As one of my very early posts allowed me to express my awe and admiration for Heath Ledger's Dark Knight performance, I was interested to find a real connection between ERISA and, well yes, Batman. Recently, I've come upon Batman: The Animated Series.
TAS is somewhat amazing. It's an old Saturday-morning kids cartoon that's (I now see) justifiably revered by fans. They really captured Batman's brooding, conflicted, noir-detective persona and hit on very adult themes and approaches.* The late Kevin Conroy was quite something. Check him out voicing the end of the The Dark Knight, both live and backing a cartoon rendering.
So I'm watching The Forgotten, Season 1, Episode 23 (although different listings may give different episode numbers). Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Richard Moll, series regulars, are there. In lieu of Mark Hamill who gave us a ridiculously incredible Joker throughout TAS, Conroy steps in for a quick bit in this particular episode, and Jay Thomas, are there as well.**
And then I hear Zimbalist's Alfred remark that "[t]he Studebaker's gone". My ears perked up. It's become an old saw that one of the driving forces behind the (shall we say) origin of ERISA was the Studebaker debacle that resulted in extensive losses of employee pensions. (On the fiduciary side, there were the shenanigans of Jimmy Hoffa and other union officials. See, e.g., The Irishman (which homes in on the employee-benefits aspect of much suspicious (to say the least) union activity.)
Now, after poking around a bit, I see that the Studebaker is a significant part of Batman lore, well beyond just this one line in TAS. Who knew?!? ERISA and Batman. I guess I probably should have realized there was a strong connection between these two . . . ahem . . . cultural phenomena. Well, back to more TAS viewing now . . .
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* Surprisingly, The LEGO Batman Movie (with a tip of the cowl to Will Arnett) gets/understands Batman's vibe quite well. Also worth checking out the Schoenke fan-made movies.
** By the way, not sure that today you'd be likely to see the portrayal of an overeater that you see with George Murdock's Boss Biggis..
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