Batman had pretty solid ratings for its first season, but by the time the second one rolled around, its popularity was already fading. Even the addition of Batgirl in season three didn’t raise the ratings back to what they had once been, and thus, ABC canceled the show.

However, Burt Ward claimed in 2016 that NBC had looked into picking up the show for a fourth season. Unfortunately, all of the expensive sets had already been destroyed, and NBC didn’t think it would be worth the cost of rebuilding them to bring back a fourth season. Holy bad timing, Batman.

Yes, you read that right — auto customizer George Barris bought the 1955 Lincoln Futara concept car that would become the Batmobile for just one dollar. Ford didn’t think the car had any success in its future, and so they practically gave it away for a dollar. Little did they know it would sell for $4.62 million in 2013.

Honestly, we’re more curious about why Ford bothered charging anything if they cared that little about it. Were they just not allowed to give it away for free and so had to ask for something?

Crossovers are nothing new in today’s superhero fiction, but even decades ago, Batman was already ahead of its time. The Green Hornet and Kato — the latter of which being played by Bruce Lee before he became a legend — appeared in a two-part adventure on the show.

This isn’t so surprising when you realize that this crossover happened thanks to Dozier, the man that produced both shows. Unfortunately, we only got to see our guest crimefighters for a handful of episodes.

Two-Face is one of the most popular villains to not show up in Batman. However, he was actually supposed to appear at one point, in a two-parter written by science fiction legend Harlan Ellison. Supposedly, Clint Eastwood was even in talks for the role.

However, the producers apparently thought Two-Face’s gruesome appearance was too much for their lighthearted show. That said, the story did make it into a comic in 2015, which is quite a lengthy delay.

The 1960s Batman is a legend mostly due to how silly of a show it was. Case in point — Egghead, a villain exclusive to the show, with a bald egg-shaped head who speaks almost entirely in egg-related puns. No, we are not making that up.

Egghead was actually played by horror icon Vincent Price, who claimed to love the role. His character even managed to deduce Batman’s identity one time, though Robin saved the day with a memory ‘egg-straction’ machine. No, we’re not making that up either.

Batman was a crazy show. Aside from the most often appearing villains — the Joker, Catwoman, the Riddler, and the Penguin — there was one other major villain, that being King Tut, Professor of Egyptology at Yale University with a split personality that made him believe he was King Tut caused by a whack to the head.

As you may imagine, this zany character was an original for the show and is not a comic villain of any renown. And yet, he appeared in eight episodes, making him the fifth most common appearing villain in the show.

Anne Baxter won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1947 thanks to her performance in the film The Razor’s Edge. By the time the ’60s rolled around, she regularly appeared on television and held the noteworthy distinction of being the only actress to play two villains in Batman.

The two villains that she played were the nefarious magician Zelda the Great in season one and Olga, devilish Queen of the Cossacks, in season three.

The Gotham City Police Chief Clancy O’Hara was actually created explicitly for the show, and he was represented perfectly by actor Stafford Repp. Eventually, O’Hara was soon brought into the comics, but unfortunately, he only received a handful of appearances throughout the late ’60s and ’70s.

Ultimately, O’Hara came back to the scene in Batman: Dark Victory in 2000. Unfortunately, this once goofy character ended up being killed by a villain in that iteration. Weird choice, we know.

Alfred Pennyworth is the name of Bruce Wayne’s butler and effective father figure, and these days, he is considered an extremely important part of the Batman universe. He was played in Batman by Alan Napier. As bizarre as it sounds, DC actually killed Alfred off in 1964.

Thankfully, Alfred managed to become a major player in the Batman mythos again thanks to the popularity of Napier’s portrayal of him. Even more thankfully, he was only brought back as a murderous zombie for a brief while.

Burgess Meredith’s bizarre but iconic “quack, quack, quack” laugh when he portrayed Penguin is impossible to separate from his version of the villain. However, this laugh was actually a matter of necessity, according to some sources.

Meredith had quit smoking twenty years before starring in the show, so when his villainous character took puffs on his cigar holder, it caused the actor some irritation. In order to hide his coughing, he came up with the quacking laughter.

Few people know that Mr. Freeze’s iconic name was not actually his original moniker — it originated in the ’60s show. Starring in three two-part episodes and played by three different actors, the now-iconic villain was actually known as Mr. Zero in the comics.

Apparently, DC took a liking to the new title, because in 1968, Mr. Zero re-debuted as Mr. Freeze in Detective Comics #373. We’re not sure if we actually like it better, but it definitely gets the point across.

If one looks at the show’s three seasons and the one spin-off movie it had, Catwoman was portrayed by a trio of actresses — those being Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, and Eartha Kitt. Without question, Newmar was the most popular of those three, although Kitt’s performance was highly lauded as well.

We can’t help but feel it would be a little jarring to have the face associated with a character change that many times, but there’s no real harm in it either.

Thanks to Gorshin debating with ABC over an issue with his pay, Dozier had to re-cast The Riddler for the villain’s appearance in the second season. This is how we got John Astin for one episode, an actor who is best known for his performance as Gomez in The Addams Family.

Unfortunately for Astin, he didn’t get to stick around for very long. By the time the third season rolled around, Gorshin was back in the driver’s seat as the Riddler.

Being one of the first season’s most popular breakout characters, Gorshin felt that he deserved a raise in order to play the Riddler in season two. Because of this, he ended up in a contract dispute with ABC. With their actor unavailable, the show producers did the only thing they could.

They took the scripts with the Riddler in them, and replaced him with an original character called The Puzzler. We say original, but really, he was just a British version of the Riddler.

Frank Gorshin’s manic yet enthusiastic portrayal as Riddler was one of the most beloved parts of Batman. Not only was he the villain for the pilot episode and in the first season, but he had more appearances than any other villain.

In fact, Gorshin is the only one to receive an Emmy Nomination for the show, being up for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy accolade in 1966.

Anyone who knows anything about the Joker knows that one of the most important parts of the villain is his laugh. Thankfully, Romero’s laugh was perfect for the mischievous portrayal of the dastardly villain. However, it turns out that it may not have been intentional.

Supposedly, Romero created the laugh by accident when he laughed at some concept art for the Joker that the producers had shown him. The story goes that they heard it and immediately proclaimed it as perfect for the role he’d play.

Batman producer William Dozier was convinced that Adam West was the perfect fit for the titular character after seeing him play a parody James Bond character called Captain Q in a commercial for Nestle Quik. Dozier believed that West’s deadpan delivery and comic timing was ideal for a campy superhero show.

Needless to say, few people know that the iconic ’60s show received its hero from a chocolate milk commercial, but somehow it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.

To the surprise of many, Batman was not actually ABC’s first pick when they were considering a superhero comic to turn into a TV show. Not only was it not the first, but it was also not even the second — coming after both Superman and Dick Tracy.

Moreover, the network only chose Batman because the rights to Superman and Tracy weren’t available. Dozier actually did get the rights to Dick Tracy eventually, but the pilot episode he made in 1967 didn’t get picked up by anyone.

Little known fact — Adam West and Burt Ward almost weren’t Batman and Robin. ABC actually screen-tested two pairs of actors to play the dynamic duo. Obviously, the actors we’re all familiar with were chosen in the end, but the footage of Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell’s test was tough competition.

In the end, most of us are probably happy with Adam West and Burt Ward, because we just can’t imagine anyone else in their shoes. Even so, we almost had a different Batman and Robin. Waggoner did get a role in Wonder Woman, though.

Initially, Dozier planned to produce Batman as a movie in hopes of introducing his campy vision of the hero. The TV show was supposed to come after, with Dozier able to reuse expensive production elements such as the Batcycle, Batboat, and Batcopter that had already been built for the movie.

However, ABC’s 1965 schedule didn’t do very well as far as ratings are concerned. Thus, the show was fast-tracked for a January debut in 1966 in order to boost the network’s faltering ratings.

According to Adam West, Batman’s very first episode received “the worst score in the history of pilot testing.” He revealed this startling information in his autobiography, Back to the Batcave. West said the producers tried adding narration and a laugh track after the low scores, but this didn’t improve matters.

Fortunately for society, the public disagreed with test audience scores, as the show became a major hit soon after it hit the air.

Burt Ward claimed in the book Truth and Rumors: The Reality Behind TV’s Most Famous Myths that Frank Sinatra actually lobbied to play the Joker in Batman. As Ward put it, “From what I understand, Frank Sinatra was very upset because he couldn’t play the Joker. Cesar Romero had already been signed.”

Later on, Ward made this claim again on the DVD commentary track for Batman: The Movie. That being the case, we’re inclined to believe him.

The old Batman show has a narrator who delivers every line in as melodramatic a fashion as possible. Dozier apparently wanted the narration to sound akin to an old movie serial, but even though he auditioned many voice actors, no one delivered the performance he wanted.

That being the case, Dozier decided he would just do it himself, a practice that would follow him into The Green Hornet, which he also produced.

If there’s one thing fans loved about the Batman TV show, it was the two-parter episode design — the show aired in two 30-minute installments, with a cliffhanger always marking the end of the first. This setup encouraged fans to keep watching the show, with the iconic tagline, “Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!”

However, this two-part design wasn’t the original plan. ABC initially wanted each episode to be an hour-long, and ultimately chose two thirty-minute episodes only due to a problem with scheduling.

Compared to other iterations of the iconic hero, the ears on Adam West’s cowl were quite short and stubby. However, the reason for this was not about aesthetics, but for practicality. The costume designers realized that tall ears would often be cut off during close-ups, so they decided to cut them in order to fit.

Frankly, this is the only explanation that makes sense, because there’s no way anyone could have thought it looked better aesthetically. Or at least, we hope not.

In the show, Burt Ward actually did most of his own stunts, though not because he wanted to. Apparently, because his mask was more revealing than his partner’s cowl, he had to do his own stunts as a double would be too noticeable.

Ward revealed later that doing this earned him many injuries. Apparently, he’s been whacked in the face with a two-by-four, almost fell out of the Batmobile at speed, and was burned several times by pyrotechnics.

“Holy heart failure, Batman!” Phrases such as this were extremely common when it came to Robin’s lines in the show. However, they were not inspired by any of Robin’s dialogue in any of his comics. Rather, writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. borrowed the idea from the Tom Swift novels he read as a kid.

We’re glad they made it into the show, of course. Campy and ridiculous as these lines were, they were always amusing and sometimes pretty creative.

The “Batusi” dance is practically a legend on the internet nowadays. Fans of the show know exactly what we’re talking about — the dance was performed by Batman in the pilot, but was actually just improvisation from Adam West. Having been drugged by the Riddler, the script said West had to do something goofy, and so he did.

The way Adam West put it, “I began to move on my car seat, and people looked at me strangely. I was watusing, then batusing, while I drove.”

In the comics, Batman is often referred to as the “World’s Greatest Detective.” West took that quite literally, as he looked to Basil Rathbone’s rendition of Sherlock Holmes for inspiration. West even said that “Batman had a certain speech pattern that I established because he was always Sherlock Holmes-ian. He was Basil Rathbone. In other words, he was always musing about something.”

We can’t complain, seeing as how that was part of Batman that we all liked. There are certainly worse places to take inspiration from.

It’s hard to imagine — considering how popular Batman is today — but DC Comics actually considered killing off the character for good at one point. According to Batman co-creator Bob Kane, in 1964 DC Comics considered getting rid of the Caped Crusader because sales of the monthly title had fallen dramatically.

However, Kane claimed that the popularity of the show helped increase sales for the entire comic book industry. Campy as it may be, the ’60s show saved Batman as a character.

Due to Batman being a dark and brooding character these days, many modern fans dislike the ’60s iteration of the character. And yet, the show was actually a pretty accurate representation of the Carmine Infantino-drawn comics of the time, which were often light-toned and very colorful.

In fact, the show was so faithful to the comics that many of their plots were taken directly from those stories. It was just a different time.

The popularity of Batman led to a whole lot of merchandising. However, it also led to a hit single, one of the strangest pieces of tie-in material — Adam West’s single, “Miranda.” In this very odd song, West sings as Batman trying to talk sweet to his girlfriend but is constantly interrupted by Robin.

Needless to say, this is probably something that neither Christian Bale nor Ben Affleck would do in order to promote any modern Batman movie.

Every single episode of the show had the stock footage of Batman and Robin sliding down the Batpoles, hopping in the Batmobile, and speeding away to police headquarters. What it didn’t have at first was the heroes buckling their seatbelts. However, the stock footage was altered to add that in.

The reason is due to the fact that the National Safety Council wanted it, believing that heroes need to set a good example for the public. Honestly, we can’t disagree with that argument.

The Batmobile from the show is iconic and loved even today. It was always prominently parked in the Batcave, sitting on a turntable that would rotate it before the dynamic duo embarked. The car looked fantastic, of course, but it cost a lot of effort from the staff.

Supposedly, it took a whopping six crew members to rotate that turn-table 180 degrees. A lot of work, needless to say.

Everyone knows the Batcave had a large map of Gotham, but not many fans know this. The map is not a fictional one that was made up for Gotham, nor is it a map of New York City, which was the source of inspiration for Gotham in the comics.

Nope, it’s actually just a reversed map of St. Louis, Missouri. You can tell thanks to a number of landmarks from the city, such as Horseshoe Lake and Forest Park.

Most everyone remembers the charming but campy scenes of Batman and Robin climbing up buildings. Lots of people are even aware that the camera was just turned sideways, with an imitation city put behind the heroes. Not exactly high-quality stuff, but that’s not the point.

The point is that these scenes included many celebrity cameos in the form of citizens hanging out the windows to acknowledge our heroes. Such cameos include Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, and Dick Clark.

Batgirl came around in the third season, but she actually appeared in the comics first, so readers could be prepared for her show appearance. However, she was actually created for the show. Because of declining ratings by that time, Dozier asked DC Comics to invent a female character to attract a young female audience.

It was even Dozier’s idea that the character be Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon’s daughter. Artist Carmine Infantino took the idea and delivered Barbara Gordon, and she has since been a major part of the series.

Allegedly, the executives for the show had to be convinced that Yvonne Craig’s Batgirl was a needed addition to Batman. In response, Dozier made a short film that was only eight minutes long, featuring Batgirl rescuing Batman and Robin from Killer Moth.

Batgirl didn’t actually punch anyone in the film, since that was considered un-ladylike in the era, but even so, the film convinced the executives and thus, Batgirl became a part of the story.

Without a doubt, Cesar Romero’s excellent performance as the Joker framed audience expectations of the villain for decades. Funnily enough, though, Romero refused to shave off his mustache even to play the character, forcing the makeup team to cover it in white face paint.

As you can see in many close-ups throughout the show, it didn’t actually work that well, meaning the facial hair was pretty visible most of the time. Oh well.

Shelly Winters, who won two Oscars in her career, played the villain Ma Parker in Batman. An elderly crime boss who took control of State Penitentiary with her sons and daughter, she was actually based on a real criminal, Ma Barker.

Ma Barker was the real matriarch of the Barker-Kapris Gang. Even more interestingly, Winters would go on to actually play her in the 1970 film Blood Mama. Needless to say, it’s quite the coincidence.

When you hear the name Stephen King, the chances are that the term “Master of Horror” comes to mind, and that’s likely because not many others are deserving of that title. King has 61 novels, 11 novella collections, and more than 200 short stories, which means that he has a large archive to pull from when it comes to making movies. There are already quite a few blockbusters and TV series created based on his books.

Stephen King Movies for the Halloween Season

There’s no better season to watch some of his work other than October, especially in the year 2020, with all the scary things that have been happening all year long. Even though Halloween may be a bit different this year, you can add a bit of normalcy with some scary movies.

If you’re interested in diving headfirst into Stephen King’s work, then you’re in luck. A lot of his work is available to stream on streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, and Amazon. Here are some of the Stephen King movies that you may want to start with.

Children of the Corn (1984)

This is one of King’s most iconic productions. It’s based on a story from King’s 1978 collection Night Moves. A group of religious yet also terrifying children are found living in a cornfield, and the movie evolves from that. It’s great for a movie night with some friends and a box of pizza.

A Good Marriage (2014)

This story is based on King’s 2010 collection, Full Dark, No Stars, and is about a woman who is in a longtime marriage and finds out that her husband just might be a serial killer.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

This is part of a long sequel to Stephen King’s The Shining, and it was released last year by Warner Brothers. Ewan McGregor plays the grown-up version of Danny Torrance. It’s filmed by Mike Flanagan who also filmed The Haunting of Hill House. The movie is an adaptation of one of King’s bestsellers of 2013. HBO platforms have a special director’s cut option, along with the standard theater release version.

In The Tall Grass (2019)

This is one of the most recent Stephen King Netflix Originals. It’s based on the novella that King wrote with his son, Joe Hill. It starts with a couple pulling over at a rest stop on the side of the road, only to hear cries from the tall grass nearby.

Carrie (1976)

This movie is from the adaptation of King’s very first novel. It’s proven to many generations why bullying isn’t nice. This is considered to be one of the best versions of King’s novels. Sissy Spacek plays the main character, and she even went on to play a few different characters in other King movies.

The Mist (2017)

This was based on The Mist movie from 2007 and is a single-season series. There’s an attempt to lengthen the story for TV-series lovers. It was canceled only after a season, but it’s still worth watching if you’re into creepiness.

11.22.63 (2016)

This is a limited series from King’s adaptation of his time-travel novel in 2011, 11/22/63. In the series, a man, played by James Franco, accidentally travels in time to discover he can prevent JFK’s assassination. This one is more of a thriller than the normal horror movie we see from King.