Batman 1966 turns 50
 

http://comicbook.com/2016/01/12/its-...show-premiere/

Today is the day the popular Adam West tv series has turned 50 years old. They will be releasing an animated movie and releasing a Lego Batman set both based on the tv series. It also shows that Batman can work both dark and light-hearted.

What is your experience with the tv series.

Saw the movie once as a kid. Hated it. Still do.

Did ANY good come out of this TV series? Did it keep Batman as an IP alive in American culture?

Somebody sell me on this.

Batman's Fred Wolf, pretty much sums it up.

Yeah, but I don't think the Adam West show kept the brand alive and made possible future better adaptations. Am I wrong on this?

Brave and the Bold pretty much did this only way better.

Still love it though.

It did, actually. The comic books were pretty much dying and the Adam West series pretty much saved Batman from being cancelled as a brand and also started what was known as "Bat-maina", not unlike Turtle-mania.

Okay, cool! I did not know that!

Oh man. I unequivocally love this show. But it's absolutely not for everyone. I loved it watching old re-runs as a kid, then thought it was cheesy and "silly" as a teenager/young adult, then found a whole new love for it once I learned to appreciate camp. Because everything about this show was 100% deliberate. But camp can be very divisive.

Yep, exactly. And my appreciation for it kind of hinges on it not being considered "the" Batman anymore, and the property largely stepping out of its shadow since.

The TMNT, on the other hand, are still in the Fred Wolf cartoon's shadow and it looks like that's not going to change any time soon, so any appreciation I have for that show is mixed in with some resentment. :trazz:

(Though FW TMNT is also much more uneven in quality, and at times flat-out lousy, than Batman '66 ever was.)

Not really.

They convinced DC to come up with Batgirl, because they wanted a female lead for the show.

I think it was the first Batman TV series.

Um... that bangin' theme song..?

Batgirl wasn't already a thing in the comics?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Gordon

On that note, Happy B-day Batman '66. I just started watching the show myself awhile back and I'm currently on episode 7.

Holy crap. I never knew that! I mean, I knew about the original Batwoman and Batgirl, but... wow. :teek:

Okay, so basically, without Adam West Batman, there is no Batgirl.

Kinda like how we have Fred Wolf to thank for Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady? I can dig it. :tlol:

Batman '66 literally saved the Batman franchise and was the first exposure of Batman to the mainstream. I'm surprised you don't know this.

Batman comics were on the verge of being canceled. He was nothing more than an obscure comic character.

The 60's Batman show is what made Batman famous and a mainstream character. It was the first exposure to Batman for millions of people

If I did know it, I forgot. I had no idea Batman '66 was such a direct parallel to FW TMNT.

Now, I do already know that Marvel nearly bought DC at one point... THAT would have been interesting, to say the least.

How do you think people would have ever known about Batman prior to the 60's series? It was a comic, not everyone reads comics.

The 60's show did the same thing for that generation as the 1989 Batman movie and B:TAS did for the 90's generation, it brought Batman back for an entire new generation of fans who had no idea who he was.

I dunno, Batman's been around forever. Same as Dick Tracy or Superman. When characters have been around THAT long, I don't pay as much attention to the origins or history.

I only go back as far as GOOD Batman. Or, at least, Batman that appeals to me, which is the '90's. Around the time of "No Man's Land" in the comics, and Batman TAS. Anything before that just doesn't do it for me...

No? I'd say it was a lot more consistent (aside from the format slightly changing in season three). Though it didn't run as long, so I guess it's hard to directly compare.

FW TMNT had some severe dips in quality over its run, though. I wouldn't really say the same about Batman '66.

It definitely is in some ways, yeah. The main difference is that Batman had been around for 27 years before the '66 show and had starred in a bunch of movie serials in the '40s. Nothing that had the same cultural impact, but he was a "known" character already and had a history in a way the TMNT weren't/didn't yet.

All the same, yep, the show definitely popularized Batman with the mainstream audience the same way the FW show did for the TMNT. And with a somewhat similar camp sensibility.

Now the TMNT just needs its own "Batman '89" at this point in the game. :trazz:

You do realize at the time the 60's show came out, Batman was only about 25 years old, right? Likewise Batman had franchise fatigue at that point and the comics were on the verge of being canceled.

I mean, NOW we think of Batman being around forever since the 1930's is a long as hell time ago. But the 60's were a lot closer to it than now, obviously. 60's Batman revived the franchise.

30 years of Batman before a TV show is forever in terms of a character's lifecycle. Least in my opinion it is.