My 30 years of Batman 89

[Paul (ral)]

I'm doing something of a retrospective blog this week on my memories of Batman 89.

3 parts posted so far. It starts here...

https://www.batman-online.com/features/2019/6/24/30-years-of-batman-1989-my-journey-with-the-film

[The Laughing Fish]

Nice little retrospective there, looking forward to part two.

I was born in the mid-80s, so I was too young to see the movie in theaters. But I certainly rewound my VHS copy to watch my favourite scenes over and over again. I had the trading cards, action figures - and yes, even Bob the Goon with his much hyped Power Kick.

[Azrael]

Excellent.

The Joker melted.. Reminds me of something.

The facade of the building housing the cinema, as seen in the pic, could very well be a background in Batman.

The C64 music is still awesome.

[Silver Nemesis]

This was a nice feature. It brought back a lot of my own nostalgia for the summer of '89. I was only 3½ at the time, but I have some very vivid memories of that year. I recall watching reruns of the Batman TV show (I didn't realise it was on Channel 4 though; I always remember it being shown on GMTV, but maybe that was later on in the nineties). My Dad had read the Batman comics when he was a kid, and both he and my Mum were fans of the sixties TV series. But none of us saw the Burton film until the BBC broadcast it for Christmas 1991. I think I remember one of my parents showing me a picture of Bat-Keaton in a newspaper back in 1989 and I thought he looked terrifying. For years (probably until Batman Forever came out), I literally called the movie incarnation "scary Batman" to distinguish him from the more familiar grey and blue Batman that I knew from the TV series and kids' story books I owned. This book, published in 1989, was the first piece of Batman literature I ever read:

Even though I didn't see the Burton film that year, I still collected lots of the toys. I had the Batcave set, which came with a free Bob figure. I had two Joker figures – one in a purple suit that squirted water from his lapel flower, and one in pink whose face changed colour (I still have that one). I had a Bat-Keaton figure with the utility belt you could pull out and use as a grapple line. My brother had the Batmobile, which fired missiles when you moved the gearstick, and I had the Batwing. I also had a squishy Joker water pistol, but the paint peeled off it almost straight away. I didn't own the Sunsoft game, or even a gaming platform at that time, but I do remember playing it at a cousin's house in the early nineties.

One of the things I remember about Batmania is that it wasn't just hype for the Burton film. People were obsessing over every version of Batman, and that included a renewed interest in the West series. I had a Batman t-shirt (though not a bootleg like ral's), but it wasn't connected with the Burton film. It had an image of the comic book Batman against a pink background (yes, pink – it was the eighties and I was only 3). My family went on holiday in France that summer, and everywhere we went people were wearing Batman t-shirts. I also had two Batman costumes of my own: one with the classic blue and grey design, the other all-black like the movie version.

I didn't get the Topps trading cards for the 1989 film, but I did collect the cards and stickers for Batman Returns in 1992. And I can confirm that the bubble gum that came with them was rubbish. My recollection is that Batmania didn't end in 1989, but more or less continued into 1990 and 1991. By time Batman Returns came out, the interest was finally starting to die down. But then it flared up again in the summer of 1995. Back then, Batman was the biggest movie franchise around. It's hard to talk about it now without getting nostalgic.

[Paul (ral)]

Great memories. You've got me doubting whether it was Channel 4 now! I have in my head that it was because C4 ran old series like Laverne and Shirley too.

True about Batmania not ending in 89. Weird because we had less access to the video and news but somehow the hype lasted longer. I do miss that these days. Everything is in won and done in a matter of months now.

[Silver Nemesis]

It could well have been shown on Channel 4. I used to watch reruns of many classic sixties TV shows on C4, including The Avengers, Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It would make sense for them to have shown Batman as well.

On a related note, I have very vague memories of watching a black & white Batman series back in 1989. All I can remember of it is a cliffhanger ending where Batman and Robin were lying on a wharf, or possibly the deck of a boat. I also remember that it wasn't the Adam West show, but something older. For years I didn't know what this was, and over time I convinced myself that maybe it was the Adam West show and that I simply watched it on a black & white TV set (we had two TVs in our house back then – our main colour TV and an old b&w set). But I've just been looking over scans of the December 1989 edition of the TV Times, and it turns out Channel 4 broadcast the 1943 Batman film serial on UK television that year.

So I think I must have seen the 1943 serial in 1989. The cliffhanger I remember was likely the chapter where Wilson's Batman gets knocked out on a dockside next to a ship.

It's not exactly how I remember it, but near enough. This is another good example of how 1989 Batmania was about more than just the Burton movie. Even the film serials were receiving renewed interest, and this might well have been the only time the 1943 serial was ever shown on terrestrial TV in the UK.

Unfortunately, while that TV Times listing has cleared up one mystery, it's created another. The schedule lists The Adventures of Tintin episode 'The Shooting Star' as being on immediately before Batman on Boxing Day 1989. However The Adventures of Tintin, which is one of my favourite TV shows ever, didn't begin broadcast until October 1991. There was an earlier Tintin cartoon from the fifties and sixties, but they never adapted The Shooting Star. So to what TV show is that TV Times issue referring...?

EDIT: I've just discovered 'The Shooting Star' was adapted for the 1957-64 Tintin series, but they changed the title to 'Star of Mystery': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shooting_Star#Adaptations

Well that clears that up.

[Paul (ral)]

Have to say, I LOVED watching the George Reeves Superman reruns when I was a kid. Even though they probably seemed quaint by standards even then, I thought they were amazing.

[The Dark Knight]

I didn't want to make a new thread, so this will do.

I saw a fan poster by Matt Ferguson on Twitter, and it's a work of art. One of the best I've seen.



Oh, and happy 30th B89! 

[GBglide]

Here is another cool one, that I bought.

https://hcgart.com/products/charge-of-the-batmobile-large-by-casey-callender

[Silver Nemesis]

I didn't want to make a new thread, so this will do.

I saw a fan poster by Matt Ferguson on Twitter, and it's a work of art. One of the best I've seen.



Oh, and happy 30th B89! 

Here is another cool one, that I bought.

https://hcgart.com/products/charge-of-the-batmobile-large-by-casey-callender

These are both stunning.