Starring Lewis Wilson as Batman and Douglas Croft as Robin, BATMAN pitted the Dynamic Duo against the evil Dr. Daka, a stereotypical fiendish Japanese spy. (Even worse, Dr. Daka was played by J. Carroll Naish, a Caucasian actor in yellowface.) Well, it was wartime, so that forgives things to a degree. It’s a little harder to forgive when even the serial’s narrator makes reference to “shifty-eyed Japs” and seems to be condoning the Japanese-American internment camps. Ouch.

The ’43 BATMAN serial was the first source to actually give a name to the Batcave, and did have some impressive-looking sets, especially for the traditionally low budgets provided for the Saturday-morning serials. Still, the acting was rather blah, with Lewis Wilson’s Batman coming across a bit snobbish, and Douglas Croft providing an absolutely hateable Robin.

Columbia tried again in 1949 with another serial, BATMAN AND ROBIN, this time starring Robert Lowery as Batman and Johnny Duncan as Robin.

Although this one had Batman and Robin facing off against the Wizard, a fairly standard hooded mastermind-type often found in the serials, at least it didn’t have the horribly racist overtones of the first. Also, BATMAN AND ROBIN made an effort to stay a little closer to the source material, with appearances by the Bat-Signal, Vicki Vale, and Commissioner Gordon, played here by serial veteran Lyle Talbot.

In between the film appearances, Batman and Robin also made their debut on the radio, then America’s sole mass-media system, exposing them to a far larger audience than the serial did. On a 1945 episode of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, one of the more popular radio programs of the time, Superman discovered an unconscious boy in a rowboat, wearing a red tunic and a yellow cape. With Robin on the scene, Batman was not far behind, and soon Superman, Batman and Robin were teaming up against the evil Zoltan. Following that first appearance, Batman and Robin would periodically return and take over the program for a week or two (whenever Superman actor Bud Collyer wanted some vacation time), filling in for an ailing Superman. There were reportedly several attempts to give Batman his own radio program, but neither one borne out.

After the ’49 serial, Batman remained primarily ensconced in the four-color world of comics until the mid-1960s. As the legend goes, at the time PLAYBOY publisher Hugh Hefner had taken to showing some of the 1940s serials for “Movie Night” at the Playboy mansion in Chicago, and reportedly the BATMAN serials were a favorite. One of these screenings was attended by an ABC executive, who then acquired the television rights to the character from National Comics. The project was handed off to producer William Dozier, who embraced the cliffhanger-serial origins, devising the 1966 series BATMAN as an unprecedented twice-weekly program, allowing for a cliffhanger each and every week. Also held over from the serial inspiration was the over-the-top narration, which as it turned out, wound up being provided by Dozier himself.

While the show was at times wickedly funny (with the show’s campy approach entertaining adults while going right over the heads of the enraptured kid audience), with the tongue-in cheek-scripts provided by writers like Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and Stanley Ralph Ross, the show’s success can, I think, be chalked up to two factors: the production design and the casting. The show’s budget must have been enormous for a TV series at the time, with the Batcave alone being one of the most fantastic sets ever created for a television series. Throw in the various villain’s lairs, the bright, garish costumes (which were no doubt another key to the series success: color TVs were a relatively new arrival in 1966, and there wasn’t anything on TV more colorful than BATMAN), and of course, the fabulous George Barris-designed Batmobile, and you have a show that looked and sounded like nothing else on television.

Of course, all this would’ve been moot without the right people inside the costumes. Anchoring the series was Adam West, who wisely opted for a more understated portrayal of Batman, only chewing the scenery when it was really called for, and otherwise maintaining a deadpan approach that made his lines all the funnier. While West wasn’t called to play Bruce Wayne all that much in the series, when he did, it was with a droll smoothness that fit the character well. Joining West was neophyte actor Burt Ward as Robin, who brought an emphatic enthusiasm to the role, which really didn’t call for much else besides the ability to wear the outfit and not look horribly out of shape.

Wisely, the Batman and Robin parts were cast with solid, if unremarkable actors intended to serve as the baseline for the show’s real stars: the villains. In a bravura casting coup, the parts of Batman’s four most significant villains were filled in each case by actors who would forever define the roles, and in turn be forever identified with them. The first to appear was the Riddler, as played by comedian and impressionist Frank Gorshin. Gorshin, who was barely a known quantity in show business before the series, was catapulted into stardom by the part. Gorshin’s Riddler was a manic, hyperactive antagonist, constantly chortling and skittering about the scene, and occasionally letting loose with his trademark Riddler laugh, instantly identifiable to this day.

In an interesting sidenote, Gorshin disliked the closely fitting Riddler tights so much that on some days he would refuse to wear them, necessitating the creation of a second outfit for the Riddler, a natty green sport jacket, tie and derby combo that would become just as closely identified with the character, often appearing in BATMAN comic books, cartoons and toys for decades to come. (John Astin made a single appearance as the Riddler, and although his far bulkier Riddler provided quite a contrast to Gorshin’s wiry frame, he didn’t have the frantic giddiness that Gorshin brought to the role.)

Appearing most frequently was Burgess Meredith’s Penguin. The Penguin worked far better on screen than he ever did in the comics, primarily thanks to Meredith’s charisma – the actor’s waddling and squawking take on the character proved to be a favorite with audiences, and the villain would return to the program again and again.

The Joker also showed up quite often, played with zeal by Cesar Romero. Romero’s Joker was also a standout, with Romero, so long typecast in “Latin lover” parts in movies and television, gleefully chewing the scenery and bounding about the room as the Clown Prince of Crime.

As a kid, you’d think I’d have realized that the Joker shouldn’t have had a dyed-white mustache, but I don’t think I ever even noticed until someone pointed it out to me years later. While the Joker’s laugh still came in second to the Riddler’s, Romero’s booming chortle and incessant chuckling still served the character well.

Finally, there was Julie Newmar, who absolutely owned the screen as the Catwoman.

Wearing a skintight black outfit that was probably illegal in some states, Newmar purred, pouted and flirted her way through the series. When film commitments forced Newmar to drop out of the role in the third season, she was replaced by Eartha Kitt, but it just wasn’t the same without Newmar. Kitt was attractive, but didn’t have Newmar’s charm or sense of humor in the part.

There were other characters from the comics who showed up, such as Mr. Freeze and the Mad Hatter, but Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman were the most popular, and made the most appearances. When the show’s popularity shot through the roof and being a Bat-Villain was suddenly the “in-thing” to do in Hollywood, all manner of goofy villains were devised to suit whatever celebrity was slated to appear. Some of these turned out to be great, like Victor Buono’s hilarious turn as King Tut or Vincent Price’s Egghead.

Others were just plain atrocious, such as Milton Berle’s mind-numbingly bad Louie the Lilac, a flower-obsessed crime boss with the insipid and meaningless catch phrase “It’s lilac time, Batman. Lilac time.” Ooooookay.

At the height of the show’s popularity between the first and second seasons, a theatrical feature was released, 1966’s BATMAN, pitting Batman and Robin against Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman.

All involved resumed their roles, with the exception of Julie Newmar, who had to bow out due to a back injury, being replaced by former Miss America Lee Meriwether. The feature, designed to help sell the TV series to overseas markets, made use of a heightened budget to introduce fabulous prop vehicles like the Batcycle, the Batboat and the Batcopter, all of which would be utilized in stock footage throughout the series’ run.

The movie’s high point is undoubtedly a hilarious sequence filmed on the Santa Barbara pier, in which Batman desperately tries to get rid of a bomb with a slowly burning fuse, and is foiled at every turn, by families, nuns, ducks and even a marching band, prompting an exasperated Batman to grumble, “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb…”

When ratings for BATMAN began to fall at the end of the second season, panicked producers cut the show back to once a week, and introduced Yvonne Craig as Batgirl, in an effort to increase the show’s sex appeal.

Even with the addition of Batgirl, the third season suffered a drop in quality, thanks to a run of uninspiring, often just plain lame villains, such as Lord Fogg, evil feminist Nora Clavicle and Minerva, Queen of Diamonds. Still, the season was not a total loss, as we did get to see Batman face off against the Joker in a surfing contest in the episode “Surf’s Up! Joker’s Under!”

By the end of the third season, ABC wanted out, and the show was cancelled. NBC was very interested in picking the series up, but before a deal could be struck, ABC execs had already ordered the sets demolished, and NBC balked at the $800,000 cost of rebuilding the Batcave.

Batman returned to television in animation the following year with THE BATMAN-SUPERMAN HOUR on CBS, but the Filmation-produced series was nothing special, nor was its immediate descendant, THE ADVENTURES OF BATMAN. Batman’s next significant TV appearance came in 1973, with Batman and Robin’s starring roles in the ABC Saturday-morning cartoon SUPERFRIENDS, along with Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman.

Batman and Robin would continue to star in SUPERFRIENDS and its various iterations until the series finally ended as THE SUPER POWERS TEAM: GALACTIC GUARDIANS in 1986. Throughout most of SUPERFRIENDS’ 13-year run, Batman and Robin were played by Olan Soule and Casey Kasem, although the last two seasons in 1984 and 1985 featured none other than Adam West as the Caped Crusader.

In an unusual bit of programming, while the Hanna-Barbera-produced SUPERFRIENDS was running on ABC in 1977, CBS aired their own all-new Batman Saturday-morning cartoon, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN, again produced by Filmation.

This time, Adam West and Burt Ward returned to the roles of Batman and Robin. However, that’s pretty much the only redeeming quality to this mess of a cartoon, which featured not only the addition of Bat-Mite as comedy relief, but also some of the more insipid villains Batman had ever faced, including Moonman, Professor Bubbles and – get this – Sweettooth, a candy-obsessed villain who fiendishly replaces Gotham City’s water supply with chocolate syrup. (“Batman: Indian Chief” is looking pretty good right about now, isn’t it?)

The year 1989 saw Bat-mania return in a big, big, way, with the release of Tim Burton’s long-awaited feature film version, BATMAN. Starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker, the film at long last shattered the common public perception of Batman as a goofy, Batusi-dancing Adam West, and opened the door for more serious versions of Batman in the mass media. As for the movie itself, there’s more good than bad about it.

Keaton’s distracted, haunted portrayal of Bruce Wayne resonated well, and anyone would look like Batman in the sculpted rubber suit he was lurching around in. Jack Nicholson’s Joker was also a standout, equal parts hilarious charm, and creepy menace – in particular, the scene which the Joker murders his former boss has always struck me as effective and chilling.

(There’s a great story Michael Keaton tells about Keaton and Nicholson sitting together in the makeup room during production – Nicholson getting his Joker face put on and Keaton getting his Batman chin and cowl attached. In the midst of it, Nicholson looks over at Keaton and says, “A movie like this, you just sit back and let the suit do all the work.”) Even Kim Basinger isn’t bad as Vicki Vale, although she doesn’t have a whole lot to do besides look pretty and scream a lot. The film looks amazing, thanks to Burton’s signature style and direction and the production designs of Anton Furst. The biggest problems are with the script, which was the victim of a writer’s strike during production, requiring a new writer to come in and rewrite the ending, which is a mess. Precisely why Alfred would let Vicki Vale into the Batcave is still a mystery, and revealing that the Joker killed Bruce Wayne’s parents is just plain lame. Still, BATMAN hits a lot more than it misses, and was really the first time the Batman material was treated seriously outside of the comics.

Tim Burton and Michael Keaton returned to the character in 1992 with BATMAN RETURNS, an even darker look at the Caped Crusader that pitted him against the Catwoman, as portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, and a new grotesque version of the Penguin, played by Danny DeVito.

Muddying things up further is a third villain, Gotham magnate Max Schreck, as played by Christopher Walken. Pfeiffer’s Catwoman was absolutely spot-on brilliant, and the scenes between her and Keaton’s Batman (as well as the romantic moments between Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle, and Keaton’s Bruce Wayne) definitely make up the movie’s high points.

Burton’s vision of the Penguin as a sewer-dwelling flippered mutant never quite worked for me, and I can’t help what wonder what DeVito might have done with the character if he’d been allowed to play it as conceived by Kane and Finger.

Overall, BATMAN RETURNS improves on the first in both script and direction, and even my misgivings about the new Penguin can’t detract from what is still the best of the Batman films.

Also premiering in 1992 was Warner Brothers’ BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, which stands to this day as the single best version of the character in any medium: comics, TV, movies, you name it. But that (and its successors THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES, SUPERMAN, BATMAN BEYOND and JUSTICE LEAGUE) is a column for another day…

The BATMAN movie series continued in 1995 without Tim Burton and Michael Keaton, and it was not a smooth transition. Director Joel Schumacher brought us BATMAN FOREVER, which featured Val Kilmer in his sole turn in the Batsuit. Kilmer’s portrayal seemed muted, as if he was trying to mimic what Keaton did, but couldn’t bring that certain manicness behind the eyes that Keaton does so well.

Also introduced in this one was Chris O’Donnell as Robin. Although the movie kept pretty close to the character’s comic-book origins, the fact that Dick Grayson is a grown man when Bruce Wayne takes him in is dumb at best and troubling at worst. The Batman/Robin relationship has always been that of surrogate father/son, which is why Robin by definition has to be a child. Even worse, both Jim Carrey (as the Riddler) and Tommy Lee Jones (as Two-Face) have their overacting meters cranked up to 11 for this one, as they carry out a criminal plot to suck the brains out of Gotham with some “brain machine” devised by the Riddler. Whatever, man. While Carrey’s overacting is to be expected (and I still maintain that Frank Gorshin, even at his age, would’ve been a far better choice for the part than Carrey), Tommy Lee Jones’ performance is truly awful. Rather than researching and understanding the character, who’s meant to be coolly psychotic, Jones tries to out-Jack Jack Nicholson’s performance as the Joker, giggling, butt-shaking and all. Just plain weak. As for Nicole Kidman, she’s given even less to do than Kim Basinger was.

However, BATMAN FOREVER would look like CITIZEN KANE in comparison to Schumacher’s thankfully final Batman film, 1997’s BATMAN AND ROBIN. God, where do I start?

The lingering shots of Batman and Robin’s asses in the opening sequence let you know just what you’re in for, and the nipples on the sculpted Batsuits don’t help. George Clooney has repeatedly credited himself for killing the Bat-franchise, but it really wasn’t his fault. Between the horrible script by Akiva Goldsman and the completely misguided and juvenile direction from Schumacher, Clooney was doomed from the start. Arnold Schwarzenegger spouts off one awful cold-related pun after another as Mr. Freeze, when he’s not shuffling around in an unintentionally comical oversized “freeze suit.”

Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy was also atrocious, but again, it’s not really the actors’ fault. With a good script and a talented director, this same cast could, I’ve no doubt, have created a first-rate BATMAN movie. There’s just so much to hate about the movie. Batman pulls out a credit card at one point that reads “BATMAN FOREVER” on it. Alfred comes down with a terminal illness, so he transfers his brain into the Batcomputer (complete with “Max Headroom” style animation, which was about ten years out of style) and then encourages his niece to put on a Batsuit and go fight criminals alongside Batman, even though she has no training nor experience. As for Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, well, it’s not good. Silverstone is passably entertaining in comedies, but here she pouts and scrunches her face through action sequences, and mumbles her inane dialogue with all the conviction of a high-school play. BATMAN AND ROBIN is cinematic Ebola. Avoid it at all costs.

So what does the future hold for BATMAN in the movies? The forthcoming BATMAN: INTIMIDATION (at least that was the title last I heard) looks to be extremely promising. With Christopher Nolan (MEMENTO), directing a script by David Goyer, who scripted the BLADE movies as well as a healthy run on JSA, it sounds like it’s going to be a pretty serious affair. Christian Bale has been cast as Batman, with Michael Caine portraying Alfred, and rumors persist that Viggo Mortensen (of LORD OF THE RINGS fame) will be playing none other than Ra’s al Ghul. Time will tell…

With such high hopes, Scott Tipton can just see himself in a movie theatre two years from now, as Christian Bale runs around the Santa Barbara Pier in a Batman suit trying to get rid of a bomb…If you have questions about Batman or comics in general, send them here.

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