At last the insanely long first season of Batman The Animated Series is over, and before we go any further I thought this would be a good point to reflect on where things sit after 65 episodes.
(Originally published on The Reel World February 21st, 2021)
While writing these reviews I’ve been maintaining a spreadsheet that tracks a LOT of data, which I’ve used as a crude guide to create a series of lists and rankings, which will follow my more formal review of the first season.
There’s also a little bit of extra text to accompany the Episode Rankings and Rogues Roundup IF YOU EVEN CARE.
- Season Review
- Director Ranking
- Top 10 Writers
- Animation Studio Ranking
- Top 10 Composers
- Best Performances
- Top 10 Title Cards
- Episode Ranking
- Rogues Roundup
Season Review
Woof. SIXTY FIVE episodes is a lot. It was a different era of television, where networks wanted stuff they could air five days a week and constantly repeat. 65 just so happens to be the minimum number of episodes required for syndication of an animated series, hence this juggernaut of a first season, followed by far more reasonable ones later.
Given how many they had to make without any critical or audience feedback to guide them, it’s remarkable this season is good. The first twenty are kiiind of rough, with many of the absolute worst episodes in the series cropping up here. Sure, you had the ‘Two-Face’ two-parter, ‘Heart of Ice’ and ‘Beware the Gray Ghost’, but these were sandwiched with some utter dreck involving The Sewer King, a labour camp and child detectives. The visuals aren’t quite there yet. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are still finding their voices. Sean Catherine Derek was still insisting on ‘moral of the day’ stories.
For me the rise in overall level of quality came with ‘Feat of Clay’, a strong two-parter in the vein of the strong episodes mentioned above. What followed was the first great Joker episode, the best of the season one Scarecrow episodes, strong debuts by Killer Croc and Mad Hatter and two of the absolute best episodes in the whole show: ‘Robin’s Reckoning’ and ‘The Laughing Fish’. Everything I said wasn’t all the way there yet had tightened up and some more clever script work had begun to work its way in. It sure doesn’t hurt anything that Paul Dini’s writing credits rose in this period.
Things would be far more up and down for the rest of the season. And I would say that the inconsistent nature of this first run is something that gets lost in the conversation about the show overall. You definitely had to kiss a few frogs, as it were. Some of the villains showed promise but were hamstrung. The Riddler rules, but they admitted they didn’t know how to write riddles. Scarecrow offers some fun visuals, but the episodes themselves are lacking in my opinion. It took Penguin FOREVER to get a good showcase. There was also that unfortunate monster double bill (Tygrus & Romulus).
So it’s a season of very high highs, but a lot of middling to bad, too. There’s generally always SOMETHING to like in the worse episodes, particularly in the second half, but it’s not exactly wall-to-wall bangers like your childhood nostalgia and internet hyperbole would have you believe.
What always works is the vibes. The anachronistic setting with black and white televisions, outdated cars, and old-timey sensibilities and fashion. The ‘Dark-Deco’ animation style, with backgrounds painted onto black paper. The way Batman so frequently transforms into liquid shadow, his body no longer obeying the laws of physics once his cape is wrapped around him and all you can see are his iconic white eyes. The title cards!
In terms of writing, I applaud the decision to forego an origin story for Batman and Joker, and instead pouring a lot of creativity into introducing their takes on the iconic villains, which have become the definitive versions. Mr. Freeze was a joke character, long-shelved before his tragic backstory was crafted wholecloth for BTAS. Two-Face had never exhibited a pre-existing form of D.I.D. before his accident before this series. Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow and the Ventriloquist arguably all enjoyed huge profile bumps due to these minor and major revamps. Harley Quinn was created FOR the show and is now allegedly DC’s third most popualar character behind Batman and Superman.
Finally, there’s how it sounds. Warner Bros. had Batman fever off the back of Tim Burton’s first movie, which in combination with the need for syndicated animation, meant that Bruce Timm & Eric Radomski were given a pretty high budget for the time, affording them a full orchestra. Shirley Walker’s scores are incredible, chief among them the opening titles. The music helps establish it as a mostly methodical, mature show. Likewise they went out and got some wonderful voice actors like Richard Moll, Diane Pershing, John Glover, Robert Costanzo, Bob Hastings and of course their three biggest heavyweights: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin. These are THE voices for their respective characters. None of them have even done their best work yet, and there were definitely some wobbles early on, but you can hear their marked improvement as the series progressed.
Much of this may read like a review of the overall show rather than the first season, but that’s part of the point. So much of what people remember is in this season, and a lot is going to change surprisingly soon. It’s an inconsistent season of television, but it’s also an incredibly ambitious one, and those big swings paid off enough to make it immortal straight away.
Director Ranking
Based on my episode rankings I calculated an average score per episode for each director. This is obviously a silly, raw data driven exercise as a LOT goes into how good an episode beyond just direction:
- Bruce Timm (4 episodes)
- Boyd Kirkland (15 episodes)
- Kevin Altieri (16 episodes)
- Eric Radomski (3 episodes)
- Dick Sebast (9 episodes)
- Frank Paur (14 episodes)
- Dan Riba (4 episodes)
- Kent Butterworth (1 episode)
Only eight people directed episodes in season one, and there are four clear workhorses: Kevin Altieri (16), Boyd Kirkland (15), Frank Paur (14) and Dick Sebast (9), who directed 54 of the 65 episodes between them. So it makes sense they sit in the middle of the pack, forced to take on all comers.
On the other end of the spectrum, show creators Bruce Timm (4) & Eric Radomski (3) were forced to step in and direct some episodes themselves after Kent Butterworth quit after only a single episode, ‘Christmas With the Joker‘. I have no idea how they divided up the work… but you could see a world where the creators insist on taking some of the strongest scripts, helping their ranking.
Dan Riba (4) worked in the storyboard department but was pulled into direction to help fill the void when Dick Sebast quit the show as well. Again, it’s not difficult to imagine that a more junior staffer got given the dregs.
Top 10 Writers
Things are a little more difficult with writing as there are 42 credited scribes, and many only wrote a single episode. This makes the rankings look a little wonkier than the directing ones, such as Paul Dini not being number one despite being quite clearly the best writer on the show.
It’s for that reason I also took note of how many episodes each writer had in the top and bottom ten. Dini dominates there, with half of the current top ten to his name and none in the bottom. In fact he’s the only writer to get more than one episode into the top tier so far.
- Joe R. Lansdade (2 episodes)
- Dennis O’Flaherty (1 episode)
- Paul Dini (12 episodes)
- Marv Wolfman (2 episodes)
- Gerry Conway (1 episode)
- Brynne Chandler (5 episodes)
- Michael Reaves (8 episodes)
- Alan Burnett (3 episodes)
- Garin Wolf (2 episodes)
- Dennis O’Neil (2 episodes)
For those curious, the only noteable writers in the bottom 10 are Jules Dennis and Richard Meuller, who are two of only four writers with multiple bottom ten episodes against them (Len Wein and Sean Catherine Derek were the others, but their slightly higher average kept them out of the basement.)
Animation Studio Ranking
When I originally wrote all these reviews I only tracked writers and directors, but with the revamp I decided to expand to animation studios and composers.
Just like with the other rankings I should offer the huge caveat that it takes more than animation to make or break an episode, so this is just a fun numbers exercise and not be taken as a serious assessment of talent.
That being said, I do agree the top 3 are the best, the bottom 3 are the worst, Dong Yang are in the middle. Sunrise and TMS were actually tied and only a single point ahead of Spectrum.
- Sunrise (8 episodes)
- Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD. (6 episodes)
- Spectrum Animation Studio (7 episodes)
- Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (25 episodes)
- Akom Production Co. (13 episodes)
- Blue Pencil, S.I. (2 episodes)
- Studio Junio (4 episodes)
It makes sense that Sunrise and TMS, the studios responsible for Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Akira, Lupin the Third and HUNDREDS of other works would tie for first. They’re just a cut above. Sunrise likely became too busy/expensive so this is the end for them, while TMS would do a little more DCAU in the future.
Spectrum are the true tragedy, infamously bankrupting themselves through their work on the show, particularly ‘Heart of Ice‘ which featured an absurb amount of mist, condensation, reflections etc. They worked closely with Dong Yang, providing layouts on 12 of their episodes, and splitting animation duties on Mask of the Phantasm.
Dong Yang are the workhorses here and were presumably the right combination of reliable and available as they’d work on the entire DCAU (as well as Captain Planet, Spider-Man: Unlimited and Gargoyles among others.) I believe that Bruce Timm was a little dissatisfied with how many of the characters deviated from their official model sheets in Sunrise & TMS episodes, so Dong Yang presumably followed orders a little more too.
Conversely, Blue Pencil were a short lived Spanish studio that briefly employed future legend Genndy Tartakovsky, and I think they were just a fill-in on BTAS. Studio Junio seem to also be defunct and from what I can tell did more assistance to larger studios than taking on big projects themselves.
AKOM are legendary for their early ineptitude, with Bruce Timm eventually firing them from BTAS for their poor work. Despite this, they’re responsible for over 200 episodes of The Simpsons, continuing to this day. Obviously a very different visual style there, but it will never not be funny to me that they’re so renowned for their shoddy work while also holding down a steady gig on the biggest cartoon of all time.
A final note: I didn’t track the layout services credit as I don’t understand enough about animation to know how much this impacts the final product.
Top 10 Composers
As mentioned above, composers are new for the 2023 revamp, and it obviously an episode ranking is determined by more than just music (the music is ALWAYS good on this show), so this is just a dumb little raw data exercise.
- Peter Davidson (1 episode)
- Carl Johnson (4 episodes)
- Jeff Atmajian (1 episode)
- Michael McCuistion (7 episodes)
- Stuart Balcolmb (3 episodes)
- Tamara Kline (1 episodes)
- Shirley Walker (29 episodes)
- Peter Tomashek (3 episodes)
- Harvey R. Cohen (6 episodes)
- Carlos Rodriguez (5 episodes)
Straight up: I do not know much about music. I love it, but I don’t understand what goes into it. I can’t pick out individual instruments for the most part and I’m tone deaf. All of that is to say you won’t be getting an essay like with the animation section.
I know Shirley Walker is THE composer on the show, and I think the fact she scored almost half the episodes (including 4 of the bottom 10) is what hurts her ranking. She got the gig in the first place because she conducted Danny Elfman’s score on Batman (1989), which is why people feel it’s a copy/soundalike to the Burton movies.
I thiiiiiink Michael McCuistion ends up with the most composer credits in the DCAU when all is said and done (or very close to it), so it makes sense to see him higher up. But again, this means relatively little.
Best Performances
I haven’t been ranking these as I go, but the ten that stick out to me the most for their range and acting ability so far are:
- Kevin Conroy (Batman)
- Mark Hamill (The Joker)
- Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn)
- Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy)
- George Dzundza (The Ventriloquist)
- Roddy McDowell (The Mad Hatter)
- Richard Moll (Two-Face)
- Henry Polic II (The Scarecrow)
- Robert Costanzo (Harvey Bullock)
- Melissa Gilbert (Batgirl)
Top 10 Title Cards
In my opinion the best of these iconic title cards are a perfect blend of clean & legible (a higher bar than you’d think!) and evocative of the events of the episode. A surprising number feature poor graphic design that makes them hard to read.
I’m not overly wedded to this order, they’re just all ones that stick out to me. I do find it funny that several of them are from bad episodes. Every cloud!
Episode Ranking
To me there are four basic kinds of episode: Villain Spotlights, Villain Ensembles, Batman Spotlights and Ally Spotlights. Most fit cleanly into one of those categories.
By far the most frequent type is Villain Spotlight, with 43 of 65 episodes zeroing in on one of Gotham’s Most Wanted. However, only four of these are in my top ten, and just as many are in the bottom half as the top.
In contrast, only four episodes are Batman Spotlights, but two are in the top ten, and another is in the top twenty. For the most part, Batman is just Batman; our hero arrived fully formed, with no origin tale in sight. Heck the opening credits don’t even say his name! He is just Batman, and for the most part we all understand him, but when they do decide to delve deeper, it’s extremely effective. Honestly this may be one of the largest contributing factors to the show being so good.
Villain Ensembles and Ally Spotlights are exactly even with 9 each in total, and two each in the top ten. Including multiple villains generally lessens their individual impact (though THE team-up is one of the best episodes in the whole show). The Bat Family are great, but the show would probably have been weaker if there were more Robin-centric episodes. In fact, Season 2 will prove that one for us pretty soon!
[2023 Edit: I identified a few episodes that with the benefit of hindight I believe I placed a little too high or low. My plan is to gather ALL of these up at the end and then do a big reshuffle, at which point I’ll come back here and update the lists in each of the Season Reviews. Too High: Shadow of the Bat Part 1, Zatanna, The Mechanic and Fire From Olympus. Too Low: Eternal Youth]
- Laughing Fish
- Almost Got ‘im
- Heart of Ice
- Shadow of the Bat I
- Robin’s Reckoning I
- I Am the Night
- Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face I
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay II
- Demon’s Quest II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning II
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel II
- Appointment in Crime Alley
- Two-Face II
- Pretty Poison
- Shadow of the Bat II
- Feat of Clay II
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Heart of Steel I
- On Leather Wings
- See No Evil
- Clock King
- Never Too Late
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- Cat and Claw I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- Demon’s Quest I
- Mechanic
- Strange Secret of Bruce Wanye
- Terror in the Sky
- POV
- Christmas with the Joker
- Fear of Victory
- Be a Clown
- Worry Men
- What is Reality?
- Night of the Ninja
- Fire From Olympus
- Mudslide
- Cat and Claw II
- Nothing to Fear
- Prophecy of Doom
- Tyger Tyger
- Blind as a Bat
- If You’re So Smart Why Aren’t You Rich?
- Dreams in Darkness
- Last Laugh
- Cat Scratch Fever
- Moon of the Wolf
- Paging the Crime Doctor
- Underdwellers
- Forgotten
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Rogues Roundup
The Joker of course reigns supreme, as he is often the first thing people talk about when discussing BTAS. It was surprisingly rough going until Paul Dini got his hands on the character, and since then he’s had a number of much stronger showings.
The show’s creators wanted to keep certain villains to a single, memorable appearance, like Mr. Freeze, Clayface and possibly Two-Face, and you can see why, as Freeze maintains a strong ranking after his iconic spotlight, ‘Heart of Ice’, while Clayface’s poor return in ‘Mudslide’ dragged him down a few spots.
Poison Ivy’s initial placement drew a few comments from readers for being too low, but she has steadily risen as she’s racked up strong appearances. More to come in season two!
The Penguin debuted in the worst episode in the show and then vanished for a long time, but once he became a recurring villain, he gradually climbed out of the basement and assumed the role you’d expect. But he pales in comparison to Harley Quinn, the little character that could. Beginning life as a late addition to ‘Joker’s Favor’, she quickly took on a life of her own thanks to her creator, Paul Dini.
The bottom of the rankings are mostly comprised of original creations and lesser known existing characters. But of the better known villains, Scarecrow and Talia al Ghul stick out, as I feel they’ve just not been written very well so far. The former will get more chances, but the latter only really got true shine in the tie-in comics. More on those soon!
You might raise an eye at Catwoman’s placement too. Still in the top 10, but low given how fun she is. The problem is that three of her four episodes are pretty bad, and they’re stuck in a weird position where they can’t decide if she’s even a villain. They’ll figure that out going forward and you’ll see her rise.
- The Joker
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- Harley Quinn
- Two-Face
- The Ventriloquist
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- Catwoman
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Clayface
- Ra’s al Ghul
- The Riddler
- Clock King
- Killer Croc
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Count Vertigo
- Josiah Wormwood
- Scarecrow
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Rupert Thorne
- Sid the Squid
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Kyodai Ken
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Talia al Ghul
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
The Matt Signal 
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