I recently received the 1966 Batman TV series on Blu-Ray from a friend of mine. I started watching it yesterday. I'm about 8 episode sin at this point. Its interesting to see the first appearances of each of the villains. And it also brought many things.
I didn't realize that the first villain to appear was The Riddler played by Frank Gorshin who is so damn good! (Side Bar: He was nominated for an Emmy for this. Did you know that?) I always assumed it was Caesar Romero.
I also assumed the big four villains would be the first four introduced. While Riddler, Penguin and Joker comprise the first three weeks of shows, Catwoman has yet to show up and I'm in week five now. What I found interesting about the first three is that each one of them escapes from prison. No back stories. Just they've been in jail and they've escaped. Gotham Penitentiary is not doing a good job. The warden is too progressive. Its actually in the dialogue. Oh, and the warden displayed by the original Edward Quartermaine form General Hospital, David Lewis.
With Episode Four, we get Mr. Freeze played by George Sanders (who frankly I don't remember. I do remember Otto Preminger, the director, who replaces him later in the series.)If you don't know who George Sanders is, watch All About Eve. He is awesome in that movie. What I found most interesting about this episode is that actually give him a back story. He's out for revenge against Batman because he blames Batman for the accident that turned him into Mr Freeze. What?! Back story for a character in a superhero TV/movie made before the 1980s? Unheard of! I'm serious TV shows prior to the 1980s had no continuity!
Back on course here. The three things I'd like to discuss:
1) The cultural phenomenon and impact of this show. I've explained this to co-workers and other young-uns who are under the age of 40 or so that back in the day when we only had a few channels to watch, a hit TV series made it's stars superstars, rock stars almost. Shows like All in The Family, Dallas, The Cosby Show were not just TV shows they were pop culture zeitgeists. Batman was a HUGE cultural phenomenon. I was only about 4 and half when the TV series debuted. I was not old enough to stay up and watch but I certainly knew about it. We played Batman and Robin during recess. We also played James Bond. It was the sixties.
There is nothing like that now. American Idol perhaps in its early seasons. Friends was probably the last TV series whose stars became major celebrities (and filthy rich to boot).
But back then, we talked about shows around the water cooler the next day. Or on the playground during recess. I remember in 5th 6th grade on Tuesdays we'd be impersonating our favorite bits from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In the night before. Or doing Flip Wilson bits. The Devil Made me do it! In high school, Mondays were all about what we saw on SNL over th weekend, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Jane, you ignorant slut, But Nooooooo!, Cheeseburger cheeseburger, cheeseburger, no coke, pepsi, and so on. Now you know how old I am.
And damn, when JR was left lying on the floor from gun shot wound and we had to wait an entire summer to find out who did it? Big news! (The cover of Time magazine)
Batman merchandise was every where. Most every celebrity in the business wanted to be a guest villain. Some made cameos either as themselves or in character (Colonel Klink from Hogans Heroes, Lurch from The Addams Family, Dick Clark, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, etc...)
Like most cultural phenomenons, it burned out rather quickly. Three seasons and it was done. But the re-runs lived on throughout the 1970s on afternoons when we came home from school.
2) Re-watching TV shows I grew up with as an adult. As a kid I liked Batman. In fact, I could get a little scared of some of the villains, The Joker in particular. He scared me a bit.I knew there was humor in there but I don't think I fully appreciated it until watching it again as an adult.
This show is a comedy...on purpose for those of you don't realize that. It was made as a comedy. Hell, the Batusi is in the pilot episode. Batman walks into a discotheque where Jill St. John is waiting for him. He walks in, The maitre'd asks if he wants a seat. Batman, in full costume, says I want to blend in. I'll just stand at the bar. LMAO! And then he and Jill St. John start dancing and he does the Batusi.
The show is hysterical. Never got that as a kid. As I got older yes. Its fun to re-watch it now after I don't know how many years. It was in fact nominated for Emmys in its first season in the comedy categories. Its interesting to note that it ran simultaneously with Get Smart, another sitcom that spoofs the spy genre and that I also love and won on DVD.
This brings to mind other shows I watched as a kid but didn't fully appreciate until adulthood. Namely, the Norman Lear shows. My entire family sat down and watched the CBS Saturday night lineup in the 1970s. All in the Family, whatever they put on at 8:30 cause it changed very season one year it was MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Carol Burnett.
What 10 year old really gets all the talk about abortions, and miscarriages and the IRA and racism and rape and cancer and "the change" that was discussed on All in the Family. All I knew was it was funny because the studio audience was loud. really loud. And the Mary Tyler Moore show. Love the characters. But it wasn't until re-watching as an adult that I truly appreciated how well written, directed and acted that show was. There's a reason The Mary Tyler Moore Show is the gold standard by which all sitcoms since are measured up to. It holds up. The scripts are beautifully written. Callbacks to earlier jokes in earlier scenes. Key information given at the beginning of the scene that are key to later developments. The Veal Prince Orloff episode is a prime example of what I'm talking about. And its got a pre-Fonzie Henry Winkler as Rhoda's date to boot!
Batman was re-run after school growing up for us kids to watch. And while there are certainly things there for kids to enjoy, it was really written for the adults. And it can be appreciated on a whole other level. Besides, Adam West is pretty damn funny. He knows it. He created that character very carefully. And while it may have defined his career, he seems to have always been in on the joke. Witness, his recurring role on Family Guy. I also saw him along with Burt Ward and Julie Newmar on a panel at Comic Con two years ago and he has still got it. Julie Newmar not so much. He made a lot of jokes at her expense that she was a little slow to pick up on. Hilarious!
3) How shows develop after the first couple of episodes. One thing I enjoy about watching old TV shows over again in their entirety from the start is to see how they develop. They don't necessarily start out as what they end up being.
Some shows make a change in characters or direction after one season (Taxi - remember Randall Carver? or Newhart - remember Stephanie Holmes as Leslie or how about Kirk who at least made it through season 2 before being written out). And whatever happened to all the girls from the first season of The Facts of Life? Dallas originally focused on Bobby and Pam. It was supposed to be a modern re-telling of Romeo and Juliet with Juliet marrying into Romeo's family. But the show quickly re-focused on JR.
The Golden Girls: They had a house boy in the pilot episode. Rose never mentions her hometown in the first season. St. Olaf gets mentioned for the first time in Season Two and once the name is attached, the stories become more outrageous.
Delta Burke's character on Designing Women, while established early on as a multi-marrying man-eating former beauty queen from the get go, she doesn't become quite so outspoken and outrageous in her viewpoints until around Season Two.
Green Acres isn't initially so absurdist. Its a gradual progression. I love when they acknowledge the writing and directing credits on the screen in the opening scenes. What are those words floating in the air like that? Or Eb doing chores outside while lip synching to the theme song!
Karen on Will & Grace is a little different in the first season than who she becomes. The shrill voice isn't quite so shrill in the early episodes.
Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show isn't that big a buffoon in the first season.
Likewise, Batman, I'm about 8 shows in and there have been no cameos yet when they're climbing up the walls of buildings. Robin's Holy (fill in the blank) exclamations aren't in full use yet. And I;'m looking forward to seeing them all again.
BTW: The Blu-Ray is amazing! The show is so colorful and the Blu-Ray brings it all out.
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