Wil Shriner

[TheoriginalBat-James]

Does anyone have a clean copy of the Wil Shriner Show featuring "Batman Reunion" show?

[bat-rss]

I'm watching that reunion on YouTube. Not so clean, but beggars can't be choosers. Does anyone know the broadcast date?

[Jim Akin]

Does anyone know the broadcast date?

Googling around, I found a newspaper archive page for the Palm Beach (FL) Post TV listing guide published Sunday May 8, 1988 that seems to indicate the Shriner reunion aired on Friday, May 13, 1988. The archive site wants a subscription fee to view the page in detail, but there's enough info visible in the watermarked highlight to make the date seem legit. The only question I'd have would be whether this was the original airdate or a rerun.

Either way, it's interesting to me that this reunion took place more than a year before the release of the 1989 Batman movie. I know the hype for the Burton flick began well in advance but in my (evidently flawed) memory, most of the renewed interest in the 1966 series followed the film's premiere in June 1989—e.g., the series revival (and marathons) on the Family Channel and reissue of the Topps cards. Maybe Shriner was ahead of his time?

[Lou Szabo]

Here’s one

[bat-rss]

Thanks for the research, Jim!

Lou, I found another version on YouTube that's a bit more complete -- the one above is missing the opening. This one is 7 videos on a YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... CF496FF465

[bat-rss]

Either way, it's interesting to me that this reunion took place more than a year before the release of the 1989 Batman movie. I know the hype for the Burton flick began well in advance but in my (evidently flawed) memory, most of the renewed interest in the 1966 series followed the film's premiere in June 1989—e.g., the series revival (and marathons) on the Family Channel and reissue of the Topps cards. Maybe Shriner was ahead of his time?

It puzzles me too, especially when you consider that it's not the only one from 1988! The Ross Shafer Bat-reunion on Fox aired April 28 of the same year. And I remember Batman airing on a local TV station in Cedar Rapids, IA at 1 am during the spring/summer of 1988. I wonder if there was enough pre-movie publicity - a whole year out - that it awakened interest in Batman?

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Either way, it's interesting to me that this reunion took place more than a year before the release of the 1989 Batman movie. I know the hype for the Burton flick began well in advance but in my (evidently flawed) memory, most of the renewed interest in the 1966 series followed the film's premiere in June 1989—e.g., the series revival (and marathons) on the Family Channel and reissue of the Topps cards. Maybe Shriner was ahead of his time?

It puzzles me too, especially when you consider that it's not the only one from 1988! The Ross Shafer Bat-reunion on Fox aired April 28 of the same year. And I remember Batman airing on a local TV station in Cedar Rapids, IA at 1 am during the spring/summer of 1988. I wonder if there was enough pre-movie publicity - a whole year out - that it awakened interest in Batman?

I cannot confirm the following, but it appears Fox sensed the pre-release hype surrounding the production of the '89 Batman film, and at the time, I believe Fox had redistributed the '66 series (and movie) with cleaner prints to exploit the interest. Since Shafer's show was a Fox property, it seemed like a no-brainer to stage a '66 reunion right at the same time the TV series was back on air for mutual promotion and to ride the aforementioned hype about Burton's film being in production.

[BatmiteReturns]

The host Homemade Bat shirt and Cape are also entirely black. I don't think we knew a year out that the suit that Michael Keaton would wear would Also be black.

[Mark Racop]

Our bat buddy Nate Truman (of Hollywood Star Car fame) put together the Wil Shriner show. It was shot before the Ross Shafer show, but aired after it. Nate was disappointed, to say the least!

[Lou Szabo]

After they announced Michael Keaton was playing Batman, there was some backlash, so they rushed a preview where he says “I’m Batman”, whole holding the robber over the ledge. That settled it. This was in 1988, no later than Christmas, but might have been as early as June. We’d have to look up the publications from that era.


Note, no music as it was rushed to screens.

[BatmiteReturns]

The teaser for the movie was not released in theaters until January 1989 a full six months before the movie came out.

[Scott Sebring]

The buzz around Batman around this time wasn't just spurred on by the '89 movie. The movie was a reaction to the growing popularity of the character in the comics and seeping further into the pop culture of the day. Frank Miller's 1986 four-part "The Dark Knight Returns" injected a new interest in the character along with the 1987 "Year One." Joel Eisner's 1966 Batman fan book came out in 1986 right around the earlier rumblings of the latest wave of Batmania.

I dug up my copy of the fan book "Batmania" released in 1989. It contains a great section called "Revival" and interviews Hal Lifson who was instrumental in staging the legendary reunion event on March 9, 1988 at the Stock Exchange nightclub in downtown Los Angeles. He then helped put together the Will Shriner and The Ross Shafer reunions as well. Batman 1989 hadn't even started filming yet.
Anyway, here are scans from that section of the book for you to check out. Great stuff in there about this time of Bat-reunions an done of the guys behind it.