Born in the 60's, the TV of my infant and pre-teen years is very dear to me and naturally shrouded with sentimentality and nostalgia, which has the power to almost completely negate any latter-day criticism when viewed today as I approach my fifties.
There are so many programmes from the late 60's and early 70's which have that effect on me but the benefit of being British-born was that we tended to get the best of the US shows like "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", "Mission Impossible, "The Wild Wild West" and "Batman" of course, together with the best of the very productive UK studios, especially the landmark fantasy shows from the ITC chain "The Avengers", "The Champions", "Department S", and "Randall & Hopkirk Deceased".
For me, it's always so great to see any of them again, either on TV re-runs or on DVD box-sets - "Batman" is currently showing in the UK from start to finish on BBC4 (of all things, the Beeb's cultural channel) in the early morning hours and I for one am very grateful for it. I will say that I'm a big fan of the original Batman comics, at least up until the late 70's and so whilst appreciating greatly the serious Tim Burton and now Christopher Nolan makeovers, one can't forget this campy alter-ego which still had enough resonance to influence and eventually skewer the first 80's revival with its "Batman & Robin" nadir.
Here though the campness is fresh, innocent and above all hilarious. Everyone on the right side of the law plays their part in deadly earnest, whilst the (usually big-name) villains get to go right over the top so that somewhere in the middle is this strange cartoony non-cartoon world where punches land miles from their intended target to superimposed pop-art exclamations like "Thunnkk!" and "Kapow!", every super-villain has a pretty moll alongside their dumb henchmen and every episode ends with a cliff-hanger of a situation for our heroes to miraculously escape from.
It's amazing to see big-name Hollywood stars of yesteryear playing the Rogues Gallery of villains - recent episodes I've seen include George Sanders and Anne Baxter for example. Also laud-worthy are the production values. The show is shot in glorious day-glo colour in great studio locations, so much so that the occasionally creaky props seem to be almost deliberately inserted for comic effect. I also much prefer this Batmobile to the later cars in today's movies.
Kids today possibly won't get it and yes Michael Keaton and Christian Bale's portrayals are true to the dark source of Bob Kane's original creation. But it was the 60's, anything went and this light-hearted family fun still entertains today.
Bat's all folks...
There are so many programmes from the late 60's and early 70's which have that effect on me but the benefit of being British-born was that we tended to get the best of the US shows like "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", "Mission Impossible, "The Wild Wild West" and "Batman" of course, together with the best of the very productive UK studios, especially the landmark fantasy shows from the ITC chain "The Avengers", "The Champions", "Department S", and "Randall & Hopkirk Deceased".
For me, it's always so great to see any of them again, either on TV re-runs or on DVD box-sets - "Batman" is currently showing in the UK from start to finish on BBC4 (of all things, the Beeb's cultural channel) in the early morning hours and I for one am very grateful for it. I will say that I'm a big fan of the original Batman comics, at least up until the late 70's and so whilst appreciating greatly the serious Tim Burton and now Christopher Nolan makeovers, one can't forget this campy alter-ego which still had enough resonance to influence and eventually skewer the first 80's revival with its "Batman & Robin" nadir.
Here though the campness is fresh, innocent and above all hilarious. Everyone on the right side of the law plays their part in deadly earnest, whilst the (usually big-name) villains get to go right over the top so that somewhere in the middle is this strange cartoony non-cartoon world where punches land miles from their intended target to superimposed pop-art exclamations like "Thunnkk!" and "Kapow!", every super-villain has a pretty moll alongside their dumb henchmen and every episode ends with a cliff-hanger of a situation for our heroes to miraculously escape from.
It's amazing to see big-name Hollywood stars of yesteryear playing the Rogues Gallery of villains - recent episodes I've seen include George Sanders and Anne Baxter for example. Also laud-worthy are the production values. The show is shot in glorious day-glo colour in great studio locations, so much so that the occasionally creaky props seem to be almost deliberately inserted for comic effect. I also much prefer this Batmobile to the later cars in today's movies.
Kids today possibly won't get it and yes Michael Keaton and Christian Bale's portrayals are true to the dark source of Bob Kane's original creation. But it was the 60's, anything went and this light-hearted family fun still entertains today.
Bat's all folks...