Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Batfink


BATFINK is coming! To DVD that is! In July, the complete 1967 series is being released on DVD. For many years, BATFINK was my cartoon Holy Grail. As a child, I saw it regularly listed in TV GUIDE but on a channel we couldn't get! The title and the fact that it was identified as a cartoon made it obvious that it was a BATMAN parody and I was all things BATMAN at that time. I longed to see this show! I drew ( long lost) pictures of what I thought the character would look like and patiently scoured each week's listings to see when my local channels would pick it up. This never happened. I may even have written to them but I'm not sure. Every once in awhile, when atmospheric conditions were just right, I could aaaaallmost pick up that out of town station and once--just once--I saw BATFINK!! If, that is, you can say it was seeing BATFINK when all I could make out were ultra-grainy images and all I could hear was the ocassional fading in and out appearance of the title character's heroic voice.


That voice, I would find out much later, was provided by a multi-talented man named Frank Buxton. Buxton is the co-author of the seminal Old-Time Radio book, THE BIG BROADCAST. As an award-winning writer/producer/actor/director, he has worked with Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Jonathan Winters and even fellow blogger Mark Evanier on an episode of his GARFIELD AND FRIENDS. For more on Frank Buxton, here's a link to a Mark Evanier piece:news from me - ARCHIVES


With the coming of cable, BATFINK finally surfaced on a channel I could get only about twenty or so years after I had obsessed over it. It was worth the wait. Like many limited animation cartoons of the sixties, Hal Seeger's BATFINK made up for its shortcomings with some genuinely amusing super-hero parodies and funny voice acting. I watched it regularly and was able to introduce my son to it. Check out this episode I found online this morning PistolWimp - Batfink: Hugo The Crimefighter. Then check out this cool BATFINK site: Batfink. Me, I'm gonna see if I can get somebody to send me a review copy of that upcoming DVD set!

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