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In 1965 the American Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) ratings were poor and they needed a fresh new show to broadcast in the new year. So they approached a producer called William Dozier who had the idea to "over do" Batman to make it fun for adults and appealing to youths. ABC brought the show, after watching two screen tests 1 with Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, and the other with Lyle Waggoner as Batman and Peter Deyell as Robin, they decided Adam and Burt would play the parts!! The pilot was called "Hey Diddle Riddle", "Reviews for it were bad if ABC hadn't already brought the show it would of never gone on the aire." - William Dozier. Dispite the poor review when Batman premiered on January 12, 1966 it was FAR from poor, it was a HIT! You can now watch the 1965 ABC Presentation below, this was the network preview of the Batman show before episode one was broadcasted in January 1966.
During series one Batman was rated the number 10 programme on
Wednesdays and # 5 on Thursdays ! (Part one was shown on Wednesday,
then continued on Thursday) Sadly because the show was SO GOOD the only way the ratings for it to go was DOWN, but slowly. Series two introduced many new guest stars (Liberace as Chandell was the most watched episodes in the WHOLE Batman60s Show!) and new villians to make the show more fun packed! Near the end of series two people were getting bored.... EVEN MORE SAD! Batman was cut down to only one show a night, and production costs were cut so sets were poor for new villians. William Dozier added a new co-star Batgirl which was played by Yvonne Criag to freshen up the show a bit. Still loads of viewers were lost and the show was cancelled on 14th March 1968 on its 120th episode "MINERVA, MAYHEM AND MILLIONAIRES" which William Dozier had a part in! NBC had idea's to pick up the show but it was too
late ABC had already taken down the set for the batcave, but the
show was not forgotten in the 1980's when the new Batman movie was
being produced the 60s series was back to fit in around the new
series.
Here's some info about British Broadcast dates, thanks from BatmanUK at the 1966 Message Board!: The show aired on the various ITV channels across the UK on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.(Times varied depending on the region but usually late afternoon/early evening) It began on 21 May 1966 and ran until 11 September. The second series ran from the following week 17 September 1966 until 2 April 1967. These episodes were then repeated by the individual independent channels for the next few years in no specific order. The third season was not shown until 1974 when screening began on 14 September as part of the Saturday morning kid's show SATURDAY SCENE. This final season finished its first UK airing on 8 March 1975. From then on the show was repeated incorporating episodes from the third season by the various independent channels across the UK.
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