1960's Batman TV

Originally scheduled for the fall 1966 season, ABC had a lot of new shows fail so they ordered Batman to start in January 1966 as a mid season replacement. Holy Mission Batman! So everyone had to scramble to get the show going. It aired for two and a half seasons from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968.

When it started it started basically the same way it would every episode... some villain blows into town and commits a crime of some kind. The mayor would call police Commisioner Gordon who with his faithful puppy dog, Chief O'hara would then walk quickly over to the desk and pick up the red phone. The Commisioner would pick up the phone and push a button.

Then it would sound off in Wayne Manor. Faithful butler Alfred would pick it up and say I will summon him. Then he would go into the other room, where Bruce Wayne (Batman)and Dick Grayson (Robin) where usually sitting with Dick's Aunt Harriet. Then Alfred would whisper into Wayne's ear "The Bat phone Sir". If he was unable to do that he would bring an item from the study to let Bruce know that he was needed in the study. Then the two of them would run to the phone and see what the commisioner wanted. After some small talk, Wayne would pull back the head of a Shakespere Statue to flip a switch. A bookcase would roll away and two poles could be seen. Once said Batman and one said Robin. "Then Bruce Wayne would say.."To the Batpoles". As soon as they grabbed them, you saw the introduction and that great animation and song that started with..da,da,da,da,da....Batman, Batman, Batman. Biff, Pow, Zap (like in the show), and then they would break for the commercial.

Then you would see Batman and Robin head to the Batmobile and zoom out of the Batcave.
Afterwards, the Batmobile would pull up to police headquaters and the credit would roll as Batman and Robin went into the building to meet with the commissioner. Then we would learn who the criminal was that week.

This was stock footage that for season 1 and season 2 ran at the begining of every part 1 episode and all the single episodes in season 3.

Many villains for the show and movie came from the comics. Many though like the Archer and Ma Barker were created for the show alone (including Liberace).

The main villains were-

Cesar Romero as The Joker
Frank Gorshin and John Astin as Riddler
Burgess Meredit as Penguin
Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman
(Lee Meriweather played Catwoman in the Movie only).

Aside from portraying super-criminals, another coveted spot was the Batclimb Cameo. Often, as the Dynamic Duo scaled a building using Batarangs and Bat-ropes (actually filmed on a horizontal surface, with their capes held up by strings from off-camera, and aired with the shot rotated 90 degrees), a window would swing open, a celebrity would pop their head out, and a short conversation would ensue. Batclimb cameo scenes were discontinued for the third season. The personages that did these scenes were:

* Ted Cassidy as Lurch
* Dick Clark
* Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez
* Sammy Davis Jr.
* Andy Devine as Santa
* Howard Duff (who later appeared as guest villain "Cabala")
* Don Ho
* Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink
* Suzie Knickerbocker
* Bruce Lee as Kato
* Jerry Lewis
* Art Linkletter
* Edward G. Robinson
* Van Williams as The Green Hornet (who would later guest star with Bruce Lee in a Cross-Over episode).

Originally planned to come out before the TV series, ABC wanted to devote all of their efforts to the show. So even though the movie was made first, it came out Summer of 1966 between season 1 and 2.

Owing to a higher budget than the TV series, it featured a Bat boat, Bat plane and Bat Cycle. Due to them still having to be paid for, the vehicles were eventually added to the TV series. This gave the Dynamic Duo even more "wonderful toys" to fight the forces of evil with.

Season 3 would be the last season for Batman and Friends. Apparantly the gimmicks that had made the show so appealing at the begining, were now growing old and tired.

Earlier that year, DC Comics had introduced the new Batgirl character. She was sexy and beautiful. The producers felt that the only way to save the show was to do the following- cut stories to single episodes (save money on having the same villain twice in a row), cut shows to once a week and maybe even cut the salary of writers. I say that because the quality of the writing suffered greatly. At one point they even considered replacing Robin with Batgirl as Batman's parter! Holy reverse sexism Batman!!

Madge Blake could no longer play Aunt Harriet due to illness (she died within a year)
and people were losing interest in the show.

Bamans popularity was emulated by other super-hero shoes and 6 cartoons. The audience suffered from Super-hero burnout.

The once a week format also hurt as it didn't give time for longer stories to be developed which had been the back bone of the show.

Also in an effort to save money, they reduced the quality of the sets and they looked terrible. Also it cost $75,000 per show to produce and ABC only paid $65,000 per episode. They were bleeding $10,000 per episode.

ABC thought they could make more money by ending the show and then putting it into syndication around the world ASAP.

After 120 episodes in 3 years (due to the 2X schedule for seasons 1 and 2) the show was canceled.

To make room on the grounds, as soon as the show was canceled, the set of the Batcave and Wayne Manor were destroyed. Sadly, only a few weeks after cancellation, NBC wanted to buy the show but when they found out the cost of rebuilding the sets, they passed.