An Evening With Batman and Robin – Feb. 1, 1966

Back in February 1966, the Batman TV show starring Adam West had only been airing for about a month when the above ad appeared in the movie section of the Journal on Feb 1, 1966 – 49 years ago yesterday. It promoted a one-time showing of An Evening With Batman and Robin at the Tivoli in Lorain.

An Evening With Batman and Robin apparently was rushed into theaters to take advantage of the TV series' popularity. The ersatz "feature" was merely a compilation of the 15 episodes of the 1943 Batman movie serial.

Batman as he appeared in the 1943 serial

The serial was a little ahead of its time, however, with its apparent inclusion of zombies in the storyline.

Here's Episode 1 of the original serial. It's not too bad, actually. It's a little more faithful to the original comics than the campy 1960s version.

The real Batman feature starring most of the TV cast wouldn't hit the screens until July 1966.

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Like everyone else our age at that time, my brothers and I were big fans of the Batman TV series, which was televised in two parts on successive weeknights.

Here are the opening credits for the 1966 season.

We had the paperback reprints of the original comics (below), which we brought with us on one of our cross-country camping trips to read in the car. It didn't occur to me that the stories were made up of comics that were decades-old.

We also had the Batman candy that came in small colorful boxes (below) that you could string together to make a genuine Batman utility belt.

I think we had a 45 RPM record of the Batman theme song, but – if I remember correctly – it might have been a different recorded version than what was played during the opening and closing of the TV show.

As for the big 1966 Batman movie, I don't recall seeing it in the theaters. I'm pretty sure we waited until it came to TV. Since it didn't feature the original Catwoman (Julie Newmar), it's probably just as well – although Lee Meriwether did do a good job as her replacement.

I think we lost interest in the Batman TV show during the third and final season when Batgirl was introduced. It seemed ridiculous that Batman and Robin didn't have a clue as to her true identity. Plus I resented Batgirl horning in on the Caped Crusaders' cases.