History Recap / TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE11BabyDoll

* ArtShift: Sort of. At the time, Warner Bros was known for doing two kinds of cartoons: realistically-drawn superhero shows, and looney tunes style comedy shows. The character of baby doll ''looks'' like she should be in a show like ''Animaniacs'', which makes it all the more disturbing when she reverts to her adult mannerisms.

* CaptainErsatz: Baby-Doll's henchmen are similar to [[Series/GilligansIsland Gilligan and Skipper]].

* VocalDissonance: Baby-Doll keeps switching between her natural adult voice and the child one she had for her old show.
* UndressingTheUnconscious: After Mariam is knocked out and taken by Baby-Doll she wakes up at the studio where they had filmed their television program, now wearing her old costume. It's implied Baby-Doll did this with all of her old co-stars.

%%* BetweenMyLegs: Mariam

* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: Subverted. It's a stretched-out funhouse reflection, but Mary Dahl sees what she might have looked like if she'd properly matured. She starts crying on realizing that she'll never get that reality and shoots it.
-->'''Mary''': That's me in there. The real me!
* MoodWhiplash: It seems for the most part a wacky and silly episode with only occasional glimpses of a darker core...[[TearJerker and then the scene on the hall of mirrors take place]].

* OpaqueNerdGlasses: Mariam

-->'''Todd''': You're not my daughter. And we're not a family! We're actors, remember? You canceled our show because you whined you weren't getting enough attention!\\

* IgnoredEpiphany: Baby Doll's castmates remind her that it was her fault the show got canceled, since she left after the Cousin Spunky episode. She admits they're right, and talks about how hard it was to build her career since no one wanted to take her seriously. Then she goes into how being on the show was the only time she was happy, and if she can't go back on television, she can at least have her "family" back.

** Cousin Spunky's introduction was supposed to bolster failing ratings and keep the sitcom on the air. This led to the birthday episode, which Mary hated so much she quit--and without her, the show was immediately canceled.

'''Baby Doll''': But I knows now I made a boo-boo! (''Starts to cry before sombering up and speaking more maturely'') It was hard for me out there. I studied and trained and auditioned, [[TypeCasting but no one wanted me]]. (''Plays an "Awww" on her tape recorder'') Over the years I remembered how happy I was when I had all of you around me and the folks at home watching me each week - me! (''Reverts to childlike glee'') Baby Doll!

-->'''Robin:''' You know when Poison Ivy had us tied up with those poisonous vines? The ones with the really sharp thorns? ''This is worse.''

* BetweenMyLegs: Mariam

* TragicVillain: Mary

* AlasPoorVillain: It's hardly Mary Dahl's fault that she has such a bizarre and incurable medical condition that causes everyone reflexively not take her seriously as an adult.

* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: Subverted. It's a stretched-out funhouse reflection, but Mary Dahl sees what she might have looked like if she'd properly matured.

-->'''Baby Doll''': But I knows now I made a boo-boo! (''Starts to cry before sombering up and speaking more maturely'') It was hard for me out there. I studied and trained and auditioned, [[TypeCasting but no one wanted me]]. (''Plays an "Awww" on her tape recorder'') Over the years I remembered how happy I was when I had all of you around me and the folks at home watching me each week - me! (''Reverts to childlike glee'') Baby Doll!

!!Tropes:

* CousinOliver: Parodied and referenced. "Little Cousin Spunky", the new child star added for the last season of Baby Doll's sitcom, was also designed to resemble [[Series/TheBradyBunch Cousin Oliver]]. (They even had [[CastingGag Robbie Rist]] in the episode, though he voiced another character.) Also subverted -- Robin watches the entire series trying to find clues; Spunky turns out to be the only enjoyable thing in the show... well, the only thing Robin liked, mostly because Baby Doll was his favored victim.
* {{Determinator}}: Batman really took a beating at Dahl's expense. She threw a smoke bomb from at him, had her henchwoman Miriam beat the crap out of him, shot him with tennis balls and finally pistol whipped him with a concealed gun. Yet he still tries to reason with her.
* DistressBall: Robin invokes it when disguised as Cousin Spunky. He's knocked out with gas, tied to a chair, has to disarm dynamite with his teeth, and gets cake smashed in his face. One wonders if Bruce raised his allowance.

* DramaticSpotlight
* DynamiteCandle: Baby uses a dynamite candle in an attempt to kill Spunky (who's actually Robin in disguise). Spunky, tied up and failing to blow the fuse, leans over and uses his teeth to grab the dynamite and toss it safely away.

* IgnoredEpiphany: Baby Doll's castmates remind her that it was her fault the show got canceled since she left after the Cousin Spunky episode. She admits they're right, and talks about how hard it was to build her career since no one wanted to take her seriously. Then she goes into how being on the show was the only time she was happy, and if she can't go back on television, she can at least have her "family" back.

* {{Irony}}: Mary's failed attempt as a serious actor was a production of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', a play rumored to be unlucky (or cursed).

** And the episode concludes with Batman, [[DeathByOriginStory a man robbed of his childhood]], comforting an actress [[NotGrowingUpSucks who can't escape hers]], [[TypeCasting metaphorically]] ''or'' physically.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Baby-Doll's former castmates point out that it was technically her fault that the show got cancelled in the first place. It was actually explained earlier in the episode by Summer Gleeson that due to Mary leaving the show, she put her costars out of a job since the TV-executives were forced to cancel the show (although ratings were already sinking, which was why they introduced Spunky's character).

* KickChick: Mariam

* MeaningfulEcho: Baby's CatchPhrase on the show (after causing some mayhem) was "I didn't mean to!" à la [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson's]] "I didn't do it." At the end, she's hugging Batman's leg and crying, saying simply, "I didn't mean to..."

* {{Narm}}: Robin in-universe views the ''Baby Doll'' sitcom as this, and in a painful way. Similarly, Mary's portrayal of Lady Macbeth is amateurish in a more realistic way, rather than outright terrible.

* NoodleIncident: Robin recalls an occasion when the Dynamic Duo were trapped in Poison Ivy's vines with ''really'' sharp thorns. It was still preferable to watching Baby Doll's show.

'''Mariam:''' (''smiles'') [[JustBusiness It's a living.]]
** Also, see JustFollowingOrders above.
* OlderThanSheLooks: Mary has an extremely rare form of dwarfism that stops her from physically-aging, and in her case, she stopped growing any bigger (and looking any older) by the time she was five. By the events of this episode, Mary's at least thirty-years-old (according to Commissioner Gordon), and had done "Love that Baby" from the age of 10 to the age of 20.

* PetTheDog: Baby-Doll does consider Brian Daly, the actor who played her older brother, to be the nicer one of the castmates she kidnaps (and he does seem to feel genuinely sorry for her, despite all the stuff she did).
* RageAgainstTheReflection: Batman is chasing Baby Doll through a funhouse, into the Hall of Mirrors. She's caught up short when one of the mirrors shows her as she would have been if she did had not been born with a rare condition that makes her forever look five years old. Cue VillainousBreakdown during which she empties her gun into the mirror.
* ShoutOut: The hall of mirrors shootout is inspired by ''Film/TheLadyFromShanghai''; such scenes like this always are.
** According to [[https://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/06/baby-doll-revisited.html this]], the scene where Mary looks into a funhouse mirror which makes her look older mimics a scene in the ''Manga/BlackJack'', where Pinoko does the same (seen [[https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cFyWsauiqJE/UDnFz9H8XyI/AAAAAAAAKxc/alSF6UDC6B4/s1600/4715983796_452d91d8ce_o.jpeg here]])

* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: What Batman ends up doing with Baby Doll, as he chases her through the Hall of Mirrors.

-->'''Mary:''' (''In an adult voice while looking at the mirror'') Look! That's me in there. The real me! There I am. (''Her face drops as she glances at her own, child-like arm'') But it's not really real, is it? Just made up and pretend like my family, and my life, and everything else. (''turns to Batman, shaking, doll/gun pointed at him'') '''''Why couldn't you just let me [[BelievingTheirOwnLies make-believe]]'''''?!\\
''(Fires her gun at the various Batman reflections before rounding on the mirror showing her adult form, tears streaming down her cheeks... and unloads the last three rounds into it, [[RageAgainstTheReflection shattering the reflection]]. Batman approaches and gently takes the doll/gun away from her, as she's still trying to fire without any rounds left)''
--> (''sobbing as she looks up at Batman before [[CooldownHug hugging his leg]]'') [[MeaningfulEcho I didn't... mean to...]]

* CousinOliver: InUniverse, the eponymous villain's StartOfDarkness came after one of these stole her spotlight. In a ShoutOut to the TropeNamer, the grown-up version of the character's actor is modeled after Robbie Rist, who played Oliver on ''Series/TheBradyBunch''.

* ShoutOut: The hall of mirrors shootout is inspired from ''Film/TheLadyFromShanghai''; such scenes like this always are.

* DynamiteCandle: Baby uses a dynamite candle in an attempt to kill Spunky who's actually Robin in disguise. Spunky, tied up and failing to blow the fuse, leans over and uses his teeth to grab the dynamite and toss it safely away.

* FreudianExcuse: Besides the fact her body is incapable of maturing plus the fact she couldn't get anyone to take her seriously as an actress, Mary also had to deal with the fact she could only get cast as child characters well into her 30s. Chances are she grew to hate the show because it served as a continuous reminder no one was willing to take her seriously as an adult, and thus became a demanding primadonna.

* OlderThanSheLooks: Mary's extremely rare form of dwarfism makes her look like a little kid no matter how old she is. She was already 30 years old during the original run of "Baby Doll," which might put her somewhere in her late 40s or early 50s by the time she started kidnapping her co-stars.

* PetTheDog: Baby-Doll does consider Brian Daly, the actor who played her older brother, to be the nicer one of the castmates she kidnaps.

* VillainousBreakdown: Mary again, after seeing a funhouse mirror showing her as she might be, without her condition:

* VocalDissonance: Baby-Doll keeps switching between her natural adult voice and the child one.

** Baby Doll seeing her adult self in the mirror (what she probably would've looked like if not for her medical condition), which triggers her VillainousBreakdown.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Zigzagged. Neither Batman nor Robin land a blow on Mary, even though she is technically an adult, because she would be at a disadvantage.

* OlderThanSheLooks: Mary's thirty years old, but her extremely rare form of dwarfism makes her look like a little kid.

''(Fires her gun at the various Batman reflections before rounding on the mirror showing her adult form, tears streaming down her cheeks... and unloads the last three rounds into it, [[RageAgainstTheReflection shattering the reflection]]. Batman approaches and gently takes the doll/gun away from her)''

-->'''Mary:''' (''In an adult voice while looking at the mirror'') Look! That's me in there. The real me! There I am. (''Her face drops as she glances at her own, child-like arm'') But it's not really real, is it? Just made up and pretend like my family, and my life, and everything else. (''turns to Batman, shaking, doll/gun pointed at him'') '''''Why couldn't you just let me make-believe'''''?!\\

* BittersweetEnding

* JerkassHasAPoint: Baby-Doll's former castmates point out that it was technically her fault that the show got cancelled in the first place. It was actually explained earlier in the episode by Summer Gleeson that due to Mary leaving the show, she put her costars out of a job since the TV-executives were forced to cancel the show.

-->'''Mary:''' (''In an adult voice while looking at the mirror'') Look! That's me in there. The real me! There I am. (''Her face drops as she glances at her own, child-like arm'') But it's not really real, is it? Just made up and pretend like my family, and my life, and everything else. (''turns to Batman, shaking, doll/gun pointed at him'') '''''Why couldn't you just let me make-believe'''''!?!\\