The 1966 Batman Television Show on CBS
This classic tv spoof starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, The Boy Wonder. The typical formula story began with the villain (typically one of a short list of recurring villains) committing a crime, such as robbing a bank. This was followed by a scene inside Police Commissioner Gordon's office where he and Chief O'Hara would deduce exactly which villain they were dealing with. Gordon would press a button on the Batphone, signaling a cut to Wayne Manor where Alfred, the butler, would answer the manor's Batphone, a bright red telephone on the desk in Bruce Wayne's study that beeped loudly instead of ringing. Alfred would then interrupt Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson - usually they would be found talking with Aunt Harriet, who didn't know of their dual life - with a pretext to draw them away to answer the Batphone. Upon hearing of his enemy's schemes, Bruce would push a button concealed within a bust of Shakespeare that stood on his desk, opening a hidden door in a bookcase and revealing two poles. Wayne says to Grayson "To the Batpoles", then they would slide down, flicking a switch on their way down. This was usually where the animated title sequence would occur.
Similar in style and content to the 1940s serials, they would arrive in the Batcave in full costume and jump into the Batmobile, Batman in the driver's seat. Robin would say "Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed" and Batman would respond "Roger, ready to move out" and the two would race off out of the cave at high speed. As the Batmobile approached the mouth of the cave (actually a tunnel entrance in L.A.'s Bronson Canyon), a hinged barrier dropped down to allow the car to exit on to the road. Scenes from the Dynamic Duo sliding down the batpoles in the Batcave, to the arrival of Commissioner Gordon's building via the Batmobile (while the episode credits are shown), are recycled footage that is used in nearly all part 1 and single episodes.
After arriving at Commissioner Gordon's office, the initial discussion of the crime usually led to the Dynamic Duo (Batman and Robin) conducting their investigation alone. In the investigation, a meeting with the villain would usually ensue with the heroes getting involved in a fight and the villain getting away, leaving a series of unlikely clues for the Duo to investigate. In their investigation, the Duo would face the villain again, and he or she would capture one or both of the heroes and place them in a deathtrap with a cliffhanger ending which was usually resolved in the first few minutes of the next episode.
The same pattern was repeated in the following episode until the villain was defeated in a major brawl where the action was punctuated by superimposed "sound effect" words as in comic book fight scenes ("pow", "bam", etc.). The series also utilized a narrator (producer William Dozier, uncredited) who parodied the breathless narration style of the 1940s serials. He would end many of the cliffhanger episodes with "Tune in tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel (or just 'same time, same channel')."
--source: Wikipedia |
