American TV Icon: Julie Newmar aka Catwoman

Laura Ingraham subbed for O'Reilly last night, so no Talking Points Memo.  However, O'Reilly had pre-recorded a segment with Julie Newmar, better known to us bat-fans as Catwoman from the 1960s TV series 'Batman'

Now, very little real time was spent on the actual interview, but I'll forgive them that.  They did show a lot of Julie Newmar's work both from Batman and from other material she had done before Batman.

 

 

Not only is Julie Newmar a TV icon for the role, but the whip-cracking feline fatale has gotta be regarded as one of the most iconic characters in television.  She was an on-screen dominatrix, long before that kind of fetishistic imagery was even considered to be fashionable.

Julie Newmar's Catwoman has to be one of the most indelible images in my whole life, and I have been a bat-fan and a Catwoman fan for more years than I care to remember.  I have to admit I also liked Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in the 1992 move Batman Returns.

 

 

And unlike some, I completely got the Halle Berry 2004 version of Catwoman.  I still feel that her "Razzie" award was unfair, but full credit to her to actually turn up at that ceremony to accept it in person!  I understand she is only the third person person to ever accept a Razzie at the ceremony, and so far, the only actress to do so.

Make no mistake, Catwoman, the feline fatale, is iconic.  The catsuit, the whip, the way she dominates her male underlings, she is a dominatrix.  One that is as popular and enduring today as she has always been.  I dare say there will be other cat-women on screen over the years, but few will ever match the original performances on the 1960s TV series Batman, of Julie Newmar, the original screen Catwoman.