When I first heard that a new animated Batman TV series was in the works, I assumed that it was be something more for kids than older Batman fans like myself.
Keep in mind that the predecessor to BTAS was 1977’s THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN which aired Saturday mornings on CBS (read my retrospective on that series HERE).
As a result, my anticipation level for BTAS wasn’t all that high.
“Cartoons” were still for kids — especially those that aired on Saturday mornings.
My 27-year-old mind in 1992 couldn’t grasp that someone would actually make an animated Batman that was serious and more in line with what I’d been reading in the comics since 1970ish. ANYWAY…
I didn’t see BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES when it first premiered with “The Cat and the Claw, Part 1” on the Saturday morning of September 6, 1992, on FOX Kids
No, I watched an episode which aired in primetime the next day on FOX, “On Leather Wings.”
RELATED: BTAS Deluxe Limited Edition Box Set Review by Bill “Jett” Ramey
(It was also the opening day of the 1992 NFL season and I hosted a party at my house in its honor. No Dallas Cowboys that day as they played Washington the following night on MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL…and won. They also went on to win 3 out of 4 Super Bowls starting that season. Good times!)
“Wow,” I thought to myself, “This is nothing like I expected.”
Indeed, it was something new…and groundbreaking.
I loved its noir-ish, timeless style.
The animation was more than well-done and definitely NOT the norm at the time for a “Saturday morning cartoon.” (It reminded me a lot of the old Max Fleisher SUPERMAN animated shorts from the 1940s that I had watched on TV as a kid. Little did I know at the time that one of the things the folks behind BTAS were aiming to emulate.)
Most of all, I loved the fact that it took Batman and his world seriously.
This was Batman in a TV animated series, not Batman in a TV cartoon.
If you’re a regular reader of BOF, you know that my personal favorite animated Batman TV series is BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love BTAS because I do…tremendously.
Just because BTBATB is my FAVORITE doesn’t mean I don’t think that BTAS is the BEST…because I do. (If you want to know why I love BTBATB so much, it’s because it’s a love letter to Batman history).
Bottom line, BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES is not only the greatest animated Batman TV series to date, but it’s also a VERY significant and important (Top 5 in my book) part of Batman history.
And where would be today without Harley Quinn and the coolest (see what I did there?) version of Mr. Freeze ever?
Timm and Radomski…
Dini and Burnett…
Conroy and Hamill (thanks to) Romano…
Walker and Elfman…
Every-BTAS-one…
THANK YOU for BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
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