Don Glut wrote:
The BATMAN (1943) movie serial was first shown (to my recall, anyway, at least as a camp revival) at Chicago's Playboy Theatre, run one chapter per week. At least that's how and where I saw it in, I believe, 1965. It was after the revival took off with people who came to laugh at it that it was shown in all 15 chapters as AN EVENING WITH BATMAN AND ROBIN.

That would appear to be proof that my first post, and the rumor about the origins of the TV Batman, are correct.
What I heard was that Hugh Hefner showed the Batman serials at the Playboy mansion, where some Hollywood types saw how popular and funny the serials were with the audience and thus created the campy series.

The question I have: is this just an urban legend, or how it actually happened?