The Clock King Gets Crowned (2) - S2-E12
Factual error: Trapped in the overturned hourglass, Batman and Robin lie flat and begin furiously digging in the sand, making the hourglass roll out the door. But to cause such rapid movement, they'd need to be applying their weight against one of the glass sides (like a hamster in a ball). Just digging in the sand wouldn't get them anywhere, at least not that quickly. (00:04:15)
Factual error: Though he's a bastion of knowledge and a member of the museum board, Bruce Wayne completely mangles Egyptian history - twice. He says that King Tut ruled in the 14th Dynasty, and that the museum's mummy was a 14th Dynasty king who ruled in 1500 BC. Wrong on both counts. Tut reigned from 1336-1349 BC. The 14th Dynasty ran from 1773-1650 BC. Wayne would have known that - and so would his well-educated colleagues, none of whom points out the error. (00:13:00 - 00:15:00)
Not Yet, He Ain't (2) - S1-E22
Factual error: When the Penguin steals the Batmobile, Batman spies on him from a tiny camera he says is hidden behind the car's fuel gauge. But the picture he and Robin are viewing has been shot from several feet away from the car, not from inside it. (00:11:15)
The Joker's Provokers (2) - S2-E22
Factual error: Tsk. After all his lectures to Robin about the importance of education, Batman should and would know better. On the chalk board, where he's written out Joker's message (dictated to him over the phone), the caped crusader mis-punctuates the phrase "a gargoyle's key" by leaving out the apostrophe. Definitely not a mistake that stickler-for-correctness Batman would make. (00:09:30)
Factual error: King Tut is said here to have been a 4th Dynasty ruler. Just as in the previous Tut episode, Egyptian history seems to have entirely escaped Batman's writers. They previously mis-identified Tut's namesake as a 14th Dynasty ruler, and this time around, guessed wrong again. In fact, Tutenkamen's brief rule was part of the 18th Dynasty. (00:03:30)
The Bat's Kow Tow (2) - S2-E30
Factual error: Batman ingeniously deduces that the sympathetic vibration needed to escape Catwoman's sound-trap is the note F-sharp above high-C. What he proceeds to hum, however, is a D, and Robin hums an E. Neither of them reaches F-sharp, but the sound chamber dutifully explodes and frees them anyway. (00:02:30)
Smack in the Middle (2) - S1-E2
Factual error: The mammoth is filled, according to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldavia, with "used postage stamps from ancient kingdom of Moldavia." Postage stamps are a 19th century invention, not something an 'ancient kingdom' would have used. (00:17:20)
He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul (2) - S1-E16
Factual error: Dick Grayson's mini-camera, which is sitting on the bar, takes several shots of the villains from impossible angles several feet away from its location. And though he conspicuously places the camera in plain view, the crooks never notice it. (00:10:40)
How to Hatch a Dinosaur (2) - S3-E9
Factual error: Gotham City's museum should brush up on its paleontology. Their sign claims the neosaurus egg is 40 million years old. A) Neosaurus lived in the early Permian period, 290 million years ago. And B) All dinosaurs were rendered extinct 65 million years ago, most likely by an asteroid strike. So 40 million years ago, there were no dinosaurs on Earth. (00:06:50)
The Penguin Declines (3) - S2-E39
Factual error: Joker, Penguin and no less than four henchmen all manage to hide in the Batmobile's trunk and leap out when it enters the Batcave. Even for Batman, this is stretching credibility more than a bit. There's no way the Batmobile's trunk could hold six adults and still close (and it was closed). Two might fit, even three in a pinch - but not six. (00:17:30)
The Foggiest Notion (2) - S3-E12
Factual error: The British curator from whom Lord Ffogg steals a collection of artifacts needs to go back to school (or someone in Batman's prop dept. does). While most of the signs are correctly spelled and punctuated ("Duchess of Desborough's Diamonds," "Her Majesty's Priceless Snuffboxes," etc.), the one marked "Lady Easterlands Jeweled Easter Eggs" is missing its requisite possessive apostrophe. (The closed captioner noticed, though, and corrected the mistake there). (00:11:15)
Fine Feathered Finks (1) - S1-E3
Factual error: The show is obviously full of cartoonish hyperboles; particularly amusing the notion that the "tempering furnace" in the back of Penguin's shop reaches 10'000° (I assume Fahrenheit), which would make it hotter than the surface of the Sun and able to melt any known metal on Earth. Bit of an overkill to temper umbrella ribs. (00:24:10)
Factual error: A fictional country is shown in this episode, with the name "Republic of Moldavia." It is portrayed as a south-eastern Asian country (the exterior shot shown was from the Thailand exhibition at the 1964 New York World Fair), but it's quite an odd choice to use as fictional name a name of a principality that historically did exist, in a completely different part of the world, where the current Moldova is.
Smack in the Middle (2) - S1-E2
Factual error: Nitrous oxide is not flammable. Not to mention, if it were, Riddler would have risked blowing everything up when he shot the gun in the room saturated with it just to give his henchmen the signal.
Factual error: When Bruce, Dick, and Aunt Harriet are looking at the globe, Bruce corrects Dick's mistake about Lima being the capitol of Ecuador and says "No, as you can see, I was right. It's the capitol of Peru." and points to the globe to show him. Based on the position of Europe facing the camera, he's actually pointing to somewhere in northern Canada. (00:02:35)
The Funny Feline Felonies (1) - S3-E16
Factual error: When Batgirl checks Batman's pulse, she states that his pulse is "three beats per minute." However, she only holds Batman's wrist for two seconds. There is no way she could have determined that pulse rate in so short a time. It is unlikely she could have detected even one heartbeat at that rate in two seconds.
The Joker's Provokers (2) - S2-E22
Factual error: During the fight to regain his box, the Joker picks up an orange colored deep well drill bit to hit Batman. First, such a device has sufficient weight that one regular man couldn't lift it easily, let alone swing it. Second, the drill bit wouldn't be lying around in the water works guard office.
Answer: It's wasn't unusual for multiple actors to play one character on this show. The villains on the TV Batman were played by guest stars, not regular cast members. George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach played the part at various times. They may simply have only wanted to play the part once or twice, or they were later tied up with other projects, making it necessary to cast someone else. Other characters, like Catwoman, were also played by more than one actress.
raywest ★