I know someone posted about the HUB station before. They have the 60s batman, fraggle rock, batman beyond, G1 transformers and the original GI joe cartoon, family ties and a bunch of others. Sadly I've seen images on their commercials for the new Transformers and GI Joe shows and it looks like they were drawn by a chimpanzee with its buttcrack to be polite. The Bumblebee looks exactly like the movie one so far.
1960s batman back on tv
- Thread starter Wes R
- Start date
Colin Droidmilk
Sr Member
Ah good - a TV Batman thread. Been watching it on youtube. Anyone fancy a big intellectual discussion on its particular brand of 'camp'?
I put the word in quotation marks because camp is so hard to define. Which is appropriate because Susan Sontag in her notes on camp described it as 'culture in quotation marks.' The word derives from the French word for 'posing' and insinuates artifice. 'Batman' is certainly loaded with this as a conscious exercise in camp, but what intrigues me about the show is how it seems to walk this tightrope between comedy, satire and parody without ever quite being any of these. Apparently Dozier intended 'pop art camp comedy'. Adam West stated his acting style was 'satirical', but critics have said he wasn't good enough for that and that he was merely 'camp'. Whatever the tone of Batman actually is, it always appears to be extremely fine-tuned, and executed with great sophistication.
The tone of the show is at its most curious for me in the scenes with Dick and Bruce at home. Dick's practising the piano with Harriet, gets frustrated and, in that fantastically emphatic and ingeniously over-done delivery ( which makes him seem disturbing and erratic), will suddenly burst out , "Why is Chopin such a big deal anyway?" Bruce corrects him with a noble, but almost ludicrously forced-logic sentiment about music being a powerful binding force for mankind and therefore a hope for world peace. Dick immediately self-flagellates over his error and promises to concentrate better on Chopin in the future. Now what exactly is this? Are the writers mocking idealists who hope for world peace? Or is it that camp dictates that everything be ludicrously exaggerated, to the point that both Dick's impatience and Bruce's nobility are both blown preposterously out of proportion? The latter, I suppose is more likely, yet this leaves us with this odd sense of moral detachment...
So often, Batman himself is an utterly pitiable and naive figure, unable to fight his way out of a small tangle of paper streamers, a figure of total virgin-like innocence, who appears at times to be mocked by the writer for his unbending adherence to the law, such as not parking the Batmobile in no-parking zones at the expense of letting his quarry escape etc. If this is satire, what is the target? Respect for law and order? Or again, is it another example of mere exaggeration, Batman's goodness rendered totally overblown as a stylistic requirement of Dozier's vision of 'camp'?
Also the sheer intensity of the moral outrage that Batman, Robin and Commissioner Gordon etc. feel for these villains who so often do little more than throw sneezing powder about and steal objects d'art. etc. seems again to be the writers poking fun at conservative attitudes, represented by the show's heroes - yet the heroes are still clearly the heroes. We like them, we sympathise with them totally, and it's impossible ultimately to see them as really being the butt of the writers. Hence this constant weird ambiguity...
BS? Or not? Any thoughts...? Any BS...?
I put the word in quotation marks because camp is so hard to define. Which is appropriate because Susan Sontag in her notes on camp described it as 'culture in quotation marks.' The word derives from the French word for 'posing' and insinuates artifice. 'Batman' is certainly loaded with this as a conscious exercise in camp, but what intrigues me about the show is how it seems to walk this tightrope between comedy, satire and parody without ever quite being any of these. Apparently Dozier intended 'pop art camp comedy'. Adam West stated his acting style was 'satirical', but critics have said he wasn't good enough for that and that he was merely 'camp'. Whatever the tone of Batman actually is, it always appears to be extremely fine-tuned, and executed with great sophistication.
The tone of the show is at its most curious for me in the scenes with Dick and Bruce at home. Dick's practising the piano with Harriet, gets frustrated and, in that fantastically emphatic and ingeniously over-done delivery ( which makes him seem disturbing and erratic), will suddenly burst out , "Why is Chopin such a big deal anyway?" Bruce corrects him with a noble, but almost ludicrously forced-logic sentiment about music being a powerful binding force for mankind and therefore a hope for world peace. Dick immediately self-flagellates over his error and promises to concentrate better on Chopin in the future. Now what exactly is this? Are the writers mocking idealists who hope for world peace? Or is it that camp dictates that everything be ludicrously exaggerated, to the point that both Dick's impatience and Bruce's nobility are both blown preposterously out of proportion? The latter, I suppose is more likely, yet this leaves us with this odd sense of moral detachment...
So often, Batman himself is an utterly pitiable and naive figure, unable to fight his way out of a small tangle of paper streamers, a figure of total virgin-like innocence, who appears at times to be mocked by the writer for his unbending adherence to the law, such as not parking the Batmobile in no-parking zones at the expense of letting his quarry escape etc. If this is satire, what is the target? Respect for law and order? Or again, is it another example of mere exaggeration, Batman's goodness rendered totally overblown as a stylistic requirement of Dozier's vision of 'camp'?
Also the sheer intensity of the moral outrage that Batman, Robin and Commissioner Gordon etc. feel for these villains who so often do little more than throw sneezing powder about and steal objects d'art. etc. seems again to be the writers poking fun at conservative attitudes, represented by the show's heroes - yet the heroes are still clearly the heroes. We like them, we sympathise with them totally, and it's impossible ultimately to see them as really being the butt of the writers. Hence this constant weird ambiguity...
BS? Or not? Any thoughts...? Any BS...?
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Funny that this was posted as I just discovered the HUB channel last night. I got to watch G1 Transformers followed by GI Joe. Life was good last night. I'll have to keep an eye out for Batman.
John
John
Ummm...yeah! What HE said! And Batman has a kick-ass utility belt, too!
Larry Young
Master Member
Any such survey of BATMAN certainly needs to take into account the context in and under which the show was produced. Even though 1966-1968 was an interesting time in America culturally, I think the tonal shifts are merely a by-product of all the show's various writers. Some are going to be more interested in the pop art adventure, some camp, some the satire, and some even outright slapstick.
Man, I friggin love that car, though.
Alan Cross
Sr Member
Colin wrote:
"So often, Batman himself is an utterly pitiable and naive figure, unable to fight his way out of a small tangle of paper streamers, a figure of total virgin-like innocence, who appears at times to be mocked by the writer for his unbending adherence to the law, such as not parking the Batmobile in no-parking zones at the expense of letting his quarry escape etc. If this is satire, what is the target? Respect for law and order? Or again, is it another example of mere exaggeration, Batman's goodness rendered totally overblown as a stylistic requirement of Dozier's vision of 'camp'?"
Well, I'm a television writer. My guess is, and you'll be disappointed by this, but it's just the writers trying to be funny. End of story. "Hey, what if Batman won't park in a no-parking zone and because of that, the bad guy gets away?" It's funny. Or, funny-adjacent. I dunno. But you're right in that the character's strict moral code is easy to make fun of. That's why they did jokes like that.
I appreciate the thought you've put into your review of the show and your analysis of how the writers viewed the characters. It's an important show from my childhood. I mean, I LOVED this show when I was a kid. I was six or seven when it originally ran on TV. I didn't even get that it was camp. When Batman is drowning in a giant blender full of cake batter... I watched at home hoping to god he was gonna make it out of there alive. To my six year old brain it was genuine drama.
Years later, I had my own TV show, (Weird Science) and I got to hire Adam West to be in an episode (he played a squirrel figurine collector). He was gracious, charming, and happy to have the work. I hired Batman! How many people can say that?
Thanks for the analysis.
Alan
"So often, Batman himself is an utterly pitiable and naive figure, unable to fight his way out of a small tangle of paper streamers, a figure of total virgin-like innocence, who appears at times to be mocked by the writer for his unbending adherence to the law, such as not parking the Batmobile in no-parking zones at the expense of letting his quarry escape etc. If this is satire, what is the target? Respect for law and order? Or again, is it another example of mere exaggeration, Batman's goodness rendered totally overblown as a stylistic requirement of Dozier's vision of 'camp'?"
Well, I'm a television writer. My guess is, and you'll be disappointed by this, but it's just the writers trying to be funny. End of story. "Hey, what if Batman won't park in a no-parking zone and because of that, the bad guy gets away?" It's funny. Or, funny-adjacent. I dunno. But you're right in that the character's strict moral code is easy to make fun of. That's why they did jokes like that.
I appreciate the thought you've put into your review of the show and your analysis of how the writers viewed the characters. It's an important show from my childhood. I mean, I LOVED this show when I was a kid. I was six or seven when it originally ran on TV. I didn't even get that it was camp. When Batman is drowning in a giant blender full of cake batter... I watched at home hoping to god he was gonna make it out of there alive. To my six year old brain it was genuine drama.
Years later, I had my own TV show, (Weird Science) and I got to hire Adam West to be in an episode (he played a squirrel figurine collector). He was gracious, charming, and happy to have the work. I hired Batman! How many people can say that?
Thanks for the analysis.
Alan
Colin Droidmilk
Sr Member
Hey, you're welcome. Thanks for the reply. You're right, of course, that they wrote it to be funny - that's the simple answer! But it falls just short of the kind of lampooning in Airplane, and of course can be perceived by kids as pure drama, which is why I describe the show as very finely-tuned...
Glad you helped Adam West out with some work! He's always looked to me like a great bloke...
Glad you helped Adam West out with some work! He's always looked to me like a great bloke...
I grew up watching repeats of this version of batman in the 80s on whatever channel it was on. I like it and the animated series equally. Caesar Romero is one of the top 3 jokers in my book. Plus its just good entertainment. I'm just glad to see that Adam west is still going and doing well playing himself all over TV. So far I like hub, have to wait and see when they unveil the new transformers and GI joe. If they had he-man then transformer then gi joe it would be like being 5 again lol. Its also nice to see batman beyond from the start for once.
No truer words have ever been spoken. I too was about that age when the show originally aired. The cliffhanger endings, as cheesy as they may seem now were pure nail-biting drama for this six year old.
Colin Droidmilk
Sr Member
Guess you're right about the tone shifts through the series. But my stuff was based on my impressions of just the first 4 episodes....
The car is bloody fantastic, yes! Where in hell did my toy of that thing GO?!!
Alan Cross
Sr Member
The Corgi toy batmobile? I really loved that thing too. The little red flame jet that bobbed back and forth? The missiles you could shoot from the slanted pipes... good times!
My very first "movie prop" was from that TV series....it was the cowl. A big hunk of hard plastic that fit over your head like the head piece to a suit of armor.
I vividly remember my Mom tying a towel around my neck for a cape. I also remember getting upset because it didn't look right and I demanded she draw the bat emblem for my chest and getting upset because THAT didn't look right. Looking back, it seems I was a little OCD. MY Dad even drew me a bat emblem on a flashlight and he would point it at the wall.
I vividly remember my Mom tying a towel around my neck for a cape. I also remember getting upset because it didn't look right and I demanded she draw the bat emblem for my chest and getting upset because THAT didn't look right. Looking back, it seems I was a little OCD. MY Dad even drew me a bat emblem on a flashlight and he would point it at the wall.
Colin Droidmilk
Sr Member
Yes indeed. I just love to this day the way the body rounded itself under the car. I had it up till 5 years back but then it got lost in a house-move. In the same move, my dinky Fab 1 got its canopy busted. The move was still worth it, though. I guess.
Colin Droidmilk
Sr Member
An addendum to my tone spiel above:
Just watched the George Sanders Mr. Freeze episodes. Dick and Bruce less grotesque. Definitely a tad less ridiculous, leans more to adventure, genuine peril (Freeze murders a guy).
Just watched the George Sanders Mr. Freeze episodes. Dick and Bruce less grotesque. Definitely a tad less ridiculous, leans more to adventure, genuine peril (Freeze murders a guy).
Haven't seen the show in 20 years ,but I've recently been watching the episodes on Youtube. I'm actually surprised how good the main cast were. They played it completely straight, so you believed everything. The villians were DEADLY SERIOUS. Doesn't deserve the bad rep its had all these years.
Good times.
Good times.
It's the best Batman that's ever been made.
The Burton Batmans are already forgotten.
The Schumachers simply embarassing.
The Nolans are reviled as much as they are admired.
The 60's show is snapshot of TV that will stand the test of time.
And nothing on four wheels beats the TV car. NOTHING.
The Burton Batmans are already forgotten.
The Schumachers simply embarassing.
The Nolans are reviled as much as they are admired.
The 60's show is snapshot of TV that will stand the test of time.
And nothing on four wheels beats the TV car. NOTHING.
Larry Young
Master Member
I would like to endorse this product and/or service.
I was reading a history of comic book trials of the Senate Subcommittees on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. It had a brief mention of the Batman television show, but described it not as camp, but an actual reflection of the early Batman comics and even had a number of references to back up how the television show reflected the camp that was to be found in the comic before the show started.
