The Batman TV show (the one with Adam West) has finally gotten a DVD release and also a Blu-ray release. Those are the links to order.
And while you wait for your copy to arrive, tune in Stu's Show today when Stu's guest will be the noted Bat-expert, Joel Eisner, author of the newly-revised The Official Batman Batbook. Stu and Joel will be talking about all sorts of bat-things but mainly the TV show.
I have an odd view of that series. I'm fascinated by the making of it and I really liked most of the people on it, plus one of its main writers, the late Stanley Ralph Ross, was a good buddy of mine. But I didn't like the show…much. It was too repetitive and too contemptuous of its source material. I liked Adam West and Burgess Meredith and Victor Buono and Julie Newmar and when Yvonne Craig came along, Yvonne Craig. I liked many of the others, too. I just didn't like that they had to keep doing the same thing every week and I also didn't like the hard-to-overlook feeling that some of those behind the series thought the comics were crap and that anyone who liked them was pretty feeble-minded.
Stanley and I used to talk about this a lot and I think he came to agree with me that the show often had its tongue too far into its own cheek and that the adherence to formula is why it had an unusually short run for a series that got that such astronomical ratings when it first came on. So I won't be clicking those links I embedded above…but if you loved the show (and a lot of my friends did or do), I certainly understand. I sure liked most of the performers on it.
Anyway, that's what I think about it. If you want to hear what Stu Shostak and Joel Eisner think of it, listen in today. Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go way longer. Then, not long after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a measly 99 cents each and you can get four shows for the price of three. Holy Bargain!