Batman: The Animated Series - "I've Got Batman in My Basement"

“A vulture in Gotham City is a mystery worth checking out!”

The theft of a Faberge egg leads Batman into a mystery involving vultures and birdseed – yes, it can only be the work of that fowl foe The Penguin (Paul Williams). But when Batman is debilitated in combat, it falls to two basement detectives, Sherman Grant and Roberta, to put the pieces together, repel the Penguin, and safeguard Batman in – where else? – the basement.

I had said earlier in this series that I never understood the hate for this episode... Okay, I get it now. This episode is pretty terrible. As is usually the case on Batman: The Animated Series, there are so many interesting ideas in this episode, particularly the concept of Batman respecting and later supervising the efforts of a junior detective. But there is a significant problem in tone, swinging between what ought to be the A-plot of Batman and Penguin and the B-plot of what can only be described as “booger kids.” The youngsters in this episode are too cute by half, their antics border on empty slapstick, and some of their gags play off as lifted directly from Home Alone.

Moreover, there’s a discontinuity in Penguin’s scheme. At first, it’s the theft of a Faberge egg, which is a perfectly respectable Penguin plot. Then, however, in his search for the egg, he transitions toward the petty disheveling of the Grant home for the simple fact that it’s far too “bourgeois” for his liking. For a guy with a deadly vulture as a pet, there’s something altogether too flippant about this Penguin. Perhaps in a better episode, these tonal shifts wouldn’t be noticed, because Paul Williams does a very good job portraying the Penguin as this sophisticated criminal with contempt for everything as beneath him. But when he’s thwarted by two kids with Macaulay Culkin’s playbook, it’s tough to take him seriously.

To that point, I should add that the episode commits the major blunder of nerfing Batman even before he’s rendered unconscious. In the episode’s first act, Batman is stumped by the presence of birdseed and a vulture at the scene of a Faberge egg theft. Really, Batman? It shouldn’t take the world’s greatest detective to figure out that this birdbrained burglary is the work of The Penguin. Moreover, there’s no Bruce Wayne at all in this episode, and we barely hear any of Kevin Conroy’s voicework. When you have such a strong weapon like Conroy’s voice in your arsenal, it seems an awful shame not to use it.

My fond childhood memories notwithstanding, for I once collected the trading card stickers associated with this episode, “I’ve Got Batman in My Basement” stands in even starker contrast to the very next episode, which is one of – if not the – finest hours in the show’s history. The very next episode, “Heart of Ice,” is rightly regarded as seminal for many reasons, and this episode’s major fumble only looks worse in comparison. “Heart of Ice” won an Emmy; “Basement” ought to be relegated to such.

There’s a moment at the end of “I’ve Got Batman in My Basement” where Batman fights Penguin, clumsily fencing with a screwdriver. It’s an apt metaphor for the entire episode, actually.

Original Air Date: September 30, 1992

Writer: Sam Graham & Chris Hubbell

Director: Frank Paur

Villain: The Penguin (Paul Williams)

Next episode: “Heart of Ice,” in which we may as well pack it up and go home early, because it never gets any better than this.

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