Gregatron said:
Exactly. For me, the single best balance of the extremes is BATMAN: THE ANIMATED series, which kept the tone just right, and, more importantly, got the character himself right--world's greatest detective, not crazy, mysterious, grim-but-not-brooding, a sense of humor, etc.
Agree. The Bronze Age Batman struck many of those same cords as well (God, that just reminds me of how I need to read more of the stories from that era).