Early in 1966 ABC began airing the series Batman, starring Adam West as the caped avenger and Bert Ward as his teen-age sidekick. I was nine at the time and didn't pick up on the fact that this series was loaded with tongue-in-cheek comedy, instead focusing on the adventures of the caped crusaders as they fought various criminal masterminds in Gotham City. Each weekly story was split into two half-hour episodes, with the announcer at the end of the first one (always with Batman and Robin in dire danger) reminding the audience to stay tuned to the "same Bat-time, same Bat-channel". Since at the time I seemed to have this thing for long-haired blondes, I suppose it was inevitable that I would fall for the series' chief female villain: Catwoman, played by Julie Newmar (of My Living Doll fame). The first Catwoman story was aired in March of '66 with the episodes titled The Purr-fect Crime and Better Luck Next Time. Normally I'd be rooting for Batman and Robin to defeat the bad guys, but never with Catwoman...but since I knew the "good guys" would prevail at the end it got to be a bit depressing to watch all the Catwoman episodes knowing she'd end up losing. I remember at the time being an avid Batman trading card collector, and enjoyed borrowing a friend's Batman books to read...my favorite one, naturally, focused on Catwoman and her alter ego, Selena Kyle. Later in the series Newmar left Batman for the movies and Eartha Kitt was hired to play her role, but by then my age had caught up with me and I had lost interest in the series. A few years ago there was a critically-panned movie titled Catwoman starring Halle Berry...to this day I consider it as one of my favorites while just about everyone else on the planet thinks it sucked...
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