The Batman Effect: The Camp Craze on American Television in the 1960s

On January 12 1966 the television series Batman debuted on ABC. The show proved to be a smash hit from the beginning, a particular boon to perpetually low-rated ABC, especially given Batman aired twice a week (on Wednesday and Thursday night). It debuted on Wednesday to a phenomenal 27.3/49 rating, burying its competition on the other two networks (The Virginian on NBC and Lost in Space on CBS). It did even better on its second outing that Thursday night with a 29.6/59 rating. What is more, in the following weeks it continued to achieve extraordinary Nielsen ratings.

Ultimately, Batman proved to be what might well be the biggest fad in the history of American television. A wide variety of Batman merchandise soon filled store shelves. There was everything from toys to games to Halloween costumes to a lunch box. In 1966 alone $150 million worth of Batman merchandise would be sold.

It was in 1965 that ABC expressed interest in a Batman television series and contacted 20th Century Fox about producing the series. 20th Century Fox turned to William Dozier and his company Greenway Productions to actually produce the show. ABC had conceived of Batman as a serious, but tongue in cheek show, not unlike The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on rival network NBC. William Dozier had never read comic books in his life. Because of this, as research he read seven or eight Batman comic books. It occurred to Mr. Dozier that there was little chance that adults would take a series about a man dressed up as a bat seriously. He then struck upon the idea that Batman would operate on two levels. For adults it would be a comedy, an outright parody of comic books and their conventions. For children it would be an adventure show. It was for that reason that Batman was executed in an intentionally camp, Pop Art style. The heroes--Batman (Adam West) and his sidekick (Robin)--were exaggeratedly strait-laced. The villains were over the top. The show reproduced the look of Silver Age comic books on films, down to animated "bams" and "pows" during fight scenes.

At the time William Dozier's choice to produce Batman in a camp, Pop Art style was a wise one. The art movement known as Pop Art was very much in fashion at the time, the movement being characterized by techniques drawn from commercial art, everyday objects, and, of course, comic books. The aesthetic style known as "camp" was also very much in vogue in the early to mid-Sixties. The concept of camp had existed for some time, but it was perhaps best defined by writer and critic Susan Sontag in her essay "Notes on Camp," published in The Partisan Review in 1964. According to Susan Sontag, the most important elements of camp were "...artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness, and ‘shocking’ excess." Significantly, In the March 21 1965 issue of The New York Times, Ms. Sontag declared Batman comic books to be an example of "Low Camp."

Radio show star and comedian Fred Allen has often been credited with the quote, "Imitation is the sincerest form of television," This was quite certainly the case with Batman, whose success the American networks and television production companies rushed to emulate. Not only did the networks go forward with pilots that were very much in the mold of Batman, but even two existing shows were changed so they more resembled the smash hit of the 1965-1966 season. The fates of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Lost in Space were sealed the moment Batman proved to be a hit.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E was the first American television show to grow out of the spy craze of the Sixties. The show began development even before the James Bond movie Dr. No (1962) had been released. It debuted on NBC on Tuesday, September 22 1964. Initially The Man From U.N.C.L.E. struggled in the ratings, but following a move to Monday night at mid-season it not only became a hit, but a television fad not unlike Batman would be. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. merchandise from action figures to comic books to novels soon filled stores in 1964.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. centred on American Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Russian Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum), agents for the international intelligence agency U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). They answered to Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll), the head of U.N.C.L.E. The chief opponent of U.N.C.L.E. was the criminal organization known as Thrush, a group that presented such a threat that even nations diametrically opposed to each other (such as the US and the U.S.S.R.) would band together to stop them. Originally The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a serious, albeit tongue in cheek television show, not unlike the British television show The Avengers or the James Bond movies. It was after Batman debuted in 1966 that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. took on a much more comedic tone.

Although the turn towards a camp style is associated with the show's third season, it had actually begun late in the second season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It was in the 28th episode of the second, "The Bat Cave Affair," that Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin found themselves facing a Thrush agent called Count Zark (Martin Landau), who dressed and spoke like Dracula as played by Bela Lugosi. Count Zark's plot was to wreck air traffic control around the world using modified vampire bats. As if this wasn't enough, "The Bat Cave Affair" also features stereotypical hillbillies from the Ozarks. That "The Bat Cave Affair" was not an anomaly soon became apparent in the third season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The fourth episode of the third season, "The Super-Colossal Affair," featured a notorious scene in which Illya Kuryakin rides a bomb filled with eau de skunk above the city of Las Vegas.

Today precisely who was to blame for the dramatic change in the tone of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is hard to say. Although it is often blamed for the shift towards a camp style, it certainly was not the show's spinoff, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. For one thing, the first episode to represent the change in tone for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the above cited "Bat Cave Affair," aired late in the show's second season, well before the debut of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Second, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E actually started on a more serious note than The Man From U.N.C.L.E. did its third season. It was a few episodes into its first and only season that The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. began to take on the more comedic tone of its parent show. It is apparent that The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. was simply following the lead of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Many have placed the blame for the shift in the tone of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on NBC. It has been alleged NBC wanted The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to have a lighter, more comedic tone, particularly in the wake of the success of Batman. It also seems possible that part of the blame may be borne by Boris Ingster, who took over as the producer of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with the 20th episode of the second season ("The Bridge of Lions Affair Part 1"). Regardless of who was responsible for the shift towards camp, it seems clear that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was trying to emulate Batman. Not only did the plots of episodes become sillier and the villains more outrageous, but the show even utilised personnel who had worked on Batman. Stanley Ralph Ross, a veteran writer on Batman, wrote episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., in its third season. Directors George waGGner and Tom Gries, both of who directed several episodes of Batman, directed episodes of the third season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. There is a good deal of substantial evidence to suggest that in its third season The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was trying to imitate Batman.

What makes the shift in tone of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. sadder still is that the show had been very successful in its second season. For its second season the series ranked no. 13 in the Nielsen ratings for the year. With the change towards camp in its third season, not only was The Man From U.N.C.L.E. no longer in the top thirty shows for the year, but its ratings plummeted. An attempt to save The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was made for its fourth season, with the show once more becoming more serious. Unfortunately, it was too late to save the show. Its ratings did not recover and it was cancelled at mid-season.

Like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Lost in Space did not begin as an intentionally campy show. In its first season Lost in Space was a serious adventure show, in which the characters faced such natural disasters as heat waves and earthquakes. Lost in Space debuted on CBS on September 15 1965. It centred on the Robinson family, who find themselves lost in space when their spaceship, the Jupiter 2, is thrown off course. Accompanying the Robinson are Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonatha Harris), a saboteur for an enemy nation, and their robot. The first season of Lost in Space was shot in black and white. With its second season, not only was Lost in Space shot in colour, but it took a definite turn towards camp.

In the second season of Lost in Space, the characters of Will (Bill Mumy), Penny (Angela Cartwright), the robot, and Dr. Smith took centre stage on the show.  The show took on a more comedic tone, with plots involving interstellar circuses, space cowboys, magicians, and so on. Villains on the show became more extravagant, not unlike the ones faced by the Caped Crusader. Episodes would even end on cliffhangers, complete with the caption, "To be continued next week! Same time—same channel!" The cliffhangers would disappear for the third season of Lost in Space, although the show would not become any more serious. In fact, what might be the most bizarre episode of Lost in Space (not to mention one of the most bizarre episodes of any show ever) aired in the third season as the show's penultimate episode. "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" saw Dr. Smith transformed into a giant stalk of celery and Penny into a flower bed by a giant, talking carrot.

Like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., it is hard to say why Lost in Space shifted more towards a camp aesthetic, although it seems likely that it was an intentional attempt to compete with Batman. It is perhaps significant that Lost in Space aired directly opposite the Wednesday night episode of Batman. Regardless, the camp approach did not seem to hurt Lost in Space the way it did The Man From U.N.C.L..E. The show came in at no. 35 for the year in its first season, no. 44 in its second season, and no. 53 in its third season. While its ratings were not spectacular, they were not particularly poor either. When Lost in Space was cancelled with its third season, it was not because of the show's camp approach, but likely a combination of the show's rising costs and its ratings, particularly given a large percentage of the show's audience was children.

The success of Batman also resulted in the debut of two superheroes shows, although both of them should be perhaps best be considered spoofs closer to Get Smart or F Troop than intentionally camp shows such as Batman or Lost in Space. Both shows debuted on the same night, January 9 1967. The first of the two to debut, at 8:00 PM Eastern on CBS, was Mr. Terrific. Mr. Terrific centred on gas station attendant Stanley Beamish (Stephen Strimpell), who is hired by the Bureau of Secret Projects to fight crime as Mr. Terrific. Mr. Terrific derived his super powers from a power pill that would only work on him. Mr. Terrific did not receive particularly good reviews, nor did it receive good ratings. It was ultimately cancelled at the end of the season.

Immediately following Mr. Terrific on rival network NBC was Captain Nice. Captain Nice was created by Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry and starred William Daniels as police chemist Carter Nash, who developed a special formula that would give him superpowers. Despite its creator and its star (who would later become known for St. Elsewhere and Boy Meets World), Captain Nice did not receive particularly good reviews either. Just as both Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice debuted on the same night, both shows ended their runs on the same night as well, August 28 1967.

In addition to changes to existing shows and the debut of new shows, the success of Batman would result in pilots that would use the camp aesthetic. The most significant of these came from William Dozier, the executive producer of Batman himself. Dick Tracy struck a middle ground between the campiness of Batman and the seriousness of Mr. Dozier's TV show The Green Hornet. Reportedly, the creator of Dick Tracy, Chester Gould, had been in talks with NBC about a Dick Tracy series in 1965, but nothing apparently came of it.

It was in 1966 that William Dozier met with Chester Gould to discuss the possibility of a Dick Tracy show. By July 1 script writer Hal Fimberg joined Dozier to meet with Gould. It was on July 4th that Broadcasting magazine announced that 20th Century Fox and Greenway Productions (Dozier's company) had obtained the rights to Dick Tracy. It would be a half hour show airing at 7:30 PM Eastern/6:30 PM-Central on NBC. It would debut either midseason during the 1966/1967 season or the fall of 1967. By October 1966 actor Ray MacDonnell was cast as Dick Tracy.. The pilot was set to begin shooting on October 16, 1966.

The pilot for the potential Dick Tracy series, "The Plot to Destroy Nato," pitted Dick Tracy against the villain Mr. Memory (Victor Buono), who believes that he can communicate directly with computers through his mind. Both Davey Davison as Dick Tracy's wife Tess Trueheart and Eve Plumb as his daughter Bonnie Braids appear in the opening credits of "The Plot to Destroy Nato," but not in the episode itself. In the pilot they are said to be visiting Tess's sister. The overall tone of the Dick Tracy pilot is different from either Batman or The Green Hornet. Unlike Batman the heroes and most other characters are played straight. Unlike The Green Hornet there are some elements of camp, namely in the form of the villain Mr. Memory as played by Victor Buono. One can only assume that Dick Tracy would have occupied a middle ground between Batman and The Green Hornet, where Dick Tracy, his family, and his fellow cops would have been played seriously and the villains would have been outrageous.

Regardless, Dick Tracy as produced by William Dozier would never become a television series. Ultimately, NBC passed on Dick Tracy as a mid-season replacement during the 1966-1967 season. In February 1967, when NBC announced its schedule for that fall, Dick Tracy was conspicuously missing. It seems likely that the failure of Dick Tracy to be picked up as a series was due to the fact that by the middle of the 1966-1967 season Batman had dropped considerably in the Nielsen ratings from the phenomenal numbers it had in its first season. As far as NBC was concerned, the camp craze may have been over and so they passed on Dick Tracy.

In 1966 Dick Tracy was not the only television show based on an existing property that William Dozier had planned. In fact, he had in mind a series based on another DC Comics character besides Batman, namely Wonder Woman. William Dozier never made a pilot for a Wonder Woman series, but he did make  five minute presentation film entitled "Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?." Going by the presentation film, it seems likely that the tone of the Wonder Woman series Mr. Dozier had in mind would have been outright comedy rather than camp. Wonder Woman is played strictly for laughs. Diana Prince (Ellie Wood Walker) is portrayed as a shy plain Jane whose mother (who is not Hippolyta of the Amazons) nags her about not having a boyfriend. When she dons the Wonder Woman costume, she sees herself in the mirror as being more attractive than she really is (the Wonder Woman in the mirror is played by Linda Harrison, later of Planet of the Apes fame). It seems likely that the reason William Dozier's Wonder Woman series never made it beyond the presentation film was not due to ratings for Batman falling, but instead because "Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?" was just plain bad.

William Dozier was not the only producer reviving old properties for television. What is more, not every television project based on an old property was from the Thirties and Forties like Batman and Dick Tracy. One property selected for revival in the Sixties dated back to 1914. The Perils of Pauline was a 1914 serial starring Pearl White as an heiress who constantly finds herself in danger. What is more, the first attempt to revive The Perils of Pauline as  a television series pre-dated Batman by three years. In 1962 Warner Bros. sought to produce a pilot for a situation comedy based on The Perils of Pauline starring Dorothy Provine and John Dehner. It seems possible that the pilot never came to be, as Dorothy Provine was focused on a career in movies and refused to star in the prospective television series.

The second attempt to adapt The Perils of Pauline as a television series came about before Batman even debuted. In the October 23 1965 issue of The Salem News, in the column "Between Channels" by Richard Doan, among producer Herbert B. Leonard's planned pilots for television series was The Perils of Pauline, which was described as "...'a wild and contemporary' updating of the early movie cliffhanger serial of the same name." If the name Herbert B. Leonard sounds familiar, it is because he produced the classic TV series Naked City and produced and co-created the classic show Route 66 with writer Stirling Sillipant. Herbert B. Leonard had apparently had the idea for a television show based on The Perils of Pauline for some time. In a  June 27 1967 article in The Edwards Intelligencer, it was stated that he had been searching for "the right Pauline" for five years.

Herbert B. Leonard found his Pauline in the form of actress Pamela Austin. Pamela Austin had made several guest appearances on television, most notably in the Twilight Zone episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You." She had also appeared opposite Elvis Presley in the movies Blue Hawaii (1961) and Kissin' Cousins (1964). It was not until 1966 that Pamela Austin really began to be noticed, starring in a series of commercials for the car company Dodge as part of their "Dodge Rebellion" campaign. The commercials would place Miss Austin in various dangerous situations, such as nearly falling off a cliff, almost being crushed by a chandelier, being menaced by sharks, and so on. It was one night that Herbert B. Leonard saw one of Pamela Austin's "Dodge Rebellion" commercials on television that he decided he had found the Pauline for his prospective TV show based on The Perils of Pauline. Pat Boone was cast as Pauline's love interest (and the person who is constantly trying to rescue her) George Stedman.  As to the concept for the series, it was relatively simple. Pauline was an orphan who constantly finds herself in dangerous situations.

Sources seem to be unclear as to whether a single pilot was made for The Perils of Pauline with two additional sample episodes also shot, or whether the pilot was reworked three times. Either way, in the end there were three completed episodes of The Perils of Pauline. It as written by Albert Beich, who had created the short-lived television series Kentucky Jones and co-wrote the screenplay for the Bette Davis movie Dead Ringer (1964). The original director was Ken Annakin, who had directed such films as Miranda (1948), The Sword and the Rose (1953), and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). He left the pilot after only 18 days. The Perils of Pauline was then directed by producer Herbert B. Leonard himself and Joshua Shelley, an actor who had made guest appearances on television shows from Philco Television Playhouse to The Defenders.

Ultimately, CBS decided not to pick up The Perils of Pauline as a series. While it seems clear that many projects done with a camp aesthetic were not picked up due to the declining fortunes of Batman, this was probably not the case with The Perils of Pauline. At the time CBS decided not to pick up The Perils of Pauline, Batman was still riding high in the ratings. It was then that Universal decided to release The Perils of Pauline as a feature film. The three completed episodes of The Perils of Pauline were stitched together, with additional footage shot in December 1966. The film was released in 1967. It was not well-received by critics, nor did it do particularly well at the box office. This could well point to the reason that CBS did not go forward with the television series The Perils of Pauline. It simply was not very good.

While The Perils of Pauline was conceived only a few months before the debut of Batman on ABC, it seems likely The Perils of Pauline was influenced by both Batman and  the hit movie The Great Race (1965). The direction of The Perils of Pauline was apparently meant to simulate silent movies or, more accurately, what people in 1966 thought silent movies were like. There is colourful title cards, undercranking the camera, and old-style organ music. At the same time it would appear to owe a bit to Batman. It is shot in vivid Technicolor. There are florid villains and over-the-top situations. Everything is exaggerated and done in a camp style.

While The Perils of Pauline drew upon a silent movie serial for inspiration, Old Time Radio would provide inspiration for another prospective show with a camp aesthetic. I Love a Mystery was a popular radio show that aired on NBC from 1939 to 1944. It was created by Carlton E. Morse, who had also created the popular radio soap opera One Man's Family. I Love a Mystery centred on private detectives Jack Packard, Doc Long, and Reggie York. Jack was more or less their leader, who was the best at solving mysteries. Doc Long was the comedian of the group, a large, high-spirited Texan. Reggie York was an Englishman who was exceptionally strong and skilled at combat. The three men comprised the A-1 Detective Agency, whose cases involved everything from the jungles of Indochina to ancient mansions. I Love a Mystery blended the genres of adventure, mystery, and horror. The radio show was popular enough to inspire three movies produced by Columbia Pictures (I Love a Mystery in 1945 and The Devil's Mask and The Unknown in 1946). It would also be revived twice on radio, as I Love Adventure on ABC in 1948 and I Love a Mystery on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1949.

It was in a November 25 1966 article by Associated Press movie and television writer Bob Thomas that Jennings Lang of Universal discussed television movies that were being produced for NBC under the network's "World Premiere Movie" banner. Some of these television movies would serve as pilots for television series, including I Love a Mystery with Les Crane, Ironside with Raymond Burr, and Outsider with Darren McGavin or Harry Guardino. Both Ironside with Raymond Burr and The Outsider with Darren McGavin would go onto become television series on NBC. In a December 11 1966 article in The Register, it was reported that Don Knotts would have a cameo in the I Love a Mystery TV movie, and that Les Crane and David Hartman starred on the show. A January 28 1967 article in The Kingston Daily Freeman discussed Ida Lupino playing her role as a mad scientist in the NBC World Premiere movie I Love a Mystery.

The TV movie I Love a Mystery was directed and written by Leslie Stevens, best known as the creator of the classic television series The Outer Limits. Leslie Stevens's teleplay was based on two episodes of the radio show I Love a Mystery. "The Fear That Creeps Like a Cat" dealt with the disappearance of Alexander Archer. In "The Thing That Cries in the Night" Jack, Doc, and Reggie find themselves dealing with three beautiful women and a mysterious mansion. Les Crane played Jack Packard. Les Crane may be best known as the first talk show host to challenge Johnny Carson's supremacy with his talk show on ABC from 1964 to 1965. David Hartman played Doc Long. Although not well-known at the time, he would go on to have a regular role on The Virginian and become a long time host on Good Morning America. Hagan Beggs played Reggie York. Hagan Beggs made frequent guest apperances, on American television, and was later a regular on the Canadian television series Danger Bay. Legendary actress Ida Lupino played the antagonist of the pilot, Randolph "Randy" Cheyne, while Don Knotts had a cameo in the pilot.

In Bob McKenzie's May 18 1967 column in The Oakland Tribune, it is mentioned that Les Crane co-stars in I Love a Mystery, a two hour television movie that may be released in theatres instead. As it turned out, I Love a Mystery would not be picked up as a TV series, nor would the TV movie ever be released to theatres. In fact, the TV movie I Love a Mystery would not see the light of day until it aired on NBC on February 27 1973, six years after it had been filmed. While it is hard to say why NBC waited so long to air the TV movie, it seems likely that it was not picked up as a TV series simply because the camp craze was obvioulsy over by the time the TV movie was completed. Indeed, by the time the TV movie/pilot was announced in the fall of 1966, Batman was no longer the ratings behemoth it had been.

As it was, I Love a Mystery was very much in the mold of Batman. The situaitons in I Love a Mystery were not nearly as exaggerated as those on Batman, but they were exaggerated nonetheless. As the villain Randolph Cheyne, Ida Lupino is only a little more restrained than the villains on Batman.  I Love a Mystery even features a narrator early in the film. Ultimately, it plays less like a faithful adaptation of a radio show from the days of Old Time Radio than a parody of such.

In the end, the camp craze on American television in the mid Sixties abated without ever becoming a full-fledged cycle of camp television shows.  Much of this was due to the fact that the camp craze was very much tied to the fortunes of Batman. While Batman would prove sucessful in syndicaiton as a rerun and today is regarded as a classic, in the winter and spring of 1966 it was very much a fad. And like all fads, it ended almost as quickly as it began. Once Batman was no longer a ratings giant, the networks lost interest in pursuing similar shows. This was probably part of the reason that Dick Tracy, The Perils of Pauline, and I Love a Mystery were not picked up.

Of course, the other reason why some of the campy pilots made in the wake of Batman were not picked up as TV series was simply a matter of quality. The camp aesthetic depends largely on a precarious balance of going over the top without going too far. Paricularly in its first season, Batman was able to maintain that balance. The pilot for Perils of Pauline was not. In other words, in some cases campy pilots did not become TV shows simply because they were not very good (or "so bad they're good," as the case may be).

After the mid-Sixties, American television would never be nearly overtaken by camp, although it would not disappear completely. The first season of the Seventies series Wonder Woman was much like the 1966 pilot for Dick Tracy in that the primary characters were treated seriously while episodes of the show had some camp aspects (it is to be noted that veteran Batman writer Stanley Ralph Ross developed Wonder Woman for television). Still later Twin Peaks, Xena: Warrior Princess, Riverdale, and a few assorted other shows would make use of camp to one degree or another. The camp craze on American telvision in the Sixties was brief, but its effects are still felt to this day.