TO THE BATPOLES podcast #83: Fitting Batman '66 into "The Caped Crusade"

[bat-rss]

In this episode, we discuss Glen Weldon's excellent book "The Caped Crusade", with an emphasis (of course) on his comments on the '66 show and how it fits into the larger Batman picture -- and thoughts that his book inspired in us.

ALSO: Some Bat-research into the Fourth Season myth AND the Liberace Ratings myth (with plenty of help from Oscar in Laramie) -- and some interesting, unrelated facts that popped up among the documents.

http://tothebatpoles.libsyn.com/083-fit ... ed-crusade

[High C]

This is an unpaid advertisement--anyone who wants to know more about the fourth season myth AND wants to find out who would have filled one of the villain slots for the four 'missing' season 3 eps should check out this podcast ASAP.

And congrats to Ben, it was announced he will be on the next podcast. Ben, besides Batcave host John S. Drew, of course, who guested with Tim and Paul a while back, will you be the first to appear on both the Batcave and Batpoles podcasts?

EDIT: Obviously Wally has been on both, fittingly! My bad.

[Keith Mayo]

I wish someone would take Tim's suggestion and write a book.
Maybe everyone who complains about Eisner's book could
pool their money and information to make it happen.

[clavierankh]

The Bob Hope Christmas special was probably one he did every year with a compilation of ighlights from his USO tour. It would have aired in January.

[Bob Furmanek]

The Bob Hope Christmas specials aired on January 19, 1966 and January 18, 1967.

[Dr. Shimel]

Reposting this (from the November 7, 1966 issue of Broadcasting):

[Mr. Glee]

The author Marc Cushman, in one of his LOST IN SPACE books, says that the Wednesday Liberace episode pulled a 30.3 share, and a 17.8 rating (it's not clear to me whether these numbers represent the full half-hour or only the period from 7:45 to 8:00; the original source of the info is the Nielsen's weekly "30 Market" survey.) Meanwhile, over on CBS, LOST IN SPACE garnered a 27.6 share and a 16.2 rating during the same time period, and then jumped to a 36.5 share/22.0 rating during its second half-hour.

[Mr. Glee]

Going by the numbers in the Cushman book, "Batman's Anniversary" (Wednesday) scored significantly higher than "The Devil's Fingers" - a 34.9 share, and a 20.7 rating. The Wednesday airings of "The Penguin's Nest" and "The Cat's Meow" also pulled higher numbers than the Liberace show.

[epaddon]

The Bob Hope Christmas specials aired on January 19, 1966 and January 18, 1967.

The January air dates necessitated by the fact they were filmed in Vietnam and not done on videotape. (Everything in Vietnam was done on film in those days, including all network news stories. There was no satellite hook-up possible at that point)

Interestingly the next Bob Hope special that aired after this one, on February 19, 1966 already capitalized on the Batman phenomena by doing a sketch spoofing the show with Martha Raye (I dare not describe it here. It's at the 11:57 mark. That they came up with this just a month after the show was on the air is the ultimate comment on how the show was taking off with the public)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INs63t-djT8

Also regarding "The Dick Van Dyke Show" references at 1:34:00. Carl Reiner had already planned the 65-66 season as the final one, believing that five years was enough for the run. It wasn't cancelled it just ended production much like "Mary Tyler Moore" a decade later.

[bat-rss]

This is an unpaid advertisement--anyone who wants to know more about the fourth season myth AND wants to find out who would have filled one of the villain slots for the four 'missing' season 3 eps should check out this podcast ASAP.

And congrats to Ben, it was announced he will be on the next podcast. Ben, besides Batcave host John S. Drew, of course, who guested with Tim and Paul a while back, will you be the first to appear on both the Batcave and Batpoles podcasts?

EDIT: Obviously Wally has been on both, fittingly! My bad.

Chris Gould has also been on both podcasts!

[High C]

Oops, forgot that.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Another great show, guys.

One thing I wish some historians would acknowledge is how DC's flirtation with the tone of the TV series was short lived; even as Batman entered its third season, the comic took a well-received turn back to some darker storylines in the hands of writer Frank Robbins and artist Irv Novick, all before the Adams/O'Neil period. For example, take a look at the kind of subjects covered in Batman #204 (August, 1968) and #206 (November, 1968)--





That's a far cry from Louie, Dr. Cassandra, surfing, Catwoman trying to be the queen of fashion and Londinium.

Weldon's history is interesting, and shines a light on comic fans not appreciating the '66 series take on the character while it was on ABC.

Of note is the reference to some fans feeling TV Robin was "too much" (I assume they meant the "holy-isms" more than anything else), which was echoed in the letters pages of Batman comics of the period, along with how much the readers supported the comic not borrowing many of the TV series' hallmarks, such as...

Onomatopoeia (Batman #195 - September, 1967)--



Bat-gadgets (Batman # 206 - November, 1968) --



Robin's puns (Batman #200 - March, 1968) --



Camp (Batman # 206 - November, 1968) --



...but the letters pages also revealed strong support for the title to return to its darker roots. For example, Batman #199 (February, 1968) --



I'm still digging through my Batman collection in storage, but I thought the samples fit right in with this week's show.

Regarding the '66 Batman being the end of heroism presented in--I guess--a straight way, I would point out that the entertainment industry never made a complete, hard shift from the traditional hero. For example, at the same time Steve McQueen starred as one of the most famous anti-hero cops in 1968's Bullitt, on TV, Jack Webb continued to build on the image of cops as regular guys/heroes with the last couple of seasons of Dragnet, and the September '68 debut of Adam-12. In the seven years of Webb's good guy, traditional cop heroes on TV, movie cops were presented as being in conflict with the system (Gene Hackman in The French Connection), tainted by being too close to criminals (Anthony Quinn in Across 110th Street), along with other less than traditional cop characters. The point being that the entertainment industry (and American culture) embraced radically different versions of traditional heroes, but did not completely drop the idea of a straight-laced hero--certainly not with superheores such as Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman and Christopher Reeve's Superman--both successful in a decade overflowing with anti-heroes.

[Ben Bentley]

This is an unpaid advertisement--anyone who wants to know more about the fourth season myth AND wants to find out who would have filled one of the villain slots for the four 'missing' season 3 eps should check out this podcast ASAP.

And congrats to Ben, it was announced he will be on the next podcast. Ben, besides Batcave host John S. Drew, of course, who guested with Tim and Paul a while back, will you be the first to appear on both the Batcave and Batpoles podcasts?

EDIT: Obviously Wally has been on both, fittingly! My bad.

Chris Gould has also been on both podcasts!

I'm in good company to say the least!

[High C]

Thanks to you guys for paying to have research done in the Dozier archives about the mythical potential fourth season. I think the bottom line is this--anyone who wants to hold onto that possibility, and I understand why some people would want to, has to come to grips with one thing--who was going to produce it? Dozier clearly was done with it, in his mind, as the research shows. So that means a new exec producer would have to be located. And that person might also have needed to find a new line producer, new writers, etc.

Also, people should keep in mind that while syndication with original episodes still running was possible, it made no sense from a financial standpoint. Why pay for new episodes, Dozier thought, when I simply can reap the syndication windfall.

[AndyFish]

As someone who has read every Batman Comic book from 1939-1985 I can tell you that there are a few inaccuracies in the summation of the character that appears in the comics.

His first year Batman (or The Bat Man as he's called) is a lone avenger but he's far from the grim vengeance seeker that's often attributed to him. He cracks jokes, he seems a bit more devil may care as his Zorro influence is showing.

When Robin comes along the character continues his swash buckling ways but he can still be intense as in the story when Robin is gunned down by gangsters and Batman hunts them all down.

Robin is far from Batman's equal, he's clearly the junior partner, often given the task of following someone or staking out a scene while Batman is busy elsewhere.

As the 40s progress Batman does become more a father figure but the stories remain straight adventure stories, some actual mysteries (Batman #14 features THE CASE BATMAN FAILED TO SOLVE which co-stars the world's most famous detectives including homages to Charlie Chan and The Thin Man). The sci fi stuff comes in around the time of the Superman TV series when that character dominated comic sales. Editor Jack Schiff was directed to mimic the Superman titles so while Superman had Lois Lane and Krypto the Super Dog, Batman gained Vicki Vale (news photographer) and Ace the Bat Hound.

The silliness and campiest Batman Comics come in during the late 50s and early 60s where we have Zebra Batman, Rainbow Batman and other elements that probably made eight year olds groan.

Batman's sales were in a slump and Julie Schwartz is assigned the task of revamping him in 1964 when Bob Kane's contract came up for renewel and they were able to buy him out and take complete control of the stories. Artists like Carmine Infantino brought a realism to Batman that was unlike the work of Shelly Moldoff and Dick Sprang (although Moldoff was hired on by DC and told to draw like Infantino).

So the comics that Dozier likely referenced were not as ridiculous as the ones from a few years earlier. That's probably the reason contemporary fans were aghast at the concept of Batman as the Campy star of the ABC show.

The First Season at its best reflects a more accurate version of Batman as portrayed in the comics canon, and it was when it got campier that fans really rose up against it.