When did you first see the show?

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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vintagematt
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When did you first see the show?

Post by vintagematt »

I was going down memory lane earlier and started thinking about the time I was first exposed to the show. My parents taped some of the episodes off of TV and showed them to me one day. I didn't know who batman was before this, so it was like a whole new world of awesomeness! I can't exactly remember which episode I saw first, I'm thinking it might have been Fine Feathered Finks. I only had select episodes recorded, To be specific they were: The Wail of the Siren, Joker's Last Laugh/Joker's Epitaph, The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra, Fine Feathered Finks/Penguin's a Jinx, Joker's Wild/Batman is Riled, Sandman Cometh/Catwoman Goeth, Louie the Lilac and King Tut's Coup/Batman's Waterloo). I finally got to see more episodes many years later when they aired on a different channel. I remember, shortly after watching the series for the first time, I found the movie in a bargain bin, and I was so excited! My favorite show, turned into a movie! I dressed up as the '66 penguin that Halloween, complete with purple top hat and umbrella, it was a blast! Enough about me, what are your stories? When did you first see the show? And do you have any fun memories from that time related to it?
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ironfist
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by ironfist »

I was born in Dec. 1970. My brother and I had the corgi batmoble and the mego figures of Batman Robin joker and penguin for as long as I can remember. We watched the show and I think once a year they showed the movie on TV. So I’m going to go with 1976!
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Keith Mayo
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by Keith Mayo »

As an Eisenhower baby I saw it first run on a color tv no less.
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Chuck Williams
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by Chuck Williams »

Yep , first run and the reason we got a color TV!
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SprangFan
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by SprangFan »

I was 9 months old when the show debuted and 3 when it left the air, so if I saw it in first run I missed it. I saw the film as an ABC movie one weekend in...maybe 1973 or 74...and it blew my mind. I loved George Reeves as Superman, but Batman had the budget -- and "name" villains -- to be just like a comic book brought to life. A couple years later the series aired in syndication -- my first inkling there even WAS a series to go with the film -- and focusing on school work became even more impossible as I spent my days wondering how Bruce would escape that runaway stretcher, or Robin would survive that giant clam. :lol:

I remember that the channel airing the reruns treated it as a big deal. It aired after The Mickey Mouse Club and billboards around town showed a mouseketeer hat on one side and the top half of Batman's cowl on the other. I remember being hugely disappointed there wasn't an actual hat like that. ;) Actually, I still am. :cry:
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gothosmansion
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by gothosmansion »

I first saw it in reruns in 1976, when I was five. I was very eager to learn to read, so I could follow Batman's comic book adventures. I think the first Batman comic I ever got was Batman 283, which had a January 1977 cover date, but was released in October 1976. I also had the Super Heroes vs Super Gorillas which was released in September 1976, so it could have come first, but it may have still been on sale in October.

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Unfortunately, although I would get to see the movie several times over the intervening years, after that station quit rerunning the show, I wouldn't get to see it again until I was 11....and the station that reran it then showed it at noon while I was in school. I only got to see it on holidays.
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BAT 77
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by BAT 77 »

I was born two days before "Minvera, Mayhem and Millionaires" aired on first run ABC shortly it began it's syndication run. I don't have any specific memories of my first viewing. For me it was always part of my television viewing from as far back as I remember. Same with the '68 Filmation cartoons.
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clavierankh
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by clavierankh »

Batman premiered 3 days before my tenth birthday (Oh God I'm old) I remember being torn between Batman and Lost In Space. Did a lot of channel changing. No remote. Now I've got them both on DVD.
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SprangFan
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by SprangFan »

. I also had the Super Heroes vs Super Gorillas which was released in September 1976, so it could have come first, but it may have still been on sale in October.


Probably, since it was a special one-off issue that wouldn't have been replaced the next month by a #2.

I remember that one. Batman's encounter with "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City" was the best story in the collection, and for a concept so nutty, and drawn in such a cartoony way, it was surprisingly creepy and disturbing.

As near as I can tell, the first Batman comic I bought off the spinner rack was #239. Still a favorite.

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Chris
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by Chris »

Saturday 21st May 1966 in black and white but the concept of the 2nd part being shown the next day was enough for me. I was 8 years old and the perfect demographic. We used to do family visits on Sunday ,something my dad was not overly keen on ,so I was soon used as an excuse to get home early :-)
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Kite Kid
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by Kite Kid »

I was born about three months before the show debuted, so I first saw it in reruns around 1977 or so, when I was 11 or 12. IIRC, it was on at 4 p.m., right after school. Looking back, I think that really was the perfect age for me to have first seen it; I was old enough to understand and appreciate the satirical silliness but still young enough to enjoy the comic book style and action. And then, like so many other adolescent boys, I took one look at Batgirl and have been smitten ever since. :D I think the station that aired the show started at the beginning, so I'm pretty certain "Hi Diddle Riddle" was my first episode, as it should have been.
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Jim Akin
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by Jim Akin »

I was a few months shy of three years old when Hi Diddle Riddle first aired. Batman is literally one of my earliest non-family memories. We moved from the New York metro area to greater Boston in the fall of 1966, and one of the bonuses of our new house was a color TV set, so Batman got an upgrade. (NYC-specific TV fare such as Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, Soupy Sales and the Winchell-Mahoney Show were left behind, and I only reconstructed memories of them when I moved back to the NYC area in my 20s and picked up on my peers' reminiscences.) Another bonus of the move was a kid down the street who was a year older than me, who had lots of cool Batman toys, including the Corgi Batmobile and Batboat. We became fast friends, and I was Robin to his Batman. A girl who lived in the house between mine and "Batman's" was our Catwoman. :)
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AndyFish
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by AndyFish »

70s reruns after school-- a friend's older brother had comic books and he gave them to us-- lo and behold there were a few Batman's in there! Got me hooked on comics, which eventually lead to a career. So the Show started everything for me.
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Therin of Andor
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by Therin of Andor »

Sydney's Australian TV premiere wasn't until Sunday night, June 25, 1967, with the followup episode on the Tuesday night (June 27), so we always had an extra 24 hours to wait for "same Bat time, same Bat channel" (when the narrator started using that phrase). I remember the whole family sitting down to watch with me: Mum, Dad, my Dad's parents, and my younger brother. I was seven and a half. My brother was six. We considered ourselves lucky that we were able to enjoy this series (and others) together. Sunday nights always included "Disneyland", and then other shows in the following time slot, such as "The Doris Day Show", "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and eventually "Batman"-inspired "Captain Nice".

Australia finally got the 1966 "Batman" feature on a double-bill (with the 1966 movie, "Smoky"), from August 25 - September 7, 1967, which was the New South Wales school holidays. I think my parents assumed it was just episodes from the TV on the big screen? We actually went to "Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Tree" (on a double bill with "The Ugly Dachshund") instead. Sigh. Sadly, I didn't get to see the movie until many years later, on TV. When the Scanlens' reprints of the Topps' "Bat Laffs" cards came out, many of us were puzzled about how Catwoman, Joker, Riddler and Penguin appeared in scenes together, particularly with all that signage in their hideout.

What would have made that movie of great interest to Aussie batfans is that we didn't get colour TV until March 1975. (The "Batman" TV show was a great rerun choice for 1975.)
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dodgr31
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Re: When did you first see the show?

Post by dodgr31 »

I was 6 years old when it started and watched the show on my parents new color TV. It was life changing, I still remember it although I didnt see the humor until I saw it again almost 50 years later.
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