BBC1 Logo transforms into the Bat Signal! - Christmas Night 1991

[Bobthegoon89]

UK Batman fans will possibly remember this little surprise from Christmas night on BBC1 in 1991. For the network premiere of Tim Burton's original Batman the BBC produced this very special ident, just for this one showing. Still the coolest thing pretty much I saw on television as a kid lol

Must have been a pretty exciting time for fans back then. This on Christmas night and somewhere in America Burton was halfway through shooting Batman Returns for a summer release! Usually a major movie doesn't recieve a tv screening until at least 4 years after it's release. The popularity of Batman rush released it onto screens a mere 2 years later. Ironically it was pulled earlier from theatres to make the Christmas VHS market of 1989 too.

Here is a vintage preview of the movies showing also. Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America" followed Batman. Great stuff.

[johnnygobbs]

This brings back memories Bob...

These promos are great, and I love the Batman ident, but do you remember the 1991 film montage one BBC1 put out a few weeks before Christmas when it started previewing its selections of films?  Obviously the highlight was 'Batman', but along with 'Coming to America' there was ' A Fish Called Wanda', 'Empire of the Sun', 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', 'Scrooged', 'Willow', 'Moonwalker' (the Michael Jackson 'Bad' spin-off movie) and 'Rain Man' among others (all getting their first showing on network tv).  One of the great things was that there was no subtitles or announcement accompanying the Christmas music scored promo and so you had to guess what films the various short clips belonged to, which only heightened the excitement.  Those were the days, before Netflicks, Movies on Demand and the ubiquity of Sky, when the Christmas tv movie premieres seemed like a special event.

Also, you're right about 'Batman' getting a rare terrestrial tv premiere a mere two years after it was released at the cinema.  Usually the big movie premieres, including the Christmas Day ones, weren't screened for at least three years after their initial cinema release.

[Bobthegoon89]

Tell me about it mate lol Unfortunately the Batman movies are screened far too much on television these days as a result of Sky. Back then it was always a special event to tune in and see them only occasionally. I remember the days when a Christopher Reeve Superman movie (usually 1 or 2) would be always screened at Christmas or Bank Holiday. Now tv companies have discovered the delights of "sagas" where they show every movie in a franchise in order week after week in the same time slot. Variety and surprise has completely gone away. I can't tell you how fed up I am of ITV constantly screening the entire Star Wars saga from begining to end seemingly every four months. It's bad enough they show them in episode chronology rather than order of release (Episode I - VI). And then there's the irritant geek of Harry Potter's saga (shudder).

I certainly do remember all those movies being screened especially Moonwalker (and their all favourites of mine). I don't think I've seen the promos together however. I've seen some individual clips of them on youtube. Who can forget that Christmas sleigh and castle announcing all of them?

I've noticed that trailers for feature films on tv (especially at Christmas) seem to have gone away now. Now their just lumped in with promos for tv shows. I remember a great one for Ghostbusters II one Christmas that nobody on youtube seems to have. It ended with the GBII logo bursting with orange proton energy around it. I think the days of seeing unique stuff like the Batman ident have sadly stopped. Having said that in 2009, when David Tennant left Doctor Who, they produced an incredible ident of the Tardis being pulled by reindeer. The New Years Day special began it's ident by having Tennant introduce (in character as a voiceover) his final episode. I thought that was a great imaginative thing to do in the style of the Batman ident. There were probably kids watching that moment who'll always remember it just like us with the Bat Signal cameo.

I know that on ITV Batman Returns would often recieve a Christmas screening during the later nineties but I've been unable to locate any promos. I know there is a video about Batman's VHS release at Christmas which I'll try to locate. 

[funzi159]

Something similar happened in Italy, because I vividly remember that I first watched "Batman" in 1991 too! It was a very strange experience, because my Mother had first introduced me to the 60's tv show, and when I watched Burton's movie it was a very big surprise!! However, my Mother was so shocked by the dark tone of the movie that when the film ended She said "This is not Batman! It's too dark!" and She erased the video tape we had recorded! Few years later, "Batman" was broadcasted again and this time I prevented my Mother to erase the tape another time by firmly declaring that "Batman" was my favourite movie on Earth alongside "Ghostbusters" and that I was grown enough to watch it!! I still have that tape, recorded in 1994, such an emotion just to hear the intro that starts with the noisy sound of an old video tape!! These are memories that last forever!!