The Batman (1966) Appreciation Thread

[david icke]

Yeah, I still love this show, it was what got me into Batman when i was a kid back in 76/77. On every saturday morning.
It was a blast when the BBC started showing them again two years ago, I recorded as many as I could, all were in perfect quality.

Re that Joker mask, good spot there, I always really liked that ep, it was a loose adaptation of that Dick Sprang story, 'The Joker's Utility Belt', that was in the Greatest Joker stories trade. The first few pages of the comic are pretty faithfully adapted.

Bill finger also wrote at least one ep, he wrote a Clock King two parter which had one of my fav moments from the show as it was serious dramatic one, the CK and his thugs are kidnapping Auny Harriet from teh Manor when Bruce and Dick enter the room. The CK and the thugs not being scared at all until they launch into them, and they scarper without AH. Great moment.

Favs eps of mine are
-the 'Ring of Wax' Riddler ep,
- the Joker one with the Maharaja of Nimpa,
-the first Catwoman ep(which i had on viewmaster slides when i was a kid, looked fantastic that ep in particular, all the cool sets and dark lighting)
- the first ever two eps with the Riddler, esp the first one.
- 'The Mad Hatter's 13th Hat'
- that adaptation of the Joker's Utility belt, 'the Joker is Wild' - that's the one with the great escape from prison during the baseball game i think, if not, i love that prison escape anyway.

Gorshin was my 1st pick for fan villan , followed by BG's Penguin(still my fav Penguin from any media), CR's Joker, Catwoman(i like both LM and JN's, LM because she a good serious CW, LM cause she was funny), DW's the Mad Hatter.

I don't know what my fav cliffhanger escape is, but i always liked that one where Robin does the bird whistling to bring a bird down to peck the hot air balloon the Puzzler has sent them both up in.
and Batman's busting out of his ceramic prison in the MH's 13th hat('why, i merely held my breath.')

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Holy legal tape Batman!

This needs to be on dvd already!

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Frank Gorshin's manic energy was awesome. Loved watching his Riddler.

 

[The Joker]

My favorite death trap was when The Penguin had Batman and Robin strung up behind a shooting gallery, and Gordon and O'Hara were about to unknowingly shoot them.

That was so clever.

 

[Travesty]

My favorite death trap was when The Penguin had Batman and Robin strung up behind a shooting gallery, and Gordon and O'Hara were about to unknowingly shoot them.

That was so clever.

I remember that one. I just started watching them on youtube again.

 

[david icke]

My favorite death trap was when The Penguin had Batman and Robin strung up behind a shooting gallery, and Gordon and O'Hara were about to unknowingly shoot them.

That was so clever.

Oh yeah, i meant to list that ep in my favs, 'the Penguin goes straight', they didn't play them on UK tv for about ten years, and then they started showing them on 'the Wide Awake Club', the TVam kid's show. that was the first ep I caught and recorded. I used to watch my tapes of those all the time back then, we'd just got our first video recorder as well, so I was pretty much od'ing on them.

Loved the opening scene at the theatre with Penguin playing superhero, 'A bullet proof umbrella!?'
I always thought the Penguin was crazy for not marrying that woman and only being interested in stealing the wedding gifts, lol.

I also really liked that story about the female escape artist who kidnapped Aunt Harriet.
I loved the live tv negotiation involving Robin and Bruce Wayne, 'Give the poor lady a break willya? You can't be all bad.'

The Joker was hilarious in that Maharaja ep, the way he acts when he puts B&R into the death trap.

and it was pretty cool when sometimes West would put on the 'dark' Batman act on the early eps, like in the second part of 'The Ring of Wax', when he casts a bat sillouette over the gang, and they all gasp in fear.
I also loved the bit when Robin goes in solo and takes a couple of them on himself.

Gorshin was just an absloute joy to watch in that two parter, there is this crazy giggle he goes into when he thinks he's got ahold of the Batmobile, really funny.

 

[C. Lee]

I love when Alfred saves all of thier bacon from time to time...plus he knows Batgirl's secret idenity and is her confidant too.

 

[The Joker]

Alfred donned the Bat costume a couple of times, too. I read in Adam West's biography, Back to the Batcave, that actor Alan Napier didn't like doing those scenes, and felt the show was getting too ridiculous by having Alfred do that.

Incidentally Adam West's most hated scene was the one from the Joker's surfing episode in season 3, when he had to surf in the Bat costume against the Joker.

 

[david icke]

Oh yeah, i caught that surf ep back in the late 80s/early90s, that was pretty bad.
I haven't caught much of the third series at all since i was a kid.
I remember there was an ep where Bruce Wayne was hypnotised by a female villan and did not appear as Batman in the entire ep iirc, it was up to Batgirl and Robin to save him, and i think he fought them at the end. I vividly reclal watching that when i was about 3yrs old because i was so wound up that Batman did not appear in costume in the ep, lol, i think that's why that is such a vivid memory.

Back in the late 80s, the repeats on the wide Awake club got so popular that they started running the show every weekday morning as part of the regular breakfast show at about 7.45am, so you could catch it before school. It caught on so much that there was demand to know what West was up to these days, and they did a little piece on him, visited him at home, showed him out walking his dog, and being interviewed, and all the local neighbourhood kids all camped up in his front room, watching Batman eps, which apparently was something that happened a lot. It was a pretty nice, heartwarming little doc, i must've taped it, wish i still had that.

 

[C. Lee]

Incidentally Adam West's most hated scene was the one from the Joker's surfing episode in season 3, when he had to surf in the Bat costume against the Joker.

Watched that yesterday. My daughter loves the Batgirl episodes.

 

[The Joker]

Oh yeah, i caught that surf ep back in the late 80s/early90s, that was pretty bad.
I haven't caught much of the third series at all since i was a kid.
I remember there was an ep where Bruce Wayne was hypnotised by a female villan and did not appear as Batman in the entire ep iirc, it was up to Batgirl and Robin to save him, and i think he fought them at the end. I vividly reclal watching that when i was about 3yrs old because i was so wound up that Batman did not appear in costume in the ep, lol, i think that's why that is such a vivid memory.

That was in the episode with Joan Collins as The Siren. That was a good episode. She was a great one shot villain. Apparently Joan got an awful time from the director of her episode. He kept picking on her over little things. Adam said he had to console her several times. Again I got all this from Adam's book.

Adam generally disliked the third season overall. They were cut back to one episode a week, and the scripts suffered because of that. They also had budget cuts, and the sets in season 3 looked really poor and tacky.

Check out the dock side set in the Nora Clavicle episode. LOL!!! It is so bad. I mean....WOW it was baaaaaaaaad!!!! I don't know how they kept a straight face filming on that set.

You should read Adam's book. It's a fountain of info about the show, how he got on with all the actors, directors, fans etc. Apparently everyone hated Otto Preminger, the guy who played Mr Freeze the second time around. The guy was a total dick head according to Adam. He would make comments about people's weight, appearance, ask out loud if someone on the set was gay and made sure they were in earshot when he said it, he never listened to the director, tried to tell the other actors how they should act their characters etc.

 

[The Joker]

Watched that yesterday. My daughter loves the Batgirl episodes.

Batgirl was great. But the quality of season 3 was not nearly as good as the first two season, IMO.

 

[david icke]

Thanks for the tip on the book joker, sounds good.
I actually taped Adam West and Burt Ward when they appeared on a late night channel 4 tv show called 'TV Pizza', they were both on talking about their books.
From back in the mid-90s, I still have that on tape.

 

[The Batman]

Hey Joker, how did Adam feel about Julie Newmar? Were they just friends? Is she his favorite Catwoman?

 

[C. Lee]

Hey Joker, how did Adam feel about Julie Newmar? Were they just friends? Is she his favorite Catwoman?

I met them at the Superman Festival a few years ago...they seemed to be pretty friendly then. Joking with each other about things.

 

[The Batman]

Did Adam West seem nice? I've heard conflicting reports about him...

 

[C. Lee]

Did Adam West seem nice? I've heard conflicting reports about him...

To me he was great....from what I can gather....if you get to him early, he's fine...but as the day go on, he gets grumpy.

 

[Travesty]

Hey Joker, how did Adam feel about Julie Newmar? Were they just friends? Is she his favorite Catwoman?

Julie Newmar was so hot back in the day.

 

[The Joker]

Hey Joker, how did Adam feel about Julie Newmar? Were they just friends? Is she his favorite Catwoman?

He loved Julie. He had nothing but good things to say about her. They were very close friends, but that's as far as it went. He did say that she was always flirting with him though. "She caused curious stirrings in my utility belt" was his exact quote lol. But they never had any kind of romantic encounters. Yes, she was definitely his favorite Catwoman.

Adam had only good things to say about all four of the main villains. Frank, Burgess, Cesar, Julie, he got on great with all of them.

 

[El Payaso]

Did anyone see that E! biography of Adam when he told that once he and Frank were invited to a special party. When they got in, they folund out it was an orgy. One of the "participants" spot them and said something like "Noooo! I can't go on, Batman and the Riddler are here" and that it was like they ruined the moment for all of them.

True story. At least Adam told that story himself.

 

[Mister J]

Just added this to the collection. It sits right beside my 1966 Batmobile from the same line.



The 1:12 scale makes it notably loom over the Batmobile, but I appreciate the increased size for better detailing.

 

[The Joker]

Did anyone see that E! biography of Adam when he told that once he and Frank were invited to a special party. When they got in, they folund out it was an orgy. One of the "participants" spot them and said something like "Noooo! I can't go on, Batman and the Riddler are here" and that it was like they ruined the moment for all of them.

True story. At least Adam told that story himself.

Yep, that's also in Adam's book, too. He's got a few wild drinking stories and sexual encounters in there.

Just added this to the collection. It sits right beside my 1966 Batmobile from the same line.



The 1:12 scale makes it notably loom over the Batmobile, but I appreciate the increased size for better detailing.

That is AWESOME

 

[Two-Face]

That's beautiful.


I really loved Julia Newmar as Catwoman.

 

[The Joker]

Edit

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Julie Newmar was so hot back in the day.

Indeed. No woman has ever rocked a cat-suit like Ms. Newmar.