The next attempt to incorporate Two-Face into the show involved crime novelist Peter Rabe penning a two-parter called “The Two-Faced Counterfeit”/”The Counterfeit Counterfoiled.” This never got made, either. A different writer adapted it into a storyline for the Joker instead.
While it would have been thematically fitting for this second attempt at a Two-Face appearance to be the last, there was a third try near the end of the third season. The show was on life support by then, and the creators hoped that adding new villains might lure audiences back. Clint Eastwood was allegedly considered for the role at this point, but Batman was cancelled before it went beyond speculation.
However, the legend of the lost Two-Face adventure persisted until 2014, when Ellison’s outline was reworked into comic book form by writer Len Wein and artist José Luis García-López. Published as Batman ’66: The Lost Episode #1, it follows the original treatment pretty closely. Wein had to expand quite a bit on Ellison’s ideas, and he also made some tweaks in tone and content, as he discusses here. For instance, in the treatment, Two-Face attacks twin princesses arriving in Gotham at Pier 9. Wein naturally changed this to Pier 2.
And may I just say that the art is gorgeous.
Aside from a minor quibble or two–Robin is essentially useless–I really enjoyed the way The Lost Episode blended goofy camp and genuine pathos. While leaving a crime scene, Two-Face bids his victims “twodleoo” (insert groan here). Not three pages later, we delve into his tragic backstory, which remains unchanged from the original comics.
This may seem a trifle dark for such a silly show, but it wouldn’t have been the first time Batman featured a tragic villain: George Sanders’s Mister Freeze was pretty sympathetic. I do imagine, though, we would not have actually seen Harvey’s face, as it was disfigured.
In 2017, we got the animated film Batman vs. Two-Face, which had nothing to do with any of the treatments, scripts, or stories that came before. It reunited West and Ward as the Caped Crusaders for the last time — Adam West passed away before the film’s release — along with Julie Newmar’s Catwoman. And Two-Face? Not Clint Eastwood, but a different Hollywood legend: William Shatner.
So there you have it! Two-Face went from a three-time no-show to having a special comic and an animated film focused on him. Not bad, I’d say.