"Hi Diddle Riddle" opening narration

[bat-rss]

As I'm sure many of us will remember, when "Batman" first came to DVD (and perhaps this occurred with the BluRay, too), Dozier's opening "cheer Batman and hiss his diabolical enemies" narration was missing. (I got my replacement disk with the narration!)

I remember hearing at the time that the narration was removed for syndication, on the assumption that syndication viewers were already familiar with the show. Can anyone point me to an authoritative source that would confirm this? (Or else confirm a different reason for the discrepancy)

[Ben Bentley]

I’ve only ever heard anecdotal evidence, second/third hand but logically its removal for the sake of familiarity (and a lack of any other narrative continuity markers in the show) when syndicated stands to reason.

[bat-rss]

Fair enough.

By the way, as included on the DVD, HI DIDDLE RIDDLE lacks the opening "Batmaaaaan In Color" bit. I'm assuming that's how it was actually broadcast, and not an error in the home video version?

[Mr. Glee]

When I made a VHS recording of "Hi-Diddle Riddle" off of a Boston-area UHF station in the 1980s, the opening narration was present. So at least some syndication prints did include it.

[Scott Sebring]

Disagree. It was a dropped ball from when the new syndication tapes were made in the late 80's>.
I wrote about it here back in 2014 before the DVDs and Blu Rays were released:
https://www.66batman.com/forums/viewtop ... ion#p19355

Basically this conversation:

clavierankh wrote:
I honestly believe the narration was added later. If the episodes on the disks are as originally aired hen the narration won't be there.

scott sebring wrote:
Nope. The one that has had it missing is the one that ended up in the most recent syndication for the past twenty odd years. The "Studio Masters" bootlegs that have been circulating for ages were just VHS run offs from the syndication copies that were going out in the late 80's. And virtually every DVD boot I've seen from these master sets is from the very same copy with exact same video flaws in every one.

I have seen at least two "Studio Master" sets in their original VHS form with all their FOX labels and stuff. For " Smack in the Middle" there was a difference between both sets in particular. On one copy, the opening recap DID NOT have any narration and was only the music (Batguitarist would be happy) just like the "Hi Diddle Riddle" that has been out there on the airwaves and bootlegs over the years. This would make ZERO sense for them to air a voiceless recap back in the day. The other copy did have the opening recap narration as it should have had.

Upon reviewing these so called master tapes over the years, I've really come to the conclusion that some intern at FOX had to try and compile the best overall quality syndication tapes from the various source broadcast tapes they had for the new push. The color, quality and sound fluctuates so much that there is no way they were simply ran off from one master source. They didn't bust out the 35mm and do any master transfer. There was no agenda to preserving what was originally aired. They just tried to put together a set that didn't have drop outs or flaws. And apparently when they were running off these copies to give out to the select few, they were not coming off a single "Master" for all of them. And somewhere in than mix of stuff, a "Hi Diddle Riddle" without an opening narration became the norm. I wouldn't be surprised if half of those people who received those original VHS masters probably have an opening narration for their "Hi Diddle Riddle."

So was the opening narration for "Hi Diddle Riddle" added later after broadcast? Of course not. They never seemed to go back to ADD anything after it aired. Only paired away over the years. 16mm prints have the narration. I remember the whole "Cheer" and "Hiss" speech vividly from watching the syndication as a kid. So it was there for years. I believe it was there from the first airing because that was the whole pitch to this thing.

My two cents.

Techy note here (former recording engineer coming out): Back in the pre stereo video days, it was very common for series hoping to be aired in different countries and redubbed in different languages to have two channels of audio on the master tapes. One channel of just the music and possible sound effect tracks and the other for the original dialogue. If one patched a feed from one side of a mono output for a mono recording they would only get one or the other. I acquired a German import of the 1966 Captain America cartoon a couple of years ago. One audio was dubbed in mono German and when I switched to the English version, all the music and sound effects were on one speaker and the English dialogue was on the other just like an early Beatle record. They didn't think to mix the two channels to mono as they were meant to for the DVD release. I laughed because I knew what happened. Okay, I'll go put my headphones back on and shut up now...

Lastly, after the DVDs and Blu Rays came out with many errors like the missing opening narration (proven that it originally aired with it by member
Bob Furmanek) and missing scenes that had been cut out for syndication to shorten running times, they did the replacement discs as you know. Like I said though, the missing narration was a goof and not an assumptive "they already know"decision.

[Boy Wonder]

When I made a VHS recording of "Hi-Diddle Riddle" off of a Boston-area UHF station in the 1980s, the opening narration was present. So at least some syndication prints did include it.

WLVI 56 or WSBK 38?

[Jim Akin]

I got the full series on Apple TV and mainly watch on my computer instead of the Blu-Rays. This question made me realize that the Apple version of Hi Diddle Riddle omits the opening narration.

The lack of "In Color" logo (and "Bat-MAAAN! vocals) isn't the only way the opening used in Hi Diddle Riddle and Smack in the Middle differs from subsequent episodes:

In Hi Diddle Riddle, the transition from the batpoles scene to the animated titles features the spinning image of the Batmobile start button, but without the musical "sting" and zooming bat-silhouette overlay that would accompany it in later episodes. The opening to "Smack in the Middle" adds the batspin musical sting but still lacks the zooming bat silhouette.

The horn stabs in the opening theme music are different, too: Two stabs, heard while the "Adam West" credit appears onscreen, would be removed (or shifted) in subsequent episodes. And the trio of "sound effects" (Whap! Biff! Oooof!) that send the baddies flying right before the Alan Napier/Neil Hamilton credit screen lack the musical accompaniment that would be added for future episodes.

[Mr. Glee]

When I made a VHS recording of "Hi-Diddle Riddle" off of a Boston-area UHF station in the 1980s, the opening narration was present. So at least some syndication prints did include it.

WLVI 56 or WSBK 38?

I'm old enough to remember watching the show on both channels 56 and 38, but by the time I owned a VCR (mid-'80s), "Batman" was running on WHLL-27, which was based in Worcester (though in their station IDs, they always referred to the station as "Worcester-Boston.") I think the station must have gotten a package deal on Fox shows; when they picked up "Batman", they also began running all four Irwin Allen shows and "12 o'clock High."

[Mr. Glee]

Fair enough.

By the way, as included on the DVD, HI DIDDLE RIDDLE lacks the opening "Batmaaaaan In Color" bit. I'm assuming that's how it was actually broadcast, and not an error in the home video version?

I'm 99% sure that the "In Color" tag wasn't present in the VHS recording I mentioned above (and the station in question did air all the other episodes with the tag intact.) I might still have the tape around here somewhere; if I can find it, I'll check to confirm.

[Mr. Glee]

We know that Dozier's narration was a last-minute addition, triggered by the pilot's disastrous test-screening. I'd bet the no-narration version is what they ran for that first test. No idea how that version would have wound up on the first issue of the blu-ray, though.

[bat-rss]

When I made a VHS recording of "Hi-Diddle Riddle" off of a Boston-area UHF station in the 1980s, the opening narration was present. So at least some syndication prints did include it.

Very interesting! So I guess it's more complicated than I thought. Did they cut the narration for syndication, but then accidentally send out some prints that had it? Or, if the narration was added at the last minute, did they keep the version without, and then accidentally send some copies of that out for syndication? As Mr. Freeze might say, "WILD!"

[Therin of Andor]

I'm 99% sure that the "In Color" tag wasn't present in the VHS recording I mentioned above (and the station in question did air all the other episodes with the tag intact.)

In Australia, our premiere was about a year later and we had no regular colour TV until March 1975. (Testing throughout the last few months of 1974.) So my brothers and I used to blink in puzzlement in 1967 at the "IN COLOR" slide, since we were watching in glorious b/w.