It's inevitable with any television series that there will be episode pitches left on the cutting room floor; Batman The Animated Series (BTAS) was no exception.
Some of the unmade episodes would've made great company for many other classic episodes under the series' belt but for one reason or another, they stayed in the drawing board and never left. While it's understandable why some ideas were scrapped or even repurposed later on, it's baffling why others were abandoned. Here's a look at some unmade episodes of BTAS.
10 The Scarecrow Poisons Gotham
One abandoned pitch featured The Scarecrow poisoning Gotham's water supply with his fear toxin and tampering with radio signals to make the city afraid of Batman, forcing the Dark Knight to restore order while avoiding rabid mobs. While unmade, the episode's premise was reworked into other formats.
"Dreams In Darkness" features Batman racing against the clock to stop Scarecrow from poisoning Gotham's water, while the two-part "Riot Act," published in The Batman Adventures #4-5, has the Scarecrow use radio signals to make Gotham's populace illiterate, forcing Batman and Robin into action while the city descends into chaos. Coincidentally, Scarecrow's scrapped plan was what he and Ra's Al Ghul did in Batman Begins.
9 Catwoman Teams Up With Black Canary
The BTAS creative team avoided wading too deeply into the wider DC universe, fearful of undercutting the series' fairly grounded tone, but one superhero who producer/writer Paul Dini wanted to appear in the series was Black Canary. The pitch centered around a team-up between Canary and Catwoman, though the circumstances that brought the two together remain unknown.
However, Robin's absence doomed the episode. During the series' second season, the writers operated under a network edict that the Boy Wonder had to appear in every episode. As a result, it took until Justice League Unlimited for Dinah Lance to make her DCAU debut.
8 Poison Ivy Seduces Swamp Thing
Another guest appearance by a DC character outside of Batman's world which was canned by the powers that be. Paul Dini pitched an episode where Poison Ivy seduced Swamp Thing and set him against Batman. This would've been a natural fit, given Ivy and Swamp Thing's shared plant-motifs and the occasional comic crossovers between Batman and Swamp Thing (indeed, Alan Moore's acclaimed Swamp Thing run featured a Batman guest appearance).
Sadly, the rights to Swamp Thing were unavailable to the BTAS team. Years later, Dini reworked the central conceit into Justice League Action episode "Garden of Evil," where Ivy does in fact seduce Swamp Thing.
7 Batman Meets The Sandman
The third and final unmade of Paul Dini's crossover pitches would've explored the Vertigo side of DC Comics, specifically, Neil Gaiman's Sandman. The opening sequence featured Batman lured into a trap by his combined rogues gallery and nearly beaten to death, but Morpheus convinces his sister Death to spare the Dark Knight. In a spin on It's A Wonderful Life, Morpheus would then take Batman on a tour of Gotham's dreams, showing how he populates the nightmares of Gotham's criminals but inspires hope in the city's innocents. Morpheus offers Batman the choice between rest or a return to life, and Batman of course chooses the latter.
Gaiman gave his seal of approval, but between producer Alan Burnett's aversion to supernatural stories, the adult content of Sandman, and the cerebral/light-on-action tone, the episode went unmade. However, the story itself, the background behind its pitch and ultimate rejection were shown in Dini's graphic memoir, Dark Knight: A True Batman Story
6 Two Episodes About Batman's First Years
Some unmade episodes were in pre-production long enough to receive titles. Among these are "Masks," a two-parter starring the Reaper, the villain of Batman: Year Two and "Vigil," which featured Bruce remembering his origin (the script for the latter can be read here). These two concepts were combined into the feature length Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm with the Reaper reimagined as that film's titular villain, hence why they're listed together here.
Given Mask Of The Phantasm is ranked as one of the greatest Batman films of all time, perhaps it's for the best these two episodes were shelved.
5 Dr. Hugo Strange Returns
Hugo Strange only appeared once on BTAS (the episode "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne") but there were considerations to bring the character back. Strange's second appearance was to be titled "Mind Games," where he would've wiped the memories of both Batman and Robin, causing them to forget their crime-fighting personas.
Leslie Thompkins would work with Bruce and Dick to restore their memories before a crime spree overtakes Gotham; the episode would've concluded with Strange getting lobotomized. The creative team as a whole felt that Strange was insufficiently popular to warrant a return but luckily for the curious, the "Mind Games" script can be read here.
4 Batman Meets Nocturna
"See No Evil," a Batman-centric riff on HG Wells' Invisible Man, (in an amazing coincidence, the episode features voice-work from a young Elisabeth Moss, the star of 2020's The Invisible Man) was almost a part of this list. The episode was made in place of one titled "The Count & The Countess," which had been scrapped due to delays and poor quality work from the animation studio producing the episode.
What exactly "The Count & The Countess" was about remains unknown, however, another episode pitch confirmed to have been rejected featured the vampiress Nocturna seducing Batman before turning him into a vampire. Nocturna's absence from the show stems from censors' concerns about the villain's appropriateness for children. Many a fan believe the Nocturna episode and "The Count & The Countess" were one-in-the-same.
3 An Adaptation of "Night of the Stalker"
The Batman comic writers whose work provided the greatest influence for BTAS were the recently-passed and dearly-missed Dennis O'Neil and fortunately still-kicking Steve Englehart, both of whom brought a darker tone to Batman while retaining an overall sense of pulp fun.
BTAS nearly adapted Englehart's first Batman story, "Night Of The Stalker," published in Detective Comics #439. Here, Batman witnesses a couple killed in front of their son. This hits very close to home for Batman, so he silently and ruthlessly pursues the killers outside of Gotham. For whatever reason, the episode adapting this story was never completed.
2 The Story Of The Gun That Killed Batman's Parents
As described by Alan Burnett, "The Gun Story" would've followed the "life" of the handgun used to kill Bruce's parents, Thomas and Martha. The episode would begin with the gun's creation, follow how it fell into the hands of Joe Chill, and conclude with it being destroyed.
The episode wasn't made for the simple reason that both the writers and network ultimately found it too dark a premise for the young target audience of BTAS - which, to be fair, is a pretty dark show as far as cartoons' standards go.
1 Robin Saves Batman From An Auction
"The Midnight Hour" would've had Batman captured by a crime boss, who intends to auction the Caped Crusader off to Gotham's criminals at midnight. With his mentor kidnapped, Robin has to use everything Batman taught him to stage a rescue.
Given the network demands for episodes starring Robin, why this episode went unfinished is a mystery worthy of the World's Greatest Detective.