44 years ago today!

Batman made its debut on the airwaves on this day in 1966.  And to think I am writing this post from the same room I first saw the show in!


While my assessment of the show has changed over the decades, one thing is certain: This show made an immediate impact on me.  I was 6½ years old on this day in 1966, and was used to seeing television as a black-and-white medium.  Along comes this show, and it really was the first TRUE colour show.  I was hooked, and kept watching it until the third season, when I was distressed over how badly the producers had treated the series.  It had become a sad travesty of itself.


And that is too bad, since I thought both Yvonne Craig as Batgirl and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman were superb!


And it did not need to be.


But then, some of the show's limitations were a result of the limitations of both the medium at that time, as well as the decade it aired in.  Fast forward to May 2002, when TV Land began airing the show: I was in a horrible job, living in Rochester, NY, and having family issues.  It made for a sad time.  The show unleashed something in me, because I began my involvement with the comics, beginning with the third Catwoman comic book series.  It led to my fan site, and then into filmmaking.  Hard to believe a 44-year-old show has made such an impact on my life, but it also merely unleashed the creativity that had been inside of me since the 1960s.


It was also my first time seeing actress Jill St. John, a veteran actress who would go on to play a 007 female lead and then wed Robert Wagner.  Her character's demise in the pilot touched me, and made an impact.  Back in 1966, I noticed her unusual last name, thinking "St." stood for Street; 15 years later, I noticed the rest of her!!  ;)  But so it goes! 


Anyway, Happy Anniversary, Batman!