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Six months after Batman’s final broadcast on ABC, CBS premiered The Adventures of Batman, the character’s first animated show, produced by Filmation. While the look of the show is totally divorced from the Adam West version, relying mainly on the comics, the influence of the live action show can definitely be felt in the writing; just ask “millionaire Bruce Wayne” at “Stately Wayne Manor.”

This is a show we never saw as kids, or really at all until now, so this time we take a look at the cartoon, without any nostalgic rose-colored glasses. And we have a blast doing it!

ALSO: The Dynamic Duo’s version of the theme (who ARE they behind those masks?), the conclusion of the 1989 Bat-reunion on CBS This Morning, and the message board weighs in on the reasons for 1988 Batmania!

There have been many Batman cast reunions on talk shows over the years, particularly as the 1989 Batman movie’s release approached. Previously we talked about the 1988 reunion on The Late Show with Ross Shafer, an overbooked, poorly stage-managed affair. This time we look at another reunion in 1988, on The Wil Shriner show. Shriner’s show kept the number of guests to a manageable number, and Shriner was more knowledgeable about the show than Shafer, making this reunion about the best you could hope for on a talk show for a general audience. This time we discuss this Wil Shriner episode.

Plus, the Silverwood Clarinet Choir plays an interesting arrangement of Hefti’s Batman theme, and we get a look at a particularly sexist take on Batgirl from Detective Comics 371.

Watch the Wil Shriner Batman reunion episode

The Clock King’s Crazy Crimes/The Clock King Gets Crowned is the one Batman ’66 arc written by Bill Finger, now credited as a co-creator of the character, and Charles Sinclair. Unsurprisingly, the first draft of the script reveals a writer not well versed in the rules of Hollywood, such as that an actor who says one word on screen is more expensive than one in a non-speaking role. This time we look at the first draft, final, and revised final scripts of the Clock King story, finding bits that changed significantly as shot, and answer some of our questions about odd parts of the story.

ALSO: The London Music Works version of the Batman theme, Burgess Meredith on the origin of the Penguin’s quack, and your mail!

Message board comments on the scripts

Message board comments on our Mr. Terrific discussion

One of the most striking things — in a good way, for once! — about Batman’s third season is the number of villains who are women. Also, of course, this is the season of Batgirl, who is more aggressively “feminized” than any other woman on the show, perhaps because she’s doing “a man’s job.” This time we begin a look at how the show presents women in season three by looking at the season's first five episodes, and we’re joined again by novelist Nancy Northcott.

PLUS: What if King Crimson performed the Batman theme? A Batman writer turns out to be a war hero! And, Bat Audio from another Batman reunion in 1989.

Read the Clock King scripts we’ll discuss next month:

• First draft
• Final draft
• Revised final
• Comment on the script on the message board

Panel discussions on Nancy's ConTinual channel

If King Crimson performed the Batman theme (from JB Anderton!)

A Marine's-eye View of the Battle of Iwo Jima (yes, it's bat-relevant!)

More about the Iwo Jima video project, including our Bat-writer bravery medal recipient

Frank Cockrell on OldTimeRadioDownloads.com

1989 Batman reunion on CBS This Morning

Mr. Terrific was cancelled after half a season, but… was it really a terrible show? Is star Stephen Strimpell partly to blame? This time, we push back on Thirteen Week Theatre’s take on Strimpell, consider why pill popping was such a common way to get superpowers in the Sixties, and the show’s …. agressive … laugh track. Also, were the network execs commissioning superhero sitcoms really trying to imitate Batman, or just cash in?

Plus, The Music Within’s bass guitar cover of the Batman theme, more from Adam and Burt on Hour Magazine, and e-mail from our listeners!

Excerpt from Outré magazine's Stephen Strimpell interview (ilovegetsmart.com)

This time we look at the other sitcom that tried to cash in on Batman, CBS’s Mr. Terrific. It’s goofier than Captain Nice and not as funny (although the laugh track clearly doesn’t think that!), but with a surprisingly good cast. We discuss the unaired pilot, and the first 8 episodes of the 17-episode series, which is quite different from the pilot, with an utterly different cast and different situation for Mr. T’s alter ego, Stanley Beamish. 

Plus: Max Diaz Music’s “punk” version of the theme, Adam and Burt appearing on Hour Magazine in 1984, and your response to our discussion of the Batman cast reunion on Fox’s Late Night with Ross Shafer, in episode 211! 

When Batman hit in early 1966, it set a trend of superheroes in pop culture that many rushed to emulate. By the time many of these bat-mimics were ready for public consumption, the trend was on its way out. One such wave-rider was Captain Nice, created by Buck Henry, and repeating some gags from Henry’s hit Get Smart. While Captain Nice brought some really funny moments, it failed to catch on with audiences. Was this simply because the bat-bubble had burst? Or was it that Henry wasn’t the right person to grab the lightning in a bottle that Lorenzo Semple, Jr., had captured? We look at the strengths and weaknesses of the show, the possible reasons for its failure, and whether Captain Nice was meant to be a bat-clone, or a conventional sitcom starring a superhero.

Plus, the Solid Ghost Band theme version, MTV looks at a party commemorating 20 years since the last Batman primetime episode, and ChrisBCritter explains how Dr. Somnambula’s stethescope worked!

Watch Captain Nice on Archive.org

Batman Reunion Party, 1988

Sold Ghost Band theme version