July 6, 2015 the world celebrated the 70th birthday of one Burt Ward, AKA 'Robin, the Boy Wonder'. Therefore with this in mind, I couldn't have picked a better time to talk about the awesome item that I got to cross promote the occasion.
When I was 8 years old, I had the opportunity to watch my first episode of the classic 1966 television series, 'Batman'. CityTV would play the classic episodes weekdays at noon so this had me running home for lunch from school to see what happened next. Seeing the famous 'Batmobile' charge out of the Batcave to meet the villain of the week. Was it the Riddler? Penguin? Joker? Catwoman? Even at that age, I always wished it was Catwoman (the Julie Newmar one that is). I could watch Julie Newmar all day. If they had a show where she just read the dictionary, I would watch it, lol. You see, for anyone my age, back then, television programming was very different and there were not that many channels. There was no'Teletoon Retro' so used to play these shows all the time on regular tv. The internet was not around and we did not have a VCR so If you missed an episode, you had to wait until they showed it again. It's strange how as a kid, it took this show to be serious and did not understand what the adults found so funny. When I got older, I began to understand what was so funny and appreciate the show even more for how witty and campy it really was. The dialogue was clever and the sight gags were even better. At the time of release, the show was an instant hit and was red hot. Everyone wanted to be a part of it in some form or another. Besides the primary cast of 'Bat villains' such as ''The Riddler (with an incredible performance by Frank Gorshin) the Penguin (Incredibly acted by another legend, Burgess Meredith), Catwoman played by three actresses (Julie Newmar, Lee Meriweather, and Eartha Kitt) and Caeser Romero as 'The Joker'. Other Hollywood actors wanted some part of the show as characters and they starred such legends as Anne Baxter, Vincent Price, and Milton Berle. One celebrity that got a role as a villain was Liberace playing a villain concert pianist named Chandel (yup that's not a stretch) and not only playing one character, but also his evil twin brother! If you've never seen this episode, it is definitely something to watch. lol! If they couldn't get a role in the show as a villain, there was always the window gag that had the 'Dynamic Duo' scaling a wall and a random celebrity from other shows from other networks making appearances such as Colonel Klink from 'Hogans Heroe's, Lurch from 'The Addams Family' and Jerry Lewis, would open the window and have a brief conversation with the crime fighters as they scaled their way to fight for justice. The reason for all this 'Bat talk' is because 'Batman 1966' finally got it's long overdue first time release on Bluray and it looks spectacular. The incredible transfer really bring out all the bright colours and the incredible costumes and sets that really come to life in this collection. In addition to all 120 episodes, the set also include ; Hot Wheels Replica Batmobile, The Adam West Scrapbook, 44 Vintage Trading Cards, Ultraviolet Digital Copy, 32-Page Complete Episode Guide, plus a ton of extra features that make this set worth checking out. So if you're looking for some great nostaglia or something you can watch with the whole family, 'Batman 1966' is definitely worth checking out..
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AuthorDominick Petrungaro is an Award Winning photographer that resides in Toronto, ON Archives
August 2015
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