At Last! 60s Batman TV show coming to homem video!

[Turtletrekker]

The Adam West/Burt Ward Batman show is finally being released on home video!

I wonder if they found a way to include the wall-climbing cameos and the Green Hornet eps, or if they are being edited out?

 

[Agent Richard07]

I hope nothing's edited out. It's usually a deal breaker for me.

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm sure they will screw it up. lol

 

[Trekker4747]

This is great news! I *almost* bought bootlegs at a con a couple years ago but I wanted to wait for an official release. God, I hope this release is unadulterated and is 100% intact.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

I hope northing's edited out. It's usually a deal breaker for me.

Most likely, what can be kept, will be, what won't, won't.

 

[Dick Whitman]

If they were just going to edit things out this would have happened a lot sooner.

 

[Professor Zoom]

This news is the best thing all week. I adore the show. Watched as a kid. And now that I have one, I can't wait to show it to him.

 

[RandyS]

I hope this is true, but for now, my attitude is "I'll believe it when I see it".

 

[Shaka Zulu]

This news is the best thing all week. I adore the show. Watched as a kid. And now that I have one, I can't wait to show it to him.

The thing is, this version of Batman is a result of the CCA rules that itself was brought into being by what the idiot Fredric Wertham did with his stupid book. A better thing to show your son would be Batman: The Animated Series instead, followed by The Batman and Justice League, and to not sugarcoat what the character is. But, you'll do what you want to, I'll guess.

I hope this is true, but for now, my attitude is "I'll believe it when I see it".

I'm of the same mindset myself (except I don't want it to come out at all) but it seems like this is going to happen.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

It was campy fun to a lot of us. I've watched BTAS along with it and I know they're two different things.

 

[Icemizer]

I love the old campy Batman and the new figures coming out from Hot Toys for this show are just incredible!

 

[RandyS]

It was campy fun to a lot of us. I've watched BTAS along with it and I know they're two different things.

Yep. Back in 2009, I did a re-watch of both the 1966 show (DVD-R's of my old VHS tapes from 1989) and Batman: The Animated Series (one episode of both a day for three months or so), and yeah, they ARE two different things.

But both were equally good.

 

[RandyS]

I hope this is true, but for now, my attitude is "I'll believe it when I see it".

I'm of the same mindset myself (except I don't want it to come out at all) but it seems like this is going to happen.

I've heard that so many times the past few years, which is why I have a "wait and see" attitude, but as I said, I hope it's true this time.

And I REALLY like the idea of a complete series set. After all the false announcements, it would be annoying to have to wait an additional year and a half or so for the three seasons to come out individually.

Why don't you want it to come out at all?

 

[Christopher]

What a lot of people don't realize is that the Batman TV series of different generations are different things because the Batman comics of those respective generations were different things. The Batman comics of the '50s and '60s were just as goofy and comical and campy as the '66 TV series -- often even more so, since the TV series didn't have Bat-Mite and Ace the Bat-Hound and aliens and time travel and Superman and Batman competing for Lois Lane's affections or playing convoluted and borderline-psychotic pranks on one another. But the comics started to change and become more serious in the '70s, and by the '90s they were quite solemn and dark and gritty. (Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns was originally a work of profound revisionism, deconstructing the goofy and fanciful elements of Batman comics by taking the characters and the world to the darkest imaginable extreme, but every Batman writer for decades thereafter treated it as their model for the "right" way to write Batman.) So B:TAS reflected the style and tone of the comics from the previous two decades, just as the '66 series had in its day. They're both equally authentic to the Batman of their own eras.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Why don't you want it to come out at all?

Maybe he just doesn't want it to come out in butchered form.

I mean, we've all heard about all the legal wranglings involved in getting this show released on DVD. The characters (IIRC, separate companies owned the rights to the actual characters vs. the show itself), the Batmobile, the costumes, the cameos (i.e. the 'wall climbing' scenes - those were unpaid walk-ons, which IIRC they don't have the rights to), that sort of thing. And we're supposed to believe that they've all been resolved now? Like you just said: I'll believe it when I see it.

If they have to butcher this show and chop it up into bits that have been sanitized of all things that are legally questionable, maybe it'd just be better to not release it at all. A butchered show is worse than no show at all, especially something as iconic as this one. I mean, it was bad enough that they had to remove the music from Quantum Leap. They'd have to remove a lot more than just the music from Batman. Unless they really have got all the rights issues worked out - which I'm skeptical of - they'd have to remove so much that there'd hardly be anything left...

 

[gblews]

This news is the best thing all week. I adore the show. Watched as a kid. And now that I have one, I can't wait to show it to him.

The thing is, this version of Batman is a result of the CCA rules that itself was brought into being by what the idiot Fredric Wertham did with his stupid book. A better thing to show your son would be Batman: The Animated Series instead, followed by The Batman and Justice League, and to not sugarcoat what the character is. But, you'll do what you want to, I'll guess.

I'm of the same mindset myself (except I don't want it to come out at all) but it seems like this is going to happen.

Could not possibly AGREE more. I was a teenager when the show debuted and I found it embarrasing. But as I watched it more, it seemed to me that the show, certainly the network, and many of it's adult fans at the time, were laughing at the character (as opposed to laughing with), and the character's serious fans.

I watched it through to the end, nothing else on, and if nothing else, the costumes were great (except Batman's) as was the Batmobile and Neal Hefti's theme, but this show was like a kick in the teeth.

 

[Trekker4747]

The show is just good, campy, fun. No, it's by no means a great use of depiction of Batman but so what? Don't see why so much hatred is often hefted at the show.

 

[Christopher]

I think it's a very good depiction of Batman -- the Batman that existed in the comics in the '50s and '60s. Its portrayal of Batman and his world is lighter and more stylized than what we've become used to in later decades, but it still captures the essence of the character in many ways -- his total dedication to his mission, his brilliance as a detective, his insane level of preparedness. I daresay the running gag of Batman being prepared for anything was inspired largely by this show, where he always had any necessary specialized gadget or resource already loaded into his utility belt. This was even lampshaded in a Mr. Freeze episode where he just happened to have a belt pouch containing sardines to feed to a friendly seal, becase you never knew when that might come in handy. (Although, again, that really came from the comics first. Silver Age DC comics constantly had superheroes pulling out ridiculous new gadgets or specialized powers suited for any situation.)

It's also an excellent and defining portrayal of Batgirl. The character of Barbara Gordon was created by the comic's team at the behest of the show's producers so they could incorporate her into the series, so the comics and TV versions of the character are essentially one and the same. And Batgirl was a great character, as fearless and confident and smart and resourceful as Batman, yet able to pull it off without the resources of a multimillionaire at her disposal, and having a lot more fun with it. And that's been the essence of Barbara Gordon pretty much ever since, or at least up until The Killing Joke happened.

 

[RandyS]

The show is just good, campy, fun. No, it's by no means a great use of depiction of Batman but so what? Don't see why so much hatred is often hefted at the show.

Most likely because it's not relentlessly depressing with pyschotic crazies who should be locked away for their own good masquerading as so-called "relatable characters" doing an endless parade of stupid shit.

It was actually a fun little comedy.

 

[The Old Mixer]

People should take the 60s show for what it is, in the spirit that was intended. The Batman of the day was not a character who was taken way too seriously, as more recent iterations are by some.

When I was a tyke in the early/mid-70s, the animated series being discussed here was a generation away. It was afternoon reruns of the 60s series that captivated me and proved to be the start of a lifelong love of comic book super-heroes.