After a good year or so of speculation, it appears that the classic 1966 ABC version of Batman is finally coming to home video this fall. Although the character of Batman is the property of Warner Brothers and has been for decades, the television series was produced before that by Twentieth Century Fox, which still owns the rights to the series. Â But last year, Warners got the rights to all merchandise and media related to the series from Fox, which is why DC Comics put out the Batman ’66 comic series, and you’re now seeing a flood of sixties-style Batman merchandise featuring Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar in stores. But as for the series itself, it was still unavailable on DVD… until now.
The announcement came from an odd place, to be sure – talk show host Conan O’Brien’s Twitter account, where he said:
Very excited @WBHomeEnt is releasing the Batman ’66 Complete TV Series in 2014! The seat smells like Adam West: http://t.co/cqWjlpW1Gn
— Conan O’Brien (@ConanOBrien) January 15, 2014
Warner Brothers confirmed the fact not long after, saying the series will arrive on DVD (and, presumably Blu-ray) in the fall in a complete series boxed set. Although the show only ran three seasons from 1966-68, the twice-a-week schedule in the first two years led to a fairly large amount of episodes being produced, 120 in all. Hopefully, we’ll get word on special features and other goodies soon. Also, I’d expect a large presence at San Diego Comic Con as well to promote the series.
Sorry if this is considered “Spam.” I don’t think of it as that.
But then, I wouldn’t.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supernatural/the-e-book-producing-demento-the-dr-demento-show
Wally Wingert, the ‘voice’ of The Tonight Show, is a HUGE supporter of Adam West. He did a song that he sent to us in the ’80’s that was a parody of “Wild Wild West,” titled “Adam West,” and my daughter used a shorter version of it to play behind her at ComicCon in ‘2000 when she won Best Costume at their gala costume contest thing.
I produced “The Dr. Demento Show” from ’81 to ’90, and so therefore, I know it all….about this kinda thing. Contact me if you want to talk about it. 760-481-5330. I would appreciate even the tiniest mention of my project on your show (see above).
I have been waiting for this forever! I’m just hoping it will be completely uncut. I had heard about issues with some of the cameos. But it’ll at least be better than the 22-minute and less modern TV cuts. I never understood why they couldn’t show it on Encore like they did the Green Hornet. Great news!!!