Their kids (and grandkids) may be lining up for tickets to The Dark Knight but for most baby boomers Batman still conjures up the words "Pow", "Bop", "Ooof" and "Craaack" flashing across the TV screens of their youth.

Batman was a '60s TV phenomenon, bringing the famous caped crime fighter to the small screen with high camp, low humour, one-liners, puns, hammy acting, absurd situations and the aforementioned sound effects displayed comic-book-style in glorious living colour.

It was the water-cooler program of its day or at least water fountain since its big audience was students.

It debuted in January 1966 at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday nights and shot to the top of the ratings.

The Wednesday night show always ended in a cliffhanger that told viewers to tune in the next night, "same Bat-time, same Bat-channel."

The Batman theme song was a Top 40 radio hit and the show spawned its own marketing industry of games, lunch pails and toys.

The half-hour program made instant stars of Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, respectively, and increased the cachet of impressionist Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, aging actors Caesar Romero as Joker and Burgess Meredith as The Penguin, and gave many of its teenaged audience their first TV hottie in Julie Newmar as Catwoman.

Batman burned out in 1968 but its legacy is that it may have saved the Batman comic book franchise and that eventually led to the character's rebirth on the big screen.

"The comic was going to be cancelled until that show came out and made Batman popular again," said Ken Turner, a Hamilton-based Batman fanatic.

The original Batman was introduced in May 1939 in Detective Comics. The 10-cent book detailed how wealthy industrialist Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered as a youngster and became Batman to fight crime in Gotham City.

The TV show gave the comic book new life and the publication of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a series of 1986 graphic novels, paved the way for Batman, the 1989 movie that cemented the Caped Crusader's place in popular culture, not to mention movie studios' hearts.

The Batman movies have taken in $1.5 billion worldwide and there is every indication The Dark Knight, opening Friday, could be the biggest hit of all.

The new film is again directed by Christopher Nolan and again stars Christian Bale, who teamed for Batman Begins in 2005, which revitalized the ailing movie franchise and placed second only to the 1989 original in box-office take.

The Oscar-buzz already going around about the late Heath Ledger's turn as Joker could shoot The Dark Knight through the box-office roof.

Bale is the seventh actor to don Batman's cowl.

Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery played Batman in serials in the 1940s before West did the TV show.

Michael Keaton played Batman on the big screen in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992).

Val Kilmer starred in Batman Forever (1995) and George Clooney took on the role in Batman & Robin (1997).

Bale showed in Batman Begins that he is more than cowl-worthy and he shouldn't feel bad about being overshadowed by Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight.

It happened to Michael Keaton in the 1989 movie with Jack Nicholson's memorable dark-comic take on Joker.

dfoley@thespec.com

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