The Mad Hatter (David Wayne) has made his escape from prison and has returned to Gotham City with a dastardly plan to bring Batman (Adam West) down by stealing his cowl and adding it to his collection, something he’s working on as he attends the annual headdress ball.

Charles Hoffman wrote this two-part story, and the first episode, The Contaminated Cowl, debuted on 4 January, 1967. It also contains a pop icon moment when Mad Hatter, following his theft of a giant ruby during the ball, douses Batman’s cowl with a radioactive spray turning it bright pink.

The Hatter can track the cowl’s radioactive signature to the Atomic Energy Laboratory and plunge the Dynamic Duo into this week’s cliffhanger.

Happily enough the scientist at the laboratory owes Bruce Wayne a favor and he is willing to help Batman, but Mad Hatter gets away with Batman’s cowl, despite the fact that Batman after removing the pink cowl has another cowl!

That doesn’t stop the cliffhanger however which sees Batman and Robin (Burt Ward) trapped in a high voltage x-ray machine that could radiate them out of existence!

This one is goofy and funny, and a bit of a delight. Honestly, with all the pink cowl imagery I had seen, I did expect a little more from that angle of the story still this one very much is a prime example of the pop nature of the series. I think at this point, the show is definitely at its height.

The story’s conclusion, The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul, aired the following night on 5 January, 1967. We’re shocked to discover that in the x-ray machine, Batman and Robin have been reduced to skeletons!

Hatter gets away with the pink cowl, and news of the death of the Caped Crusaders reaches the city!

But we know that can’t be true, there is a plan at work here, and I’m sure the Dynamic Duo will return in due time with a satisfactory (?) explanation. But it seems they had a bat-x-ray-deflector on hand to divert the beams and were able to escape and fake their deaths to put Mad Hatter off-balance.

Batman must have kept it right next to his bat-pills that seem to cover all manner of illness and problems.

Batman is intent not only on recovering his cowl, but the stolen ruby, and the path leads them to a number of places, and along the way, the world learns that our heroes yet live. The final showdown takes place at a water tower, which plays as a unique setting and puts everyone in jeopardy as Batman and Robin (or at least their very obvious stunt performers) whittle away the baddies’ numbers.

Things wrap up nicely, the Mad Hatter is captured, the ruby and cowl are recovered and the world celebrates the continuing existence of Batman and Robin!!