Would you have been a Bat-fan if the series had never aired?

[Riddler Fan]

I don't think so. I had never heard of Batman before the TV show aired. I of course had heard of Superman though. It's an often forgotten fact that when the TV show first aired, the Batman comic book series wasn't selling well at all. Some have even speculated that the comic book series might indeed have ended if it were not for the TV show.

[chrisbcritter]

I really doubt it; I never read superhero comics as a kid since I was way too busy being into cars. And once my brothers got into comic books and I saw their Justice League stuff, the only hero from there that really impressed me was Hawkman. So you might say my Bat-enthusiasm was always for the TV series.

[High C]

No. IIRC, the only comic I read when I was young was Archie. Didn't read Batman, Superman, etc.

[bat lugosi]

Good question for sure, my first Batman was the cartoon version with bat-mite and episodes of The Super Friends, but I doubt that would have made me a big fan right into my adulthood lol

while I wasn't around in the 60s, during the early to mid 80s as a little kid the series was my first live action Batman and I loved it. My introduction was the view master reel of the first Catwoman episodes, but in the mid 80s I caught snippets here and there before Church on Sunday mornings as it was on a Canadian show called Switchback. They seemed to play the first 10-12 or so minuets before church and I could only hope to see the other 10 or 15 min after church, sometimes I didn't make it. Other times I would convince my parents it was very important to record it on the VCR. If only I had of saved those tapes, I would love to hear the host Stan the Man introduce Batman, and man I loved those previews, oh well, maybe someday it will show up on You Tube...doubt it.

Now as much as I loved watching it on switchback, it wasn't until I my late teens that I caught it on Canadian TV YTV that I viewed the show properly, but by that point I was already a huge Batman fan because of the Tim Burton films, the Animated Batman series and I was also reading Batman comic books.

I'm a fan of many various versions of Batman, the 60s series is one of my favorites, but I love all the other stuff as well. I think the comic book played the biggest role in bringing my interest in Batman into adulthood though, so would I have been a fan without the show? Still hard to say, the 60s series had such an impact on my imagination, but I would say if the comic was killed off, I doubt I would be a fan.

[Lord Death Man]

Very much so, as I first became a Batman fan as a teen when the 1989 movie came out. I was not introduced to the TV series until I met my husband a few years later. But I now much prefer the Batman TV show to the movies, although the serials are my favorites.

I know that I have read in many books that the Batman comic was close to cancellation in 1966, but is there any real evidence (I don't have my books here to check and see if there was) of this other than apocryphal stories that have been picked up and repeated? Batman was in Batman, Detective, World's Finest, and Justice League. For awhile they even limited his appearances in JLA for fear of overexposure but eventually gave into demand and let him make regular appearances. They even changed the format of the Brave And Bold comic in 1965 (before the TV series) to make it Batman team-ups. Batman was obviously still very popular (sales of individual issues were many, many times greater than they are today-but of course that could be said for most 60's comics) and the Julius Schwartz/Carmine Infantino 'new look' (that was introduced to correct lower sales) had caught on with readers. At the very worst I could see Detective getting a reformat (and it had always been a title that featured one Batman story and lots of other 'detective' stories or other backups like Martian Manhunter, who was never popular enough in the 60's to merit his own title-and even when the show was running, there were Elongated Man backup stories). Unless every other DC hero but Superman had their title cancelled first, I do not think it happening to Batman was a real possibility. The evidence here does not seem to support the thesis.

But it certainly makes for a nice story, and the TV show was instrumental into bringing superheroes and especially Batman into the minds of the general public (especially in the short term).

[NJ_Batfan]

I have thinking about this one for the past few days and would have to conclude that the absence of the 66 series from my childhood probably would have steered me clear from Batman and all comic book heroes. As I was a toddler when the show appeared, my first exposure to Batman was certainly from the series. The success of the show lead to a blitz of comic book heroes on television: Superman, Aquaman, and the JLA from DC, Spider-Man, the Fantastic four, and the Marvel Superheroes, etc. In the absence of my growing fascination with these shows, I probably never would have received any of the related merchandise from my parents or relatives, and certainly not the comics.

[AndyFish]

Lord death man Julie Schwartz who was the editor brought in to revamp Batman in 1964 that BATMAN was never in danger of being cancelled but that Detective Comics was. The irony is DC Comics takes it's name from the title. Yes they are actually Detective Comics Comics.

Even more interesting is the sales today are a fragment of what they were back then when. A kid could get a comic book at a drugstore or a department store.

But getting back, Julie said Batman was always a popular character the powers that be wanted to get Bob Kane and his ghosts off the titles and bring in new talent to spark the sales up to above eight year olds.

So the idea that the TV show saved the comic series is accurate, but a bit of a stretch.

[Mr. Comic Book]

I think it depends purely on whether or not Batman, the character, would still have been in play without the show. As has been said, the comics were at risk of cancellation prior to the "New Look" era, and it's questionable if the "New Look" era alone could have revived the franchise. Batman could have very easily ended up being on the same tier as Aquaman, a B-list hero with iconic cred but no franchise appeal. It took decades for Green Lantern to finally become an A-list hero (and this was after a ton of misguided reboots and bad event-gimmicks came and went). Batman could have been a similar case. Or -- and this is a possibility we shouldn't ignore -- the character could have been put on ice entirely for a very long time, if forever. One thing is certain: the character owes his legacy as an A-lister to the West show.

Would I have been as much of a Batman fan without it? Again, that depends. If the character had still been a featured player on Super Friends, yes, I would have. That was actually when I first encountered him (and I liked almost all the DC heroes featured on the show), and the West show came shortly afterward. If the character had chugged along under the radar during the Bronze Age much as the Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman did, absolutely. The Golden and Bronze Ages are tied neck-and-neck as my favorite eras of the comics. If the character had faded out completely? Well, that pretty much answers itself. There's no way to really answer the question without acknowledging all of the variables.

I will say this, though, if my first encounter with Batman had been the Frank Miller-instigated version from 1986-onward, the answer would be a staunch "no." There's nothing heroic or admirable about the Batman that debuted in DKR/Year One and continued to be a mockery of what Batman had been prior to that, and I would never have cottoned to the character if that had been my first taste of him. So not only would it depend on whether or not Batman was still around in some form, it would depend on the presentation of the character.

[Lord Death Man]

Batman was always an A-lister with the people that bought comic books, though (one of only three DC heroes to make it through the minefield of the 'Seduction of the Innocent' implosion), and his book was never in danger of being cancelled (although I believe Detective could have been reformatted or cancelled as Andy said, as it was reformatted many times over the years). Being popular enough to appear in five monthly titles, Batman's only chance to be put on ice would have likely came from Mr. Freeze . As many people here know, the 'new look' changed over to 'camp' in order to fit the tone of the TV show. When the show was cancelled the 'bandwagon bats' quit buying the book and since many comic fans stayed away because of the camp tone, its sales dropped below even the pre-show levels. But far from getting cancelled or retired, a simple switch to a more serious tone raised sales, proving that the Batman character had resiliency and lasting long term appeal. I do not believe there is any real evidence the TV show 'saved' Batman the character. It is just an 'urban legend' that fans of the show, who were often unfairly maligned by comics fans, would bring up. Batman would have always been around for the reader of comics, but perhaps not for the public at large. I think its real impact (aside from being a great show all on its own with lasting appeal) was introducing superheroes to mainstream culture in a way that the Superman TV show never did (despite running for many more seasons), particularly in merchandising. I think it surely paved the way for the success of future movies and TV shows as well which needed more than just the cadre of comic readers to succeed-so in that way I agree the TV show was largely responsible for establishing him as a mass media star.

[Gernot]

I'm with Scott Mandew with his post. I probably would have discovered Superman at about the same time I did, anyway. Also, Batman cartoons would've aired probably much sooner than they did, if the show never aired.

World's Finest Comics with Superman and Batman helped me learn how to read.

And many may not realize it, but Superman WAS considered for a TV show but rejected, because the creators didn't want to copy what had gone on before. Who would you think would have been next in line?

Hmmmm...

[Mr. Comic Book]

Who would have been next in line would have depended on whether or not Batman was still being published at the time. If things had taken a wrong turn and the Batman franchise had gone under, it almost certainly would have been another DC character.

Again, too many variables for me to concretely say what might have been otherwise.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

In another thread, I happened to mention I either wouldn't have heard of or even given two tosses about Batman if the ABC series had never aired. As we all know, an initial screening of the pilot brought in some pretty bad numbers and it was doubtful the series would have happened, but ABC went through with it anyway, and look at the craze that sprouted from there.

What about you guys - would you or would you not have been the batmaniac you are today without the series?

Yes--I was a Batman fan before watching the series, since I was already a superhero comic fan.

[The Joker]

For me it is "Which came first: The Batman Comic or the Batman TV Series?" The answer is the Batman TV Series. Without a doubt, I know I would not be the Batman Fanatic I am today without discovering the series first. Would I have become a Batman fan anyway without the show and just the comics?....... really can't say for certain but I tend to think I might have because as Superheroes go I find his story and world the most interesting. Regardless, I would not be the HUGE Batman follower I am now without our beloved TV Series.

[JWLJN]

Nope. I grew up with the '80s syndication revival. I had some of the Kenner Super Power toys, and I had seen the movie. I remember my dad seeing in TV Guide that The Family Channel was going to re-run the show. He told me that I'd really like it, and I did. I liked it so much that whenever I would play with Super Powers (and later the Batman movie lines and Toybiz's DC Super Powers redo) I would only play as if I was doing episodes of the series. Superman, Wonder Woman, and the other hero figures that I owned only appeared as guests like Green Hornet did.

Without the series, the only connection I would have in 2014 would be seeing some of the newer movies.

-J\/\/

[Mr.Freeze]

I barely knew about Batman in the 80s until '89 , it was He-Man/Transformers/TMNT hey day......I think I saw the show prior to '89 but it's such a long time ago for me so very fuzzy memory.

I prolly still would've been a bat fan due to BTAS but it's like "what would've happened had Bruce Lee not died" , we can speculate an eternity.