Batman (TV series)

Batman
Title card for the Batman television series
Genre	Action/Adventure Situation Comedy
Created by	Bob Kane and Bill Finger (characters) William Dozier (series) Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (developer for television)
Starring	Adam West Burt Ward Alan Napier Neil Hamilton Stafford Repp Madge Blake (Seasons 1–2) Yvonne Craig (Season 3) Burgess Meredith Cesar Romero Julie Newmar (Seasons 1–2) Eartha Kitt (Season 3)
Narrated by	William Dozier
Opening theme	"Batman Theme" by Neal Hefti
Ending theme	"Batman Theme" by Neal Hefti
Composer(s)	Nelson Riddle Billy May (incidental music)
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	120 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	William Dozier
Producer(s)	Howie Horwitz
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Greenway Productions 20th Century Fox Television
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	January 12, 1966 (1966-01-12) – March 14, 1969 (1969-03-14)
Status	Ended
Chronology
Related shows	Batman (1966 film) (spin-off) The Green Hornet

Batman is a 1960s American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name, which starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, two crime-fighting heroes who defended "Gotham City".^[1][2] It aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network for two and a half seasons from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968. Despite its short run, the show had a total of 120 episodes, having two weekly installments for most of its tenure.

Contents 1 Genesis of the series 2 Major villains 3 Plot summary 3.1 The "teasers" 3.2 The episodes proper 3.3 After the cliff-hangers 3.4 Season 1 3.5 Season 2 3.6 Season 3 3.6.1 Cancellation 4 Cast 4.1 Regular cast 4.2 Guest appearances 5 Theme music 6 Popularity 7 Parodies in the series 8 After the series run 8.1 1970s reunions 8.2 Legacy 9 Home video (non-) release 10 Collectibles 11 References 12 External links

Genesis of the series

In the early 1960s, Ed Graham Productions optioned the TV rights to the comic strip Batman, and planned a straightforward juvenile adventure show, much like Adventures of Superman and The Lone Ranger, for CBS on Saturday mornings. Mike Henry, who would later go on to star in the Tarzan franchise, and is best known for his portrayal of Jackie Gleason's not-too-bright son Buford T. Justice, Jr. in the Smokey and the Bandit movies, was set to star as Batman.

Reportedly, DC Comics commissioned publicity photos of Henry in a Batman costume. Around this same time, the Playboy Club in Chicago was screening the Batman serials (1943's Batman and 1949's Batman and Robin) on Saturday nights. It became very popular, as the hip partygoers would cheer and applaud the Dynamic Duo, and boo and hiss at the villains. East coast ABC executive Yale Udoff, a Batman fan in childhood, attended one of these parties at the Playboy Club and was impressed with the reaction the serials were getting. He contacted West Coast ABC executives Harve Bennett and Edgar J. Scherick, who were already considering developing a TV series based on a comic strip action hero, to suggest a prime time Batman series in the hip and fun style of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

When negotiations between CBS and Graham stalled, DC quickly re-obtained rights and made the deal with ABC. ABC farmed the rights out to 20th Century Fox to produce the series. Fox, in turn, handed the project to William Dozier and his Greenway Productions. ABC and Fox were expecting a hip and fun—yet still serious—adventure show. However, Dozier, who loathed comic books, concluded the only way to make the show work was to do it as a pop art camp comedy. Originally, espionage novelist Eric Ambler was to write the motion picture that would launch the TV series, but he dropped out after learning of Dozier's camp comedy approach.

By the time ABC pushed up the debut date to January 1966, thus foregoing the movie until the summer hiatus, Lorenzo Semple, Jr. had signed on as head script writer. He wrote the pilot script, and generally kept his scripts more on the side of pop art adventure. Stanley Ralph Ross, Stanford Sherman, and Charles Hoffman were script writers who generally leaned more toward camp comedy, and in Ross' case, sometimes outright slapstick and satire. Instead of producing a one-hour show, Dozier and Semple decided to have the show air twice a week in half-hour installments with a cliffhanger connecting the two episodes, echoing the old movie serials. Eventually, two sets of screen tests were filmed, one with Adam West and Burt Ward, the other with Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell, with West and Ward winning the roles.

Major villains

The Joker—Played by Cesar Romero. Also, an enemy of Batman and Robin; possesses a twisted, malevolent sense of humor. The Joker has a habit of overpowering the station in charge of the news, and gives the Dynamic Duo clues to his crimes.

The Penguin—Played by Burgess Meredith. The Penguin is an old arch enemy of the Caped Crusaders. He baffles them with his bird and umbrella clues as to what crime he is going to commit.

The Riddler—Played principally by Frank Gorshin, and once by John Astin. Has a compulsion to present riddles that give Batman clues to his crimes. The Riddler's mind works in a twisted way. As Batman said in the first episode, "The Riddler's mind is like an artichoke. You have to rip off spiny leaves to reach the heart!"

Catwoman—Played in the first two seasons by Julie Newmar; in the third season by Eartha Kitt. Her crime sprees emphasize a "cat" motif. Newmar's Catwoman secretly loves Batman, but she still likes to try to murder him and Robin. Kitt's Catwoman displayed no underlying affection for Batman, but harbored particular antipathy toward Batgirl.

Mr. Freeze—Played one time each by George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach. Facilitates his crimes by freezing people and objects with a blast of his deadly "freeze gun" (which is also a flame-thrower on some occasions). Mr. Freeze is forced to live in an environment 50 degrees below zero.

The Mad Hatter—Played by David Wayne. An inventor who uses his many hats to hypnotize people.

Egghead— The self-proclaimed "world's smartest criminal," played by Vincent Price.

King Tut—Played by Victor Buono. An obese Yale Egyptologist who, after a blow to the head, believes he is a real pharaoh, with a gang of hoods who also believe the delusion.

Plot summary

The "teasers"

The typical story began with a villain (often one of a short list of recurring super-criminals) committing a crime, such as stealing a fabulous gem or taking over Gotham City. This was followed by a scene inside Police Commissioner Gordon's office where he and Chief O'Hara would deduce exactly which villain they were dealing with. Gordon would press a button on the Batphone, a bright red telephone located on a pedestal in his office. The scene then cut to stately Wayne Manor where Alfred the butler would answer the Batphone, which sat like a normal everyday telephone on the desk in Bruce Wayne's study. Frequently, Wayne and his ward, Dick Grayson, would be found talking with Dick's Aunt Harriet. Alfred would interrupt so they could excuse themselves and go to the Batphone. Upon learning which criminal he would face this time, Bruce would push a button concealed within a bust of Shakespeare that stood on his desk causing a bookcase to slide back and revealing two poles. "To the Batpoles!" Wayne would exclaim, at which he and Grayson would slide down to the Batcave, activating an unseen mechanism on the way that dressed them as their alter egos. Often, at this point, the title sequence would begin.

The episodes proper

Similar in style and content to the 1940s serials, they would arrive in the Batcave in full costume and jump into the Batmobile, Batman in the driver's seat. Robin would say, "Atomic batteries to power...turbines to speed." Batman would respond, "Roger, ready to move out." And the two would race off out of the cave at high speed. As the Batmobile approached the mouth of the cave, actually a tunnel entrance in Los Angeles's Bronson Canyon, a hinged barrier dropped down to allow the car to exit onto the road. Scenes from the Dynamic Duo sliding down the batpoles in the Batcave, to the arrival at Commissioner Gordon's building via the Batmobile (while the episode credits are shown), are reused footage that is used in nearly all part 1 and single episodes.

After arriving at Commissioner Gordon's office, the initial discussion of the crime usually led to the Dynamic Duo conducting their investigation alone. During the investigation, a meeting with the villain would usually ensue, with the heroes getting involved in a fight and the villain getting away, leaving a series of unlikely clues for the Duo to investigate. Later, the Duo would face the villain again, and he or she would capture one or both of the heroes and place them in a deathtrap with a cliffhanger ending which was usually resolved in the first few minutes of the next episode.

After the cliff-hangers

The same pattern was repeated in the following episode until the villain was defeated in a major brawl where the action was punctuated by superimposed onomatopoeic words, as in comic book fight scenes ("POW!", "BAM!", "ZONK!", etc.). Not counting five of the Penguin's henchmen who disintegrate or get blown up in the associated Batman theatrical movie, only three criminal characters die during the series: the Riddler's moll Molly (played by Jill St. John in Episode 2) who accidentally falls into the Batcave's atomic pile, and two out-of-town gunmen who shoot at the Dynamic Duo toward the end of the "Zelda The Great/A Death Worse Than Fate" episode, but end up killing each other instead. In "Instant Freeze," Mr. Freeze freezes a butler solid and knocks him over, causing him to smash to pieces, although this is implied rather than seen, and there is a later reference suggesting the butler survived. In "Green Ice," Mr. Freeze freezes a policeman solid; it is left unclear whether he survived or not. In "The Penguin's Nest," a policeman suffers an electric shock at the hands of the Penguin's accomplices, but he apparently survived as he appeared in some later episodes. In "The Bookworm Turns," Commissioner Gordon appears to be shot and falls off a bridge to his death, but Batman deduces that this was actually an expert high diver in disguise, employed by The Bookworm as a ruse (implying that the diver survived the fall).

Robin, in particular, was especially well known for saying "Holy (insert), Batman!" whenever he encountered something startling.

The series utilized a narrator (producer William Dozier, uncredited) who parodied both the breathless narration style of the 1940s serials and Walter Winchell's narration of The Untouchables. He would end many of the cliffhanger episodes by intoning, "Tune in tomorrow — same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!"

Only two of the series' guest villains ever discovered Batman's true identity: Egghead by deductive reasoning, and King Tut on two occasions (once with a bug on the Batmobile and once by accidentally mining into The Batcave). Egghead was tricked into disbelieving his discovery, as was Tut in the episode when he bugged the Batmobile. In the episode when Tut tunnelled into the Batcave, he was hit on the head by a rock which made him forget his discovery and jarred him back into his identity as a mild-mannered Professor of Egyptology at Yale University. (He didn't even recognize Batgirl, asking her, "Why are you wearing that purple mask, lady?")

Season 1

In Season 1, the dynamic duo, Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward), are super crime-fighting heroes, contending with the villains of Gotham City. It begins with the two-parter, "Hi Diddle Riddle" and "Smack in the Middle", featuring Frank Gorshin as The Riddler.

Season 2

In Season 2, the show suffered from repetition of its characters and formula. In addition, critics noted that the series' delicate balance of drama and humor that the first season maintained was lost as the stories became increasingly farcical. This, combined with Lorenzo Semple Jr. contributing fewer scripts and having less of an influence on the series, caused viewers to tire of the show and for critics to complain, "If you've seen one episode of Batman, you've seen them all."

Season 3

By Season 3, ratings were falling and the future of the series seemed uncertain. A promotional short featuring Yvonne Craig as Batgirl and Tim Herbert as Killer Moth was produced. The short was convincing enough to pick up Batman for another season, and introduced Batgirl as a regular on the show in an attempt to attract more female viewers. Batgirl's alter ego was Barbara Gordon, a mild-mannered librarian at the Gotham Library and Commissioner Gordon's daughter.^[3] The show was reduced to once a week, with mostly self-contained episodes, although the next week's villain would be in a tag at the end of the episode, similar to a soap opera. Accordingly, the narrator's cliffhanger phrases were eliminated, but most episodes would end with him saying something to the effect of "Watch the next episode!"

Aunt Harriet was reduced to just two cameo appearances during the third season because of Madge Blake's poor health. (Aunt Harriet was also mentioned in another episode, but was not seen; her absence was explained by her being in shock upstairs.) The nature of the scripts and acting started to enter into the realm of the surrealistic. For example, the set's backgrounds became mere two-dimensional cut-outs against a stark black stage. In addition, the third season was much more topical, with references to hippies, mods, and distinctive 1960's slang, which the previous seasons avoided.

Cancellation

Near the end of the third season, ABC planned to cut the budget even further by eliminating Robin and Chief O'Hara, and making Batgirl Batman's full-time partner. Both Dozier and West vetoed this idea, and ABC cancelled the show. Weeks later, NBC offered to pick the show up for a fourth season and even restore it to its original twice-a-week format, if the sets were still available for use. However, NBC's offer came too late: Fox had already demolished the sets a week before. NBC didn't want to pay the $800,000 for the rebuild, so the offer was withdrawn.

Cast

Regular cast

• Adam West – Batman/Bruce Wayne – A caped crusader whose parents were murdered when he was a child
• Burt Ward – Robin/Dick Grayson – Batman's faithful partner and "boy wonder".
• Alan Napier – Alfred – Batman's loyal butler.
• Neil Hamilton – Commissioner James Worthington Gordon – Gotham City Commissioner of Police.
• Stafford Repp – Chief Clancy O'Hara – Gotham City Chief of Police.
• Madge Blake – Aunt Harriet Cooper – Dick Grayson's maternal aunt.
• Yvonne Craig – Batgirl/Barbara Gordon – Commissioner Gordon's daughter and Batman's partner (Season 3).
• David Lewis – Warden Critchton – Warden of Gotham State Penitentiary (recurring).
• Byron Keith – Mayor Linseed – Mayor of Gotham City (recurring).
• William Dozier – "Desmond Doomsday", the Narrator

Several cast members recorded records tied in to the series. Adam West released a single titled "Miranda", a country-tinged pop song that he actually performed in costume during live appearances in the 1960s. Frank Gorshin released a song titled "The Riddler" which was composed and arranged by Mel Tormé. Burgess Meredith recorded a spoken word single called "The Escape" backed with "The Capture", which was The Penguin narrating his recent crime spree to a jazz beat. Burt Ward recorded a song called "Boy Wonder, I Love You", written and arranged by Frank Zappa.

Guest appearances

Although dozens of actors portrayed villains and henchmen on Batman, four criminals appeared frequently (although they were sometimes played by different people):

• Cesar Romero as The Joker
• Burgess Meredith as The Penguin
• Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt, (as well as Lee Meriwether in Batman: The Movie) as Catwoman
• Frank Gorshin and John Astin as The Riddler

Burgess Meredith told James H. Burns of Starlog Magazine, "On Batman, they ultimately kept a script always ready for me, so that when I would be in Los Angeles, they'd have a show all set to go."^[4]

Other popular villains included Mr. Freeze (played variously by George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach), Joan Collins as The Siren, David Wayne as The Mad Hatter, Victor Buono as King Tut, Roddy McDowall as The Bookworm, Walter Slezak as The Clock King, Vincent Price as Egghead, and Art Carney as The Archer.

Tallulah Bankhead's role as the Black Widow turned out to be her final screen appearance. Three other actors also played their final parts on Batman: Francis X. Bushman as Mr. Van Jones in episodes 31–32, Reginald Denny as Commodore Schmidlapp (in the Batman movie), and Douglass Dumbrille who portrayed the Doctor in episode 10.

Aside from portraying super-criminals, another coveted spot was the Batclimb Cameo. Often, as the Dynamic Duo scaled a building using Batarangs and Bat-ropes (actually filmed on a horizontal surface, with their capes held up by strings from off-camera, and aired with the shot rotated 90 degrees), a window would swing open, a celebrity would pop their head out, and a short conversation would ensue. Batclimb cameo scenes were discontinued for the third season. The personages that did these scenes were:

• Ted Cassidy as Lurch
• Dick Clark
• Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Andy Devine as Santa
• Howard Duff (who later appeared as guest villain "Cabala")
• Don Ho
• Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink
• Suzie Knickerbocker (pen name of Aileen Mehle)
• Jerry Lewis
• Art Linkletter
• Edward G. Robinson
• Van Williams and Bruce Lee as The Green Hornet and Kato (both of whom later appeared in a crossover episode as "visiting heroes")

Theme music

Popularity

Many sports, music, and media personalities, and a number of Hollywood actors, looked forward to and enjoyed their appearances as villains on the Batman show. They were generally allowed to overact and enjoy themselves on a high-rated TV series, guaranteeing them considerable exposure (and thus boosting their careers). The most popular villains on the show included Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as The Penguin, Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, and Julie Newmar as Catwoman. Other famous names from the "rogues gallery" in the comic book series made appearances on the show (notably The Mad Hatter), and some were taken from other superheroes, such as The Puzzler (a Superman villain) and The Clock King (a Green Arrow villain, who was again portrayed as a Batman villain in the 1990s animated series). Many other villains were created especially for the TV show, and never did appear in the comic books (e.g., Shame, Lorelei "The Siren" Circe, Chandell/Fingers, the Bookworm, Lord Marmaduke Ffogg, Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft, and Louie the Lilac), while some were hybrids. The comics' Mr. Zero was renamed Mr. Freeze, a name change that was copied in the comics with lasting effect, and the comics's Brainy Barrows was reworked as Egghead. The comics featured Eivol Ekdol and his partner in crime the Great Carnado. The TV show used Ekdol, but replaced Carnado with Zelda the Great. A recent comic book featured the first appearance of a version of King Tut.^[5]

A celebrity making a prominent appearance in another role was Lesley Gore, a popular singer of the 1960s, playing "Pussycat," an "apprentice" of Catwoman. On the January 19, 1967 episode, she sang her top 20 hit "California Nights." Gore was also the niece of Howie Horwitz, one of the show's producers.

Adam West enjoys the story that he was part of two of the three Big B's of the 1960s: Batman, The Beatles, and Bond.

A film based on the TV show Batman was released to in 1966. While it didn't initially perform well at the cinema, its continued re-release at theaters and showings on TV and video have proven profitable for decades. Originally, the movie had been conceived to help sell the TV series abroad, but the success of the series in America sold itself, and the film was shot after season one was filmed. The movie's budget allowed for producers to build the Batboat and Batcopter, which were used in the second and third seasons of the TV show.

The live action TV show was extraordinarily popular. At the height of its popularity, it was the only prime time TV show other than Peyton Place to be broadcast twice in one week as part of its regular schedule, airing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. Episodes of the show were filmed as two-part cliffhangers, with each storyline beginning on Wednesday and ending on the Thursday night episode (in the second season, a pair of three-parters were also seen). At the very end of the Thursday night segment, a little tag featuring the next week's villain would be shown, such as, "Next week—Batman jousts with The Joker again!" (This started the third week of the series' run and continued until the end of season two.) The first episode of a storyline would typically end with Batman and Robin being trapped in a deathtrap, while the narrator (Dozier) would tell viewers to watch the next night with the repeated phrase: "Tune in tomorrow — same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!" Even many years after the show ceased production, this catch-phrase still remained a long-running punchline in popular culture.

Parodies in the series

• The television show was famous for parodying names of many famous celebrities of the day. Among the most notable were newscasters Walter Cronkite, who was parodied as "Walter Klondike" on Batman, and Chet Huntley, who was known as "Chet Chumley" on the show. Steve Allen played a character called "Allen Stevens." J. Pauline Spaghetti, a woman who is almost tricked into giving up her fortune to the notorious European criminal "Sandman," played by Michael Rennie, is a parody on J. Paul Getty.

• Lee Meriwether, the Catwoman of the Batman movie, plays Lisa Carson, a wealthy Gotham City socialite who is kidnapped by King Tut. Lisa's father is John E. Carson – a parody on the legendary host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson.

• Gotham City's Mayor Linseed is a parody on John Lindsay, who served as Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1966 to January 1, 1974. Deputy Mayor Zorty appeared in one episode; he was a parody on Sam Yorty, who was then Mayor of Los Angeles.

• Commissioner Gordon would occasionally speak on the phone to the state's governor, Governor Stonefellow. This is a parody on Nelson Rockefeller, who served as governor of New York from 1959 to 1973.

• The Pentagon becomes "The Hexagon" in the Batman series.

• The Catwoman is known to have an additional hideout, "Cat-Lair West", across the river from Gotham City in "New Guernsey," a parody on New Jersey. (Guernsey and Jersey are both islands in the English Channel and both breeds of cattle.)

• Gotham's "Short Island" was a parody of New York's Long Island.

• Gotham's "Phony Island" was a parody of New York's Coney Island

• In the episode "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," in which Ida Lupino appeared as the episode's title villain, Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft, the evil alchemist steals the Mope Diamond, a parody on the famous Hope Diamond, from Spiffany's Jewellers. Spiffany's is a parody on Tiffany & Co.

• One of Woodrow Roosevelt High School's basketball rivals is "Disko Tech," a homophone of discotheque.

• The three-part Londinium story arc during final season ("The Londinium Larcenies," "The Foggiest Notion," and "The Bloody Tower") was the series' tribute to the Swinging London period of the 1960s. At the time of the show, British pop culture was popular in North America. Many aspects of London were parodied during the three episodes. The city's name is changed to Londinium, which was the British capital's name during Roman times. Scotland Yard becomes "Ireland Yard" in the series. Carnaby Street becomes "Barnaby Street." Fleet Street, the city's press district, is changed to "Bleat Street."

• Alan Hale Jr., who became best-known in America for portraying the Skipper of the S. S. Minnow on Gilligan's Island, appeared as Gilligan, the owner/cook of a diner, in "The Ogg And I." (The title itself is a parody of The Egg And I, the film comedy that introduced the characters of Ma and Pa Kettle, who maintained a chicken-and-egg farm.)

• The episode "The Bats Kow Tow" features a hair stylist named "Mr. Oceanbring", a play on, and played by, Jay Sebring (later a victim of the notorious Manson Murders).

After the series run

1970s reunions

In 1972, Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig reunited as Robin and Batgirl, with Dick Gautier stepping in as Batman (Adam West was, at the time, trying to distance himself from the Batman role), and narration by William Dozier, for an Equal Pay public service announcement. In 1977, Adam West and Burt Ward returned to the Batman universe in animated form. West and Ward lent their voices to Batman and Robin respectively, on the Filmation-produced animated series, The New Adventures of Batman. West would once again reprise his role as Batman in animated form when he succeeded Olan Soule in the final two seasons of Super Friends. In 1979, West, Ward, and Frank Gorshin reunited on NBC for Hanna-Barbera's two Legends of the Superheroes TV specials. In the 1980s, several cast members would team up for a series of celebrity editions of Family Feud.

Legacy

The series' stars, Adam West and Burt Ward, were typecast for decades afterwards, with West especially finding himself unable to escape the undeserved reputation the series gave him as a hammy, campy actor. However, years after the series' impact faded, An episode of Batman: The Animated Series paid tribute to West with an episode entitled "Beware The Grey Ghost." In this episode, West played the role of an aging star of a superhero TV series Bruce Wayne had watched as a child, and would be inspired by as a crimefighter, who found new popularity with the next generation of fans. He would also play Gotham City's Mayor Grange as a somewhat recurring role in The Batman. In addition, the most frequent visual influence is that later Batmobiles usually have a rear rocket thruster that usually fires as the car makes a fast start.

In 2003, West and Ward reunited for a tongue-in-cheek telefilm titled Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt which combined dramatized recreations of the filming of the original series (with younger actors standing in for the stars), with modern day footage of West and Ward searching for a stolen Batmobile. The film included cameo appearances by Newmar and Gorshin, as well as Lee Meriwether, who had played Catwoman in the 1966 film and Lyle Waggoner, who had been an early candidate for the role of Batman. Yvonne Craig did not appear in the movie — she reportedly disliked the script. The movie received high ratings and was released on DVD May 2005.

A line spoken by Robin (Chris O'Donnell) in Batman Forever is a homage to the TV Robin's catch-phrase. During the movie he says, "Holey rusted metal, Batman," (referring to a structure of rusted metal riddled with holes) which sounds intentionally similar to lines spoken by Robin beginning with the word "Holy" and ending with "...Batman!" The upcoming graphic novel Holy Terror, Batman! also references this catch-phrase.

The animated TV series Batman: The Brave and the Bold is influenced by the 1960s TV series. The opening credits feature Batman rope-climbing up a building, something that Adam West often did in the show.^[6] Several villains from the 1960s show including King Tut, Egghead, Mad Hatter, Archer, Bookworm, False Face, Black Widow, Siren, Marsha Queen of Diamonds, Louie the Lilac, Ma Parker, and Shame make cameo appearances as prisoners at Iron Heights prison in the episode "Day of the Dark Knight!". They are all captured by Batman and Green Arrow during a mass escape attempt. The episode "Game Over for Owlman!" shows a room in the Batcave containing "souvenirs" of deathtraps that the Joker employed in the 1960s series, with accompanying flashbacks: the giant key from the "Human Key Duplicator" from "The Impractical Joker", the slot-machine-controlled electric chair from "The Joker Goes to School", and the giant clam from "The Joker's Hard Times". The episode "The Color of Revenge!" begins with a flashback to the time of the 1960s TV series, using attributes such as the red hot-line phone, the bust of Shakespeare, the sliding bookcase, the bat-poles, Robin in his old TV-series costume, and the shot of Batman and Robin fastening their seat belts in the Batmobile.

Home video (non-) release

Despite considerable popular demand,^[7] no official home entertainment release (VHS, laserdisc or DVD) of the series has occurred to date anywhere in the world, with the situation seemingly unlikely to be resolved in the near future.

Conflicting reports of the reasons behind the non-release of the series point to a number of different factors, some, none or all of which may indeed play a part. These include:

• Disagreement between DC Comics, owners of the Batman character after DC's sister/parent company Warner Bros. took over DC in 1976, in which Warner Bros. could also be involved, and 20th Century Fox, owners of the program itself. Gord Lacey's influential TV/DVD website TVShowsonDVD.com is often quoted in support of this much-discussed theory, after a story the website ran in December, 2005.^[8]
  • Commentators have suggested that DC Comics itself is not involved, and that Warner and Fox are reluctant to work with each other. This was denied by a Warner spokesperson in 2005 during their semi-regular "Home Theater Forum" chat, where it was stated that the issues were between Fox and DC alone, with Warner playing no part in negotiations.^[9]
  • The argument has been made that DC does not wish to distort the current image of the Dark Knight by having the overtly-campy 1960s series competing head-to-head with more modern takes, such as Tim Burton's Batman film and its sequels or Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. DC may indeed be distancing itself from the 1960s series. A solicited cover by Mike Allred for issue #7 of Solo—a 2005 DC Comics series—featured Batman doing the Batusi. The cover, based on Adam West and a memorably campy episode of the TV series, was replaced by the time of Solo #7's release. Allred explains that the cover was pulled by "higher ups" for reasons largely unknown.^[10] Speculation over the reasons first intimated that potential infringement of rights were the issue, but this was soon replaced with suggestions that its "campy" nature was the real factor in its removal. At the time of the issue's release, DVDs of Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, and Batman Begins were also being promoted, and DC's chief editor Dan Didio reportedly does not like camp.^[11]
• Greenway/ABC/Fox rights issues. The Batman series was conceived as an equal partnership between William Dozier's Greenway Productions and Fox in 1964, before Fox entered into a separate agreement with ABC to produce the series in 1965. With three companies involved almost from the outset, there is some speculation that these rights are tangled even before the DC Comics character-ownership rights are to be considered. Moreover:
  • In 2006, Deborah Dozier Potter, "the successor-in-interest to Greenway Productions" sued Fox for allegedly withholding monies under the Fox/ABC agreement.^[12][13] Dozier Potter further claimed that this came to her attention when, in March 2005: "she considered releasing the series on DVD," implying that (from her perspective at least) Greenway/Dozier Potter has some say in the matter of potentional DVD release of the series. (The case was resolved/dismissed in November, 2007, In February 2005 John Stacks had approached Deborah Dozier Potter to market the series on DVD. There were many offers and lots of interest in the release of the series, as can be read in Joel Eisner's The Official Batbook Revised Bat Edition 2008.^[14])
• Other complications/rights issues:
  • Christopher D. Heer, writing at the "1966 Batman Message Board", clarified a quote by moderator Lee Kirkham, noting that there will likely be the need for complicated deals regarding cameos, since "...at least some of the cameos were done as uncredited, unpaid walk-ons – which means that Fox does NOT have home video clearances for them. Either those scenes would have to be cut or an agreement reached with the actors."^[15]
  • Kirkham's initial quote also noted that, alongside music clearance issues, there could also be problems over some of the costumes, and the original Batmobile:

"It may surprise you, but then there are also rights issues concerning the design of the unique Batmobile design used in the show, and possibly a separate issue regarding some of the costumes as well!"^[16]

The series, under the Fox/ABC deal, is however still in syndication, and regularly shown on a number of channels around the world. Thus far, though, only the 1966 feature film is available on DVD for non-broadcast viewing in North America. This also affected the 2003 television movie reunion Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt, also released to DVD, which was able to make use of footage only from the 1966 movie.

It is commonplace for DVD releases of TV series to include extra features, such as documentaries and commentaries. With Batman being unavailable for home-video release an unusual situation has occurred in which material that would be considered DVD featurettes has been released separately. In 2004, Image Entertainment released Holy Batmania, a two-DVD set that included documentaries on the making of the series, as well as rare footage such as the original screen tests of the cast and Lyle Waggoner.^[17] And in 2008, Adam West released a privately issued DVD with the tongue-in-cheek title Adam West Naked for which he recorded anecdotes regarding all 120 episodes of the series.^[18]

Collectibles

The episodes introducing Catwoman ("The Purr-fect Crime" / "Better Luck Next Time") were the subject of a View-Master reel & booklet set in 1966 (Sawyers Packet # B492). While the series was first-run on ABC, packet cover indicia reflected the "Bat Craze" cultural phenomenon by referring to the booklet as a "Batbooklet, Dynamically illustrated." By the time the TV series was cancelled in 1968, and GAF had taken over the View-Master product, "Batbooklet" was removed in favor of then-standard View-Master packaging for all future releases in the decades to follow, right up the period when the standard packet line was discontinued.

The first season's superimposed fight onomatopoeias were not used for the View-Master's scenes of fights. Instead, black-lined "blast" balloons (transparent inside), and series-like onomatopoeias were illustrated and superimposed over fight images.

References

External links

• Batman at the Internet Movie Database
• Batman at TV.com
• Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Bat-Mania UK :: 1966 Batman
• The 1966 Batman TV Tribute Site
• The BatCave Fan Site
• The Bat Pages Note: this website contains the original screentests of Adam West, Burt Ward, and Lyle Waggoner.
• Batman: The Series @ Batman: Yesterday, Today, & Beyond
• Batman: The Movie @ Batman: Yesterday, Today, & Beyond
• BATMAN ON FILM
• Television Obscurities – Batgirl Promotional Short

1966–1968 Batman television series Characters adapted for the series Alfred Â· The Archer Â· Batgirl / Barbara Gordon Â· Batman / Bruce Wayne Â· Catwoman Â· Clock King Â· Aunt Harriet Cooper Â· False-Face Â· Commissioner James Gordon Â· The Green Hornet Â· The Joker Â· Kato Â· The Mad Hatter Â· Mr. Freeze Â· The Penguin Â· The Puzzler Â· The Riddler Â· Robin / Dick Grayson Characters created for the series Egghead Â· King Tut Â· Chief O'Hara Vehicles & gadgetry Batmobile Â· Batboat Â· Batcopter Â· Batcycle Â· Batsuit Â· Bat phone Â· Batcomputer In story locations Gotham City Â· Batcave Â· Wayne Manor Â· Londinium Related topics Shows Legends of the Superheroes Â· The New Adventures of Batman Â· Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt Â· The Green Hornet Films Batman (1966 film) Music "Batman Theme" Lists Episodes (List) Â· List of Batman television series cast members Other Batusi See also: Batman franchise media Â· Joker's appearances in other media Â· Robin in other media Â· Barbara Gordon in other media

Batman franchise media Live-action television Batman (1966–1968) Â· Legends of the Superheroes (1979) Â· OnStar commercials (2000–2002) Â· Birds of Prey (2002–2003) Â· Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (2003) Live-action serials and films Batman (1943) Â· Batman and Robin (1949) Â· Batman (1966) Â· Batman (1989) Â· Batman Returns (1992) Â· Batman Forever (1995) Â· Batman & Robin (1997) Â· Batman Begins (2005) Â· The Dark Knight (2008) Animated television The Adventures of Batman (1967–1968) Â· The Batman/Superman Hour (1968–1969) Â· Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder (1969–1970) Â· The New Adventures of Batman (1977–1981) Â· Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995) Â· The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999) Â· Batman Beyond (1999–2001) Â· The Batman (2004–2008) Â· Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008–present) Animated films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) Â· Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998) Â· Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) Â· Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003) Â· The Batman vs. Dracula (2005) Â· Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) Â· Batman: Gotham Knight (2008) Â· Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009) Â· Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010) Â· Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) Â· Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010) Related TV series Super Friends (1973–1986) Â· Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000) Â· Static Shock (2000–2004) Â· The Zeta Project (2001–2002) Â· Justice League (2001–2004) Â· Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006) Other Bruce Wayne (Unproduced live-action TV series)

List of live-action television programs based on DC Comics TV series Adventures of Superman (1952–1958) Â· Batman (1966–1968) Â· Shazam! (1975–1977) Â· Wonder Woman (1976–1979) Â· Superboy (1988–1992) Â· Swamp Thing (1990-1993) Â· The Flash (1990–1991) Â· Human Target (1992) Â· Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–1997) Â· Smallville (2001– ) Â· Birds of Prey (2002–2003) Â· Human Target (2010– ) TV movies Wonder Woman (1974) Â· The New Original Wonder Woman (1975) Â· Justice League of America (1997) TV specials The Adventures of Superpup (unsold pilot) (1958) Â· The Adventures of Superboy (unsold pilot) (1961) Â· It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman (musical play) (1975) Â· Legends of the Superheroes (two shows) (1979) Â· Global Frequency (unsold pilot) (2005) Â· Aquaman (unsold pilot) (2006)

The Green Hornet Creators Fran Strikerʉۢ George W. Trendle Television The Green Hornetʉۢ (Episodes) Film The Green Hornet (serial)ʉۢ The Green Hornet Strikes Again!ʉۢ The Green Hornet (2006 film short)ʉۢ The Green Hornet (2011 film) Related Katoʉۢ The Lone Rangerʉۢ Batman (TV series)ʉۢ "Flight of the Bumblebee"