Found while trolling YouTube for old WWOR/WPIX bumpers and intros from my childhood: A print of the original ABC Network Presentation film of the BATMAN series, kind of a Cliffs Notes of the series pilot.
It's a shame that, as amusing and faithful as the show was to its source material*, it was more like the unfortunate last three minutes of the nine-minute film and not like the curiously sexy, funny and somewhat gritty first six minutes. Of course, in that first two-thirds the key Riddler/action scenes clunk the loudest so it's all probably for the best that the show broke the direction it did. Anyway, enjoy:
* To Hell with the nerds who agonize over the "black eye the BATMAN series gave comics for generations" and who still grind their teeth over any mainstream-media coverage that use "POW! ZAP! WHAM!" in their ledes, this show remains one of the most faithful adaptations ever. If you don't believe me, go read a stack of 1963-1965 Batcomics and/or go fuck yourself.
Fealty to source material is a conceit that's largely meaningless to anyone who's not obsessed with a subgenre's standing in the larger culture. A good Spider-Man movie or cartoon series is good even if the filmmakers elect not to make Betty Brant Peter Parker's first girlfriend. The source material will survive any changes, if a hopeless dork's sense of self won't.
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