Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett looks at the 50th anniversary of the Batman television show.

As hard as it is for me to believe that 2016 is the Golden Anniversary of the 1960's Batman TV series; as a matter of fact, fifty years ago yesterday the first episode aired on American television.  Not that I'll be doing all that much celebrating myself because it's fair to say that having been old enough to have actually watched that episode I have some decidedly mixed feelings about the program.

Like, on the one hand, it essentially created an international 60's superhero boom that impacted every aspect of popular culture and made the general public more comic book conscious.  But on the other it helped reinforce the public perception that superheroes, and the comic books they sprang from, were just a tongue in cheek goof, suitable only for scorn and ridicule.  And even when the fad was over this attitude persisted to such a degree that no matter how comics advanced or evolved over the years, up until recently newspaper headlines about comics where almost legally required to include the words "Wham," "Pow," and "Bang."

Though it's taken decades I think I've finally made my peace with the show and its legacy.  I am a grudge-holding kind of Comic Book Guy, but I can forgive.  But not forget.*

But if nothing else, you've got to admire the show's staying power.  Back in the bad old days before basic cable and VHS, after a TV show left the air it was gone and soon to be forgotten, especially if that show only ran three years.  Conventional wisdom said a TV program had to last at least five years to have enough episodes to have a decent chance of being successful in syndication.  But like Star Trek, another three season "loser," Batman has been in relentless repeats ever since; both shows are currently regular parts of the Saturday night schedule on Me-TV.  Which is, for those unaware, one of those hybrid over the air/basic cable rerun channels which are proliferating like mad; there's also Antenna TV, Get-TV, This-TV, Comet, Escape, and Grit.

Naturally there's going to be ancillary anniversary merchandise.  Although I liked The Lego Movie I'm not a Lego guy.  Still, I have to admit that I was seriously impressed when I saw  the photos of everything that’s included in the Batman Classic TV Batcave set that's being released this March which appeared in The Hollywood Reporter story, "It's Official: 1966 Batman and Batcave Coming To Lego."

And not being entirely made out of stone I must confess that even though we know almost nothing about it, I am kind of interested in seeing the Batman '66 ninety minute animated film featuring the voices of Adam West and Burt Ward reprising their original roles (see “Adam West, Burt Ward to Voice 'Batman' Feature”).  Because while it was campy and ridiculous, you didn't notice any of that when you were a kid.  If you were a kid it was fun, and we could definitely use a "fun" Batman.

There are of course the Batman '66 comics.  I'll be honest, I hadn't been paying them a lot of attention, that is not until the release of the Batman '66 Meets The Man from U.N.C.L.E. mini-series.  Writer Jeff Parker has been doing a top-notch job of getting Batman and Robin to team up with Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin against a new threat from T.H.R.U.S.H.

Plus, I got an unexpected surprise when I read #2.  Regular readers of these things know that I've repeatedly complained about how DC's Arkham Asylum was an anachronism in an America that closed the doors of its "madhouses" decades ago (most recently, see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Do Your Research").  I honestly never expected to see any movement on this issue but apparently in this Gotham costumed criminals are sent to the Arkham Institute for the Criminally Insane.  I'm not sure who to thank for this but, thanks DC.

One last bit of holiday related business.  For the last couple of years, I've mused upon how "special limited edition holiday flavors" proliferate at this magical time of year.  Well, this apparently was the Christmas where multiple manufacturers were convinced that all of America was breathlessly waiting for gingerbread flavoring to be placed in absolutely everything.  I didn't notice it at the time, but as I trolled the various discount bins at Kroger's I found Gingerbread tea, chocolate bars, marshmallows and Pop Tarts (for the record the Limited Edition Pumpkin flavor Pop Tarts didn't seem to go over all that well either).  Also not a tremendous hit from the number of unsold units in the bins, the Betty Crocker Limited Edition Maple Bacon Cookie Mix, proving you can’t put bacon in absolutely everything.  On the other hand, I did grab a package of Betty Crocker Limited Edition Eggnog Cookie Mix, because eggnog flavoring really should be in a lot more food products.  Plus, for 29 cents how could I not?

* It certainly didn't help that during the height of Batmania when my parents couldn't afford to buy a licensed Batman t-shirt my Mother, God Rest Her Soul, meticulously made a Bat insignia and sewed it onto one of my sweatshirts.  I wore its school exactly once and spent the entire day being called "Fatman."

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.