At a North Carolina fan convention Mad Monster Party, actors Adam West and Burt Ward announced that they will reprise their classic television roles of Batman and Robin for "one of possibly two, but for sure one" Batman animated movie.
According to CNET, the new animated Batman film is a full-length 90 minute feature that will tie-in to the 60's television show's 50th anniversary. The show, which ran from 1966 to 1968, introduced Batman to television audiences as a do-gooder in a campy world, as opposed to the dark image that he has been associated with in modern movies like the recent Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan trilogy and the new Ben Affleck Batman coming to theaters soon.
The series was popular enough to spawn a Batman movie in 1966, and its colorful and comedic style set a standard for superhero movies for decades. The show not only established Batman and Robin as iconic American heroes from the DC Universe, but also sealed DC villains into the public consciousness with the Joker (Cesar Romero), Penguin (Burgess Meredith), Riddler (Frank Gorshin), and Catwoman (played by several actresses like Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt).
The show was famous for a two-part episode that had a half-hour one night that ended with a cliffhanger, and then followed up on the story the next night on the "Same Bat Time, Same Bad Channel". It was also famous for the wall-climbing effect where the camera was just put on its side and the dynamic duo often met a celebrity on the way up. It was also infamous for fight scenes where the "Pow" and "Biff" onomatopoeias appeared on screen, as a campy tribute to its comic book source material.
The show aired 120 episodes and went into syndication, but, save for the movie, the show was never released on DVD or Blu-ray until last year when Warner Brothers introduced Batman: The Complete TV Series.
Adam West and Burt Ward have reprised their most famous roles as Batman and Robin before. In 1977, Adam and Burt were in The New Adventures of Batman animated show, and in 1979 there was an attempt at a live-action/comedy/variety show called Legends of the Superheroes where Adam and Burt put on their costumes once again.
Adam West has had several roles playing himself, such as the mayor on Family Guy. He has established himself as kind of comic persona, and has a role on the Lego Batman 3 game.
The show has also lived on in comic books as DC Comics paid tribute to the TV show in 2013 by releasing a line of digital comics called DC2 which has a Batman 66 title with likenesses of West and Ward up to their old tricks.
Look for the new Batman and Robin animated film in 2016, and I wonder what kind of spin they will put on it. Hopefully the animation will be better looking than the title sequence from the original 1966 television show.
