Fifty-five years ago today …

The beginning of a television legend starts filming.

When filming began on the pilot episode of Batman on 11 October 1965, the lead roles had clearly been cast. The plan that day was to produce the pilot, and then film a motion picture to introduce the series for a planned September 1966 introduction.

But the beginning of the 1965-1966 season for ABC started out disastrously. Most of its new shows were tanking in the ratings, and only three of those shows—The FBI, The Big Valley and F Troop—would survive (to 1974, 1969 and 1967, respectively).

Clearly, ABC had major trouble on its hands.

And that leads to this riddle …

Why is the Batman pilot’s story line like Swiss cheese?!?

Answer: Because both have holes in them.

The plot has some lapses in logic, such as The Riddler’s call to Batman on the Batmobile phone prior to the Bat climb at the Gideon Peale Art Gallery. There are a couple of production rough spots as well, if one looks closely enough.

Test audiences gave this pilot episode a real thumbs down, both with and without a laugh track. In other circumstances, that may have been grounds not to ever air this pilot nationally. And it didn’t help that the Batman comic hadn’t been selling well during this era.

But ABC was very desperate, and it made the Batman series the flagship of what it called “The Second Season.” The network introduced some other shows that second week in January 1966.

It might have all seemed like hype when Batman debuted on 12 January 1966, but the work that had commenced on that October day 55 years ago had paid off. Adam West and Burt Ward had their lives changed permanently, as well as some other performers.

From our perspective, the show helped to revive Catwoman as a character in the Gotham universe, and she has remained a force to be reckoned with ever since. And Jill St. John, who had top guest star billing above Frank Gorshin, would exert influence as well, through the creation of the Carrie Kelley Robin and 1970s supporting character Molly Post.

Oh, and one more thing …

Despite the flaws in the story line, the pilot had something that really went in its favor: A genuine sense of magic, bringing in both some humor and a lot of adventure. And it also had, in the second part, tragedy as well. For us who were there that January night in 1966 when it debuted, it left an imprint on us that remains to this day.