January 12, 1966.

This highly anticipated date was the talk of my neighborhood.

We could not wait.

There was an excitement level that drove me and my grade school classmates crazy.

And so the Fischer living room was packed with family and friends of my older brother, Greg.

The hero in our comic books was about to come to life on TV.

No exaggeration.

It was electric.

The splashy colors, the costuming, the unusual camera angles, the dramatic narrator, the gadgets and gimmicks, the Batmobile, the Bat Cave, the Bat Signal.

We were in awe.

Save my dad.

Not sure if it was during the program or later, but my recollection is he did remark it was all kinda silly.

Didn’t matter.

This was incredibly cool.

And now came the bottom of the hour. In this case, the very first episode was about to run out, and Robin was in trouble, big trouble.

Suddenly, the program was over, with no resolution to Robin’s fate.

Cliffhanger!

Viewers were told to tune in tomorrow for ANOTHER  Batman episode.

WOW!

Too amazing!

I attended a Catholic grade school at the time that required attendance at daily Mass for students. On our walk back to the school building we couldn’t contain ourselves with talk about that super show the night before.

Not only that. How, how, how in the world could Robin possibly escape?

The following morning’s procession back to school brought more jaw-dropping conversation, fueled by the promo at the end of the program about next week’s villian.

The dancers from the TV variety show Hullabaloo perform in 1966 to an extended original soundtrack version of Neal Hefti’s theme from the Batman TV series.

Batman in the 1960’s paved the way for the explosion of comic book movies and accompanying blockbuster soundtracks we enjoy today.