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,
Burgess Meredith a 1939 adaptation of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and as war correspondent Ernie Pyle in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945). He was featured in many 1940s films, including three — "Second Chorus" (1940), "Diary of a Chambermaid" (1946), and "On Our Merry Way" (1948) — co-starring his then-wife Paulette Goddard. As a result of the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation, Meredith was placed on the Hollywood blacklist, and was largely absent from film for the next decade, though he remained involved in stage plays and radio during this time. Meredith was a favorite of director Otto