1967: Eartha Kitt rolling up in the Catmobile in the Batman episode: "The Funny Feline Felonies" / "The Joke's on Catwoman" - Season 3, Episodes 16 & 17.
This Catmobile was designed by Gene Winfield and was a custom aluminum show car called The Reactor.
Eartha Kitt took over the role of Catwoman from actress Julie Newmar for the third and final season of Batman, 1967.
"She was a cat woman before we ever cast her as Catwoman. She had a cat-like style. Her eyes were catlike and her singing was like a meow. This came as a wonderful off-beat idea to do it with a black woman. " Bill Dozier, Executive Producer
When her casting was announced television network affiliates in the Southern states were outraged. Fitzsimons and the other producers didn't care.
Kitt appeared in two more episodes of the show "The Funny Feline Felonies" and "The Joke's on Catwoman" respectively. Her signature move is to say everything is
"perfect" while rolling her r's. It comes out as "purrfect" and it's wonderful. The New York Post is quoted as saying,
"Eartha Kitt was born to be Catwoman." Newmar herself later said Kitt was her favorite Catwoman. "She had the voice and that purr," She later told 13th Dimension. "She could purr while talking. I could never really get that. She had that from years of singing, I think, and being a sultry woman herself. She was wonderful. I just flipped when I saw her do it. I thought she was great."
After the show, she went on to an even more amazing career before her death. "Oh! I loved doing Catwoman!" Kitt told The Austin Chronicle in 2006. When asked if she would reprise her role she said, "Why not? But I probably would do it now as the mother of the cat. I love doing the character. I didn't have to think about it: I didn't try to be a cat, I am a cat!"
