BatFink

1 9 6 6 – 1 9 6 7 (USA)
100 x 5 minute episodes

A superpowered anthropomorphic grey bat whose black metallic wings were “like a shield of steel”, Batfink was assisted by his loyal (but oafish) Kung Fu sidekick Karate (pictured below left) and used his “Super Sonic Radar” to catch the baddies – usually Hugo A-go-go.

Batfink lived in a split-level cave with a direct video link to the Chief’s office and rode around in a customised pink car resembling a Volkswagen Beetle with scalloped rear fins and bat-winged red “B” emblems on the doors. Called the “Battillac” (rhymes with “Cadillac”), it was outfitted with a sunroof and many defensive devices (“It’s a good thing the Battillac is equipped with a thermonuclear plutonium-insulated blast shield!”)

The blue-smocked, wild-haired Hugo A-go-go (pictured below) was referred to as “the world’s maddest mad scientist” and spent his time in his secret laboratory creating weird and wacky inventions – including a robot bride (complete with robot mother-in-law) – to defeat Batfink and dominate the world.

He always managed to escape jail to antagonise the hero in a later episode. Hugo often broke the fourth wall and had conversations with the narrator.

Batfink was produced at Hal Seeger Studios in New York City, and at Bill Ackerman Productions in Midland Park, New Jersey. The show was syndicated by Screen Gems and continued to air on local US stations throughout the 1980s.

The series was also very popular in the UK, where it became a cult series like the later Danger Mouse, and from 1967 onwards was shown at least once every year on terrestrial television in Britain until 1983,

Batfink/Hugo A-go-go
Frank Buxton
Karate/The Chief/Narrator
Len Maxwell

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