When it comes to recent Batman villains, few have made a bigger splash than Harley Quinn, a onetime psychiatrist driven mad while attempting to treat the Joker. Following her 1992 introduction in Batman: The Animated Series, the character has showed up in dozens of comics, TV episodes, and video games. Most recently, The CW's Arrow unveiled a brief Harley Quinn appearance that ended up on the cutting room floor — perhaps hinting at a more formal introduction later in the series.
But where did Harley Quinn originally come from? In an interview with Kevin Smith, creator Paul Dini revealed that the origins of the character can be traced back to a bizarre fantasy sequence on NBC's Days of Our Lives, in which Harley Quinn's voice Arleen Sorkin originally starred. "She was in a fantasy sequence where they were all playing, like, nursery rhyme characters," explained Dini. "And for whatever reason, they dressed her up in a little two-toned Pied Piper suit. And I was thinking, 'Hey that's kind of cool, you know? Let's go with that kind of feel.'" --Scott Meslow
The Week
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