King Tut's Coup

"King Tut's Coup" was the third outing for Victor Buono's pharaoh, who gets more outrageous with each episode. With Stanley Ralph Ross scripting the remainder of his adventures, it allows Buono even more room to ad lib in hilarious fashion, resulting in impersonations of W.C. Fields or rewriting Shakespeare. The opening is the best yet for this enormous arch villain, lecturing two students on the Yale campus, when potted plants reduce the students to kneeling servants, while the kindly professor responds: "the gang's all here!" Tut's goddess of the Nile is the aptly named Neila (Grace Lee Whitney), none too pleased to learn that her king intends to kidnap a queen, Lisa Carson (Lee Meriwether), who will attend a fancy costume ball as Cleopatra. Bruce Wayne, dressed as Julius Caesar, fails to prevent the villains from claiming their prize, resulting in Robin falling into their clutches, then Batman encased in a sarcophagus, ready to be lowered into a watery grave with little air to sustain him: "bubble, bubble, little bat at the bottom of the vat, your wings will dry and soon you'll fly to the great big belfry in the sky!" Another odd Batclimb cameo comes courtesy of Aileen Mehle, remembered during the 60s as gossip columnist Suzy Knickerbocker of "Suzy Says," usually seen on television as a game show panelist. Richard Bakalyan has a funny scene wearing a noose around his neck, which nobody had the foresight to remove, seen previously as henchman C.B. in "Death in Slow Motion"/"The Riddler's False Notion," while serving as henchmen to both Louie the Lilac (Milton Berle) and Cesar Romero's Joker during the third season. Deputy Mayor Zorty, mistaken for King Tut at the ball, is played by Tol Avery, previously tormented by Cesar Romero in "The Joker Trumps an Ace"/"Batman Sets the Pace." After her sexy turn as Catwoman in the feature film, this would be the only series appearance for Lee Meriwether, her character a prospective bride for Bruce Wayne.

Victor Buono. 'Nuff said. We kids loved this guy. He returns as the mild mannered college professor, suddenly transforming into dirty, rotten scoundral KING TUT. Tut Man wants a queen, setting his sights on beautiful Lisa (Lee Meriwether), Bruce Wayne's gal pal, all decked out at an Egyptian masquerade party. The inside joke is Meriwether was the original CATWOMAN, playing a much low key role here.

I agree with the last reviewer, the one-liners and gags keep on coming. Check out Tut immitating WC Fields. A gas. Also the poor guy hanging from a noose, wanting to get free? Grace Lee Whitney (STAR TREK) plays second banana Neila, who King Tut apparently is growing tired of. Whitney, from certain angles, looks like Barbara Stuart, who appeared opposite the Puzzler. At first I thought it was her.

Two super character actors; Richard Bakalyan as Fouad and big guy Tol Avery plays the deputy mayor. Applause to the showy costumes, they rock and roll. The art and production folks did their job.

What good writing (Stanley Ralph Ross) and directing (James B. Clark) is all about. Clark lets the cam roll on these guys. Buono said in later years this was his best gig, all because he could ham it up, and still pull out a memorable performance. Most DO.

Classic final scene; Batman locked in a coffin sinking into a pool. A DEATH worse than FATE?

SEASON 2 EPISODE 53 remastered dvd box set. Collectors edition (beautiful restoration) for episodes like this. Thanks METV and CATCHY TV for the memories.

This two-parter is loaded with an incredible number of amazing comedy scenes making it some of the most amusing screen entertainment (small screen or big screen) of all time:

One: At the start of act one Batman's too sophisticated dialogue has the cop at the station confused.

Two: As B&R are climbing a building, a funny woman sticks her head out of a window.

Three: Batman encounters a partly-hanged man and forgets to un-hang him.

Four: King Tut calls Robin "Spunky".

Five: King Tut has an amusing phone conversation with a rich man.

Six: Batman has an amusing conversation with the same rich man.

Seven: Tut makes fun of Robin when Robin gets angry. Tut calls Batman "the cowled cornball".

Eight: Bruce Wayne has a funny closing scene with sexy Lee Meriwether.

On top of the comedy, we have King Tut's two thugs (a black guy, a white guy) who seem to attract more attention than most thugs in this series as these two guys just seem to react to what is going on very well.

We have Lee Meriwether proving she has a lighter side not seen in Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel.

We have Gordon mentioning his daughter...who is yet to appear in the series.

Granted, the rooftop set looks cheap, but that is the only negative in this simply outstanding two-part episode!