Holy Syndicated Nostalgia Batman, we're coming to DVD!

[EStreetJoe]

Those of a certain age will remember watching Batman when it originally aired - or in syndication - as part of their youth. The entire series is coming to DVD later this year.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/01/15/batman-tv-show-complete-series-dvd/4496197/

 

[MTM]

I was in kindergarten when the show started in 1965 and remember it was on at 7 p.m. two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday, I believe.

My bedtime was 7 p.m., but my mom said I could stay up one day a week to watch Batman and I was smart enough to pick the second, because it began with a review of the first episode.

 

[Starman]

I was in 2nd/4th grade while the show was on, and while I watched it religiously, even bulldozing my parents to drive me 70 miles to grandma's house to see it some nights, when it comes on in reruns I have always been underwhelmed.

Not sure I can really picture sitting through more than about 2 episodes at a time.

I am pretty sure legal wrangling between 20th Century Fox, which produced the original series, and Warner Bros., held up release of the series on disc.

 

[Riptide]

Just the three networks back then, and we needed cable to get 'em in my little town. All we had was a b/w TV, but we were parked in front of it for every Batman episode that ever aired.

And so was just about every kid in my elementary school. Same Bat channel.

 

[cranberry]

Awesome. A senior citizen thread. I was a first grader in 1965.

I never missed Batman but there were tough decisions. CBS put other favorites up against it like Lost in Space and The Munsters.

Overall, Saturday was my favorite night with Flipper, I Dream of Jeannie and Get Smart back-to-back on NBC.

 

[EStreetJoe]

I'm old enough to have caught Batman in syndication in the afternoons in the mid-late 1970s, but young enough to have never seen a first-run episode in primetime
I remember making sure I caught every episode I could in the afternoon.

 

[Dyno]

I'm old enough to have caught Batman in syndication in the afternoons in the mid-late 1970s, but young enough to have never seen a first-run episode in primetime
I remember making sure I caught every episode I could in the afternoon.

Me, too. One of the random channels I have now - MeTV or Antenna TV was showing these from 7-8 on Saturdays the last few months. Not sure if the schedule has changed.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

OK, so who are everyone's favorite Special Guest Villains?

Lee Meriwether was my favorite Catwoman, even though she was only in the movie. Frank Gorshin's Riddler was much better than John Astin's. I also liked Cliff Robertson as Shame and Milton Berle as Louie the Lilac.

 

[cranberry]

Lee Meriwether only did the movie. Julie Newmar was Catwoman the first two seasons and Eartha Kitt in the third.

 

[albert77]

Cesar Romero as the Joker, and it isn't close.

 

[MTM]

I didn't appreciate the assets of Batgirl Yvonne Craig until I got older and saw her in reruns.

 

[outofplace]

I'm old enough to have caught Batman in syndication in the afternoons in the mid-late 1970s, but young enough to have never seen a first-run episode in primetime
I remember making sure I caught every episode I could in the afternoon.

That's how I watched it, too. I never even realized it was in syndication.

My understanding is part of the issue is that Warner Bros. simply doesn't like that version of the character because the darker version of the Christopher Nolan films has been so successful. Hell, pretty much every version of the character is darker.

If you think about it, the darker version makes sense. This is a vigilante driven to fight crime due to the death of his parents when he was very young. That's a dark premise. Kind of like the two versions of Battlestar Galactica. You've got a race of robots trying to wipe out humanity. Doesn't really seem like a good opportunity for camp.

And yet, in both cases, it is absolutely possible to enjoy both the Christian Bale and Adam West versions. At least West didn't do such a ridiculous Batman voice.

 

[Starman]

The teevee version never ever mentioned why Bruce Wayne and **** Grayson were doing it. Just some rich guy and his 'ward' (?!?) who decided to go out, swing on ropes, and biff and boff bad guys.

Funny, during those years in the summer we went up to my grandmother's cottage where my mother and her two younger siblings had spent summertimes in the 1940s-50s, and they had bushel baskets full of old Superman and Batman comics from those years, dating back to the debut isssues in 1938-40.

The early issues of Batman (the first decade or so) were dark, dark stuff. Pulp noir, I guess. It was quite a difference between the wisecracking campy Batman on teevee and the dark and brooding vigilante lurking in the shadows in the old comics.

 

[DeskMonkey1]

The teevee version never ever mentioned why Bruce Wayne and **** Grayson were doing it.

Giggity

 

[Shoeless Joe]

I caught the syndication in the afternoons (4:30 probably) each afternoon after school. That made my afternoon.

I was old enough to know that this:

and this:

gave me a tingling. Mmmmmm, Damn.

Funny enough, when I was in the Navy, one of the ships on the waterfront had a captain named Adam West; they got special permission to paint the Bat Symbol on the flight deck hanger door.

 

[Batman]

I remember the 60s show had a brief resurgence in the late 1980s, when the first Burton movie came out. A local station would run the two-parters back-to-back at 6 and 6:30. I watched most of the run over the course of a summer. Great fun.
It's amazing how the entire Batman franchise -- comics, cartoons, movies, the works -- has been fighting an uphill battle to shake off the TV series for almost 50 years now. Almost every new creative team tries to "go darker" and "take Batman back to his roots." The only bat-bombs these days are likely to be strapped to the current Robin's nutsack.

 

[Starman]

I remember the 60s show had a brief resurgence in the late 1980s, when the first Burton movie came out. A local station would run the two-parters back-to-back at 6 and 6:30. I watched most of the run over the course of a summer. Great fun.
It's amazing how the entire Batman franchise -- comics, cartoons, movies, the works -- has been fighting an uphill battle to shake off the TV series for almost 50 years now. Almost every new creative team tries to "go darker" and "take Batman back to his roots." The only bat-bombs these days are likely to be strapped to the current Robin's nutsack.

Well, the Burton/Schumacher series really wasn't very much different in tone than the teevee series.

 

[Batman]

I remember the 60s show had a brief resurgence in the late 1980s, when the first Burton movie came out. A local station would run the two-parters back-to-back at 6 and 6:30. I watched most of the run over the course of a summer. Great fun.
It's amazing how the entire Batman franchise -- comics, cartoons, movies, the works -- has been fighting an uphill battle to shake off the TV series for almost 50 years now. Almost every new creative team tries to "go darker" and "take Batman back to his roots." The only bat-bombs these days are likely to be strapped to the current Robin's nutsack.

Well, the Burton/Schumacher series really wasn't very much different in tone than the teevee series.

The first two were a little bit darker. Not nearly to the Nolan/Bale level, but moreso than the TV series. Batman roasts a guy with the Batmobile's jet engine in "Batman Returns," and Nicholson's Joker was definitely more murderous and menacing than Cesar Romero's.
The Schumacher ones, though ... yeah, those were ridiculous.

 

[Riptide]

These guys, of course, could **** up a two-car funeral.

 

[Starman]

Pat Hingle's Commissioner Gordon, of course, was pretty much a complete gump in the Burton/Schumacher series.

Revamping Gordon into somebody competent and reasonably courageous in his own right was one of the significant changes in the Nolanverse.

Of course, without a 'Robin' as Batman's action sidekick, Gordon had to kind of assume that role.