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From: ukbatmania
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  • This made one hell of an impact on me when I was 6½ years old in January 1966! What I get a kick out of is that music from Ramsay Lewis, as well as from Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" soundtrack, is used here! The Peter Gunn music would have given this series a darker edge to it that it could have benefited from!

  • when l was 8 l thought this was the greatest thing in the world,,innocence is a wonderful thing isnt it?

  • Couldn't Batman just climb the ladder?

  • everybody quick to the CATolac

  • they must have had some laugh making these!.

  • Like

  • Papa Batman always rules!

  • She's bad enough to attempt to murder batman, but ask her to climb back down a ladder and she's too scared.

  • I don't know why but the person that's making me laugh the hardest is robin. Oh and the cleshay acting, but it's still an awsome show nonetheless. LOL and I'm a huge batman fan.

  • I don't know why but the person that's making me laugh the hardest is robin. Oh and the cleshay acting, but it's still an awsome show nonetheless. LOL

  • This show is for true batman fans, not nolan nuthuggers

  • cool cool in Christ allways fat billpage illusionist magician in fun wilds.org

  • I Couldn't believe I was 4 years old watching this show. I am showing my age. LOL!!!

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  • Man and boy...

  • Absolutely Bloody Classic!!!!..They just dont make shows this good anymore :0 }

  • FYI, quite a bit of the music was taken from Henry Mancini's score for Peter Gunn!! I think that music rocks big time, and should have been used in the series for added edginess!

    Oh, and had Dean Jeffries' version of the Batmobile been used, it would have been derived from a 1959 Cadillac!

  • Holy Nostalgia! No wonder I was soooo excited to see the series when I saw this broadcast. POW! BAM! WHAP!

  • At that time, there was only ONE tv channel here in Denmark - and the Danish Batman comic told us that the series wouldnot be shown in Danish television - becourse those in charge thought it was too violent - sigh...

    ( the same reason they only shown a few Thunderbirds ) - they should have BANG SPLASH KE-POW in their faces.. så ku de bare lære det !

  • @gasplut For the same reason they dropped this show in Finland after the first season. It is quite sad, that I had no possibility to see Batgirl, but on the other hand, season 3 was a little bit downgrading in quality after the first two seasons.

  • I don't remember this presentation, buy I do remember seeing commercials with the tagline "Batman Is Coming!" in the month prior to the show going on air.

    Neat!

  • Hated this show. Corny in the extreme. Not just comic bookish, but extreme high camp. Beyond Tim Burton camp.

  • @Capt777harris ... Well, that was the whole point! It was designed to be campy, corny and comic-bookish!

  • @Tre404 Probably, but kids took the comic seriously, and I think a lot of them were really insulted by this show. I know I was, and I'm not even a Batman fan.

  • when this first started everyone thought it was so dammn bizzare! If only one teen thug had a pocket knife in the gang!

  • batman with the music from peter gunn. i love it

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  • Batman and Star Trek are the greatest tv shows ever!

  • Jill St. John was so hot.

  • and today is the 45th Anniversary, may i not add?

  • Now that HUB is showing reruns, the clamour demand for a DVD release will expect to increase. Put me on that list.

    Why is it that Fox and WB can collaborate on movies like "The Towering Inferno" but can't come to an agreement on who owns Batman?

  • You shake a pretty mean cape, Batman...

  • Never saw this one before....thanks for posting it!

  • I've known several men who were boys when Batman made its debut. Every last one of them was a Batman fanatic in those days :)

  • It was thrilling to see Batman and Robin slide down that poll to the bat cave. When they jumped in that "Bat Car"," Criminals " Watch Out", you knew that meant " business.".

  • 7:30 TO 7:40 LMAO

  • @darwish96 So glad the original Hornet and Kato weren't corny like this !!!!

  • I recall the promo to Batman and the day all the kids in the neighborhood all watch the first Batman show. I recall that it was on a Sunday,nice move ABC

  • Camp at it's best!

  • Used to watch this show every day at 4:30pm on our local CBS affiliate in the 1980's. Hopefully some day this will get a dvd release.

  • What a great show !

  • i used to love that car!!!!

  • A great campy show!!!

  • I was 5 when it came on. I had a Batman sweatshirt. It was white with the emblem on it. Saw it in reruns for years. As I got older I appreciated the villains. Many of Hollywoods greats were on the show. Julie Newmar was my favorite Catwoman. George Sanders was great as Mr. Freeze. Otto Preminger used to say "Wild" as Mr. Freeze. Caeser Romero was a better Joker than in the movies. The show was camp. That was what made it so great. Always a favorite.

  • This was my fav show as a kid !! Thanks for posting

    "Same Bat time, same Bat channel" 

  • LOL did he say man and boy???????

  • 1st episode featured frank gorshin as the riddler.

  • Was that the same cave they used for Zorro 

  • Note that Batman (Adam West) asks for Orange Juice!

  • I always love when he drinks the orange juice in this scene, he recoils a bit, as if he was drinking a really hard drink like whiskey or something. :-P

  • wow! all this and the batwatusi too!! it does'nt get any better than this!! shazam1059

  • The music from Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" and "More Music From Peter Gunn" albums is tracked on this promo.

  • the First Episode of "BATMAN" came in with a KRUNCH! WHAMM!! POW! ZAP!! BAM! OUCH!..&..BANG!!! xo]

  • I loved the 60s. Batman, the AFL, Gilligan's Island, The Beatles, Stones, Star Trek, and The Summer of Love.

  • How they were able to do any of these shows with a striaght face is beyond me...

  • 3:20 LOLOLOL

  • Fascinating preview, not tracked with Nelson Riddles brilliant underscoring. There obviously must be the actual episode with the final tracking.

  • Batman was coming on television?Wow!

    That was what I thought initialy when I saw the ads at age 11.I was an avid watcher at first-and I took the whole show seriously...until I realized the producers/writers weren't taking it seriously.

  • Batman's gotta have that OJ

  • whats a hidden Bat-Lazar- beam?

  • @MacGrurry That's what I say. What's a hidden Bat-Lazar- beam? I'm sure he meant to say Laser. lol Nevertheless, a hidden Bat-Lazar-beam is used just like a hidden Bat-shield is used, and it comes out of nowhere! lol That some Bat-belt Batman!

  • This is still better than The Dark Knight or Batman Begins.

  • IT was kinda like a let down, we wanted a serious cool super hero Batman and they gave us this. IT was a big hit for a short time , in a funny way,making fun of it. i watched it when it first aired on tv, we still had our old b/w tv from 1958. Nice memories.

  • Glad to see Superheroes promoting non-alcoholic beverages for a drink!

  • Lol! at 2:00-2:06!

    Batman and Riddler are both having a pretty gay moment, and Batman had the pants. xD

  • A ward is an orphan (usually). The ward needs a guardian, and that's what the "millionaire philanthropist" was....a guardian to the ward.

  • So cool, in so many ways! What is a ward?

  • I still want that car!!!

  • i was 4...i didnt get that it was all a spoof...i was just totally excited to see batman on tv...and gorshin shoulda won an emmy for the riddler

  • Its wasn't a "spoof", it was camp. Camp takes original elements and exaggerates them, almost like a caricature. Given executive producer Dozier's hatred for comic books and the desire of both Fox and ABC to make it a "light" show (by the mid 60's, half hour shows in those days were usually comedies, hours were dramas or variety shows), camp was the right approach.

  • I lol'd

  • I'd love to see a cpy of the original teaser which aired on ABC stations the week before Batman premiered. I recall it showed shots of the Bat signal, Riddler in the elephant mask and Dozier's reapting several tmes "Batman is coming!"

  • Wow, I thought I was the only one who remembered that teaser. I kept wondering who the man in the elephant mask was supposed to be.

  • Will someone put this show on DVD for cryin' out loud?!!!!? There's enough money to be made of this to satisfy everyone involved!

  • Amazing video!!!!!!! Thanks for share it.

  • the song AFTER the titles is from the peter gunn soundtrack - song is 'fallout'

    Cheif ohara is brilliant - he determined that the criminal who gave a riddle was the riddler

  • There's no pulling the wool over the eyes of Gotham's fine men in blue.

  • LMAO @ some of ya'll comments. I couldn't come up wit some of the funny shit I'm readin', and I'm an all natural shit talker.

  • Adam West has more fans now tan he did in the 60s.

  • Small wonder. Unlike most "stars," Adam has a sense of humor about his career's ups and downs and never takes himself too seriously. He and Shatner figured it out: if people are going to make fun of you, make fun of yourself and do it better than they do. And if you end up making a lot of money doing so, all the better!

  • @bobbyknightmare Why would anyone make fun of the mayor of Rhode Island???

  • lmao, gotta love 60s tv haha

  • Batman and Robin;

    Intrepid Pursuers of Evil!!

    Fearless Warriors Against Crime!!

    Bruce Wayne..... Millionaire Philanderer.... errrr.... make that PHILANTHROPIST!!

    Robin.... HOLY Figures out every riddle The Riddler can throw at them!!

    So..... if they're all so clever, all so brilliant, then why do they need to have their names marked on The Bat Poles??

  • the lyrics of the "Batman" theme song song are absolutely moving.

    Someone must have spent an entire six-pack composing them!!

  • OK. I've got "Batman! Batman! Batman..." I need another word here.

    How about "Batman"!?

    Brilliant!

  • SHAKESPEARE !!!

  • great post 10/10

  • Different background music, wrent you allowed to use the original music by Nelson Riddle?

  • The TV series background score was composed by Neal Hefti. Nelson Riddle composed the score for the 1966 feature film.

  • Wrong, Hefti wrote the theme song, Riddle the background score, and yes also for the feature film.

  • My...my drink -

    DOPED!

  • So, do you suppose that they ever had a slide on each others pole?

  • He burnt the firing pin with a "LAY-ZAR" beam? LOL

  • A "BAT-LAY-ZAR" beam to be precise.

  • What is the Batusi?

  • It's Batman's groovy dance - starting at 3:20.

  • OMG...I actually remember this. This did air on ABC, before it showed for the Fall. I watched it with my parents and brothers and friends. Back in the day, the networks did this as a special to gain interest..and we were alll interested!! Gee whiz! Thanks for posting!!!

  • I just wish the lawsuit would be done with and the DVDs put to market; why not go for shared profits? Everyone knows the Batman TV show would be an instant best seller!

  • Batman was another variation of the Comic Strip Batman and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

    Both shows were very successful, but the 2nd Season of Batman and the 3rd Season of U.N.C.L.E. was considered too silly b/c it was too comical and not serious.

    But here's something else: the late Cesar Romero, the late Vincent Price and the late European Actor Michael Rennie have all played villains on both shows and Yvonne Craig played Batgirl, but she also played a Female Agent on Man From U.N.C.L.E.

  • They had the COOLEST car. I'm glad it's out in Hot Wheels now. :-)

  • This makes the show look good, until you reach the Batusi scene ...

  • it's SUPPOSED to be corny and campy, that's the whole point....

  • I am used to seeing the short Bat Man theme and saying in color.

  • Thank you for posting. I never seen this before.

  • 5:28 a bat LAZAR beam

  • Batman threw the batarang, and then "climbed" up the rope to the atomic pile to save "Molly". I remember seeing that for the first time as a 12 year old, and even with my kids imagination, I though that was pretty hokily done. But we all loved the series then. I still have all the black bat, red bat, and blue bat Topps trading cards from 1966 I collected back then.

  • a large fresh orange juice, please

  • 2:50 isn't this actress Jill St John?

  • Yes, she sure is!

  • you can get the serials from 1943 and 1949 and the 1966 Movie on DVD, but you can't get the TV Show. Doesn't seem right.

  • No, it isn't...

  • Fox and WB really need to resolve their dispute and get this show on DVD. Think of all the wonderful extras the DVDs could have, including this rare pilot presentation!!!

  • Plus, with the passing of Eartha Kitt last December, the number of surviving cast members continues to diminish. I'd love to see it on DVD complete with commentary while there are still cast members around.

  • @studmuffin0681 I used 2 watch this TV version of Batman as a boy and I really loved it. However, I found out recently that Batman was also a 1940's movie series before it went 2 television. It was made by Columbia Pictures and u may find it here on YouTube.

  • @man975dog ... Yes, it was a Saturday-matinee serial in the 1940s.

  • it have the ABC Camera ID.

  • Campy..Yes.Classic...Absolutel­y!!!!

  • Damn this is silly. I know it was on purpose, but still

  • pupsik nervs hurt....janka here help!!???

    o help

  • BATMAN RULZ!!!!!!

  • It's also interesting to note that except for the "Batman" theme, most of the music heard in this presentation was "stock" (mostly from "Peter Gunn"), although a cover version of "The In Crowd" (by Ramsey Lewis) is also heard during a discotheque scene.

  • "Batman" premiered on January 12th, 1966, so I suspect this presentation was put together very late in 1965, featuring scenes from the pilot.

    It was probably put together both for potential sponsors and affiliates. Indeed, an ABC affiliate that had a nine-minute "hole" at the end of a movie could have run this short with a local voice-over added to the end indicating "'Batman', Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 P.M., premiering January 12th here on Channel (number)".

  • WATCH 3:00 ON

    "my drink.....DOPED!!"

    ROLFLMAO!!

  • Adam West hey, you remember me cut my face in fantabaires97

  • That's Jill St. John...

  • do you know who the girl he was danceing with? she did "diamonds are forever" james bond movie.forgot her name.

  • I lived for this show when I was 8, I had to play Catwoman to my brother's Batman (he had a blue towel clothespinned around his neck). Once I had to miss the show because I had too much homework & I spent the whole 1/2 hour up in my bedroom crying (I had to write the numbers 1-1000). This was such a big hit even though the careers of Adam & Burt didn't last beyond the show. Once they were supposed to be at a local mall but didn't come--mobs of people were there, I was so disappointed!

  • @wlhardy I never had anyone willing to play villain for me and unfortunately the only Robin I could come up with was my cats. Cats just love to wear capes and race down the street in the Batmobile (a.k.a. little red wagon.)

  • @RichYan33 I love it! If you don't have a Robin, then improvise and get some cats. That's great. It would have been so cool to play Batman with other kids and to take turns being "Guest Villains". I don't know how they could keep straight faces while doing this show. I wish I had a bunch of friends that wanted to watch Batman reruns. That would be cool. We could all yell "Pow!", "Biff", "Splatt" and "Holy Reruns Batman"! I was very young when the show was on. I miss my youth.

  • @wlhardy In my case, I had to go to the neighbor's to watch this show around the same time. My grandparents, with whom I lived, never allowed us to watch this show, or any cartoons, for that matter. My grandparents bought their first color set in January 1966, but the neighbors still had the standard black-and-white.

    I always wanted to play Robin, which is ironic, because I am almost as tall as my namesake Alfred in this series. Of course, back then, I didn't recognize the celebrity villains.

  • hahah i just noticed at the end...batman is driving up and down the same road..lol..hes lost

  • "If only they had caller ID back then. Commish would have found it was Bruce Wayne!"

    If you think it's that easy to catch Batman think again ;)

    He'd obviously have some phone device that would lead the Commish on a wild goose chase lol

  • Thia ninja used a rope/grappling hook/ lasso to save a girl from a nuclear reactor... crazy.

    ninja please

  • Robin was always a bit of a liability!

  • I haven't seen this since it ran on ABC. Wow! I loved it when I was a kid, and took the first season very seriously (me, not the director). Frank Gorshin was a Great Ridddler. God, that laugh! Thanks for posting this. It was fun.

  • Technicolor! what an era!

  • Why wasn't there any other geust starring super heroes in this? Beside the Green Hornet.

  • William Dozier, producer (and the narrator of Batman and the Green Hornet TV show) tried to have other series done based on comics but never took off, He tried Batgirl, Wonder Woman and Dick Tracy but they never took off due to the quick fizzle of Batman.

  • also love adam west on family guy and fairly odd parents, you rock adam.

  • when i was 6 this show was it. i still have my batman lunch box. inspired lunacy.

  • Oh LORD!

  • Dig that crazy background music.

  • You've got the year wrong, it was 1966...or is there something I didn't know.

  • It premiered in January 1966.

  • I was sure it was 66. I was 6 years old..and I remember it like it was yesterday...Our babysitter came over and said, "aren't you watching Batman tonight"...and I remember telling her I didn't know what that was :) My little story :) Thanks

  • so cheesy

  • best tv show ever

  • Batman's in with "The In Crowd"!

  • My drink...!

    DOPED!

  • I totally lost it when he started dancing

  • Yeah.. Batman is Cuming.. especially at 03:45 xDD

  • lol, she climbs into the nuclear power source that he just happens to have in his 1970 cave basement. Because of course its the kind of thing you just leave open so people can accidentally fall in. lmao

  • 3:15-3:17.........priceless. "You interest me you strange lady"......ROFL

  • This is 'Fiddle Hi Riddle"-(1966),...not 65..1st appearance o' Fred Gershin as the Riddler...classic clowny corn

  • Apollo: It's Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. He was the best.

  • Loved it as a kid, but man it's campy. Bstman begins is much better!

  • This show just makes me smile : )....thanks for posting this...this is great

  • I used to *love* this show. Sorry to read that it's not on DVD. Maybe, perhaps once Time Warner and Fox agree to terms, it'll be on DVD someday.

  • it's fox's fault why this is not on dvd. they can't come to terms with time warner on how to release it.

  • Batman and Lost In Space were my two childhood

    favorites...wish they'd release Batman on DVD!

  • This show has it all. STYLE and beautiful Corny humour-but as a kid it was deadly serious

  • Wham! Pow! Bam! Brilliant, I've tried to buy this series but cant find it. Thank you for posting.

  • 60's TV doesn't get much better than this. Better than this: The Monkees; The Mod Squad

  • It's a travesty the show is not on DVD.  There are clearly some fools in the corporate towers.

  • Excellent. I remember these kind of highlights used to really get me pumped for upcoming shows. Used to scare me too. The Batman dance shown here was emulated by many. And am I mistaken, or is that Jill St. (yummy) John in that segment dressed up like Robin? She was her smokingest at this point. See what we had to watch when all we had was 3 networks and some local Chicago programming? The times, they are a changing!

  • CHEESEY!!

  • my drink... DOPED!

  • Holy Lost Archives.

    Awesome Bat-Footage that never seen.

  • look at molly's face when the riddler starts lafin when they've kidnapped robin

  • "DOOOOOOOOOOOOPED... D'OH!"

  • What a way to go go. LOL

  • I would pay top dollar to own every episode of this series...this and the Burton movies made me love batman

  • The music playing in the background when Batman walks into the night club is titled "I'm in with the in crowd" but I can't remember the artist ... can anyone else?

  • It's actually not "The In Crowd". But I'm blanking on which song and artist it is right now. However, just FYI, the most famous version of "The In Crowd" was by Dobie Gray.

  • The Ramsey Lewis Trio made "The In Crowd".

  • Whoops, I spoke too soon. "The In Crowd" Ramsay Lewis Trio. They used that in a show I was in and I had to find it because it's such great party music.

  • If only they had caller ID back then. Commish would have found it was Bruce Wayne!