Batman TV series: Encyclopedia II - Batman TV series - Popularity

Batman TV series - 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 Archer and The Puzzler (Superman's villains) and The Clock King (Green Arrow's villain). Many other villains were created especially for the TV show, and never did appear in the comic books (such as "The Siren", "Chandelle", "Bookworm", "King Tut", "Lord Ffogg", "Dr. Cassandra",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' "Brainy Barrows" was reworked as "Egghead". Other celebrities often appeared in scenes where the Dynamic Duo are scaling a building wall and the celebrity would suddenly open a window and have a short conversation with the superheroes. So many celebrities wanted to appear on the show that some, such as Elizabeth Taylor, even had to be turned away.

Adam West enjoys the story that he was almost part of two of the 3 big B's of the 1960s, Batman, The Beatles and Bond. West says he actually was invited to play Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service based on his popularity as Batman, but declined the role as he felt it should be played by a British actor.

The popularity of the TV show did not translate well to the silver screen, however. A movie version of the TV show was released to theaters (see Batman (1966 film)), but it did not become a large box office hit, even though creatively, the movie was just as good as the first season episodes, and superior to most of the second and third season episodes. The movie continued to be profitably rereleased to theaters, TV, and video for decades. Originally, the movie had been created to help sell the TV series abroad, but the success of the series in America sold itself, and the movie was brought out after season one had already been aired.

The live-action TV show was extraordinarily popular; at the height of its popularity, it was the only prime-time TV show broadcast twice in one week as part of its regular schedule, airing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, outside of Peyton Place. Episodes of the show were often filmed as two-part cliffhangers, with each storyline beginning on Wednesday and ending on the Thursday night episode. The first episode of a storyline would typically end with Batman and Robin being trapped in a ridiculous deathtrap, while the narrator would tell viewers to watch the next night with the repeated phrase: "Tune in tomorrow — same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!" Even now, many years after the show ceased production, this catch-phrase is still a long-running punchline in popular culture.

The show even contributed to the careers of two real-life New York City policemen, David Greenberg and Robert Hantz. This pair had a remarkable career as police officers, so much so that they were given street nicknames of "Batman and Robin". Their careers were fictionalized in the 1974 movie The Super Cops.

Despite the show's popularity, many Batman fans abhor the series for its campy presentation, and critics claim the series has not aged well since the 1970s. The series is seen by some as a black mark on the medium of comic books, as it cast comics as silly, light-weight entertainment meant strictly for children — an image that comic books have never completely rid themselves of, though the publication of The Dark Knight Returns in 1986 (and the movie Batman in 1989) did finally succeed in reshaping Batman's image outside of comic books. The fact that the TV series typically depicted women in a stereotypical fashion (with a few noted exceptions like Batgirl) dates it further.

Adam West acknowledges those criticisms in his autobiography Back to the Batcave, but argues that it was the wrong era for a 'straight' Batman TV show, and the series was responsible for saving the character for future generations to enjoy, as the comic was in danger of being cancelled before the TV show revived sales.

TV critics and historians note that the real appeal of the show lay in its array of oddball, outrageous, and often charismatic villains. The hippie counterculture of the 1960s enjoyed the fact that even though they would eventually win and put the bad guys in jail, Batman and Robin portrayed the forces of "law and order" as being woefully humorless, "square", and unaware of the fact that the world was laughing at them. The villains, on the other hand, had the chance to rebel against society, wear gaudy, flashy costumes, and have all the fun... until they were required to lose and be captured by Batman and Robin. The series had the advantage of appealing to two major age groups for entirely different reasons; adults viewed it as a humorous spoof while children enjoyed it as a flashy adventure show.

The series' stars, Adam West and Burt Ward, were typecast for decades afterwards, with West especially finding himself unable to escape the reputation the series gave him as a hammy, campy actor. However, years after the series' impact faded, West found fame and respect among comic book and animation fans, who appreciated his work on the TV series. One of the more popular episodes of Batman: The Animated Series paid tribute to West with an episode entitled "The Grey Ghost." In this episode, West played the role of an aging star of a campy superhero TV series Bruce Wayne watched as a child and would be inspired by as a crimefighter, who found new popularity with the next generation of fans. 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 entitled 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. The movie received high ratings and was released on DVD May 2005.

Despite much popular demand, no DVD release of the series has to date occurred in North America, and this situation seems unlikely to be resolved in the near future. The problem as explained by the website TVShowsonDVD.com is that Warner Bros. owns the Batman character, while 20th Century Fox owns the TV series (Warner did not take over DC until 1976), and the two companies have, to date, yet to come to an agreement regarding home video/DVD release of the series (it was later revealed that Warner Bros. isn't involved). This is why no VHS release of the series occurred, either. As a result, the 1966 feature film remains the only element of the original series officially available for non-broadcast viewing in North America. This even affected Return To The Batcave, which was only able to make use of footage from the 1966 movie.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Popularity", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki