Dr Acula wrote:
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.

A 10/3/65 article in the Chicago Tribune says the BATMAN serial revival at the Playboy theater occurred in the summer; if that's correct, then the revival couldn't have influenced the ABC series, as Lorenzo Semple had sold William Dozier on his "high camp" approach sometime prior to 4/20/65 (this is confirmed by papers in the Dozier archive). Additionally, the CFQ article cited above quotes a network executive as recalling that Dozier spent three months struggling to develop the property before he brought in Semple, which would mean ABC first acquired the rights in January of '65, or even earlier.