Batman TV Series on UK TV 1990s

[Avenger90]

Hello fellow batfans, greetings from Manchester, North of England!

I'm new to the board, but have used the forum loads over the years to follow conversation topics etc. However, I thought the time has come to finally sign up and become an official bat member. It's great to see all the love for this show. I don't tend to have many friends or people in general around me that appreciate the television series (they are either not into Batman at all or are more for the Bale films which are also fantastic), so its great to join all you guys on these awesome forums.

The series has been a part of me since I was about 3/4 years old. I remember watching on TV here in the UK. So this is more of a question for any UK fans on this board.

Obviously details are sketchy as I was only a young kid at the time, but I'd appreciate any details anyone has of Batman on TV in the 1990s (say around 1994/95). I know it's probably a long shot as was so long ago, but any knowledge of the channel that may have shown it, when the eps was shown etc. I'm both nostalgic and curious.

The first ep i properly remember seeing and taking in was A Horse of Another Colour with Penguin in the Third season. Before then is kind of hazy, although I do remember bits. Scratchy and Co was airing Batman the Animated Series at the same time on Saturday mornings. Think the tv series was shown in the week. I've searched the internet but don't seem to be getting anywhere. Any info would be fantastic.

Cheers guys

[Ben Bentley]

Hello fellow batfans, greetings from Manchester, North of England!

I'm new to the board, but have used the forum loads over the years to follow conversation topics etc. However, I thought the time has come to finally sign up and become an official bat member. It's great to see all the love for this show. I don't tend to have many friends or people in general around me that appreciate the television series (they are either not into Batman at all or are more for the Bale films which are also fantastic), so its great to join all you guys on these awesome forums.

The series has been a part of me since I was about 3/4 years old. I remember watching on TV here in the UK. So this is more of a question for any UK fans on this board.

Obviously details are sketchy as I was only a young kid at the time, but I'd appreciate any details anyone has of Batman on TV in the 1990s (say around 1994/95). I know it's probably a long shot as was so long ago, but any knowledge of the channel that may have shown it, when the eps was shown etc. I'm both nostalgic and curious.

The first ep i properly remember seeing and taking in was A Horse of Another Colour with Penguin in the Third season. Before then is kind of hazy, although I do remember bits. Scratchy and Co was airing Batman the Animated Series at the same time on Saturday mornings. Think the tv series was shown in the week. I've searched the internet but don't seem to be getting anywhere. Any info would be fantastic.

Cheers guys

Hey and welcome to our board! I actually grew up not a million miles away from you (just over the Pennines) in York.

Funnily enough, the exact time-frame you're referring to was my first exposure to show at the tender age of four years old. In 1994, Channel 4 were airing the show at 9:30am a handful of days during the week. I actually still have my VHS tapes from that syndicated run somewhere in storage. I recall my Mum writing specific dates on the tapes so I could probably ascertain which days of the week the show was airing.

Here's the ident lead-in to 'Walk The Straight And Narrow" from Sat 30th April 1994:
https://youtu.be/4xFGf5IB9-4?t=408

UPDATE:
Having just done a little bit more digging (after this thread sent me down another research rabbithole) it appears Channel 4 started airing Batman in 1993 at 6pm on Monday evenings before eventually as I mentioned earlier moving it to several mornings per week in 1994.

Here's an ad from 1993 promoting the 6pm time-slot on Monday nights:

[Avenger90]

Hey Ben, thanks so much for these. This is the sort of stuff I've been searching for.
So it was Channel 4. I knew it had to be one of the analogue channels as we only had analogue at that time, so channels 1-5.

I don't remember them airing in the evenings. But then again I would have only been 3 at that point. But 9.30 weekday mornings is definitely how I remember it. And then Saturday mornings would show an ep of the animated series per week.

The only recording I have left from these showings is half an episode of Louie's Lethal Lilac time at the end of an old VHS tape. There's no logo in the corner, and the tape finished before the ep was over, so had no idea of the channel. What I did notice is that the ep seemed uncut and no adverts in between.

So the third season was my introduction to the series. I remember a couple of years later, TCC started airing the whole lot and I was shocked to see there was no Batgirl, a different Catwoman and all eps ending on a cliff-hanger I'll always have a soft spot for the third season because of this.

Do you by any chance know when the series ended on Channel 4. I'm guessing sometime in 1995....? I also remember ITV airing the first 10 eps only, again around this time. Maybe a year after?

[Ben Bentley]

No problems at all! Glad I can shed a little light!

The only recording I have left from these showings is half an episode of Louie's Lethal Lilac time at the end of an old VHS tape. There's no logo in the corner, and the tape finished before the ep was over, so had no idea of the channel. What I did notice is that the ep seemed uncut and no adverts in between.

One of these days i'll have to dig the tapes out of storage and take a look at the run-times vs the uncut official release. Sadly the last time I had the tapes to hand was long before an official release or me having access to any uncut versions at all - so my reference point was a set that was recorded from TV Land in the early 2000's and were trimmed down to allow for modern-day-length commercial breaks.

So the third season was my introduction to the series. I remember a couple of years later, TCC started airing the whole lot and I was shocked to see there was no Batgirl, a different Catwoman and all eps ending on a cliff-hanger I'll always have a soft spot for the third season because of this.

You've also done me a huge favour here - I was trying to recall for the life of me the name of the Sky channel that aired the series in the very late 90's... I knew it was an acronym but I was totally spacing on TCC! We didn't have Sky at that point, but I remember being so excited to catch "Scat Darn Catwoman" over at a friend's house one afternoon after school. TCC aired it around 16:30, right? It wasn't until some point in 2002 that my parents eventually subscribed to Sky and sure enough in 2004 I rediscovered the show and fell in love all over again when I happened across it on FX. It was within months of that "rediscovery" that I joined this very Message Board and now here we are 15 years later...

[Avenger90]

That'd be interesting to find that out. Any info you may have on the dates the third season aired on channel 4 would be great. I'm guessing summer 1995 or there about. I was watching weekday mornings, so must have been on summer holiday from school. Also, did Channel 4 just air the series once, or a few times? I'm in proper research mode now

The TV Land versions actually shocked me. My dad bought me the whole set online in about 2003, and the eps were from TV Land. It was great to have them, but man did they cut them bad.

Yes, TCC was great. Shown programmes like Dennis the Menace, Earthworm Jim etc. Think this would have been like 97/98 something like that. The eps were aired in a different order though. Think they were aired in production order instead of original air date. For example, Fine Feathered Finks/The Penguins a Jinx was followed by the Zelda eps rather than Joker. I use to watch them in the mornings before school, but yeah they repeated them again in the afternoon around that time.

Yep was proper excited when FX289 came to the UK. Was about 14 then though so remember it clearly and actually have all those recordings on VHS up in my parents loft. The series hadn't aired on UK TV for a while at that point and remember being desperate to see them uncut. Actually, Granada Plus did air the first season a few times in the early 2000s, but that's all they must have had the rights too, as it never got beyond the first season.

[Ben Bentley]

That'd be interesting to find that out. Any info you may have on the dates the third season aired on channel 4 would be great. I'm guessing summer 1995 or there about. I was watching weekday mornings, so must have been on summer holiday from school. Also, did Channel 4 just air the series once, or a few times? I'm in proper research mode now

It's really hard to say. It wasn't until I was doing some digging around yesterday that I discovered that TV listings for non-BBC channels between 80's - 00's do not appear to be archived online. The Genome project has meticulously made Radio Times listings for BBC channels available online but ITV, Channel4 and Five are not a part of the project.

I know they definitely appear to have made it through the show at least once in it's entirety as the trailer I posted earlier from 1993 was using clips predominantly from the first season and then the episodes my Mum taped for me in '94 were a selection of episodes from the latter end of S2 and into S3.

I have from that '94 run:

- "Marsha Queen of Diamonds / Marsha's Scheme of Diamonds"

- "The Contaminated Cowl" / "Mad Hatter Runs Afoul"

- "The Black Widow Strikes Again" / "Caught in the Spider's Web"

- "King Tut's Coup" / "Batman's Waterloo"

- "Ice Spy" - "The Duo Defy"

- "The Sandman Cometh" (tragically I did not have the concluding half of this two-parter and didn't see "The Catwoman Goeth" until FX289 ran it in 2004 haha)

"Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin"

"The Entrancing Dr Cassandra"

I have some hazy recollections of watching other episodes during that run, but obviously the ones that were taped for me were the ones I watched endlessly in the years that followed. For instance, I remember my friend Matt having the True or False Face recorded on VHS and the genuine terror that seeing FF laughing in the vending machine towards the cliffhanger in part-one inspired in both Matt and I.

Yep was proper excited when FX289 came to the UK. Was about 14 then though so remember it clearly and actually have all those recordings on VHS up in my parents loft. The series hadn't aired on UK TV for a while at that point and remember being desperate to see them uncut. Actually, Granada Plus did air the first season a few times in the early 2000s, but that's all they must have had the rights too, as it never got beyond the first season.

It's so funny how similar our early experience with this show and these windows of time are! It's warming my heart! haha

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was when FX289 launched and had a double-bill of Batman between 12:00 - 13:00

Around the time FX launched I had just broken my right wrist and my left-collarbone simultaneously as a result of a BMX accident and I was actually home from school for a fortnight. Re-discovering Batman and getting to watch it every day for those two weeks was a highlight in an otherwise pretty miserable and painful period.

As I mentioned before, finding the show on FX also prompted me to do what any kid who was excited and desperate to learn more would - naturally I googled "1966 Batman TV show" and found David Sutton's fan site and subsequently this very message board and community that went on to become a huge part of my life.

It was like Christmas to discover in those early searches that there was in fact 120 episodes, especially given the realisation that my love of this show was born out of the endless viewing of perhaps only 16 episodes max?!

[AndyFish]

I feel like someone should be serving tea for this conversation.
Welcome to the boards, Avenger90!

[Avenger90]

I was doing my digging too. It's odd that there's no past listings for those channels anywhere. Got excited when I came across the Genome Project, then realised it was only BBC. Think I might send Channel 4 an email, see if they can give me some dates for when the syndication run ended. See if my memories are correct

Like you, I have hazy recollections of episodes from the Channel 4 run. More like snapshots/images. For example, I remember seeing Batman chasing Catwoman on rooftops (although for some reason I recalled her in a striped costume- too young to properly take it in I guess, or maybe I seen someone else dressed in a cat costume somewhere around the same time and linked it to that), Eli Wallach's Mr Freeze, Barbara Gordon in the elevator in "Enter Batgirl Exit Penguin".
From "A Horse of Another Colour onwards", I remember them all spot on. The episode order and everything, which makes me think there could have been a break in the syndication run on channel 4 for a few months, as seems strange that I would suddenly remember from then onwards, when all the rest of the series is a blur.

I know it's great!! I thought it was a long shot asking but glad I did haha. Nobody around me (my age) that I know seemed to have the same experience as me. It's like nobody watched it except me Glad another kid was watching, even if you were across the pennies haha.

I can imagine it well took the edge off those 2 weeks for you. Especially when you hadn't seen the majority of the episodes before.
FX I remember really clearly. I was just as excited. It was January 2004, and my dad was reading through the TV times and just casually mentioned that Batman was on some new channel called FX289. I remember leaping up and grabbing the magazine. Then checked the TV to see if we had the station. We did!! The pure excitement hahaha. And it all stems from those early memories during the channel 4 days. Must have got in our blood

[Avenger90]

Haha cheers AndyFish - happy to be here. Why it's taken me so long I don't know

Honestly, could literally chat for days about this haha.

[Ben Bentley]

FX I remember really clearly. I was just as excited. It was January 2004, and my dad was reading through the TV times and just casually mentioned that Batman was on some new channel called FX289. I remember leaping up and grabbing the magazine. Then checked the TV to see if we had the station. We did!! The pure excitement hahaha. And it all stems from those early memories during the channel 4 days. Must have got in our blood

Ahhh, January 2004 makes total sense - I think my accident was late Feb/early March if memory serves.



I just suddenly had a flashback to the Time Life Country Collection ad that used to air at the same time each day just prior to Batman

[Avenger90]

Yep that’s the one!!! That advert was awesome. Got me proper excited haha. They shown the first season like 3 times. They didn’t actually get to the third season until about the October as I remember. But that was a great time.

I remember those timelife adverts vividly. With the black and white clips of the old singers haha. FX really did the series justice. They shown 2 eps a day plus an omnibus at weekends.

[Avenger90]

So, I contacted Channel 4 and got this response;

'We have checked our schedules and have found that the first episode of the Batman series was broadcast on the 16th of August 1993. There were 120 episodes and the final episode was broadcast on the 22nd of August 1995'

Looks like my memories served me correctly in regards to the third season and when the channel 4 syndication run ended

[Ben Bentley]

So, I contacted Channel 4 and got this response;

'We have checked our schedules and have found that the first episode of the Batman series was broadcast on the 16th of August 1993. There were 120 episodes and the final episode was broadcast on the 22nd of August 1995'

Looks like my memories served me correctly in regards to the third season and when the channel 4 syndication run ended

Great work!

I'm genuinely impressed you got a response from Channel 4 -
A) At all
B) So quickly!
C) With the specific answers you needed!