Adam West and the 1966 Batman

A hit nobody expected

Batman arrived on ABC in January 1966 with a bright, deliberately silly tone, on-screen sound effects and cliffhangers that ended on the same note every time. In its first two seasons the show aired twice a week, with Wednesday's episode ending in a trap and Thursday's episode escaping it.

It became an instant sensation. Celebrities lined up to play villains or pop out of windows for cameos, and the show's catchphrases, including the promise to tune in at the same Bat-time on the same Bat-channel, entered everyday speech.

The man under the cowl

Adam West played the role completely straight, which was the whole joke. His Batman lectured Robin about seat belts and good citizenship while fighting crooks in a cape, and West's deadpan delivery made it work for adults and kids at the same time.

Burt Ward was only in his early twenties when he was cast as Robin, and his energetic Holy-everything exclamations became as famous as the fight scenes.

Three weeks to build a legend

The show's Batmobile was created by customizer George Barris from a Lincoln Futura, a one-off concept car from 1955 that had been sitting unused. Barris and his team reworked it in about three weeks for a reported budget of 15,000 dollars, adding the twin bubble canopies, bat fins and the famous rocket flame at the back.

The car toured for decades and copies appear at conventions all over the world. The original sold at auction in 2013 for 4.62 million dollars.

The afterlife of a 1960s hero

Ratings fell in the third season and the show ended in March 1968 after 120 episodes, but reruns kept it alive for new generations. West spent years trying to escape the role, then embraced it, voicing animated versions of Batman and playing a mayor named after himself on Family Guy for more than a decade.

He died in 2017 at 88. Los Angeles lit a bat signal over City Hall in his honor, which is about as fitting a farewell as a Batman could get.

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