Pow! Biff! Zing! The Caped Crusader Confounds TV Quiz Show

During the taping of the TV quiz show “Winning Lines” in Hollywood last week, one question posed by host Dick Clark was: How many actors portrayed Batman in live-action movies?

A contestant answered, “Three” (Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney). She was congratulated, and there was a break in the taping.

But another contestant asserted that there were four--Adam West, who played the Caped Crusader on TV, had also starred in a film version. The judges ruled that four was correct.

So it was decided to retape that segment. A colleague of mine who was present said several scenes involving other questions were restaged that day, with winners pretending to be surprised and losers reminded that they had to lose in the reenactments too.

Just as Clark was about to address the Batman issue again, a producer raced onto the set and said, “Stop.” A huddle ensued. Finally, the producer confessed to the audience and the contestants, “We don’t know how many Batmans there were.”

So the question was discarded. Holy confusion, Batman!

Sounds like a scenario concocted by the Joker.

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TEN THOUSAND PENNIES FOR HIS THOUGHTS: Stan Alari of Seal Beach isn’t one of those defense attorneys who uses annoying TV and radio ads. He uses a mobile billboard--his 1980 Mercedes (see photo).

The idea came to him when he went into private practice. “It was the middle of the year--too late for the Yellow Pages,” the $100 Lawyer explained.

Alari, whose specialty is radar-timed speeding citations, is a bit vague on the “$100” angle, saying it could mean $100 per hour or $100 for a court appearance. But his ad gets a lot of feedback--some of it positive.

“Once I was stopped at a light and a black-and-white pulled up alongside me in Huntington Beach,” he said. “This officer looked over and his car was rocking up and down he was laughing so hard.”

Other reviews weren’t as warm.

“I was driving through Seal Beach and there was this new, gorgeous Mercedes next to me,” he said. “The driver was a well-dressed man with a handsomely coiffed wife and two beautiful kids, and his countenance just fell when he saw me. He rolled down his window and offered me one impertinence after another.”

Said the $100 Lawyer: “I’m sure he was also a lawyer.”

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POND SCUM AND SEX: Some seats are still available for these lectures at Cal State Fullerton:

* “We Can Learn From Pond Scum: Light-Induced Protein Production in the Single-Celled Alga Chlamydomonas,” Feb. 3.

* “Sex and the Single Sea Squirt: Using Sea Squirt Fertilization as a Model for Cell Signaling Studies,” Feb. 17.