The 1966 Batman television series featured an instantly recognizable theme song, outrageous death traps, ingenious gadgets, an army of dastardly villains and femme fatales, and a pop-culture phenomenon unmatched for generations, but before the show was aired, it was hyped up with obscure TV commercials that simply declared “Batman is coming.” This was something new and nobody knew what to expect, however these adds did tantalize viewers to tune in, and this show became the biggest hit for ABC in the network’s twenty-some year history and “Bat-mania” became a raging national phenomenon in the summer of 1966. The acting was terrible and the jokes were worse, but the thing that turned me off the most was the cartoon onomatopoeia that appeared in every fight scene, as that made the show look totally fake. Just because this show was new, that didn’t make it welcome.
Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge #212, where today she has given us the following phrase to consider, “It’s new … does it mean it’s welcome?”
I get where you’re coming from, but ‘OOF!’, I have to voice a dissenting opinion ‘KAPOW!”. I think this was great because it was so campy and ridiculous… sorry folks but I was one of the rare boys of the late-60s and 70s who wasn’t raised on comic books so I found the whole concept – a man in disguise who flies around saving the city (because the entire police dept. can’t ) from crazy super-villains who cause mayhem and advertise their whacky identities. It seemed a story concept ripe for spoofing. Plus, that 60s Batmobile was cool!
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I did think the show was king of cool at first Dave and I may be a few years older than you as I was 13 in 1966 and I had already caught on to James Bond by this time, so that made watching Batman that much worse.
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Batman was considered camp in our dorm. We would gather in the room of the student with a television and hoot and holler during the show.
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That must have been fun.
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OMG I remember this and the food song………. dinner dinner dinner dinner, dinner dinner dinner dinner, BATMAN! We had a German student at the time and she didn’t want to go home because there was no Batman. It was awful, and the film worse……….. and I was only 9!!
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I guess that you had to be a real cartoon lover to enjoy this show.
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It would have been better if it was ALL cartoons.
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Eartha Kitt. What more could a person ask for?
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Eartha Kitt. My flaws make me who I am.
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I love that batman…it’s playful and fun. I’m tired of the darkness they have cast upon the character. The promos worked!
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I didn’t expect to get so many complaints about this post today.
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Oh I loved it…the heck with them
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I looked forward to that show every week.
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For its place in time, it was a great show, but it would never go over today.
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Yes, not so sophisticated and the modern theme became Batman’s shadow side.
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Nan nan nan a nan nan nan a Batman!
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I sang that also.
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Ker-plop! 🙂
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