60 Years Ago, DC Launched a TV Show With an Awful Audience Test (But It Became a Success)

As a huge fan of classic TV, I was shocked to learn how close the 1966 Batman series came to never making it! Apparently, early test screenings were a disaster. ABC got some of the worst audience scores they’d ever seen, and a lot of executives thought the show would be a total flop. People just didn’t get the humor – it was too campy and colorful, and they didn’t realize it was meant to be a satire, thanks to producer William Dozier’s vision. But, because so much money had already been spent making it, the network was stuck with it, even though they feared it would be embarrassing!








