I’ve long held the original Batman series to be one of the funniest shows in television history. It’s so brilliant in its deadpan lunacy that it makes even as great a show as Pee-wee’s Playhouse look a little effortful.

If nothing else, the daffy goings-on the show presented are probably the truest filmic approximation of what a superhero comic book would actually be like if we lived in that world for real. And Adam West’s mock-earnest portrayal of Bruce Wayne and his caped alter ego is up there in classic Shatner territory, for sure, for its understated in-costume masculinity.

This week the show celebrated its 50th anniversary, to surprisingly little fanfare (the first show aired on January 12, 1966).

One cute gag the show never stopped doing, similar to the endless “POWWWW!” cutaway graphics during the show’s many groovy brawls and punch-ups, was to affix a standard ALLCAPS label to all sorts of items that would never bear one in the actual world, prompting the inevitable thought, “Who on earth would put those there? And why??” Most of the names strike the same sort of tone as Adam West’s line readings, so you get an “ANTI-CRIME VOICE ANALYZER,” a “BAT SUPER ROCKET,” a “TRANSISTORIZED SHORT WAVE RADIO BAT RECEIVER,” and so on, with a perfectly straight face. 

An intrepid Tumblr known as A COLLECTION OF BAT LABELS has dedicated itself to the task of “collecting the explanatory labels on everything in the 1966-1968 Batman TV series,” and a wonderful Tumblr it is indeed. As the website demonstrates, the show had a refreshing lack of rigor about what got a label and what the precise phrasing would be, they just slapped them anywhere they felt like.

Here’s a generous sample, but by all means check out the real thing.
 

 

 

 
Much more after the jump…...

 
Cool as fuck—but bloody expensive at a whopping $1500—replica Batman mask modeled after the one Adam West wore on the 1966 TV show.

It is the only available cowl still being made from the original fabric which has been custom dyed to match a color sample from the dye house used on the show. The pattern was created by a professional pattern maker using a original cowl (from the Hardeman collection) The lightweight fiberglass shell was created using a plaster cast taken from an original as a base. Even the eyebrow paint color has been Pantone matched to the original.

Adam West refers to our Cowl as a “work of art” and is a proud owner of one of our replicas.

It’s available to purchase on Etsy by WilliamsStudio2. According to the write-up, you need to “act now as fabric is in limited supply.”

Via Nerdcore

 
If you’re not familiar with the 1973 TV movie pilot, Poor Devil, starring Sammy Davis Jr. as a bungling devil, Jack Klugman as his intended victim and Christopher Lee as Satan, you’re in for a campy, kitschy, somewhat surreal treat. I mean, it’s a cast from Hell, right?

A lighthearted spin on the Faustian bargain, you’d have to assume that this NBC-financed project was inspired by its star’s membership in the Church of Satan—the “Candy Man” showman was inducted as an honorary warlock at the Circle Star Theater in April 1973. (There is a CoS reference in the dialogue when Davis is heard to say “I’ll call the Church of Satan downtown. They’ll know how to contact him.”)

In any case, it’s pretty amusing if you like this kind of thing. TV’s Batman Adam West and familiar-looking character actor Gino Conforti are also featured. This originally aired on Valentine’s Day, 1973.
 

 

TV Guide cover executed by Roy Lichtenstein.

This is kinda genius. Adam West, in character as Batman, sings the Nat King Cole standard “Orange Colored Sky” in an awkward production number on The Hollywood Palace TV program.

West was the guest host that evening and this was his big entrance. The episode also featured Ray Charles, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, George Carlin, and the sultry Joey Heatherton.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Holy Freak Out, Batman! Frank Zappa and ‘The Boy Wonder Sessions’
 

 
Thank you Steven Daly!

 
According to the site Batman Running Away From Shit, “60’s Batman is a coward.”

Well, if I had Darth Vader, Freddy Krueger, Dracula and Leatherface chasing my ass, I’d be scared shitless too!
 

 
More choice selections after the jump…

 
Holy vocal chords! Batman sings! Adam West gets all matey on the poop deck while charming (shurely hams? - ed.) his way through “This Is The LIfe”, from The Milton Berle Show. But first pop fiends Mr. West gives his rendition (shurely torture? - ed.) of a darling little heartfelt ditty “You Only See Her” found on the wonderful site Lord of the Boot Sale.
 

Adam West - “You Only See Her”
 

Bonus - Adam West sings “Miranda”
 
With thanks to Neil McDonald

 
Legends Of The Super Heroes was the name given to two Hanna-Barbera-produced live action TV specials from the late 1970s. Batman’s Adam West and Burt Ward once again donned their capes and cowls (which fit a bit tighter by that time) for these atrocities which were about on the same level as Donny & Marie and featured a laugh track.

In the second special, “The Roast,” Ed McMahon served as the master of ceremonies while various lame insults are leveled at the chuckling, good-natured Super Friends.

In this clip, uh… “Ghetto Man,” an inner-city super hero tries to bring the funny and fails miserably.