Batman TAS - The Forgotten

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Not sure how much discussion this is set to rank, but I sure as hell thought it was a fun little quip with Bruce Wayne getting amnesia.

http://sfdebris.com/videos/animation/btass1e23.php

[Wargriffin]

Its one of the more humanizing takes on Batman as being of compassion... Sadly its an aspect that has gotten drowned out in his other takes.

[kingofmadcows]

This is one of the episodes fans tend to dislike. But I think it does a pretty good job of showing what kind of person Bruce is and it helps flesh out Gotham.

It's also a very good "after school special" episode that teaches kids a lesson without being too ham handed.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Its one of the more humanizing takes on Batman as being of compassion... Sadly its an aspect that has gotten drowned out in his other takes.

Actually yeah. Watching him with his beach blonde hair and middle-of-the-road voice stuck out to me as something distinctive when I watched it a few months back.

This is one of the episodes fans tend to dislike. But I think it does a pretty good job of showing what kind of person Bruce is and it helps flesh out Gotham.

It's also a very good "after school special" episode that teaches kids a lesson without being too ham handed.

It's certainly goofballtastic with Alfred manning the batwing and that camp director biting off turkey leg chunks bone and all.

I watched this last night anticipating the review, finding myself wishing that they included the mine scene as a predator map in the Arkham games.

[Wargriffin]

This is one of the episodes fans tend to dislike.

Its a very slow feeling episode, with Batman only being in it for like 3-4 minutes at the end.

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

I like this episode, it might not be action packed or have one of the great villains, but the villain we do get is a memorable one off foe, and I'm honestly surprised Chuck didn't mention that his voice actor, George Murdock, played the God Thing in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Murdock does a good job with the role, making him cruel and unlikable and repulsive enough to keep him in your memory.

Also, the music in this one is really good.

Plus, this episode went through some trouble and had to be rewritten quite substantially, as Boss Biggis was rewritten to be more memorable, one of the original writers (Gary Greenfield) was left uncredited because they hardly used any of his original material and there was supposed to be a scene early on with Batman looking into the disappearances and finding a community of homeless families, which got axed because the Fox network didn't want to show homeless women and children.

Apparently homeless people were a touchy subject in the 90's, as I remember listening to the audio commentary for the one episode of Tales From The Crypt that got one, What's Cookin? and apparently the HBO heads asked them to rewrite a line Christoper Reeve says to Judd Nelson; "What do you know Gaston? You're homeless." to "What do you know Gaston, you're a drifter." The writer of the episode says it was one of the few times they were asked to change something, given Tales From The Crypt had gore, nudity, and swearing a-plenty, and it never made sense to him, given that the season prior they had an episode about homeless people being killed, Mournin Mess, and they didn't get any notices about that.

Also, maybe this episode's depiction of the Bat-Computer having a sense of humor inspired Beware the Batman's version of the Bat-Computer, as that delivered similar dry jokes from time to time.

[bluebydefault]

I wish they made more things like this with Batman. People tend to just focus on the dark and brooding aspect of the character. I think this is why the animated series is one of my favorite versions of the character. they took the time to develop other aspects of him. I always liked the episode babydoll where he just spent time with her at the end or the one where he helps the villains in Arkham from an abusive guard. I remember this one as a kid and liked it okay but now that I'm older I feel like I appreciate it more.

And I think episodes ( in any genre) where we have heroes defeating big world/ city destroying antagonists can be fun and exciting but the smaller episodes like this let people know the in workings of a character and that small things are important too. We can help as well without having tons of money and power. I almost wish that some of the superhero movies would take this route and make a smaller more introspective story with some of these characters. But I doubt that would happen.

[FaxModem1]

This episode is very different than a lot of episodes, due to a variety of factors. Most of the action is outside Gotham. The soundtrack is more bluegrass than orchestral. And it deals with very real issues, in an albeit cartoonish way.

Hell, we learn something about Gotham from the guy running the shelter.

Shelter guy: "I can't prove it, but people are disappearing. Transients, regulars, old faces I miss seeing. Then about a month ago, a volunteer disappeared."
Bruce: "Have you talked to the police?"
Shelter guy: "Of course, but they got their hands full. And homeless people disappearing is not big news."

Gotham is so swamped with crime that the homeless problem is being ignored by those in charge. In a later episode, we even see that a crazy guy in the sewers has enslaved an army of homeless children to act as his personal army of thieves. Gotham is writing off a part of it's population, and that's giving them negative dividends in the future. And as we see in Batman Beyond, that still applies later on.

On the positive side, we do see that Bruce is someone who donates to the shelters. He is not just the Christopher Nolan version, in that he beats up criminals, and doesn't do anything to improve their condition. He actually does seem to care, and to help. He could do more, fund the shelters and have better job programs(if he can afford two Watchtower satellite bases and a fleet of Javelins, he can afford to fund a few more homeless shelters and jobs programs). But it does give his character the rounding out that he needs. As we see in later episodes, Bruce Wayne is appealing to different companies to try and get jobs into Gotham, to give people something to do. It shows that he is trying to do what he thinks will help Gotham.

Still, with this episode, I applaud it for widening the scope of the problems Batman has to deal with.

[FaxModem1]

Plus, this episode went through some trouble and had to be rewritten quite substantially, as Boss Biggis was rewritten to be more memorable, one of the original writers (Gary Greenfield) was left uncredited because they hardly used any of his original material and there was supposed to be a scene early on with Batman looking into the disappearances and finding a community of homeless families, which got axed because the Fox network didn't want to show homeless women and children.

Apparently homeless people were a touchy subject in the 90's, as I remember listening to the audio commentary for the one episode of Tales From The Crypt that got one, What's Cookin? and apparently the HBO heads asked them to rewrite a line Christoper Reeve says to Judd Nelson; "What do you know Gaston? You're homeless." to "What do you know Gaston, you're a drifter." The writer of the episode says it was one of the few times they were asked to change something, given Tales From The Crypt had gore, nudity, and swearing a-plenty, and it never made sense to him, given that the season prior they had an episode about homeless people being killed, Mournin Mess, and they didn't get any notices about that.

That makes me wonder about Standards and Practices at the time. Why was that something that had to be written out?

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

That makes me wonder about Standards and Practices at the time. Why was that something that had to be written out?

BS&P at the time were... weird.

The crew behind Batman TAS wanted to do a two part episode called 'In Darkest Night' where Batman went up against the vampiress villain from the comics, Nocturna (the episode would have been a loose adaptation of her storyline) and would involve Batman being bitten and turning into a vampire, and craving blood. Apparently when they mentioned the word Vampire to Fox they instantly said no. They tried to get around it, but to no avail. Apparently the same thing happened when they moved to WB, who were much more lax in terms of what they showed to kids.

Infamously, Spider-Man The Animated Series was taken apart by sensors, but the writers refused to forego the villain Morbius the Living Vampire and it became a notorious example of how insane the censors were.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBN1uDbVN1Y[/youtube]

Yes, they kept the character but had him drink plasma instead of blood. Motherfucking Scooby Doo had some vampires and implied blood drinking without a problem back in the 70's, but Batman and Spider-Man couldn't in the 90's? The Coppola Dracula movie was a huge hit at the time, Castlevania games were big successes... I mean, every kid knows what a vampire is and what they do, so who did they think they were fooling?

It's kind of why if you watch shows that aired on Fox back then, they threw jabs at the censors a lot, I noticed it in Animaniacs, The Simpsons, The X File's sister show Millennium, X-Men TAS... the list goes on.