I think Tony's reply is basically correct. The Hef theory seems to come from Bob Kane's autobiography "Batman and Me;" that's the only place I've ever run across it (as many have commented, Kane's book needs to be taken with a large grain of salt, this anecdote included. According to Adam West's book, "Back to the Batcave," ABC's Harve Bennet wanted to do a comic-book based show for a 7:30 time slot, which was the lead-in to prime time. Feeling that a comic based show would appeal to a large and diverse demographic, he first considered Dick Tracy, but the rights were too expensive (apparently, NBC did scoop up Tracy - probably to keep it out of ABC's hands - and then let it sit on the shelf). The idea to go after Batman is credited to Yale Udoff, a co-worker of Edgar Scherick, ABC's Director of Programming. Bennet obtained the rights, anticipating a straight action/adventure show, contracted Fox to create it, and eventually turned the project over to producer William Dozier, whi, along with writer Lorenzo Semple, came up with the camp approach, reportedly born out of Dozier's loathing of comic books. Certainly, this chain of events sounds far more likely than the Hef theory. John