I wish they would just release this on DVD already, if we can get the 6 Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, then we should get Batman LOL.

Me too, but for now HD doesn't sound so bad. My only trivial complaint is this channel does the now normal cut-the-credits-for-commercials thing. At least when TVLand did it, it often had factoids for the episodes they just showed.

This is the one TV show that would be a day one buy for me.

I miss this Batman.

Hehe. Frink said Frank. Anyway, I really hope someone who has HD capacity is capping this show...

As corny as this show was, it was good times!

POW! ZAM!

I want this show too! I have such a fondness of all things from the 1966/67 era.

Youth Culture... Counter Culture... Counter Hip... Blond On Blond... Pet Sounds... Revolver... Fashions (Sharp and Cool)... Edie Sedgwick... Exploding Plastic Inevitable... Andy Warhol... Batman... Comic Book PoP Art for the Medium Massaged Masses... Aftermath... River Deep Mountain High... Grage Bands around the globe turning "Hang on Sloopy" into a "Psychotic Reaction"... Happenings (Ten Years Time Ago)... The Riot on the Sunset Strip... "GOOD VIBRATIONS"... The First Love In's...  FanFiltration was Born...

Well, I'm DVRing what I can in standard def. It doesn't look any better than the avi files I have on my hard drive, plus I have no means to transfer it. But it's on TV, and that's a start.

I can't get past the commercial-credits thing though... especially not during Fraggle Rock.

Ouch! It's on my cable system at 2am, but that channel is not part of my basic monthly package deal, so it's blocked. I hate cable!!

The first episode aired a few hours ago (repeats at 5:30AM Eastern if anyone is still up reading at this hour) and I recorded it but the only means I have of getting it off my DVR box is to copy it down to standard def, which defeats the purpose of recording it in HD.

I've heard stories of people literally taking their cable boxes apart, putting the HD in their computer, copying the files out and putting the drive back in the cable box.  Mine is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD.  Anyone have the same box on their system and can talk me through the procedure or point me to a site with instructions?

TV's Frink said:

I'm rather shocked to hear it isn't on DVD, frankly.

Warner Bros. and Fox have been in a legal pissing contest over releasing the series on video for ages. (IIRC, this made the "Return to the Batcave" reunion tv movie a tightrope act.) Thankfully, the 1966 movie was covered by a separate deal, and has enjoyed a long life on video.

I read over at the HTF that the live action "Legends of the Super Heroes" tv specials Hanna Barbera made in the 70's will be coming out via Warner's made on demand DVD. Adam West and Burt Ward returned as the dynamic duo.

Statement retracted, the standard-def caps certainly look better than my avi files. My dream hybrid would be the Hub's broadcast with proper credits - or no credits at all. There's something wrong when I'm excited to see the credits of a TV show...

SilverWook said:

TV's Frink said:

I'm rather shocked to hear it isn't on DVD, frankly.

Warner Bros. and Fox have been in a legal pissing contest over releasing the series on video for ages. (IIRC, this made the "Return to the Batcave" reunion tv movie a tightrope act.) Thankfully, the 1966 movie was covered by a separate deal, and has enjoyed a long life on video.

Not just Fox and WB but various other entities involved with the production - George Barris retained rights to the Batmobile design and only recently started to loosen the purse strings.  There's also the estates of some of the producers to deal with.

The bootlegs out there sourced from the TVland airings look really clean and good, except for the station watermark.  THe ones taken from vhs mastertapes given to crew on the first batman movie in 1989 are uncut and have no station watermark but are shit quality.

All 16mm prints around are mostly very badly faded, at least the ones on eastman stock.

I wonder what shape existing 35mm prints are in if any exist, or the original negatives, ideally you want to work with the best film source for a restoration.  With all the film grain intact, i noticed some of the new broadcasts seem to have boosted colors and look like video, film like DVD or Blu rays would be nice.

WB are cheapskates they won't restore the original superman film for Blu Ray so what hope is there for 60's Batman.

skyjedi2005 said:

The bootlegs out there sourced from the TVland airings look really clean and good

Are these still available somewhere? damn I would like to see these again.

I found the TVLand rips on ThePirateBay, but they're really blurry avi files. I think they've been downsized from whatever original resolution they were... I mean, they're passable, but I'd rather watch them the quality they're on at the hub.

I have those AVIs.  They're 512 x 384 - passable for standard DVD quality if you're not picky.  I've been experimenting with Sony Vegas to see if I can bring out some detail but nothing conclusive yet.

Screens from the TVLand episodes.

Works for me as a temp fix till they get an official home video set out.  Thanks for posting the screen captures.

You got the shots up just as my download completed.

I suppose I must be too picky, then, if it can satisfy everyone else... ah well, I got my DVR set to it anyway.

bkev said:

I suppose I must be too picky, then, if it can satisfy everyone else... ah well, I got my DVR set to it anyway.

Didn't you say you can't transfer to your PC anyways? so you DVR'ing it won't help anyone else.

If A better version becomes available, I would be all over it. I just meant that the TVland is worth the DL for me as a temp fix. Better then nothing, or paying more for a better cable package.  But if someone put these out in a better quality on torrents, I would support their efforts.