This Day, That Year – January 12

This day in history we feature the Batman. The live-action TV series Batman was premiered on this day in 1966.

Trivia – Batman

Batman is an American live-action television series based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin—two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City from a variety of archvillains. It is known for its camp style, upbeat theme music, and its intentionally humorous, simplistic morality. This included championing the importance of using seat belts, doing homework, eating vegetables, and drinking milk.

Related read – A police department sends out Batman-themed alert accidentally

Batman was described by executive producer William Dozier as the only situation comedy on the air without a laugh track. The 120 episodes aired on the ABC network for three seasons from January 12, 1966, to March 14, 1968, twice weekly during the first two seasons, and weekly for the third. In 2016, television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked Batman as the 82nd greatest American television series of all time. A companion feature film was released in 1966 between the first and second seasons of the TV show. Batman held the record for the longest-running live-action superhero series in terms of episodes until Smallville in 2011. Starting in 1966, an enormous amount of Batman merchandise was manufactured and marketed to cash-in on the TV show’s vast popularity. This includes trading cards, bubblegum cards, scale model kits of the Batmobile and Batboat, coloring books, and board games. Items from this particular era have gained substantial collector appeal with their remarkable variety, scarcity, and style. Toy company Mattel has made the 1966 Batmobile in various scales for the Hot Wheels product line. The Batmobile with Batboat were also produced under the Matchbox and Corgi names in the UK, during this period. The show was extraordinarily popular, and was considered “the biggest TV phenomenon of the mid-1960s”.

Source – Wikipedia