Batman franchise media the television show singing in-character were released in 1966: Burgess Meredith as the Penguin in "The Capture" and "The Escape", Frank Gorshin as the Riddler in "The Riddler", and Adam West as Batman in "Miranda". In 1976 West performed a pair of novelty songs, "The Story of Batman" and "Batman and Robin", for Target Records. All six of these recordings (sans the b-sides to Gorshin and West's singles) were later included on the 1997 compilation, "Batmania: Songs Inspired by Batman TV Series". In 1966, Burt Ward also recorded a limited "disc jokey only" release with Frank Zappa called "Boy Wonder,
Joker (character) gore, innuendo and excessive violence, stripping Batman of his menace and transforming the Joker into a goofy, thieving trickster without his original homicidal tendencies. The character appeared less frequently after 1964, when Julius Schwartz (who disliked the Joker) became editor of the Batman comics. The character risked becoming an obscure figure of the preceding era until this goofy prankster version of the character was adapted into the 1966 television series "Batman", in which he was played by Cesar Romero. The show's popularity compelled Schwartz to keep the comics in a similar vein. As the show's popularity waned, however, so did