Batfink

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Image:Batfink.gif Batfink is an animated television series, consisting of five-minute shorts, that first aired in September 1967. The 100-episode series was quickly created by Hal Seeger, starting in 1966, to parody the popular Batman and The Green Hornet television series which had premiered the same year.

The cartoon was produced at Hal Seeger Studios, in New York City. It was syndicated by Screen Gems and continued to air on local stations throughout the 1980s. Nickelodeon briefly aired episodes of Batfink on its Weinerville and Nick in the Afternoon series in the 1990s.

Batfink's life and wings are explained in the final episode, "Batfink: This Is Your Life", in which he is shown his boyhood, and how his real wings were replaced.

Batfink was made quickly and cheaply by re-using many common scenes to the series, instead of having to re-animate almost identical scenes for each episode. Although most serial animations do this to some extent, Batfink did it more than most. Commonly repeated scenes include the intro to the initial briefings by the Chief (the TV screen buzzing into life), Batfink and Karate getting into the Battilac, the Battilac going round mountain bends, the Battilac going over a bridge, Batfink's super-sonic sonar radar and others.

Some scenes were reused every episode, some appeared sporadically and some were only repeated once or twice out during the entire series. Often, a scene would be used in more than one scenario, e.g. the Battilac going over a bridge on their way to get to a crime would also be reused during a chase scene or when they are looking all over the country for a specific item or person. Sometimes the repeated scenes would be cut short so that only sections of them could be re-used to fit the storyline more closely.

Batfink had at his disposal two main superpowers - his super-sonic sonar radar and his metallic wings. At least one of these would feature in every episode in order to help him catch the bad guy. His super-sonic sonar radar played upon his being a bat. Bats use echolocation to detect their prey and home in on it. Batfink's super-sonic sonar radar was the superpower version of this and usually took the form of the letters "BEEP" eminating from his mouth and then flying wherever he needed them to go, accompanied by a distinctive beeping noise.

The "BEEP" acted as a person, was able to see, be scared, evade capture and report back to Batfink on what it had seen. In one episode, the "BEEP" even gets beaten up after being ambushed from behind a tree. The "BEEP" also gets confused, misdirected and lost and Batfink has to rely on other means to find out what Hugo A-Go-Go has been up to.

Batfink's main defense were his metallic wings, which Batfink was able to curl around himself as a protective shield against most attacks, thereby spawning the most famous catchphrase of the show: "Your bullets cannot harm me, my wings are like a shield of steel". The wings would also help Batfink fly at enormous speeds and were often used to help him escape certain death or cut through bonds when he had been captured.

Batfink's sidekick, Karate, was his backup in case his superpowers couldn't help him out of a sticky situation. Unfortunately, Karate was a bit clumsy and not the brightest sidekick but was highly trained in martial arts, most famously his Karate Chop. Usually, when Karate did help Batfink escape Hugo A-Go-Go's clutches, it was more by dumb luck than judgement and sometimes it was Karate that landed them both in a situation in the first place.

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Cast

Batfink (Frank Buxton) is a bat with superpowers. He uses his "super SONIC sonar radar" and metallic wings ("Your bullets cannot harm me, my wings are like a shield of steel!") to fight crime. He drives a customized car called the "Battillac" (rhymes with "Cadillac.")
Karate (Len Maxwell) is a martial arts expert and Batfink's sidekick. He is overweight and isn't very bright but is strong enough to help Batfink out of any situation.
The Chief (Len Maxwell) is Batfink's consultant and informs Batfink of all the latest crimes.
Hugo A-Go-Go (Frank Buxton) is the main villain of the series, who spends his time in his laboratory creating inventions to defeat Batfink and dominate the world.
Other villains have included Queenie Bee (with her army of bees) and Goldyunlocks (with an obsession of unlocking every lock she sees).