Utility Belt Orientation

[Keith Mayo]

I've seen a still shot from Ep1 of the first season where Batman's utility belt pouches openings are on the top of the belt. Any idea of when and why this was changed?

[Jim Akin]

The belt with top-loading pouches was used only in the pilot episode. As I understand it, retrieving items from those pouches was unwieldy, especially for an actor wearing gloves. The "gravity-assisted" bottom-loading pouches proved much more efficient.

[Chuck Williams]

Almost all the top loading pouches were re cut to create the round tab, bottom opening pouches...

[Keith Mayo]

Thanks, Chuck!
I'm still curious about when and why the change was made.

[Ben Bentley]

Thanks, Chuck!
I'm still curious about when and why the change was made.

The belt featured in the Pilot only existed in that exact form on camera during those two episodes. From "Fine Feathered Finks" onwards we start to see an evolution towards the circular tabs that Chuck referenced and then eventually by midway through season one we see the "hero" belts settle into the rectangular, bottom-loading design that we will go on to see throughout the rest of the run of the show.

With "Fine Feathered Finks" as the example, we see the two different tab designs on two different belts from to scene to.

[Keith Mayo]

Thanks, Ben. I thought the top side button belt was only used in the pilot (actually two episodes once ABC decided to split them up for two night broadcast), but wanted to hear from others. Thanks to all for clearing this up for me.