Batman: The Greatest Mother of Them All & Ma Parker

The Greatest Mother of Them All

"Her legs remind me of Catwoman."

"Yu're growing up, Robin..."

After this second season has given us a few stories of varying quality we suddenly get this wonderful work of genius. This is certainly the wittiest, most original and enjoyable script yet, and a real highlight of the series, with Shelley Winters having infectious fun as the mother of a gang of notorious hillbillies who have come to Gotham.

Ma Parker gets a splendid introduction- winning an award for mother of the year and announcing "This is a stick up!" while receiving her award, robbing all the other ladies including one who protests at being called fat. And this story dispenses completely with the usual storytelling formula, showing us a group of baddies who, cleverly, want to be captured and put into prison for their own nefarious purposes. But it's all such fun.

I love the first scene with Bruce and Dick, as the surprisingly learned Aunt Harriet puts Dick through his Ancient Greek grammar. Also wonderful is Ma Parker insisting that her "boys" at their meal properly as their hideout is surrounded. We even have a rocket powered wheelchair. But the climax is clever and unusual; Mar Parker and her "boys" are caught suspiciously easy, but over months they've planned to take over the prison, a perfect base of operations for crime. and as for Batman and Robin, it's Speed, twenty-five years early...


Ma Parker

"Only forty-eight years until your next parole."

"Gee, I never thought of that. In forty-eight years, I'll be a free man!"

The above two lines alone put this episode into the annals of true greatness.But on top of this we get a cameo from Julie Newmar as Catwoman (Joker and Penguin are apparently in solitary, unable to accept Ma as top dog!). But things don't last, in spite of a suspicious inspection by a returning dynamic duo, saved from being blown to pieces by a fifty-five mph speed limit, which is perfect, as Warden Crichton- quite a regular character- ultimately spills the beans.

The Caped Crusaders nearly get a jolt from electric chairs (a tasteless item, surely?) but are saved by Morse code. This second episode has a lot o work to do and doesn't quite sparkle quite as much, but there's no doubting that this two parter is one of the finest so far.