TV Cream

TV: B is for...

Batman

Dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner“IN TONIGHT’S CAPE-TIVATING EPISODE…” Cue Batcave, Wayne Manor, Batarangs, Alfred, Bat Utility belt, Police Chief O’Hara, Batpoles (with cunningly concealed button under bust of Shakespeare), Commissioner Gordon, “Zap!” “Pow!” “Zowie!”, lighty-up batphone, Auntie Harriet, walking up horizontal wall with guest stars in windows, “tune in next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel”, “dananananana” theme plus dodgy animated titles of various 2D baddies flying slowly through the air, “atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed”, that sign flopping down to let the car through, Penguin (BURGESS MEREDITH), Joker (CAESAR ROMERO), Catwoman (LEE MERIWETHER, JULIE NEWMAR, EARTHA KITT), Riddler (FRANK GORSHIN), The “Devil” (JOAN CRAWFORD), Egghead (VINCENT PRICE), Chandell (LIBERACE) etc. And that’s more or less it.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. paulus - Bangkok

    July 16, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    Adam West to Bart Simpson
    “Michelle Pfieffer… bah, there is only ONE cat-woman; LEE MERIWETHER, JULIE NEWMAR, Ertha Kitt”

    it’s sarc-tastic!

  2. Paul

    September 30, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    Burt Ward, by all accounts had trouble keeping himself inside his trunks – much to the chagrin of many a studio personal assistant. Holy mysogeny!

  3. Jakey Doodles

    February 15, 2010 at 12:25 am

    some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.

  4. televisualcabbage

    February 15, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    Adam West… Adam West… (to the tune of Eidelweiss)

    Now plying his trade as the mayor of Quhog in Family Guy having a relationship with Meg Griffin, being beaten in the mayoral election and rolling around in nuclear waste to get Superpowers…

    Some days, you just want to be Batman…

  5. John Harvey

    June 8, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    Does anyone else remember the “Batman Is Coming!” adverts which ran for weeks before the seies started? Nothing else, no voice over, just “Batman Is Coming!” flashed onto the screen.

  6. Nick

    August 20, 2010 at 11:47 pm

    Batman may have been shown in other regions from 1966 but TWW chose not to show it. We had to wait for HTV to take over the franchise in 1968 before Zap, Pow, Biff, Ooof etc appeared on our screens.

    Even then it was only used as a filler, shown in four 15 minute segments from Tuesday to Friday between the local news and Crossroads.

  7. Paul Norton

    May 6, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    I remember Batman and Robin coming on before the show started telling us kids not to jump out of windows. As if you would…

  8. Richard16378

    May 6, 2011 at 6:29 pm

    I remember it was shown as a segment of WAC in the 1980s (even before the TV-AM strike) & by Channel 4 on summer mornings until the mid 1990s.

    Currently there’s a few rights issues stopping any DVD releases, & possibly any more TV screenings.

  9. Matty

    January 21, 2014 at 8:23 pm

    When it was shown on Wide Awake Club they sometimes had to loudly remind viewers that the next episode would be shown in the mornings as part of WAC and not “tomorrow night” as the American voiceover at the end of some episodes continued to exclaim.

    Interesting how well-liked and fondly remembered this has become considering that at the time of the first Tim Burton film it was seen as an embarrassing, dated joke which had made fun of a dark comic book character.

  10. Richard16378

    January 21, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    It’s was always a shock to find out about Batman’s “dark knight” persona after years of only watching this series.

    I was pleased to hear the right issues preventing a DVD release seem to have been sorted out at long last.

  11. Joanne Gray

    February 6, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    Whoever is responsible for the write up needs sacking. Who is “Aunt Edie”? It’s Aunt Harriet.

    • TV Cream

      February 6, 2017 at 9:28 pm

      Holy erroneous familial reference, Batwoman! Thanks for that Joanne. Now fixed.

  12. Glenn Aylett

    November 28, 2021 at 1:54 pm

    The comic strip was a lot darker than this camp sixties piece of fun that people of a certain age remember fondly. I do remember getting a Batman annual for my 11th birthday and a story involving The Joker poisoning people with coffee and flower bouquets being far more sinister than the television show, which was still being shown on Tyne Tees in the late seventies. Probably the comic strip inspired the films, which were completely removed from the sixties television series.

  13. Droogie

    November 30, 2021 at 4:08 pm

    Adam West made a smart comment that most men of a certain generation go through 3 ages of Batman the TV show:

    Age 7 – This is the greatest TV show ever!

    Age 14 – This show is stupid.

    Age 35 – This is the greatest TV show ever!

    I definitely adore this show realising the irony and wit at work that would’ve gone over my head as a kid. Seeing Juliet Newmar as Catwoman is always a joy too.

  14. Richardpd

    November 30, 2021 at 10:29 pm

    A few years ago I was given the complete Batman Blu Ray Box set & have slowly worked my way through it.

    There are lots of things I didn’t notice watching before.

    Most episodes are good, but they can get a bit samish when watching a lot in short space of time.

    During the 1960s the comic strip wasn’t much different from the TV series, but got progressively grittier from the 1970s onwards.

  15. THX 1139

    December 3, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    For shame not mentioning Victor Buono as King Tut in the Rogue’s Gallery up there, he was consistently hilarious.

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