A January 1966 article on the impact of Batman

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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Dr. Shimel
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A January 1966 article on the impact of Batman

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With a snide viewpoint:
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High C
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Re: A January 1966 article on the impact of Batman

Post by High C »

Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, because of the eventual inertia of Dough-zier and Co., Thomas was proved right.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'

My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: A January 1966 article on the impact of Batman

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

Well, Thomas was no soothsayer, in that it was common for a surprise hit to inspire low-quality bandwagoning / imitations that crashed and burned quickly. In film history, the second Universal's horror films were successful, other studios--from Paramount to RKO--all wanted their own monster to exploit in the Universal manner.

In TV history, we saw this with the brief spy TV boom in the wake of the James Bond series' early 60s breakout. Then, there was the "gritty cop" TV show flood after the success of movies such as The French Connection and Serpico, and eventually with Glen Larson jumped on the back of Star Wars with his mega-dreck AKA Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Where quality Is concerned, only The Green Hornet rose to the challenge to be its own show, thanks to Trendle, Dozier, et al., deciding to play it straight, but TGH is that rare outlier when it comes to TV trends. In any case, Thomas was not really predicting anything that media reporters and the public had not experienced before.
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epaddon
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Re: A January 1966 article on the impact of Batman

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I wouldn't call the real Galactica (that imposter show from the early 2000s I don't acknowledge the existence of) as dreck. It was in fact quite groundbreaking in many areas for sci-fi TV and had much more long-lasting influence on sci-fi TV than it's given credit for. (Buck Rogers on the other hand *was* dreck, except for whenever Pamela Hensley appeared as Ardala! In fact Ardala's unrequited love for Buck is a perfect example of how you do such a concept *right* in contrast to how Julie's CW with Batman is a perfect example of how you do it *wrong*)
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High C
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Re: A January 1966 article on the impact of Batman

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epaddon wrote: Thu Feb 28, 2019 11:01 pm (Buck Rogers on the other hand *was* dreck, except for whenever Pamela Hensley appeared as Ardala! In fact Ardala's unrequited love for Buck is a perfect example of how you do such a concept *right* in contrast to how Julie's CW with Batman is a perfect example of how you do it *wrong*)
I would say it was fun, cotton-candy dreck and better than the pale Star Trek imitation it turned into in season 2, but I agree it was dreck. I concur even more strongly that Hensley did a much better job of conveying unrequited passion for the hero than did Newmar. That is not necessarily to say Newmar did a bad job--I don't think Julie had nuanced scripts to work with in season 2. It was very juvenile, unlike the more noir CW of season 1.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'

My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
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