When BATMAN became a TV phenomenon in 1966, its creator BOB KANE also launched his zany animated spy spoof COOL MCCOOL, a bumbling secret agent who spoke in JACK BENNY-esque tones and gave headaches to both the underworld and his excitable (though never fully revealed) boss NUMBER ONE. Other than human wind machine HURRICANE HARRY and the slithery, plant controlling RATTLER, the colorful cast of cackling criminals were reminiscent of Gotham City's baddies, from PENGUIN knock off THE OWL and JOKER-like prankster JACK IN THE BOX to MAD HATTER clone DR.
Delightful series, but let's get something out of the way from the start: you do NOT watch this for the generically Saturday morning limited animation.Instead, you watch it for the inventive fun the writers had with the over-the-top eccentricity of the villains: witty asides of social commentary (for the time), shameless puns, parodic elements no child could possibly have noticed, and the occasional innuendo slipped past censors because who censors dialog between a green-complexioned mad scientist/sorcerer with a hat obsession and his lisping femme fatale with green hair and a ghost white death pallor?
The show is a blend of Get Smart and Batman in the style of the Beatles cartoons (all shows that also were airing at the time). Making the character sound like Jack Benny was a clever way of giving him a vocal inflection similar to Maxwell Smart without imitating Don Adams directly.
Well, actually the organisation he worked for was "Secret Inc.," but never mind - this was one seriously funny spy spoof ("Created By Bob Kane And Al Brodax," the opening would blare - cartoons with "created by" credits were rare back in the '60s; must have been Bob Kane's cachet).
