The Zodiac Crimes The Zodiac Crimes "The Zodiac Crimes" is the 71st episode of the "Batman" television series. It first aired on ABC January 11, 1967 in its second season and repeated June 14, 1967. The first of a three-part story, it was dubbed a ""Batman" special", simultaneously celebrating the show's one-year anniversary and helping to open ABC's "second season." It featured both Cesar Romero as The Joker and Burgess Meredith as The Penguin (dubbed as an "Extra Special Guest Villain"). The Joker pays a visit to Commissioner James Gordon's office at Police HQ and swipes a rare art map. Alerted, Batman and
Burgess Meredith on the show in a starring role. In his first appearance in 1959, "Time Enough at Last", he portrayed a henpecked bookworm who finds himself the sole survivor of an unspecified apocalypse which leads him to contemplate suicide until he discovers the ruins of the library. In 1961's "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", Meredith played the title character, a timid weakling who receives superhuman strength from an extraterrestrial experiment in human nature. Also that year in "The Obsolete Man", Meredith portrayed a librarian sentenced to death in a dystopic totalitarian society. Lastly, in 1963's "Printer's Devil", Meredith portrayed the Devil himself.