60s Batman show rights issues resolved!

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Chris3123, Jun 7, 2012.

  1. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    I've seen several episodes here and there over the years, but I only decided to start watching the show regularly this past weekend. I gave up waiting for the DVD and fortunately a local station started from the beginning this past Saturday, so I jumped onboard. Now we get this announcement. I hope the show is intact with nothing left out.
     
  2. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Bingo!
     
  3. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    The 60s Batman is pretty iconic. Who'd want to shove it under the rug?
     
  4. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    A lot of fanboys are embarrassed about the show because it's not a serious take on Batman. Somehow comedy offends them.
     
  5. Frontier

    Frontier Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh gods no...

    *Shakes head in dismay*

    I know a lot of people might enjoy that old show for nostalgia reasons and what not, but it's such a stain of camp and nonsense to the bat franchise that it's just going to be very painful to see it proliferated again after all these years. Especially now that the Bat is so well regarded thanks to the Nolan films.

    :(
     
  6. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    So, do you also want to remove the 60s Batman Comics, which were even more campy and where the Series got it's tone from?
     
  7. Admiral James Kirk

    Admiral James Kirk Writer Admiral

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    That's ridiculous. :rolleyes: I've never understood the subsection of Bat fandom that thinks the only version of Batman that should ever be represented is The Dark Knight!

    It's not like the character was only presented as dark and gritty in his 73 year history.

    Heck, even the Dark Knight Detective version written by Bill Finger wasn't all that dark. He was cracking one liners that would have worked in a Bugs Bunny short.

    Some people like to pretend The Caped Crusader wasn't the Batman of choice for like twenty years. The Adam West show didn't spring up out of nowhere! It was inspired by the Batman of the 50s and 60s. Sure as hell, none of those fans want to admit that without the Adam West series Detective Comics and Batman would have been cancelled due to sagging sales.

    Adam "Batman" West saved the Batman comics series!

    Some fans take the character waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too seriously. :rolleyes:
     
  8. Gojira

    Gojira Commodore Commodore

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    I was just looking for info on the release of the Batman TV series on DVD just yesterday. I grew up watching reruns of this in the 70s and I couldn't get enough! I hope they release this on DVD very very soon.

    I was just telling my wife today that there are bootleg versions of this floating around on various auction sites like Ebay and IOffer and since I thought we will never see a legitimate release I was going to get one. But now I will wait for the real thing.

    This is great news!!!
     
  9. Gojira

    Gojira Commodore Commodore

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    As has been said above Batman has not always been this brooding dark crusader. The Adam West series are a heck of a lot of fun. There is no shame in liking it.
     
  10. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    Seriously, PAINFUL? Really?

    And it's not a stain of camp, it's WONDERFUL camp. For adults. For kids, it's a great introduction to Batman, the camp goes RIGHT over their heads. At least it did for me when I was a kid.

    There's plenty of room for ALL versions of Batman, one doesn't delete or replace the others.
     
  11. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Some fans take EVERYTHING waaaay to seriously.

    And I agree with you. I've always loved the Adam West show and am the proud owner of DVD-R's of the entire series that I made off my old VHS tapes. I had too, those tapes were twenty years old, and in serious danger of disintegrating.

    But that aside, I just read the article in question, and I didn't see the update posted here, so, it says:

    "We've now been in touch with Warner and they inform us that the VARIETY article unfortunatley only pertains to products of the type mentioned in their story. There's been no news on the DVD front. Darn it.".

    Hopefully this update is wrong and the DVD's WILL be released eventually.
     
  12. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Dislike campy Batman, but that doesn't mean I have any issues with its fans or a dvd release.

    I don't understand why this show has a fanbase though, while Batman and Robin which also went the campy direction, is hated by everyone? Aren't they pretty much the same thing? :confused:
     
  13. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    Campy doesn't mean BAD. The TV show is a fun romp. Batman and Robin is a BAD movie, regardless of its attempt at camp.

    Watch the Batman movie from the 1960s, then watch Batman and Robin and I think you'll see a difference, they are NOT the same thing.
     
  14. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Honestly, a lot of it's nostalgia for us older folks who grew up on the sixties show. Also, the old show was always meant to be campy, whereas Batman & Robin seemed to violate the tone and spirit of the early Burton films. So you had the incongruous spectacle of a dark, moody take on Batman going badly off the rails . . ..

    Also, and this could be nostalgia speaking, but the old series was fun and clever camp (or so I recall), while B&R was just a noisy, overblown, self-indulgent mess that was more exhausting than entertaining.

    There's good camp, like Barbarella or the 80's version of Flash Gordon, and there's dumb camp like Batman & Robin, which felt more like a two-hour toy commercial than a movie.

    That being said, I haven't actually watched the old show since I was a kid. It's entirely possible it hasn't aged well.

    (Says the guy who stayed up past midnight watching old Dark Shadows videos last night!)
     
  15. Admiral James Kirk

    Admiral James Kirk Writer Admiral

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    No. The Adam West Batman was far more sophisticated than Batman & Robin. The Adam West show had a lot of adult humor in it that flew over the heads of the kids in the audience but it also had a lot of good action and suspense in it that the children could enjoy.

    Batman & Robin assumed that everybody in the audience was five years old and that all the five year olds watching were retarded.

    There's really a world of difference between the two products.
     
  16. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    ^^ Exactly. It's not just camp-- it's satire.

    I hope it turns out that DVDs are included in this deal. I'd pick those up in a New York minute. Make that a Gotham minute. :D

    They've been showing it on This TV and I caught a couple of episodes about a month ago. It's aged just fine. :mallory:
     
  17. Gojira

    Gojira Commodore Commodore

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    I have the 1966 Batman movie with Adam West and that has aged just fine.
     
  18. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I've been wanting to see this again for probably about 10 years now, so I'm really hoping this deal will lead to some kind of movement on the DVD front. I did watch the movie a while back, but that was probably the only exposure I've had to this in about 20 years.
    I know there are some networks that show it, but frustratingly I don't get any of them.
     
  19. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    "The show's stars". What about guest-stars? I have always been under the impression that a lot of the issues with a video release dealt with some of the random guest-star appearances. I would hate to see the episodes butchered if released.

    I'm reminded of the Northern Exposure DVD releases. I was a fan of the show, but didn't buy the DVD's because they couldn't secure the rights to use some of the music that they used on the show in the videos. And in some cases, that resulted in entire scenes being excised.
     
  20. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    They couldn't just replace the music?