EPISODE NUMBERS: 81-82, Production Code N/A

PLOT SUMMARIES:

The Joker's Last Laugh:
When a rash of counterfeit money is discovered emanating from Gotham City Bank, The Caped Crusader and The Boy Wonder are summoned to investigate. At Police HQ, they discover that The Joker has planted a tiny loudspeaker on Commissioner Gordon's cufflinks which was the source of a constant broadcast of hideous laughter that seemed to echo in Gordon's ears and had been driving him and Chief O'Hara up the wall. Believing The Harlequin Of Homicidal Humor is behind the phony tender at the bank, The Dynamic Duo rush to the scene. There at the bank, it is discovered that the bank's chief teller has been replaced by Mr. Glee, a Joker-controlled robot. The Batman and Robin disables the robot and takes him to The Batcave, and Joker and his moll, Josie Miller, is able to divine the Batcave's location with the robot's built-in homing device, and they give pursuit in The Jokemobile! However, Batman has anticipated this and uses a tracking signal Batdeflector to lead The Joker to a fake Batcave!

Back in The Batcave, The Caped Crusader traces The Clown Prince Of Crime to his new hideout: at the offices of Penthouse Comic-Book Publishers. In order to prove Joker is printing illegal tender, Robin attempts a break-in, while Bruce Wayne pretends to be a broken man from embezzling some of the bank's money, and his only way out is to ingratiate himself with Joker. If The Joker would agree to print some of his funny money, Bruce would return the favor by making him Vice President of The Gotham National Bank. Joker quickly, and gleefully, agrees, but just as he is about to print the corrupt cash, The Boy Wonder appears and does battle with Boff and Yock, two of Joker's other robots. Bruce joins in briefly, but Robin is nevertheless quickly subdued and winds up strapped to a giant printing press Joker uses to manufacture comic books. Just to make sure that Bruce doesn't try to pull a fast one, he orders Boff and Yock to force him to throw the lever that activates the press and turn Robin into a human-sized comic book...

The Joker's Epitaph :
Just as it looks like The Boy Wonder is about to become a permanent part of next week's comic issue, the faithful Alfred, disguised as The Batman, Batclimbs to The Joker's hideout, enters the window, arrives just in time to gas the bad guys and release Robin. Joker, however, escapes with his minions and a document signed by Bruce that names The Joker bank vice president! The next time Batman and Robin pay a visit to the bank, they discover that Joker, employing the alias "W.C. Whiteface," has hired his moll and gang as bank employees. Unable to take legal action, The Duo return to Wayne Manor. There, as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, they meet with Joker and Josie, who now proceeds to attempt to perpetrate an intricate blackmail scheme on Bruce with a secret tape recording of his demand for counterfeit cash! In exchange for the tape, Bruce must turn over the corpses of The Dynamic Duo. He refuses and Joker then orders Bruce to marry Josie with an initial $3 million marriage settlement! Bruce can't figure out how to foil the scheme without revealing his secret identity, so he, with Dick, seeks an alternate way out. Back in The Batcave, Batman and Robin hatch a Batscheme to use The Joker's own robots against him. While The Boy Wonder rigs the robots, Bruce Wayne is summoned upstairs where he is apprehended. Believing Bruce was not in his right mind when he appointed Joker to the position of bank VP, Gordon calls in a specialist named Dr. Floyd, who arranges for Bruce to be declared legally insane and put away for his own good! Wayne is then apprehended by Chief O'Hara and The AntiLunatic Squad.

Alfred quickly heads to The Batcave to relay this info to Robin, and, after giving Boff, Yock and Mr. Glee their final instructions, Robin and Alfred speed off by Batmobile to rescue Bruce. Locating the van, they blast open its doors with The Batray and use the superpowered Batmagnet to attract the metal buckles of Bruce's straitjacket to yank him from the speeding van, and he rolls with the fall to escape harm. Bruse switches back to Batman with a spare Batsuit, and The Dynamic Duo race the remaining mile to the bank, arriving just in time to witness the robots in action. Mr. Glee identifies Josie as his long-lost wife, and The Caped Crusader accuses The Joker of aiding and abetting bigamy! Just then, Boff and Yock, the robot tellers, start holding up the customers as per Batman's instructions. Realizing something has gone awry, The Joker pulls out his robot control device and reprogram Boff and Yock to seize The Dynamic Duo. Batman and Robin, knowing that Joker has hoisted himself on his own petard, use the opportunity to pin an attempted murder charge on The Fiendish Funnyman once they have quickly dispatched the mechanical malefactors. Later, Dr. Floyd pronounces that Bruce's fall from the van has restored his sanity, and Bruce receives a clean bill of health.

WRITTEN BY: Peter Rabe, Lorenzo Semple Jr.

DIRECTED BY: Oscar Rudolph

CAST:
Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet Cooper)
William Dozier (Narrator)
Adam West (Bruce N. Wayne/Batman)
Burt Ward (Richard "Dick" Grayson/Robin: The Boy Wonder)
Alan Napier (Alfred Pennyworth)
Stafford Repp (Chief O'Hara)
Neil Hamilton (I) (Commissioner James W. Gordon)
Cesar Romero (The Joker)
Oscar Beregi (Dr. Floyd)
Ed Deemer (Yock)
Clint Ritchi (Boff)
Hollie Haze (Miranda Fleece)
J. Edward McKinley (Mr. Flamm)
Lawrence Montaigne (Mr. Glee)
Phyllis Douglas (Josie Miller)
Clint Ritchie (Boff)

INTERESTING NOTES:
- This is the first appearance of the infamous Jokemobile.

SCREEN GRABS FROM EPISODE 1

SCREEN GRABS FROM EPISODE 2

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