Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na, Batman!
-Neal Hefti, “Batman Theme”
If you’ve been aware of Batman for more than five minutes, chances are you’re familiar with the theme song from the 1966 Batman television series. Neal Hefti’s surf rock masterpiece, with its repetitive structure and practically nonexistent lyrics, was the perfect piece of music to accompany the Adam West and Burt Ward-starring superhero show.
Besides the catchy theme, the opening credits had a killer animated(ish) sequence that saw Batman and Robin taking down waves of thugs and villains. It’s so memorable, so iconic that the Batman ’66 comic series devoted an entire issue to contextualizing it.
Today, I stumbled across a collection of some of the animation cels and paintings from the intro, thanks to Al Bigley’s blog. They’ve apparently been floating around the internet for a few years now, but today’s as good a day as any to check out some of Lee Mishkin’s legendary work for the classic Batman series. Head over to the source site to see several different work-in-progress images, including lineups of villains, that iconic image of the Batmobile, and even some shots of Batgirl on her motorcycle from the third season intro. Enjoy, chums.
SOURCE: Al Bigley’s blog
