Batman (1966-1968)

Title: Batman

Year: 1966 – 1968

Genre:  Action | Adventure | Comedy |

Seasons: 1 | 2 | 3 |

Runtime:  25 min

Creator:   Lorenzo Semple Jr & William Dozier

Starring:   Adam West, Burt Ward, Alan Napier

7.5/10

Wealthy entrepreneur Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and his ward Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) lead a double life: they are actually the crime-fighting duo Batman and Robin. A secret Batpole in the Wayne mansion leads to the Batcave, where Police Commissioner Gordon summons the Dynamic Duo on the Batphone with the latest emergency threatening Gotham City. Racing to the scene of the crime in the jet-powered Batmobile, Batman and Robin must thwart the efforts of a rogue’s gallery of flamboyant archvillains, including The Joker The Penguin   The Riddler and the Catwoman.

Adam West’s most iconic might just be Batman in the classic series that follows his Bruce Wayne and Burt Ward as Robin. It takes place during the 1960s and includes all characters from the rouge gallery which includes Penguin, the Joker, Catwoman and the Riddler. They all have their unique costume that defines their power against our Batman.

There’s also a voice-over that constantly is there and this could be a distraction for the audience. Although, there’s a voice-over that takes care of the narrative. It’s both good and bad for the show as a whole. For the worse, that could be a severe distraction from the series and thus not taking it more seriously. For the better, It chronicles the series in a comical sense giving it a lighthearted approach.

There is an overwhelming comical tone in the series, everything is labelled with a bat whether it is the Batpole, the batphone or the batmobile. It’s like the producers wanted to make sure that the brand’s own name was there for viewing by the audience. Adam West and Burt Ward make a decent job as our heroes, both trying to make the adventure as entertaining as possible. Whether there are the gadgets, the detective skills or the conversation where this duo is the only ones that can and will solve each episode’s mystery.  The police have a red phone that they ring every time that they need Batman and they use it pretty well during the course of the series.

The special effects are not the best in the series and that is what you would expect from a series that was at its peak during the 1960s. As you would expect there’s a downside. But the production delivers enough surprises along the way, that this barely becomes an issue or a problem.  The series could be placed in the elder children’s program department becomes mostly how the tone never shifts from the kid-friendly content.

Why would you even watch this? Well mostly because it’s the first series that showed Batman in colour. It’s because of the nostalgia that truly defined the character overall and the sense that this is a series unlike any other.