The 4th Season NBC Myth

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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Gotham
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Gotham »

batman like Star Trek ended up being a case of don't miss it till it is gone!
I even got excited about the Commercial with Batgirl about Women's wages,
where they were tied up in the warehouse....
At least we had it... That is something to be thankful for.
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clavierankh
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by clavierankh »

I wonder what effect two nights a week had on the ratings. It might ave sustained better with a one hour episode one night per week. The producers were asking the viewers to commit two nights to their program.
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Dr. Shimel
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Dr. Shimel »

clavierankh wrote:I wonder what effect two nights a week had on the ratings. It might ave sustained better with a one hour episode one night per week. The producers were asking the viewers to commit two nights to their program.
It took until about 10 weeks into S2 for the producers to realize they were killing the audience for the first part with their lengthy recap to start Part Two.
wayoutjunk
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by wayoutjunk »

High C wrote: I was going through that archive site with some of Dozier's paperwork the other day and was quite surprised when I saw that about the four-day shoot. Between the extra money spent on the shoot itself plus the cameos, yeah, it was obvious they knew it was the last one. Too bad they didn't use the extra money to make a better finale.
What site are you talking about? Sounds like it would be interesting to read.
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High C
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by High C »

wayoutjunk wrote:
High C wrote: I was going through that archive site with some of Dozier's paperwork the other day and was quite surprised when I saw that about the four-day shoot. Between the extra money spent on the shoot itself plus the cameos, yeah, it was obvious they knew it was the last one. Too bad they didn't use the extra money to make a better finale.
What site are you talking about? Sounds like it would be interesting to read.
http://www.batmantelevisionseries.com/

budget and letters are the most interesting categories.
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Mr.Freeze
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Mr.Freeze »

Happened with 007 too . YOLT did less biz than TB and although OHMSS was #2 at 1970 box office it was down in profits after YOLT and the earlier films. The spy genre was not as hot as it used to be in 1967 , like the fad was already done.

Trends come and go so I guess Dozier struck while the iron was hot thus the movie was released in '66 as well.
HELLOLARRY
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by HELLOLARRY »

Plus OHMSS was a very long movie (maybe the longest up to that point?) so it didn't play as frequently which had a little impact on the box office returns. IMO it is my favorite of the series.
robinboyblunderer
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by robinboyblunderer »

What site are you talking about? Sounds like it would be interesting to read.[/quote]

http://www.batmantelevisionseries.com/

budget and letters are the most interesting categories.[/quote]


That is a really good site. I also recommend checking out the script treatment for Two-Face that's on there. A really different and quite interesting take on the character, almost as if someone was given the name and then told to come up with a character.

I really enjoy reading scripts, treatments,unfilled scripts, plots and so on from the show. I think it was on the old site, but there was a script called something like, The Fashion Crimes of Catwoman, or something like that; I wonder if that became Catwoman's Dressed to Kill. I may be mixing these up. The point is, check out the site, it's quite a generous amount of material.
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Ben Bentley
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Ben Bentley »

Bob Furmanek wrote:
In conclusion, there is no mention in the trades whatsoever of NBC offering to pick-up the ailing series between the final day of production and the syndication announcement just a few weeks later. The ratings were so poor that ABC didn’t have summer reruns of the last season and with the production still in the red, Dozier was very anxious to sell it in the lucrative syndication market.

If anybody has information from documented source materials to support this myth about NBC offering to acquire the series, please share.
I'm resurrecting an older thread here, but I happened across some provenance for the "NBC" story. Whilst cross referencing another unrelated, purported fact in Joel Eisner's Bat-Book, I came across this...
Eisner-NBC Myth.JPG
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Progress Pigment
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Progress Pigment »

Bob Furmanek wrote:The ratings were so poor that ABC didn’t have summer reruns of the last season ....
I'm nearly 100% certain I've seen old newspapers with TV schedules of the third season with (repeat) beside it. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty certain. What killed 'Batman" -- besides bad writing & too much humor in season 2, and Batgirl in season 3 -- was going head to head with 'Lost in Space'. They competed for the same audience, and killed each other. And out great grandpas watched Daniel Boone. :roll: that aside, NBC picking up Batman is no myth. It's been reported too often & by too many people. NBC wanted it as a lead in to Tarzan. Which would have been perfect.

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Dr. Shimel
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Dr. Shimel »

Progress Pigment wrote:
Bob Furmanek wrote:The ratings were so poor that ABC didn’t have summer reruns of the last season ....
I'm nearly 100% certain I've seen old newspapers with TV schedules of the third season with (repeat) beside it. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty certain. What killed 'Batman" -- besides bad writing & too much humor in season 2, and Batgirl in season 3 -- was going head to head with 'Lost in Space'. They competed for the same audience, and killed each other. And out great grandpas watched Daniel Boone. :roll: that aside, NBC picking up Batman is no myth. It's been reported too often & by too many people. NBC wanted it as a lead in to Tarzan. Which would have been perfect.
The fact that it's been "reported too often & by too many people" doesn't necessarily mean that it's true.

Regarding reruns, the attachment from below is from a "TV Key Mailbag for 3/31/68:
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Bob Furmanek
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Bob Furmanek »

The show was being sold for syndication by January 1968. The enclosed clipping is February 12, 1968. Where Eisner came up with September 1969 is anybody's guess.

It's another example of sloppy research!
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epaddon
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by epaddon »

WPIX was the station I first experienced Batman on around 1974-75 I think! Don't think it ever aired on any other NY station.
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Bob Furmanek
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by Bob Furmanek »

They were a very important station and got the ABC New York 35mm air prints. They edited one set for broadcast and kept the back-up prints intact, with ABC ID and commercials. I wound up getting a bunch of them when they were junked in the mid-80's when the show was first syndicated on tape.
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NJ_Batfan
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Re: The 4th Season NBC Myth

Post by NJ_Batfan »

epaddon wrote:WPIX was the station I first experienced Batman on around 1974-75 I think! Don't think it ever aired on any other NY station.
epaddon, the show aired briefly on WNEW in early 1984 before the station was purchased by Fox. I remember being home from college for a weekend and was surprised to see it on a different station since it had such a long association with channel 11. There was even a Fox syndication ad in Variety touting how the 4:30PM ratings had improved. I guess that spike was short-lived, because by the time I was home again for the summer, Batman was long gone from channel 5. In fact, it would not return to NY tv until WPIX picked it up in December 1989 in the wake of Keaton Batmania.
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