Happy 60th anniversary to 'Batman' the TV series!

[ranger_scout]

Even though I was born after the series debuted, it aired on syndication in the 90s and I was a fan. This was my introduction to these characters. It's campy, yes, but still fun.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/feature/60-years-ago-dc-launched-a-tv-show-with-an-awful-audience-test-but-it-became-a-success/

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Barbara Gordon/Batgirl was my first TV crush even before Kimberly Hart from Power Rangers.

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Three amazing women, Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, and also Eartha Kitt played Catwoman.

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R.I.P. Adam West, Yvonne Craig, Eartha Kitt, and the other iconic actors from this show who passed away.

[neatoman]

While I know the show is 120 episodes long and I've only seen the first two and the movie, so I can't speak for the quality of the whole show, but I still have to say that what I've seen isn't very good. The plots of both those first two episodes and the movie are quite bad and acting is really hammy. It's not just that it's goofy, it is way goofier than the rest of the Batman adaptation and I knew that going in, but it's more so that the plots seem to have a lot of unnecessary elements and the actors seem to treat more things like they're meant to be funny even when it doesn't seem like it's meant to be. Even the few moments that are played seriously are just bizarre, Riddler's henchwoman infiltrates the Batcave and she dies by just climbing into a nuclear reactor for reasons I don't understand, just weird.

[ZariusTwo]

The show is actually meant to be a parody played straight...then gradually it forgot what it's purpose was. The producers even admitted the audience stopped finding it funny after a season.

[CyberCubed]

I saw reruns of this way back in the 90's as a kid but I never seriously ever sat down and watched it since. I'm glad it made Batman mainstream for kids in the 60's and 70's, before this he was just a comic book character. And this of course led to Batman '89 movie and then B:TAS and the rest is history.

So it's ironic to think without this show, the Batman we know today would not exist.

[ToTheNines]

That’s not irony.

[TheUltimateBum]

This show pretty much has the one actor that I consider the perfect Batman. Adam West did a good job in the role here, but I think he was even better when he played the character in animation (his best performances as Batman IMO are in The Super Powers Team episode The Fear, where his voice and performance just goes really well with the Neal Adams-esque design as well as the darker atmosphere, the DAVE School fan film and his final performance in Batman vs. Two-Face). I feel with the passing of time, he got better in the role, and it's pretty much the one actor that I feel works for various versions of Batman (whether it be the original, the square-jawed Dick Sprang version or the darker Neal Adams design).

[Barkworm]

Come to think of it, the 1966 film was my introduction to Batman. I had never heard of the character before. As a four-year old, I didn’t even realize that it was supposed to be funny, I just loved the costumes, villains and zany brawls.

[ranger_scout]

Here are Batgirl's 10 best and worst moments in the series. I mostly agree with where they are all ranked, especially her best moments.

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[cammy85]

I watched ther first story last night, Screw waiting for tomorrow to find out what happens; though of course I know by heart anyway. The pilot is so well done.

[IMJ]

I loved the show, and as a kid I dreamt for the day where you could somehow watch them whenever you wanted to. I thought the same thing about G.I. Joe and Transformers back then.

Now we have that and I can't imagine sitting through these all beginning to end again in my life, although the show has a place in my heart for its impact on me as a kid in the 80s.

[MikeandRaph87]

Batman'66 had so much impact on Batman as a whole that is unknown and helped shape it for the better and its not just IMHO. Thanks to the show Alfred was returned to life, The Riddler became a mainstay, Catwoman was allowed to return as a reoccurring character, Mr. Freeze's one appearance being reprinted at the perfect time got the character to be adapted and even if its not the TAS version it brought a great character out of one-shot obscurity, Batgirl/Barbara Gordon was commissioned by the show to be introduced in multimedia and gave it such exposure that it shows the medium can be fun not just grim. Batman'66 is one of the two Batman other medias I always go back to, the other being the other defining adaptation Batman:TAS. These two shaped Batman into what I love.

I don't care much for the made-for-tv villains and would have rather have had Scarecrow, Clayface, Two Face, and Poison Ivy adapted though. Getting six villains who are still viable to this day shows the strength of the characters. Mr. Freeze. Mad Hatter was the Imposter Mad Hatter at the time,but David Wayne did great in his two stories. I particularly love Frank Gorshin and Julie Newmar's portrayals, iconic mix of threatening and manic. No one has matched either one though Anne Hathaway comes close.

Batman'66 was maybe the earliest adaptation of a franchise phenomenon that comes in go just as our beloved TMNT (1987) was the centerpiece of TMNT popularity from the late 80s to the mid 90s between He-Man and Power Rangers holding the pop culture crown.

[neatoman]

Speaking of villains that didn't make it into the show, I know they planned on using Two-Face but decided the idea of a villain with half his face burnt off was too gruesome.

[MikeandRaph87]

Speaking of villains that didn't make it into the show, I know they planned on using Two-Face but decided the idea of a villain with half his face burnt off was too gruesome.

The late legend Len Wein took the script that went used in early season 2 and made it into a one-shot.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-66-The-Lost-Episode/Full?id=89014

[IMJ]

Funko made a really great line of 3.75" figures for this show some years back. It's a truly awesome little collection - highly recommended if you can find them.

[CyberCubed]

Wasn't this show the reason people thought Robin was gay because he's basically not wearing any pants?

[neatoman]

Wasn't this show the reason people thought Robin was gay because he's basically not wearing any pants?

No, Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent" was published twelve years before this show aired, that's typically pointed to as the reason people make gay jokes about Batman characters.

[cammy85]

I don't think AI is allowed here, but I did recently make a picture depicting William Shatner from the 1970s as Two-Face seeing as how he did of course voice Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Batman vs. Two-Face. It actually turned out good. It of course depends on the AI source you use. The picture shows Two-Face looking to his right and kinda at the camera with a coin in his hand. Behind him are four henchmen clad in purple and black striped shirts and black pants.

[ZariusTwo]

I don't think AI is allowed here.

It is. And encouraged more than other spineless futurephobic forums.

[Barkworm]

I hate AI but what people do with it for fan fiction is their business.

[sdp]

I have never watched it. I watched the 60s movie in the early/mid 2000s on dvd. I couldn't believe the disrespect for Batman. Granted to me Batman was BTAS and the 90s movies. I could not stomach a silly Batman and thought it was a huge disgrace to the legacy.

Since then I've realized the whole gritty batman is very silly since the world is already too cartoony and the more realistic the sillier it is so I started embracing the more comic book aspects of batman and started disliking the very serious takes. Ironic how Batman became so realistic it became silly in retrospect.

I should probably give this show a watch one day.

[CyberCubed]

The series has way too many episodes to give it a proper watch now, I think people are unaware how long this show actually was. 120 episodes and a movie. Which is a very long run for a show like this.

[IMJ]

I could not stomach a silly Batman and thought it was a huge disgrace to the legacy.

That show might have, in many ways, actually granted Batman his "legacy" to be honest.

[ZariusTwo]

I have never watched it. I watched the 60s movie in the early/mid 2000s on dvd. I couldn't believe the disrespect for Batman

This was exactly how the comics were at the time, so yeah, if you're embracing the silver age sillyness now in your later years, it's worth a watch.

Batman: TAS, and even by extension the DCAU, wasn't always the super serious stuff it's revisionist historians demand people believe it is either, there's a lot of absurd stories in it.

[CyberCubed]

This show actually revived the Batman brand. Weren't Batman comics selling really poorly in this era till the show made the franchise mainstream? People forget there was once a time Batman was not a household name. All our parents generation, the boomers, who were kids or teens in the 60's grew up in this era.

It's weird to think the boomers made Batman and Star Trek popular. They were the kids during the 60's with nothing much to watch that weren't comedies and a few other sci-fi shows.

[IMJ]

Yup.

That was my point above about the "legacy" thing. That show basically made Batman a household name and kept people interested enough that guys like Dennis O'Neil came along and reinvented the character again which led to Batman '89.

Who knows what would have become of the I.P. had that show not come along and kept the sensibility of the 60's. It was and still is accessible because of that. Not that I want more of it, but still....

[TheUltimateBum]

The series has way too many episodes to give it a proper watch now, I think people are unaware how long this show actually was. 120 episodes and a movie. Which is a very long run for a show like this.

It was. I actually managed to watch it fully last year. I think it's very enjoyable overall, and I still found myself laughing at a lot of the more ridiculous stuff, but not everything has aged gracefully (the first Egghead story has veteran actor Edward Everett Horton in redface playing "Chief Screaming Chicken") and there were some episodes where the villains dragged it down (the second Mr. Freeze story isn't one of my favorites because I felt Otto Preminger was pretty lame and didn't feel either threatening or fun, and then there was the Londinium saga, which had Rudy Vallée, who I'm not a big fan of, playing a rather lame villain).

[ranger_scout]

Adam West wasn't surprised at all when Eartha Kitt, a woman of color, took over the role of Catwoman in the third season even though it was the 1960s. Her predecessors Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether thought her purr was even better than theirs.

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[sdp]

Can you imagine the drama incels would've made in social media today if in the third season of a popular Batman show they replaced Catwoman with a black actress? Just the inceldrome alone would've had a 20 page thread about it.

Do they even have secret identities in the 60s show? Is it specifically said it's Selina Kyle? How did she become black in that case if she was white before? Or is her civilan name never mentioned and we can think it's someone else?

[ToTheNines]

They should make a fat black Catwoman.

[CyberCubed]

Is there any reason this show never used Scarecrow, Two Face, Poison Ivy, etc? Seems weird so many classic Batman villains were left out when they existed in the comics at the time.

[IMJ]

Can you imagine the drama incels would've made in social media today if in the third season of a popular Batman show they replaced Catwoman with a black actress? Just the inceldrome alone would've had a 20 page thread about it.

Back then these moments were about real opportunity. Now they are about nothing more than "the message" and the "white crush". There is a huge difference in behavior and intent.

But I think you know this and today we are getting "SDP the prodder" instead of "SDP the realist". Stability, dude. :P

[neatoman]

Is there any reason this show never used Scarecrow, Two Face, Poison Ivy, etc? Seems weird so many classic Batman villains were left out when they existed in the comics at the time.

I already pointed out the reason Two-Face was absent, the idea of showing a character with a severely mutilated face seemed too disturbing. As for Poison Ivy. I don't know but she was introduced about half a year after the show started and then it ended a little less than two years later, if I had to speculate then I'd say she just wasn't ever on the radar. With Scarecrow it should be noted that he was an old character but barely appeared until after the show had been going for a year, so he likely wasn't on the radar either. Even if they had looked into the character, he's mostly known for drugging people with fear inducing psychedelics, if Two-Face's scars seemed too disturbing then I don't think that concept would have endeared them.

As for anyone else, you might as well ask why Dr. Death, Black Mask, Zsasz, Cluemaster and Anarky were never in the 90's cartoon, it simply doesn't happen that every villain shows up in every incarnation of a franchise.

[MikeandRaph87]

I already pointed out the reason Two-Face was absent, the idea of showing a character with a severely mutilated face seemed too disturbing. As for Poison Ivy. I don't know but she was introduced about half a year after the show started and then it ended a little less than two years later, if I had to speculate then I'd say she just wasn't ever on the radar. With Scarecrow it should be noted that he was an old character but barely appeared until after the show had been going for a year, so he likely wasn't on the radar either. Even if they had looked into the character, he's mostly known for drugging people with fear inducing psychedelics, if Two-Face's scars seemed too disturbing then I don't think that concept would have endeared them.

As for anyone else, you might as well ask why Dr. Death, Black Mask, Zsasz, Cluemaster and Anarky were never in the 90's cartoon, it simply doesn't happen that every villain shows up in every incarnation of a franchise.

Poison Ivy like Two Face was a near-miss. She was created to give the Bat-corner of DC more female characters beyond Catwoman. Catwoman's accomplice played by Leslie Gore, singer and niece of the show's producer, was meant to be Poison Ivy, but ABC suits changed things from the intended.

https://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2020/11/poison-ivypussycat.html?m=1

[sdp]

Kinda weird that Harley Quinn didn't appear, she's the Joker's partner in crime and huge. Same with Bane, those are some pretty big omissions. I know it was the 60s but were they retarded or something?

[IMJ]

You know I just read the comments here and looked over to my bookshelf at my left and realized that I've had the Batman '66 Omnibus here, probably for a few years now in the shrink wrap and have never read it.

God I hate it when that happens. I have so much stuff like that.

[Autbot_Benz]

Kinda weird that Harley Quinn didn't appear, she's the Joker's partner in crime and huge. Same with Bane, those are some pretty big omissions. I know it was the 60s but were they retarded or something?

Harley Quinn wasn’t created until Batman The Animated Series came out. Come on everyone knows that. Also Bane didn’t debut in comics till 1993

[IMJ]

Harley Quinn wasn’t created until Batman The Animated Series came out. Come on everyone knows that. Also Bane didn’t debut in comics till 1993

SDP was flaming......

[Andrew NDB]

Also Bane didn’t debut in comics till 1993

The original Vengeance of Bane dropped in December of 1992.

[ToTheNines]

SDP was flaming......

Flame baiting!

[IMJ]

The original Vengeance of Bane dropped in December of 1992.

Now you're flaming.

Flame baiting!

Oh.

The original Vengeance of Bane dropped in December of 1992.

Now you're flame baiting!

[ranger_scout]

Do they even have secret identities in the 60s show? Is it specifically said it's Selina Kyle? How did she become black in that case if she was white before? Or is her civilan name never mentioned and we can think it's someone else?

When the three actresses appeared at the TV Land Awards, they said all of them were playing the same character, Selina Kyle.

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However, other says that Kitt and Merriwether were playing different characters because in one of the last episodes of season 3, a body double was playing Catwoman and she was white. In the 2017 animated film Batman vs. Two-Face, which was released after Adam West's death, it was largely hinted that Merriwether's Catwoman in the 1966 movie was a different woman because Newmar's Catwoman escaped from jail in the 2017 animated film and she had a different lady take her place in prison by having her wear Catwoman's suit.

[Autbot_Benz]

SDP was flaming......

I thought I fell into an sdp troll trap :lol:

[sdp]

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/063/585/1209077053849_jpg__roflposters_com__myspace.jpg