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

[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]

Originally Posted by sdp

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by neatoman

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.c...sycat.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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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]

Originally Posted by Autbot_Benz

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]

Originally Posted by Autbot_Benz

Also Bane didn’t debut in comics till 1993

The original Vengeance of Bane dropped in December of 1992.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by IMJ

SDP was flaming......

Flame baiting!

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

The original Vengeance of Bane dropped in December of 1992.

Now you're flaming.

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Flame baiting!

Oh.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

The original Vengeance of Bane dropped in December of 1992.

Now you're flame baiting!