Episode 47: Holy Wernher von Braun!: July 3, 2022

The Greatest Mother of Them All
October 5, 1966
"Ma Parker and her delinquent children are pulling off a crime wave in Gotham City. Batman and Robin round up the gang one by one, but when the arrests seem all too easy, the Dynamic Duo suspect something else more sinister may be up."
66 minutes

RD: Not One of Ma's Boys. Mama Deal wouldn't approve. 

Vince was happy seeing Shelley Winters, "she was quite a handsome woman." RD thought she was married to Jonathan Winters. Vince also liked West's performance. RD wondered if Roddy "Bookworm" McDowall was better with her on The Poseidon Adventure. The two argue on the worth of Titanic.

Narrator: "Another dazzling day in Gotham City, a metropolis which prides itself on family fidelity, paternal devotion, and most particularly, its annual "Mother of the Year" presentation."

Instead of having a victory speech, winner Ma Parker has a Tommy gun and her three Boys Mad dog, Machine Gun, and Pretty Boy. Of course they are all named after 1930's public enemy criminals. 

She also has her girl Legs. Vince doesn't think they should use the word 'girl' for some reason. Like me RD always calls everyone kid. Vince calls everyone man when he doesn't call them bro. 

Gordon laments in his office that Parker's in town rather than doing his job (of calling the Duo to do his job). (:11) O'Hara compliments the police on keeping her away for so long. Gordon laughs out loud as he reminds him who the police chief is: "Batman & Robin, they are the one she fears!"

Alfred picks up the phone as Bruce is teaching Greek to Dick: "It's still Greek to me!" Vince wonders why Alfred doesn't have a secret hand sign for the Batphone. RD has a suggestion for it. Bruce suggests paying "Greek scholar of note" Gordon a visit. 

In the office Batman is vividly ecstatic on facing Ma Parker for the first time. Screw that Joker joker, she's his true archnemesis! (:17) RD wonders how an infamous criminal would then win mother of the year. Gordon: "She's crafty, Batman, she's clever, but most of all, she's motherly. " Batman also warns to be wary of Legs. 

Gordon then gets a call that the police have already surrounded Parker's hideout.
Robin: "Holy rocking chair!"
Batman: "Come on, Robin. Let's help a little old lady across the street...and into the penitentiary!"

Of course Ma and the family were just having dinner in a normal looking home. The kids squabble, and Mad Dog hits Legs with a grapefruit like he's James Cagney in The Public Enemy (which was actually an improvised joke that gained a life of its own for the two actors).

Parker decides to knit by readying her Tommy gun. On Monday nights Mrs. Deal always goes knitting in her club while RD subjects himself to watching Raw. Both police and Parker's are bad shots as the Duo show up, causing the kids to duck and cover. Ma Parker: "You nincompoops!" 

The Duo climb up two storeys without encountering any celebrities and meet an equally excited Parker with a gun, that Batman disarms with a tiny magnet on a thread. Cue fight while Hee-Haw plays in the background. Pretty Boy gets cut. Robin: "It's only ketchup. A bottle fell on him." The Duo take a saddened Ma outside while Batman pets her on the back. Of course she then escapes with a smoke bomb, leaving one of the Boys to be captured.

Batman: "I would have had them all if I didn't let my honest emotions run astray!" 

In the Batcave he programs the Batcomputer to predict criminal movement like they did (off-screen) against the Archer. (:26) RD mixes him up with Mr. Minstrel Man

This leads the Duo to the group robbing the Bijou Theater during a showing of The Woman in Red, which proved fatal to John Dillinger. Parker tries to catch a truck.
Ma Parker: "Sonny, would you give a poor old lady a lift?"
Truck Driver: "Beat it, Granny!"
Ma Parker: [drawing her Tommy gun] "Is that any way to talk to your elders?"
They escape as the Duo arrive, leaving one of the Boys to be captured. Batman then gives a bumper sticker to one of the bystanders for some reason. 

The Duo then track the group robbing a drugstore and collecting money (for trading stamps) in a fishbowl. They escape as the Duo arrive, leaving one of the Boys to be captured.The customers all clap before they just walk away. 

Batman: "Remember what Commissioner Gordon said: Ma Parker's girl is more dangerous than her three boys."
Robin: "Hmmm. Her legs sort of reminded me of Catwoman's."
Batman: "You're growing up, Robin. Remember, in crime-fighting, always keep your sights raised."

It's back to the Batcomputer again for more criminal analysis.
Batman: "She has to be someplace, and someplace in Gotham City where she can more or less melt into the background."
Robin: "Holy camouflage!"
Batman: "Exactly."
Robin: "Women can go anywhere now! Look at Aunt Harriet, the way she gets around!

They go to the Gotham City Old Folks' Home and show a nurse a picture of Parker, who says she's an invalid named Mrs. Smith. (:39) She appears with Legs as her nurse and shoots out in a rocket powered wheelchair straight into a wall.
Robin: "Holy Wernher von Braun! Look at that wheelchair go!"

The family are all gathered in Gotham Penitentiary, with Leg's prison numbers being size measurements of 35-23-34, as Warden Crichton again tries to rehabilitate his wards. (He really needs to work in today's Arkham Asylum trying to do the same thing with predictable results.) Satisfied with a job well done, the Duos both Dynamic and Undynamic leave, allowing Crichton to be captured instead. This was her plan all along you see, to control the prison and its guards with all the criminals already in one place. 

One guard even plants a car bomb on the Batmobile. Vince saddens RD by not knowing Cheatum who tried to put a bomb on a boat. RD plans to get Vince with him to get more into the mysteries of Cheatum since Blade is too dead to help out. The guard tries to goad Batman to drive it super-fast, to ensure the bomb explodes when it hits 60 mph. Batman has their stunt doubles drive for them. RD questions if Batman will break the 55 speed limit. 

The Bros found this episode much easier to watch than the last one.

Vince bets the Joker will cameo in the next episode. 

In Vince's nearby toy store no one has bought the Shame figure. He once had a '66 Viewmaster with Catwoman. 

RD found a golf arcade game that was originally a Simpsons game. I'm guessing it probably wasn't Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge.

Vince always laughs at Tony Khan deep hugging everybody. RD: "I think drugs are a terrible thing." He is bitter he hasn't yet been hugged (or given money).


  • Special Guest Villain: Ma Parker (Shelley Winters)


  • SPEAKING OFs: 3. Legendary, breathing, knitting

No comments: