Batman (1966-1968)

The 1960s Tv Series was Batman's debut to the tv screens. It was aired on ABC Network from January 12th 1966 - March 14th 1968.

The show lasted for three seasons of 120 episodes and included a movie.

Plot
Every episode started with a villain causing trouble in Gotham City and Comissioner Gordon picking up the red Batphone to call on Batman for help.

At Wayne Manor, where the call is sent, Alfred usually answeres the phone and tells Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson what is happening, Bruce then answers the phone, activates the Batpoles, he and Dick slide down changing into their disguises of Batman and Robin, climb into the Batmobile and race away to see Comissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara at Police Headquarters to find out the situation.

Most of the episodes were two parters with a cliffhanger of the villians leaving Batman and Robin to die or in a deadly trap with the narrator saying : "Tune In Tomorrow. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel." with the occasional change of "Same Cat Time. Same Cat Channel" with any Catwoman based stories.

At the start of the continued episode Batman and Robin always found a way to break free of the villain's traps thanks to their gadgets or their quick thinking and occasionaly fool them into thinking that they are dead and hunt them down and Batfight them.

In season 3, a new crimefighter called Batgirl was added to the team, even though Batman and Robin never found out who she really was.

Mostly used Bat Equipment
These were the ones mostly used throughout the series that they used to fight crime:


 * 'Batarang:  The commonly used weapon that Batman and Robin use when battling villains, acts just like a regular boomerang.
 * Batcostumes/Batsuit: Bruce and Dick's disguises at Batman and Robin.
 * Batphone: A device which is used by Batman and Commissioner Gordon to communicate.
 * Batsignal: A light in the sky from a powerful torch used to signal the dynamic duo when there is crime.
 * Batmobile: Their commonly used mode of transportation by road.
 * Batcycle: Their second mode of transportation by road.
 * Batboat: Their mode of transportation by sea.
 * Batcopter: Their mode of transportation by air.
 * Batcuffs: The same as ordinary police handcuffs, used to capture villians.
 * Batsleep: Knocks out people, especially if they are taking them to or from the Batcave.
 * Batawake: Wakes people up, when they are at or about to leave the Batcave.
 * Batcave: The Dynamic Duo's base of operations underneath Wayne Manor.
 * Batrope: Their way of climbing high and steep walls, the hook is a Batarang.
 * Utility Belt: The item of clothing where Batman and Robin kept their weapons and devices.
 * Batpoles: What Bruce and Dick use to get to their secret entrance to the Batcave, there are also elevators to them.
 * Batshield: What they use to protect themselves against dangerous attacks, sometimes they hold it themselves, othertimes they have it attached to the Batmobile.

Cast
Original list of regular cast members:

Batman/Bruce Wayne: Adam West

Robin/Dick Grayson: Burt Ward

Batgirl/Barbara Gordon: Yvonne Craig (Season 3 only)

Comissioner Gordon: Neil Hamilton

Chief O'Hara: Stafford Repp

Alfred Pennyworth: Alan Napier

Aunt Harriet Cooper: Madge Blake

Mayor Linseed: Bryon Keith (Semi Regular)

Warden Crichton: David Lewis (Semi Regular)

Main Villains
Batman and Robin often confronted four main villains in a lot of episodes all of which were from the comics. Two of them were also played by differant actors.

Main reccuring comic strip Villains


 * The Joker (Cesar Romero) 19 Episodes with a cameo appearance and the 1966 movie.
 * The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) 20 Episodes with a cameo appearance and the 1966 movie.
 * The Riddler (Frank Gorshin and John Astin) 11 Episodes with a cameo appearance and the 1966 movie.
 * Catwoman (Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt) 15 Episodes with two cameo appearances and the 1966 movie.

Other Villains
Other villains were used from the comic strips, while others were created just for the show:

Comic Strip Villains


 * The Mad Hatter (David Wayne) 4 Episodes
 * False Face (Malachi Throne) 2 Episodes
 * Mr Freeze (George Saunders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach) 6 Episodes
 * The Puzzler (Maurice Evans) 2 Episodes
 * The Clock King (Walter Slezak) 2 Episodes.

Some Villains that were created for the show made more than just one appearance:

Reccuring show villains


 * Egghead (Vincent Price) 5 Episodes with a cameo appearance.
 * King Tut (Victor Buono) 8 Episodes with a cameo appearance.
 * Shame (Cliff Robertson) 4 Episodes
 * Marsha, Queen Of Diamonds (Carolyn Jones) 5 Episodes
 * Olga, Queen Of Cossacks (Anne Baxter) 3 Episodes
 * Lord Ffogg (Rudy Vallee) 3 Episodes

The rest only made one or two appearances:

Other show Villains


 * The Bookworm (Roddy McDowell) 2 Episodes
 * Ma Parker (Shelley Winters) 2 Episodes
 * The Archer (Art Cartney) 2 Episodes
 * The Minstrel (Van Johnson) 2 Episodes
 * Black Widow (Tallulah Bankhead) 2 Episodes
 * Zelda The Great (Anne Baxter) 2 Episodes
 * Chandell (Liberace) 2 Episodes
 * Sandman (Michael Rennie) 2 Episodes
 * Siren (Joan Collins) 2 Episodes
 * Louie The Lilac (Milton Berle) 2 Episodes
 * Lola Lasagne/Lulu Schultz (Ethel Merman) 2 Episodes
 * Colonel Gumm (Roger C. Carmel) 2 Episodes
 * Nora Clavicle (Barbara Rush) 1 Episode
 * Dr Cassandra (Ida Lupino) 1 Episode
 * Minerva (Zsa Zsa Gabor) 1 Episode

Trivia
The producers had wanted to do the movie first before the show begin, but ended up doing it after the First Season.

After the First Season was a sucess, they went on to do the movie that was released August 3rd 1966. However when the Second Season was made, ratings began to lower, so some of the writers included 2 three part stories and some villains teaming up such as The Joker and The Penguin and Catwoman and Sandman but the ratings still went down.

The writers then decided to introduce Batgirl to appeal to more female audiences to make the ratings go up and the amount of cast members were changed because of so many main characters.

Madge Blake who played Aunt Harriet Cooper was very ill and only made two cameo appearances in Season 3.

After the show finally ended in 1968, they thought they could show it on another network.

Yvonne Craig said this in an interview:

Taken from The Official Batman Batbook: "When we were cancelled by ABC, they wondered if we could get on another network.When it looked like we couldn't, they came with a bulldozer and bulldozed the whole set-The Batcave and all of that.

Then, two weeks later,'' NBC said, "Listen, we'd like to take a shot at "Batman", if you still have the set". They didn't want to start from scratch and build them because the set cost $8000,000. So it was too late and nothing came of it."''

The delay cost Batman to continue any more episodes, but by 1969 they showed repeats of the episodes on TV and they're still doing it now on various channels around the world.

This show will always be the one that welcomed Batman to television.