The Joker (Cesar Romero) in The Joker Trumps an Ace. Written by Francis M. Cockrell and Marian B. Cockrell this episode was first broadcast on 6 April, 1966.

The Joker is on a strange crime wave, and he’s doing a lot of it with mirrors, enough so to even baffle Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward)!

His main target is a Maharajah (Dan Seymour) who is not only a big man, he’s rich, insanely so. He even owns a set of gold golf clubs, and the Joker and his gang, including a new moll, Jill (Jane Wald) get away with them, leaving behind a clue for the Caped Crusaders.

The pair chase Joker to his hideout, but the Joker is ready for them! Using mirrors to confuse them, and then capture them!! (I mean we have to race to a cliffhanger somehow!)

So the pair have been captured, and locked in the smokestack of Joker’s hideout, and while Jill laments the poor sportsmanship of the whole thing, dreading the death of Batman (and maybe Robin), the Joker begins to fill the trap with a deadly gas!

Romero’s Joker is a lot of fun and he’s obviously having a great time, though his performance is nowhere near as captivating as Frank Gorshin’s Riddler.

How will the pair escape this time? Will they be able to save the Maharajah? How does Joker keep finding these girls who seem to not understand the life they’ve chosen by tagging along with criminals?

Batman Sets the Pace aired the following night on 7 April, 1966. The Cockrells deliver the follow-up script that sees the Dynamic Duo escaping the smoke stack by climbing up the shaft back to back.

From there, they are determined to go on the offensive!

As their alter-egos of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, the pair visit a novelty shop that they believe has a connection to the Joker. And Zounds! They’re right!! Using a refractor, Bruce is able to look through a one-way mirror and see some of Joker’s gang and the Maharajah!

And Bruce sees a way in! Time to swing into action!

More fisticuffs follow, but they aren’t able to rescue the Maharajah, and instead, the Joker offers via a phone call to Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton) a ransom for the captured king, one that involves Batman (with one T) signing off on a check!!

And that’s when Batman puts it all together!! There is no Maharajah, there is the Joker in disguise, working to discredit Batman by having his money be used for criminal enterprises!!

Batman goes to town on the Maharajah, shocking Robing and the Commissioner until the Clown Prince and his plan are completely revealed! And as the episode ends we learn that California wants Batman for governor, but he won’t go as long as he’s needed in sunny Gotham!