in the middle of 5th and Cedar streets in downtown Gotham. The Dynamic Duo race to the scene, open the book with a super-powered magnet from The Batmobile (actually, Bookworm and Lydia opened it, with a remote control), enter the book, find a small kitchen inside, and soon find themselves trapped inside the armor-plated book as scalding hot steam is pumped in!!

Bookworm and Lydia see this as a chance to swipe The Batmobile, and they drive it to the rear of The Morganbilt Library, where he plans to use its Batbeam, to break into The Library and snatch all of the rare and priceless books stored within. As Chief O'Hara, Commissioner Gordon, and a group of Gotham's Finest attempt to open the giant cookbook, The Caped Crusader contacts Alfred at The Batcave and, with his help, locates the manhole under the book which Bookworm introduced his murderous steampipe! It is here that The Dynamic Duo make their escape, just as the police finally blast open the book to find it empty, and deduce The Duo had been consumed by the steam. Meanwhile, a very much un-steamed Batman and Robin pick up The Bookworm's conversation in The Batmobile by way of a concealed microphone; it's then relayed to them via an automatic feedback circuit in their Batcave, and they head for The Morganbilt Library, where they eventually subdue The Pernicious Plagiarist and his bookish crew at the library, saving Gotham City yet again. Bookworm and Lydia are taken to Police HQ for Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to see in person before being hauled off to the pokey.

WRITTEN BY: Rik Vollaerts

DIRECTED BY: Larry Peerce

CAST:
Byron Keith (Mayor Lindseed)
Roddy McDowall (The Bookworm)
Jim O'Hara (Sergeant)
Tony Aiello (Pressman)
John Crawford (Printer's Devil)
Jan Peters (Typesetter)
Francine York (Lydia Limpet)

INTERESTING NOTES:
- The outside shot of the Wayne Memorial Clock Tower is actually Big Ben (London) at night.

- Ironically, these epsiodes appeared during National Library Week.

- Jerry Lewis was the first cameo Gothamite in this episode during a Batclimb ("Holy Human Flies!").

- Before bringing Lydia Limpet to The Batcave, The Caped Crusader, for the first time, makes use of a can of Batgas. The can of Batawake won't be used until Episode #8731-Pt. 2, "The Riddler's False Notion - For the scene of Robin strapped to the clapper of Big Benjamin, the giant bell in the Wayne Memorial Clock Tower, art director Serge Krizman recalled building a belfry well set that was 40-feet high. "I couldn't find a bronze bell that was eight-feet high so it had to be made all out of plastics," said Krizman. Cinematographer Howie Schwartz had to resort to a 9.5mm wide-angle lens to get it all in.

- It was often stated that Joan Crawford played The Printer's Devil in these episodes; however, this occured due to a goof by one book which misspelled actor John Crawford's name, and many TV trivia and info books have since used this particular volume for reference without even questioning its error!

- The late Roddy McDowall (The Bookworm) would become known for his role of Dr. Cornelius in Planet Of The Apes (20th Century-Fox, 1968). He later provided the voice of Jervis Tetch, The Mad Hatter, in several episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.