Batman-The Animated Series

I’d put the Mr. Freeze episode as my favorite.

That was a wonderful one, but out of that early portion of the series, Appointment in Crime Alley would be mine.

Also, I finally got my hands on the Batman Volume 2 soundtrack set, and holy hell is it impressive. Around 4 hours of music, arranged by various episodes. Just wondrous. I hope they make a volume 3, 4 and so on to cover all of the eps.

You already said that :p

— Alan

I did? Sorry. I GOT it on Friday, but I didn’t really get to fully listen to it until yesterday.

Just look 3 posts up, Brian.

I know, I see it, just explaining why is all.

I’d disagree. Season 2’s the weakest for me:

Season 1

“On Leather Wings”
“Christmas With The Joker”
“Nothing to Fear”
“Pretty Poison”
“P.O.V.”
“Two-Face: Part 1”
“It’s Never Too Late”
“Heart of Ice”
“See No Evil”
“Beware the Gray Ghost”
“Feat of Clay: Part 1”
“Feat of Clay: Part 2”
“Joker’s Favor”
“Vendetta”
“The Clock King”
“Mad As A Hatter”
“Dreams in Darkness”

Season 2

“Eternal Youth”
“Perchance to Dream”
“Robin’s Reckoning: Part 1”
“The Laughing Fish”
“The Joker’s Wild”
“If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?”
“The Man Who Killed Batman”
“Mudslide”
“Almost Got 'Im”
“I am the Night”
“Zatanna”
“Harley and Ivy”

Season 3

“Fire from Olympus”
“Sideshow”
“Read My Lips”
“The Worry Men”
“A Bullet for Bullock”
“The Trial”
“House & Garden”
“The Terrible Trio”
“Harlequinade”
“Bane”
“Baby-Doll”
“Showdown”
“Harley’s Holiday”
“Lock-Up”
“Make 'Em Laugh”
“Deep Freeze”

I’m not crazy about all of the Karl Rossum, Catwoman, Red Claw, animal mutation and ninja episodes which seem to dominate Season 2. Season 1’s still the best for me; its episodes have a more noir radio drama feel about them that I love. The shows were slower paced, less comedic, and felt more like a little slice of cinema than an animated comic book. They also showcased Batman doing the detective thing more than the following seasons. Season’s 3 great but just not quite as good as the first season.

AAhhh, well then yeah, I can see why season 2 would seem weak to ya. Fair enough.

I am 10 episodes in just watched 2 face parts 1 and 2. Really enjoying it, like the way they are introducing new peeps each episode, watch a couple more. Not sure I can get disc 2 for uk region though, seems import only.

I can’t take the ads on wb.com. Shame the iTunes versions of these aren’t HD.

HD versions of these episodes exist?

Only in my dreams. I’d suspect they could use some kind of remastering process if they were to ever have a Blu Ray made. Oh, how they would just have my money at that point.

I’d love to have cleaned up episodes re-released a la Dragon Ball Z Kai. So many early shows have cel dirt and shaky animation which can detract from series at times. I was always jealous of how smooth The Batman’s animation was, even if the show didn’t deserve it. I’d also love it if WB would not insist on having that awful Batman/Superman intro opening season 1-3 episodes, my one big gripe about the DVD/Internet releases.

I’d totally double dip on these if they came out on BD.

I’m not sure I follow this. I have the DVDs of the animated series and volumes 1-3 all have the original intro, not the B+S Adventures opening. Did I misunderstand what you meant?

Random notes:

  • Sep 5 is the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere. Goddamn, I’m old.

  • Something a lot of people forget is that when the show premiered, Fox ran new episodes daily (!) for three months (!!). From Labor Day through Thanksgiving, they ran something like 45 episodes. Can you imagine anyone today burning off 45 episodes of an animated superhero series in 90 days?

  • The speed at which Fox aired the episodes also makes the question of “season x vs season y” a little murky. There was the faintest bit of continuity, but Fox didn’t air the episodes in production order, and Vol 1 and Vol 2 of the DVDs both pull from that initial run.

  • Do a lot of people even remember that it was Fox who aired these daily? It’s easy to forget, since they all have the WB logo stamped all over them, but it was Fox, which was still a relatively new network at the time, who gave Timm and co. the license to do something a little dark because they were looking to stand out.

20th anniversary? Holy crap!

And yeah, I recall it was on Fox. This and Animaniacs made up the highlights of my afternoons whilst in my early days at college.

Yeah, it debuted on Sep 5, 1992 (which was a Saturday), with part 1 of the 2-part Catwoman episode, and then started running on weekdays.

It’s worth noting that in October 1992, Fox debuted the X-Men animated series as well, which was a whole different type of awesome. The animation wasn’t as good, but they went with longer arcs that would last an entire season, often paying homage to important storylines from the comics, like the Sentinels or Days of Future Past or the Pheonix Saga. They rolled out Spider-Man: TAS two years later, which took a similar approach, and then of course Timm and co expanded to Superman and the Justice League, so you could kind of look at the upcoming Sep 5 anniversary as the start of a golden age for animated superhero series.

Let’s be honest. If we have nonsense like Talk Like a Pirate Day, Sep 5 should be some kind of widely celebrated geek holiday.

Indeeed!

Yikes! I can still remember waiting for that first episode to show and not knowing what to expect. I didn’t much care for the Man-Bat plot, but that half-hour got me VERY excited for the rest of the season.

I remember moving into my dorm for my freshman year of college, ducking into a lounge and seeing this giant diverse crowd of students watching an episode in rapt attention. That sight really struck me.