BATMAN ’66 WEEK: A screen historian takes you behind the scenes… — It’s BATMAN ’66 WEEK — celebrating the anniversary of the show’s debut Jan. 12! For the complete index of features, click here. — Mark S. Reinhart loves Batman as much as anyone, I’d say. Just check out his lovingly researched The Batman Filmography, published by McFarland, which specializes in scholarly works. Now, with BATMAN ’66 WEEK upon us, I invited Mark to put together a list of things that a lot of Batman fans might not know about the landmark series. Sure, the diehards can quote you chapter and verse, but there are likely a number of entries that will make you cock your eyebrow and say, “Huh, I never knew that.” I know I did. — Dan — By MARK S. REINHART 1. Batman Wasn’t ABC’s First Choice. The ABC television network considered developing shows based on several other comic characters before settling on Batman. Both Superman and Dick Tracy were actually the network’s first choices for a comic-themed show, but the rights to these characters were not available at the time. Since Batman’s rights were available, Batman became “their” hero. 2. The Producer Took the Job Without Knowing Anything About Batman. ABC entrusted the development of their Batman television show to veteran producer William Dozier and his production company Greenway Productions. Dozier took the job knowing almost nothing about Batman at all—he had never read a Batman comic story until he became involved with the project. — 3. ABC Planned on Releasing a Movie First. Because of Batman’s ambitious style and content, it was going to be a far more complex and expensive program to produce than an average half-hour TV show. So Dozier envisioned producing a Batman film prior to the release of the TV series. The film would facilitate the production of the series in several ways. First, it could serve to introduce the show and its many different characters to the public. Also, many of the scenes featuring expensive props such as the Batcopter, the Batboat and the Batcycle could be filmed for the movie, and then those scenes could be lifted directly from the film for use in episodes of the series. This recycling of footage would help to trim the series’ special-effects budget. Dozier originally planned on releasing the film...