The Penguin Declines The Penguin Declines "The Penguin Declines" is the 73rd episode of "Batman", the conclusion of a three-part story in its second season on ABC. Its original telecast occurred on January 18, 1967 with a rerun June 21, 1967. It guest-starred Cesar Romero as Joker and Burgess Meredith as Penguin. In the previous episode, Batman and Joker's former henchwoman Venus are chained in a water pit where a giant clam has (almost) already swallowed Robin. Using every ounce of his strength, Batman bursts free of his chains, rushes over to the clam and pries it open long enough to rescue Robin
Burgess Meredith films and documentaries during his long career, including "" (1983). "Although those performances renewed his popularity," observed Mel Gussow in "The New York Times", "they represented only a small part of a richly varied career in which he played many of the more demanding roles in classical and contemporary theater—in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett and others." Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth (née Burgess) and Dr. William George Meredith, a Canadian-born physician, of English descent. His mother came from a long line of Methodist revivalists, a religion to which he adhered throughout