In 1968, there were many national tragedies such as student riots, Vietnam and political assassinations. Not as momentous, but devastating to me at the time--when I was nine--was ABC's cancellation of the Batman series after three seasons. Granted the show was running out of steam with Batgirl being brought in to bolster the ratings. Plus the number of episodes per week was cut down from two to one with the cliffhanger element eliminated. Sharp viewers might have noticed that interior scenes not taking place on existing sets such as Stately Wayne Manor, Commissioner Gordon's office or the Batcave, took place in black voids with no walls to save building costs. To add insult to injury, NBC was ready to pick the show up for a fourth season, but ABC had destroyed the expensive Batcave set. The Peacock Network balked at spending $100K to build a new set and passed, thus condemning the campy adventure series to oblivion. I read somewhere that they planned to send Robin/Dick Grayson to college and eliminate Chief O'Hara to save on expenses, leaving only Batman, Batgirl, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon as the regular cast. Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake) was cut after the second season. Part of the appeal of the series was Bruce and Dick were grown-up boys living in an adolescent fantasy club house (Wayne Manor/the Batcave) with Aunt Harriet as a sort of dithering house mother. Batgirl's introduction in the third season introduced a weird dynamic with the dynamic Daredoll as a possible female mate for Batman. She was unlike the threatening villainesses of previous seasons such as Catwoman and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds. Batgirl was a "nice" girl and not a dangerous vamp. But anyway, I digress.
Fortunately, the Caped Crusaders continued in animated series. Since these shows took on the format and general tone of the Batman 66-8 series, we can regard them as unofficial fourth and fifth seasons. The Adventures of Batman premiered on CBS in September 1968 on Saturday mornings after the ABC live action series was cancelled. These seven-minute segments, often in two parts with a cliffhanger like the ABC series, were part of the Superman/Batman Hour. Olan Soule provided Batman's voice (the veteran character actor had appeared on ABC's Batman as a newscaster during a King Tut episode) and disc jockey Casey Kasem was Robin. Thirty-four segments were produced by Filmation Studios. In addition to Batman, Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara and Batgirl, recurring characters included the hold-over supervillains Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and the Mad Hatter. Ted Knight, later of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, supplied most of the villains' voices as well as that of the narrator. Larry Storch of F Troop did the Joker. Jane Webb was Batgirl and Catwoman. There were more team-ups with super-villains since they had to pay fewer actors. Penguin, Joker, Ridder and Catwoman often joined forces and in one memorable episode, the Joker was elected (unfairly) Mayor of Gotham City and Penguin and Riddler joined him in the city's new crime-first administration. Donald Trump took a leaf from the Joker's book, if you catch my drift.
