YMMV / Batman (1966)

• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Modern viewers often confuse Mad Hatter's appearance and hat gimmick as a Bowdlerization of his far creepier comic self. It's actually a very faithful adaptation of Silver Age Mad Hatter, who was since retconned as being an impostor impersonating Jervis Tetch and was later renamed "Hatman".
  • While the Shark Repellent Bat Spray, used in the film, is seen as ludicrous, shark repellent was researched since WWII.^note Indeed, Batman isn't even the first pop-culture action hero to address it - James Bond was discussing it as early as Live and Let Die (1954)
• Angst? What Angst?: Unlike many modern takes on Batman where the death of Bruce's parents is mentioned frequently, in this series it's only brought up in the first episode. Bruce seems more well-adjusted overall than many incarnations, though he still takes his duties as a crime fighter seriously.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation:
  • This interpretation of Batman still lingers on as some people's view of the character, despite crap tons of adaptations and major character changes since. This has continued to the extent that Warner Bros. Consumer Products has approached Adam West and 20th Century Fox (producers of the TV show) in 2012 about producing merchandise based on the TV shows (also, greeting cards from Hallmark tend to follow the Adam West design, which most closely resembled the traditional comic book design), and an animated revival was eventually made, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, with Adam West reprising the role. It should be noted that the TV series was a distillation of the very silliest of The Comics Code/Silver Age era Batman comics, roughly late '50s to mid '60s. In fact some say that the later (1970s-80s) portrayals of Batman were a backlash against the show. In Amazing Heroes #119 in 1987 (two years before the Michael Keaton film), Max Allan Collins had an interview where said the following about the show:
    I'm afraid what I'm running smack up into is the old Batman TV show controversy: the old business about, Gee that was a TV show that made fun of Batman and made fun of comic books, so we have to show people that Batman and comic books are serious and they're adult and accordingly all the fun goes out of it. There was a reason why that TV show was played for laughs and that is when you put actual human beings in those costumes and act out those stories, it looks stupid. They betray their juvenile roots. It can’t be done straight. I defy them to do the movie straight.
  • In some ways, the series colored people's perceptions of the entire genre of Western superheroes. Until 2000 or so, when superhero movies started being huge, any outside journalism on the genre would invariably feature "Biff! Pow!" in the headline, as if Adam West was the last word on the subject.
  • Notably, The Dark Age of Comic Books may have revitalized interest in the show as a backlash against all the grimdarkness. Batman: The Brave and the Bold was something of a love letter to both the show and Silver Age DC comics, and even included episodes written by Paul Dini, who had done plenty of serious work for the comparatively serious Batman: The Animated Series. Also, DC Comics debuted Batman '66, which treats the TV show as an alternate universe, in 2013 to modest success and critical praise.
  • In an entirely positive example, thanks to Frank Gorshin's wonderful portrayal, the show almost single-handedly restored the Riddler in the public eye as one of Batman's chief archenemies alongside Joker and Penguin; prior to that, he was a minor villain that appeared in exactly three stories and had only just returned to the comics after an absence of 17 years, in a story that would inspire his inclusion. The smart suit, bowler hat and cane worn by Gorshin as a way to get out of the leotard has also become a staple of the character, to the point that it's hard to find a modern version wearing tights.
    • Mr. Freeze is a similar example; he only had one comic book appearance (in which he was called Mr. Zero and wore a garish-colored costume) prior to this show, but George Sanders' Wicked Cultured, Affably Evil portrayal of the character made him more popular among the comics' fans, to the point where the Adaptational Name Change got back ported into the comics. Even the silvery color of his costume and Preminger and Wallach's unnatural skin tones became the standard for Freeze's future appearances.
• Awesome Music:
  • The main theme by Neal Hefti is incredibly simple, largely consisting of a repeating surf guitar loop and a chorus repeating "BATMAN!" constantly, but one cannot deny how catchy and energetic it is, nor how iconic it is, being one of the most well known superhero themes in the popular consciousness and aside from the later Batman (1989) theme by Danny Elfman, the most famous theme associated with Batman.
  • Catwoman's henchgirl Pussycat singing "California Nights". Is it just an excuse for Lesley Gore to have a The Cast Showoff moment? Certainly. That doesn't keep it from being catchy though.
  • The music that accompanies the famous batusi scene, titled "The Batusi", is a fun and relaxing song that is likely gonna make you do the batusi yourself.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: As our heroes scale buildings with the Bat Ropes, they invariably get stopped by someone whose window they pass.
• Bizarro Episode: In "The Impractical Joker"/"The Joker's Provokers", the Joker had a gadget that could stop or reverse the flow of time. While it wasn't the only story arc with an absurd meta-physical plot element (other episodes had voice-stealing or invisibility, for instance), the show's other reality-warping aspects were at least given a bit more focus and initial establishment. This particular story arc just threw in time-control midway through an episode, creating one of the most absurd moments in the entire series. And given the nature of the series, that is truly saying something.
• Broken Aesop: Batman explaining to students that nothing in life is free. This, coming from the guy who inherited his parents' fortune.
• Broken Base:
  • "Who played Catwoman best?" is a loaded question.
  • All three Mr. Freeze actors have fans arguing that they handle the role either the best or the worst.
• Can't Un-Hear It: The show provided the characters' voices for a whole generation of Batman fans. Despite the lighter tone, Adam West could sound just as cool and badass as later Batmen like Kevin Conroy, Christian Bale, etc. If nothing else, it's very easy to hear West's voice if you're reading a Silver Age Batman comic alongside Burt Ward as Robin and Cesar Romero as the Joker.
• Common Knowledge:
  • It's commonly claimed that the creation of the series was inspired by re-screenings of the Batman film serials of the 1940s. Truth is, the series was already in development at least three months before the serials were first re-screened.
  • No, Aunt Harriet was not a Canon Foreigner. She actually first appeared in the comics.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Has its own page.
• Epileptic Trees: Some fans who think that Catwoman is a Legacy Character speculate (with varying degrees of seriousness) that Lisa Carson from "Tut's Coup/Batman's Waterloo" is the same character as Catwoman from the movie (they're played by the same actress) and reformed during the Time Skip and formed a real relationship with Bruce.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Chief Screaming Chicken and Chief Standing Pat, the embarrassingly stereotypical Native Americans from "An Egg Grows in Gotham"/"The Yegg Foes in Gotham" and "The Great Escape"/"The Great Train Robbery".
  • Although at the time, Chief Screaming Chicken was also a parody of how Native Americans were depicted in popular culture, with Batman at one point criticizing the poor treatment of Native Americans during an era when it was uncommon for any TV series to do so.
• Fair for Its Day: This article argues that given the Values Dissonance between the executives in charge in The '60s and The New '10s, the mere fact of a show about Super Heroes being greenlit in the '60s as an Affectionate Parody of the comics written in The Silver Age of Comic Books was a fair enough interpretation.
• Fan Nickname: This incarnation of Batman is often referred to as the "Bright Knight" or "Camp Crusader" to distinguish him from darker, more serious takes on the character. Both are of surprisingly recent vintage: the term "Bright Knight" was coined in The New '10s and only became popular in 2017, with the death of Adam West.
• Foe Yay Shipping: The Riddler sounds almost turned on when describing how pleasurable it would be to melt Batman and Robin in wax.
• Franchise Original Sin: Detractors of the show will often call out how goofy and camp it is, as well as excessive characters and odd pop culture references. Thing is, the show always had those. Season one is generally considered to have done a better job of balancing that out with drama and serious moments.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The Dynamic Duo tends to tell their foes that they're being sent up the river. While this had been an established term for going to prison for nearly a century by 1966, it fits quite well here since this Gotham is New York City in all but name. The origin of the phrase? Going up the Hudson River from NYC to the maximum security Sing Sing prison.
  • The episode "Catwoman's Dressed To Kill" drops a reference to the ancient Etruscan civilization of Italy. Though the real Etruscans probably weren't particularly known for wearing snoods.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Thanks to a writers' strike in the mid 80s forcing TV programmers to air seemingly endless reruns of the show, it became hugely popular in England. It's rumored that this boost in popularity helped convince Warner Bros. to green light the 1989 movie.
  • The series was also hugely popular in Argentina. A recurring gag in famous Argentine sketch show Cha Cha Cha revolved around an Argentine Batman ("Juan Carlos Batman") who was clearly based on Adam West's Batman (despite the sketch show airing around the time of the Burton/Schumacher Batman films). The Flash (2023) director Andy Muschetti, who is Argentine, would even cite this as the reason why he fought to include the cameo of the Adam West Batman in said film, when it was threatened with being cut by the studio.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • "Joker's Last Laugh" involves the Joker giving his robots an "amber alert", decades before it became the term for the warning system for missing children. Some TV closed-captioning services merely spell it "alert" instead.
  • The episode "The Zodiac Crimes" aired 18 months before the Zodiac killer's spree began.
  • Liberace's unusual Acting for Two role as Chandell and his twin brother Harry can become this given his infamous relationship in the late 70s with Scott Thorson, whom he pressured into having plastic surgery to resemble Liberace as a younger man. It's hard not to see the roles and Liberace's repeated interactions with himself as being motivated by a similar level of narcissism.
• He Really Can Act: Adam West playing off of himself. What makes this feat one-up that of his successor, Kevin Conroy, is that West did so live on-camera, while Conroy only had to speak into a microphone.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Those who have seen Vincent Price as Egghead and heard what the Narrator called him will probably get a kick out of what this song calls Vincent Price's character in The Great Mouse Detective many years later, or vice versa!
  • During a Season 3 episode, Batman reveals a mini-Batphone that for all intents and purposes is similar to a modern cellphone.
  • The Penguin's A Jinx: After movie star Dawn Robbins comments that Batman could use more publicity, his agent, Mr. Jay, answers:
  "Forget it, Batman never lends himself to commercial enterprises"
  • In the episode The Penguin Sets A Trend, The Penguin's mob attacks an Army base, under the disguise of being a film crew. Among the bemused, and later ineffectual, officers is a major played by Bob Hastings. Really? Jim Gordon couldn't catch the Penguin when he was right under his nose?
  • In another B:TAS-related example, the one-shot villain the Bookworm wouldn't be the last time the late Roddy McDowall would play a Batman villain with an obsession over classical literature (except in the Mad Hatter's case, he specifically prefers the works of Lewis Carroll).
  • Joker's shenanigans in "Pop Goes The Joker"/"Flop Goes The Joker" are not his last incursion into art.
    • In "Pop Goes The Joker", Alfred calls Aunt Harriet to give Bruce a message about a painting called The Man Who Laughs. Guess what painting another Joker absolutely loves?
  • In the first episode featuring him, the Joker had a blonde henchgirl. Does that sound familiar?
  • One episode had Robin at the mercy of African death bees after hitting a tripwire. Almost as if it were a deadly bee weapon. Bees. My god.
  • Another episode had Catwoman holding the voices of two British singers hostage for 8 million pounds. 50 years later, the two same singers would appear in the PBS pledge drive special The British Beat and showed a few clips from the episode during a pledge break to illustrate the need to support public television.
  • At the end of "Dizzoner the Penguin" Batman gets calls from both major parties asking him to run for President. He responded to the second call with "Don't you already have a candidate?". At the time the episode was first broadcast, incumbent President Johnson was expected to run for re-election; however, he withdrew from the 1968 race when it was clear that The Vietnam War had fatally damaged his political standing.
  • In "The Devil's Fingers," Commissioner Gordon's horror at the thought of having to solve a case without Batman's help was already funny on its own, but became absolutely hysterical when we got an entire TV series about Gordon fighting super villains in a world where Batman doesn't exist yet.
  • This Family Channel promo makes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles references nearly two decades before the comicbook crossover (albeit between the usual grim loner Dark Knight and the grim-n-gritty Turtles).
  • Shelley Winters as villain Ma Parker, a No Celebrities Were Harmed parody of real life gang leader Kate "Ma" Barker. A couple of years later Winters would star in Roger Corman's film Bloody Mama, a much less family-friendly take on the same figure.
  • Apparently Fran Belding used to work in the Gotham City Police Department ("Nora Clavicle And The Ladies' Crime Club") before transferring to San Francisco.
  • Batgirl's habit of pulling stealthy exits that leave Batman and Robin flummoxed, given how future versions of Batman develop such a fondness for Stealth Hi/Bye moments that Batman provides the page image and is the subject of the page quote.
  • After singing "I want to be evil" for so long, Eartha Kitt finally got her wish in Season 3.
  • The second Mister Freeze is played by an Austrian.
  • A then-unknown James Brolin, who would turn up as different characters throughout the series, resembled Christian Bale...
  • Cesar Romero wouldn't let anyone shave off his moustache! Paramount Pictures wouldn't let anyone shave off Henry Cavill's moustache, either, and Warner Bros. gladly obliged.
    • Warner Bros. painted over Cavill's moustache, just not with grease paint!.
• Ho Yay: Obvious. Three bachelors in one house, and two of them wear tights.
  • Also, in the pilot, the Riddler is really excited by seeing his assistant dress up as Robin and pose in a somewhat seductive fashion.
• Magnificent Bastard: Has its own page.
• Memetic Mutation: The aforementioned catch phrases of Robin and the announcer. (Notably, these became memetic long before the invention of the Internet.)
  • "Ualuealuealeuale!", a musical meme combining a loop of Batman bobbing his head like a drunkard while performing the Batusi dance with the incomprehensible hook of the El Chombo single "Chacarron Macarron." The Batusi itself is also a meme.
  • "Good thinking, Batman!" remains a popular response in the UK when someone suggests a Zany Scheme.
  • BATMAN RUNS AWAY FROM SHIT!
  • Batlabels, a Twitter account that posts screencaps and Vines of the various descriptive labels on Batman's gadgets and other objects. Has lead to a minor meme regarding the name of Bruce Wayne's race horse, 'Waynebeau', from the episode Horse Of A Different Color.
  • Whenever Preminger's Mr. Freeze gets brought up, odds are his habit of saying "Wild!" will get a joking reference.
• Moe: Catwoman's One-Shot Character apprentice Pussycat (played by Lesley Gore), due to her Cat Girl costume, her singing voice, her half-heartedness about being a criminal in the first place and some cute and clever dialogue while she's paired with a brainwashed Robin.
  Pussycat: I'm not the kind of girl to kiss a boy on the first crime.
• Moral Event Horizon: While nowhere near as monstrous as many of his later incarnations, The Joker still gets his moment when he traps Batman and Robin in an industrial smokestack and turns it into a makeshift Gas Chamber — the darkest (and perhaps one of the best) of all the Death Traps the Dynamic Duo has ever faced. This being the Adam West Batman, though, this gets Played for Laughs to a degree, with the Dynamic Duo expecting water in the Joker's challenge to them and the Joker having to explain to Robin that the material was something you can drown in—who said anything about water, anyway?
  • There were also a few non-Joker examples. These include Olga, Queen of Cossacks plotting to have the kidnapped Commissioner Gordon dismembered and cooked in a Russian stew; and the Riddler doing two really horrible things in one episode arc: first, stealing charity money from starving children; and second, using that money to purchase a prototype antimatter converter that causes things to permanently disappear and threatening to use it on Gotham Police Headquarters (and when he hears that Commissioner Gordon and his bomb squad have refused to evacuate the building, he simply sneers that they're getting what's coming to them).
  • Probably the worst of the villains - and, ironically enough, the most human as well - was Nora Clavicle, who plotted to use wind-up toy mice to blow up all of Gotham City as part of an insurance scam. Yes, a city with more than half a million people, as mentioned in another episode. That number rivals any large nation's casualties in most wars.
• My Real Daddy: While Dick Sprang and Bill Finger created the Riddler, he only appeared twice before Frank Gorshin depicted him — and he created most of his memorable aspects, such as his dapper suit and his role as Batman's intellectual superior.
• Narm Charm: It's absolutely intentional. Batman and Robin throw around anvils like there's no tomorrow in the narmiest way possible. They include Robin not being allowed to go into a bar because he is underage (even though he needs to go in there to catch a villain) and Batman being very adamant that someone who regularly pays their taxes can't possibly commit a crime.
  • "Na-na-na-na-Na-na-na-na-Na...Batmaaaaaan!"
  • Batgirl's theme song...isn't very good. But it's still unfortunately catchy.
  • Some of the villains' leitmotifs can qualify, for certain ears.
  • This gem from "Deep Freeze" ^note Mr. Freeze blackmails Gotham for $1 billion dollars, or he'll freeze the city, delivered by a newscaster in a deadpan voice:
    Reports have come in of hysterical children everywhere, awakening and screaming "Mama, mama, mama, don't let the ice cover me, please!"
    • Later on, Gordon's delivery of the line "One BILLION dollars!", which Dr. Evil may have been watching before he got frozen.
• Never Live It Down: Batman and Robin are generally grateful and respectful toward Batgirl when she helps them, and only make Stay in the Kitchen comments in three mid-season episodes (and in one they may just be saying that for an un-costumed Barbara's benefit). Nonetheless, the lines in those three episodes are cringeworthy enough to make a big impression on the fanbase, and many people believe that all of Batman and Robin's interactions with Batgirl contain such dialogue.
• Older Than They Think: In a character example, many people assume that Aunt Harriet was an original creation solely for the TV series. The character actually did originate in the comics, appearing when Alfred had been been temporarily killed off a few years before the TV show started. She was written out shortly after Alfred was brought back, and wasn't seen in the comic continuity again until 2014, hence why people are more familiar with the TV version of the character now than the comic one.
• One True Threesome: Since both Okie Annie from Shame's first appearance and Calamity Jan from his second are both decently well-liked accomplices/love interests to the villain, some fans prefer to just ship all three of them together.
• Padding:
  • in the "Zodiac Crimes" three-parter, Venus's Horrible Judge of Character moments and Heel–Face Revolving Door arc get a bit too much attention for some fans' taste.
  • In the three-part episode where Marsha, Queen of Diamonds and Penguin team up, there are far more scenes of Scatter Brained Senior and wannabe witch Hilda gathering ingredients for her "spells" than necessary.
• Paranoia Fuel: Anyone could be False Face, or his assistant Blaze.
• Periphery Demographic: What kid watching this show didn't want to be Batman when you grew up, taking this incarnation of the Caped Crusader absolutely seriously? But at the same time, adult viewers tuned in for the camp absurdity, the jokes that only work because Adam West plays them absolutely straight opposite well-known actors having the time of their lives playing the villains. Grant Morrison, in their autobiography-cum-superhero-analysis Supergods, says this was the greatest strength of the show, that it deftly split the difference in creating something the whole family could enjoy on different levels.
• Popularity Polynomial: The popularity, or lack thereof, of the show among "serious" comics fans definitely waxes and wanes.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • At the very least, John Astin's version of the Riddler and Otto Preminger's version of Mr. Freeze are considered major step-downs from the Frank Gorshin and George Sanders original versions of those characters by many fans. While Astin gave the role his all and was entertaining in his own right (to be expected from the man who played Gomez Addams), fans overall felt he just didn't have the same wit Gorshin had. Preminger, meanwhile, turned Mr. Freeze from the Affably Evil Man of Wealth and Taste of previous episodes to a cackling weirdo who speaks in excruciating New-Age Retro Hippie slang. Combine that with reports of Otto Preminger's unpleasant behavior on set, and it's not hard to see why fans preferred George Sanders' Freeze.
  • Eartha Kitt's version of Catwoman is more divisive, with some considering her even better than Julie Newmar, but others finding her nowhere near as good (though nearly everyone seems to agree that if nothing else, Kitt did do a better job than Lee Meriweather in Batman: The Movie).
  • Similarly, Eli Wallach's version of Mr. Freeze is generally seen to be So Okay He's Average; not as good as Sanders, but still way better than Preminger. That's not to say that Wallach's Freeze didn't have his fans, though; in fact, that role earned Wallach more fan mail than any of his other roles at the time.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman's Satisfaction" features the then-relatively unknown Bruce Lee, who would, of course, become not just more famous but one of the most important figures of the 20th century. (Note that those episodes also had blink-and-you'll-miss-them roles for Alex "Moe Green" Rocco and character actor Seymour Cassel, who would get an Oscar nomination less than two years later for Faces.)
  • Jill St. John in the very first episode. She would become best known for playing Tiffany Case in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.
  • Sid Haig is King Tut's Royal Apothecary in "The Spell of Tut/Tut's Case is Shut". It's fun to imagine that he's Waylon Jones in the comic continuation...
  • Fred from "The Great Escape" and "The Great Train Robbery" is played by Barry Dennen, who would later be best known for playing Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar.
• Rooting for the Empire: One of the things the series was best known for was the large variety of colorful villains. In fact, some of them won Emmys.
• Seasonal Rot: The first season, even when being an Affectionate Parody of the Superhero genre, was more of a Deconstructive Parody where Anyone Can Die, the villains were smart and the Big Budget Beef-Up could afford Visual Effects of Awesome that were seen in Batman: The Movie. The second season exaggerates the parody and becomes an Indecisive Parody, the villains suffered Flanderization, Everybody Lives and the budget is lower, giving place to Bottle Episodes that breaks the rule of Show, Don't Tell, there were Special Effect Failures and Stock Footage Failures. The third season was the worst: the Flanderization is at its fullest, creating a Stealth Parody or Redundant Parody, there were almost No Budget, an episode with Invisible Villains and not even the inclusion of Batgirl as a Ms. Fanservice could save the ratings.
• Signature Scene:
  • Bruce Wayne has a conversation with Batman, a scene that was frequently shown by fans of the show as proof that Adam West could, in fact, act.
  • In terms of the Narm factor, the Batusi, particularly its first use in the pilot, though its return in "The Pharaoh's in A Rut" is also well-known.
  • "Surf's Up, Joker's Under!" is widely seen as the most ridiculously hilarious episode in the show. Batman and the Joker having a surfing duel with swim trunks over their normal outfits is the highlight, though the insanity of the episode is far deeper than that.
• So Bad, It's Good: It was the intended effect though.
• Special Effect Failure: Often, especially when Batman uses the grappling hook and climbs buildings with Robin. The climbing was filmed horizontally and it shows.
  • Chief O'Hara in a squad car getting crushed by a tank.
  • Mr. Freeze's special temperature areas don't look as impressive today as they did in the sixties.
  • False Face's masks look like cheap plastic, and their mouths cannot even move. If his masks looked like that in-universe, he would have been arrested in the first 15 minutes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Plenty of Molls in the show could have been a lot more interesting if they weren't Neutral Females prone to High Heel Face Turns.
  • None of the various henchpeople ever reappear, even though some, like Tut's Mooks, Chickadee, Pussycat and Okie Annie, are interesting and competent enough to have made good recurring characters.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The "Londinium" three-parter mentions that the girls' school which several villains attend teaches judo, but said girls never use judo against Batman, Robin, or even Batgirl when it would have been a nice break from the usual Neutral Female mold that every woman but Batgirl seems stuck in to some degree.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously:
  • Prior to realizing the campy and satirical nature of the series, Adam West prepared for the role very diligently. He familiarized himself with the comics and read The Scarlet Pimpernel to gain an understanding of what drove his character. When he tried on the costume for the first time, the mask was too small, but he decided to use the discomfort to inform the anger and grief he felt Batman should have.
  • A truly fascinating example; while other guest villains such as Art Carney and Milton Berle have been criticized for coming on just because the show was "hip" and giving rather uninspired, insufficiently tongue-in-cheek performances, Tallulah Bankhead — a lady who definitely knew the meaning of camp — went the opposite direction and played everything deadly straight as the Black Widow. As a result, she's the most genuinely threatening villain in show's history.
  • A similar example is with David Wayne, who reportedly felt the show was "cheap and beneath [him]" yet still gave his role as the Mad Hatter his best efforts.
• Values Dissonance
  • This article argues that playing a fully-costumed prime time superhero straight was ludicrous to the Greatest Generation-types in charge circa mid-60s, no-nonsense adults with both The Great Depression and World War II behind them. So the Affectionate Parody was the only way a show like Batman could be greenlit. Now with aging baby boomers and Generation Xers calling the shots, comic book adaptations are handled with unflinching respect.
  • The often sexist way Batman would talk to Batgirl in the third season, often telling her they can handle the caper themselves (sometimes after she rescued them), not thanking her sometimes when she did save them and instead commenting she should have gotten there quicker and the times Batman would say she'd "best leave crime fighting to the men. This kind of activity is not meant for women." One has to wonder that whoever made the PSA about equal pay in 1972 featuring Batgirl having to save Batman and Robin yet again had those scenes in mind.
    • Yvonne Craig has stated in interviews that she was forbidden to punch any villain — hence the ballet kicks that were her usual combat tactic.
  • Native American characters are also given little respect the few times they show up (The Hub actually banned Egghead's debut ep in reruns).
    • The one-shot character Chief Screaming Chicken parodied the treatment of Native American characters in other media of the era, with Batman at one point criticizing the mistreatment of Native Americans at the time, but the parody has not aged well and unrecognized by most people today.
  • In a "two steps forward, one step back" example, Eartha Kitt's Catwoman - the only major nonwhite villain - got fairly respectful treatment... but still had all of the Foe Romance Subtext between her and Batman removed since network censors told the producers they were not allowed to imply an interracial relationship.
  • A behind-the-scenes example. Adam West and Burt Ward had to take certain pills to make sure their costumes didn't end up too revealing, due to the standards of 60s programming rules. Or as Joan Collins puts it "you couldn't see the outline of a gentleman's...gentleman."
  • In the show's earlier episodes, it was a safe bet that the super-villains' female accomplices — in conjunction with their physical attraction to Batman — would ultimately defect to the side of the law. This element was arguably sexist against woman and men. On the one hand, the attraction to Batman is treated as automatic and all-important. On the other hand, there's the suggestion that only the female accomplices (and none of the male ones) had the moral standing to turn their backs on crime. Catwoman accentuates both sides of the coin with her attraction to Batman (a franchise tradition) and, in contrast with the male super-villains, multiple instances in which she shows remorse/repentance toward the end of her story arc (but still finds the idea of murdering Robin — but painlessly, she reassures Batman! — to be appealing).
  • "Nora Clavicle and the Ladies' Crime Club" was full of incredibly sexist stereotypes about how useless and fluffy women police officers would be (though, to be fair, none of the women placed on the police force in that episode actually received any police training), how inept men were at household chores (the Mayor of the town couldn't even do his own LAUNDRY or cook his own dinner!), as well as having the titular villain as a straw feminist who insisted on firing all male police officers and replacing them with women. That episode would not fly today.
• Vindicated by History: The release of the remastered DVD/Blu-ray set led to the show picking up a new generation of fans within the comics community and a newfound mainstream appreciation for how ahead of its time it was, as opposed to the embarrassment it became stigmatized as. The comics and animated films also renewed interest in this version of the character, and while there are still many fans who dislike the show they are less embarrassed by its existence. It helps that popular culture seems to have finally caught on that it is, in fact, intentionally comical.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The opening titles and in-series graphics are especially dodgy compared to most others in its time, but you have to admit, the shot of Batman and Robin running at the start of the title sequence is ridiculously smooth.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: To fans more familiar with the grittier modern takes on the Caped Crusader, watching a version of Batman wear a purple cowl with short ears and a drawn-on scowl can look disorienting, to say the least.

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