[This week marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of the Batman TV show & the 50th of The Bionic Woman. So I’ll AmericanStudy those shows & three others from the 60s & 70s, all of which happen to start with the letter ‘B’! I’d love your responses and other TVStudying thoughts for a crowd-sourced weekend post that needs no “Applause” sign.]
How three surprising figures and groups help tell the story of an iconic and influential camp classic.
1) Hugh Hefner: After 60 years of Batman on the small and big screen (as well as continuing on the pages of comic books throughout those decades of course), it might seem like a given that there would be demand for a Batman TV show. But that wouldn’t necessarily have been the case in January 1966 without none other than Hugh Hefner, who in 1964 had screened all 15 installments of the 1943 film serial called The Batman at his trendy Playboy Club in Chicago. Those screenings led Columbia Pictures to rerelease the entire serial in theaters in 1965 as An Evening with Batman and Robin, and the success of that rerelease in turn contributed to the development (or at least the greenlighting, as it seems to have already been in early development) of the TV show.
2) The Temptations: That same relative lack of built-in audience—or at least an uncertainty from network executives about whether it was there—meant that the show had to be marketed a lot more aggressively than we might expect. Perhaps the most striking such marketing was Batman Live!, a concert series that toured the country in the summer of 1966. Stars Adam West (Batman) and Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) appeared at each stop, alongside a number of musical groups—and at least at the June 25th concert at New York’s Shea Stadium, that roster included The Temptations! Talking ‘bout my guy—indeed, my Boy Wonder (although Burt Ward’s Robin wasn’t part of the tour it seems).
3) Conan O’Brien: Batman was prolific, airing twice a week for its first two seasons; but it was short-lived, as the audience did not entirely emerge and it was canceled after its third season, in March 1968 (it did total 120 episodes in those three seasons). But as its presence in this blog series indicates, its legacy and influence have extended far beyond that moment. Critics agree, as Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked Batman the 82nd greatest show of all time in their 2016 TV (The Book). And perhaps even more importantly, comedians agree, with Conan O’Brien calling it one of his favorite shows on a 2012 podcast and noting its influence on subsequent successful and likewise influential parodies like Airplane! I’m sure West et al would have liked more than three seasons, but they have to have been very happy with the show’s long and meaningful tail (cape?).
Next TVStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Other 60s and/or 70s TV you’d highlight?
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