But you know what? It's still a hell of a lot of fun. Therefore, viewing 'Batman' now was a totally different experience than viewing it back when I was a kid.
Also, like many of you, I was a child at the time, so I viewed 'Batman' as a straight drama, not picking up on its campiness, and certainly not picking up on all the double entendres and sexual innuendos that are literally peppered throughout almost every episode. Like many of you, my first exposure to 'Batman' was during its syndication run in the 1970s and not during its original airings between 19 (hey, I'm old, but I'm not that old). It's a bonus that it looks so great and is relatively (but not completely) free of any omissions, edits, or oversights. In short, it's kind of a minor miracle this set ever saw the light of day.
now owning DC Comics and, hence, the rights to the Batman character), but the episodes themselves are peppered with appearances by a number of celebrities (many, if not most of them, now passed on) and even references to other TV series, all which needed to be legally cleared before any home video release could happen. Not only was the series a 20th Century Fox production (with Warner Bros. While most older TV series just have music rights to deal with (no small matter in and of themselves), 'Batman's problems were much deeper than that.
Not because of anything to do with its quality (although, let's be honest, it is campy fun), but because of all the legal issues that needed to be straightened out before it could come to the marketplace.
The original 'Batman' series coming to Blu-ray (and DVD) has long been considered the 'holy grail' of home video releases.