"Batman" Debuts on TV – Jan. 12, 1966

Holy Diamond Jubilee, Batman – your TV show on ABC debuted sixty years ago tonight!

Below is the TV page of the January 12, 1966 Journal making the announcement of the debut, with a photo of Batman (Adam West) in the Batmobile. 

The caption reads, "Batman, the legendary nemesis of evil, the Caped Crusader whose very name strikes fear into the hearts of villainous villains everywhere, sets out with Boy Wonder Robin on another crime-thwarting adventure in his super vehicle, the atom-powered, parachute-breaked [sic], multi-weaponed four-wheel arsenal, the Batmobile, as ABC-TV's "Batman," a new series of twice-weekly, live-action color adventures, premiere tonight at 7:30. The program will also be seen Thursdays in the 7:30-8 p.m. time period.

It was pretty much a stroke of genius to program the show two nights in a row, as my brothers and I loved the show and were suckered into watching it both nights. (We pretty much commandeered the TV in the early evening; I don't remember my parents ever watching it until we went to bed.)

As I wrote back here, my parents bought us the paperback reprints that were rushed into print to capitalize on the popularity of the TV show. Just as we each had a favorite Beatle, we each had a Batman villain that was 'assigned' to us depending on which paperback we had. Mine was the Penguin. At least he didn't seem as evil as some of the other bad guys to me.

Watching the occasional late-night  Batman reruns on MeTV the last few years have really surprised me. I had forgotten the big-name celebrities that appeared on the show as the villains, or in cameo appearances in which they stuck their head out the window of the building that Batman and Robin were scaling. The villains always seemed to have some good-looking henchwomen too (such as Edy Williams). And what boy watching the show in the 1960s didn't have a crush on Catwoman (Julie Newmar)? I remember feeling bad when she fell in that bottomless pit.

During my recent viewings, the celebrity that I was most surprised to see was none other than Jack Kelly – Bart Maverick! He was playing some kind of fedora-wearing guy that was in cahoots with the baddies. In one scene he was comically straddling some kind of 'getaway rocket' (shown below) and I felt bad for him – except that he was probably having a blast working on a wildly popular TV show, not to mention sharing some scenes with Catwoman!

Courtesy David Richardson