I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Absolutely the worst movie.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This camp series of "Batman" was largely unavailable due to a long running court battle over the copyright. Luckily, that has been settled and now this classic show can be enjoyed once again on DVD and Blu Ray! Part of the enjoyment of "Batman," is that it isn't to be taken seriously in the slightest. After all, none of the actors involved took it seriously. The only exception being Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon. According to reports, he kept telling some of the other actors to take everything about the show seriously! The old fool! Adam West is still the definitive Batman in the minds of most fans of the comic book. I can understand why and he does have an international following. Long may his legacy continue. I do enjoy his rendition a great deal and I laugh every time he delivers his lines in his own style when trouble is afoot. Burt Ward ideally compliments Adam West as his sidekick, Robin. They have great on-screen chemistry. I always thought it a big mistake when Batgirl was included, she didn't fit in. My favourite villains are the Joker, the Penguin and Catwoman. Caesar Romero brings his character vividly to life and I can envisage him as the Joker from the comics during the 1960s. Burgess Meredith made the Penguin character his own as far as I'm concerned. I know there were three different women as Catwoman but Julie Newmar tops them all. She is one hell of an actress and she plays Catwoman with sex appeal, conviction and her scenes with Adam West light up the screen! Frank Gorshin is suitably zany and larger-than-life as the Riddler. He plays his role well and I enjoy seeing him chuckle in that manic way. There are other good villains besides. Otto Preminger made for a good Mr. Freeze and is the best one. Elia Wallach and George Sanders are still good though when they played the same character. Vincent Price is terrific as Egghead, this kind of series being right up his street. One villain of whom I am curious, is the one of False Face. To this day, I still don't know the identity of the actor who played him. His name wasn't given on the credits and he was listed under a question mark. There was hardly any money spent on the "Batman" show and it this is clearly in evidence. However, I can't recall many television shows that were produced on anything resembling an extravagant budget. The police department of Gotham City can't be up to much if they keep needing the help of Batman and Robin all the time! Then again, it wouldn't be the same if they weren't needed. The fight scenes are a laugh in themselves, what with those big words appearing on the screen every time someone is punched or kicked. There is nothing remotely disturbing about the fight scenes, it just gets a bit silly! I thought it wiser to keep the episodes about 23 minutes each because the public can only suspend their belief for so long. Each story was covered in 2 parts which is a good idea. I can't understand why for the last season, the episodes were extended to 50 minutes. They don't work quite so well. A classic series for the whole family.

If you read the reviews here on on the IMDb for Batman you will get a huge number of, apparently, critical words used to describe it. Daft, silly, absurd, idiotic, ridiculous & camp etc. All are true but that didn't stop just about everybody loving the show. ME TOO!. I loved it as a 15 year old boy when it first aired back in 1966 & I still love it today 50 years on. Adam West & Burt Ward who played Batman & Robin respectively always kept straight faces no matter how ridiculous the situations they were in, (& some of them were totally mad), but somehow or other it all just worked. Great too were Alan Napier playing the dynamic duo's butler Alfred, Stafford Repp playing Irish police chief O'Hara & Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon. What really made the show, however, were the villains & villainesses some of whom were an absolute hoot!. Frank Gorshin's Riddler, Burgess Meredith's Penguin, Vincent Price's Egghead, Cesar Romero's Joker, Victor Buono's King Tut (playing the ancient Egyptian Pharoah Tutenkhamun), Julie Newmar's Catwoman & Zsa Zsa Gabor's Minerva (who just played herself really, dahlink) were amongst the most memorable although I could go on, & on & ON. In fact practically everyone who had any kind of name in Hollywood at the time made at least one appearance on the show. As the show progressed into its third season the villainous characters just got more & more nuttier. One of my favourites was Barbara Rush playing Nora Clavicle who was flanked either side by two statuesque beauties Evalina & Angelina played by June Wilkinson & Inga Nielsen respectively. Another really dopey character was created for Liberace named Chandell. He was a kind of musical villain & was surrounded by a trio of gorgeous ladies who played the bag-pipes called Doe, Rae & Mimi. (See, I told you how nutty the show became!). Our bag-piping ladies were played by Marilyn Hanold, Edy Williams & Sivi Aberg respectively. Given the fact that Liberace was well-known as a raving homosexual as well as being a brilliant pianist I am sure there was some kind of in-joke going on by the shows producers who surrounded him with hot babes!. As I say the show was very often an utterly hilarious blast!. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!.

At this point in the 60's, batman was still a more underground character (mostly popular with comic book readers). But when this show came along it changed everything! It brought batman and all of his villains/sidekicks into the mainstream. And with it being on television, it got more attention then if it was a film, since at the time television was taking over film. Also, batman was in COLOR!! Which was a very big deal and probably got a lot of people to buy color televisions. Now I have to talk about the show. The show itself is very colorful, and to me that's great! I love how it looks like a comic book literally came on to the small screen. There was always cliff hangers at the end of episodes which made you want to come back next time. Now...lets get it out of the way. The camp factor. Yes, the show is a bit campy, but I think that's the appeal of it. It can resonate with both children and adults alike! I love films like the dark knight and batman 1989, but watching the 66 show is a completely different experience. A fun, colorful, enjoyable experience. Without this show we without a doubt wouldn't have any batman movies now....or, maybe we wouldn't even have any superhero movies.

I never got into the comic books and the one "modern" movie version I saw didn't grab me. I was a kid during its first run and definitely the target demographic. The Special Guest Villains really made the show… we were a family of film buffs and we loved recognizing the villains from other things. Major favorites were Victor Buono as King Tut (how many other 10-year-olds had seen "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", I wonder?), Vincent Price as Egghead (again, "House of Wax" was hardly a children's movie!) and Roddy McDowall as Bookworm (hey, "Lassie Come Home" was actually for kids!). And naturally, Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman were always welcome in our living room.I've recently streamed a few episodes just for the heck of it. One featured Liberace as Chandell (very clever name!). I'm not a Liberace fan and he wasn't a favored villain in my youth, but as an adult I got a few really good laughs out of this episode. Firstly, after a robbery at Stately Wayne Manor, Commissioner Gordon picks up the Batphone only to be advised by Alfred that Batman and Robin are on vacation. There's a look of pure horror on his face as he turns to Chief O'Hara and says "I think we may have to… solve this one ourselves!" As a kid I wouldn't have batted an eye; as an adult I cracked up… you mean, DO YOUR JOB for a change? It was a hilarious line and Neil Hamilton really nailed it… I bet he enjoyed the rare opportunity to be a bigger part of the plot. And Stafford Repp got in a few zingers as well, over and above his weekly sigh of "saints preserve us!": at one point, Chief O'Hara decides that snipers with machine guns in the balcony of the local concert hall are the way to deter any possible criminal acts during Chandell's performance, again producing howls from the grown-ups. Fears for Aunt Harriet's virtue are voiced when she visits Chandell in his dressing room… trust me, Aunt Harriet is safe with Chandell (but the Boy Wonder might not have been). The funniest scene by far was the absent Bruce Wayne ruminating that Commissioner Gordon would doubtless have things well in hand and would work tirelessly to apprehend the villain… cut to Commissioner Gordon with a row of large pill bottles lined up on his desk. So stalwart Commissioner Gordon is amped up on speed? Pure comedy gold. The cherry on top of the cupcake was Liberace's performance as evil twin brother Harry the gangster, puffing cigars and talking out of the corner of his mouth; he was quite entertaining as something other than his grinning sequin-studded pianist persona.Recommended for nostalgia factor only… anyone raised on the darker film series probably wouldn't understand. But for a baby-boomer… PURRRRRRRRRR-fect.