Batman TV Series Coming to DVD "and Other Platforms"!
fredzilla
Posts: 2,131
fredzilla
Posts: 2,131
Comments
Holy nostalgia, Caped Crusader! The original 1960s Batman show is finally getting a home-video release, and Conan O'Brien couldn't be happier.
USA TODAY confirmed the news that the late-night talk-show host tweeted to his 9.75 million followers Wednesday: Warner Bros. Entertainment will be releasing the complete series this year in a box set. He also added a picture of himself and the classic Batmobile with the quip, "The seat smells like Adam West."
The original series, which ran 1966-68 on ABC and in later years in syndication, was many people's introduction to the superhero outside of comics, especially before the Tim Burton Batman movie was released in 1989. And compared to the "Dark Knight" era began in the 1980s with comics icon Frank Miller and others, the TV show was a lighthearted campy affair starring West as the earnest Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne, Burt Ward as Robin and Yvonne Craig as Batgirl.
However, the many colorful villains they faced on a weekly basis were arguably more of a draw, with a stable of mainstays including the Joker (Cesar Romero), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and three different women to wear the tight leather of Catwoman (Lee Meriwether, Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar). Celebrities of the day were regular guest stars, including film director Otto Preminger as Mr. Freeze, Milton Berle as Louie the Lilac, Vincent Price as Egghead, Liberace as Chandell and his twin brother Harry, and Zsa Zsa Gabor as Minerva.
Details will be announced later on specific platforms and pricing.
M
Also, the movie and return to the batcave would be awesome inclusions.
UPDATE: Warners not doing BATMAN DVD, but other stuff instead!
The post was dated 2012 (no date posted for the update). There is no source citation.
The Realm Cast > USA Today
> = credibility /:)
The good:
The video looks amazing. Spectacular actually along with what you remember in detailed period set pieces, crazy Dutch camera angles, the over-the-top narration. And while Batman only lasted three seasons, it aired twice a week. So each episode is half of a two-parter, a cliffhanger and a conclusion - "same Bat-time, same Bat-channel." Season two comes in at 60 episodes! You won't burn through this set anytime soon. One thing to note however, this was a show aimed at kids, and the fighting styles are absurd. There's more drama in an Austin Powers fight scene.
The bad:
Awkward extras such as Na Na Na Batman a mini-documentary
Trading cards...? what do I do with these? How's about including a tpb of the recent Batman '66 comic book series instead? And the ugly:
West and Ward did a commentary track for the Batman '66 which was hilarious, but there are no Adam West or Burt Ward commentaries to be found here. There's a little bit of something on two of the episodes, but it is not what you want. This is a major deficiency in my estimation and will be a dealbreaker for most people. Even though Mr. West had spent a great deal of time and effort to record commentary material for each episode, I can only guess why the producers of this set declined to include them. Maybe Adam wanted too much money. I don't know the story. Couldn't they have included the Adam West Naked discs in the set? I don't understand this oversight. It's sort of the point of getting these episodes on disc isn't it.
UPDATE: There is a set of this you can get directly from Warner Bros which includes th Adam West Naked and Batman the Movie, but I can get those items cheaper separately. Still would've preferred the commentary on the discs in this set instead. Maybe someone will do it for us and put out a torrent...?
http://www.texasarchive.org/library/index.php?title=Jean_Boone_-_Interview_with_Cast_of_Batman,_The_Movie_(1966)