Okay, we get e-mail all the time from readers who don't understand why we only post info about episodic television on DVD, such as weekly series and mini-series, and why we overlook telefilms. Our basic in-a-nutshell answer is that there are too darn many of them, and we barely have time to keep up with what's already on our plate. But to every rule there is an exception, and this is one of them!
Since episodes of the 1966
Batman series aren't available on DVD yet, and there's no sign yet that Warner Brothers (who owns the characters through sister company DC Comics) and 20th Century Fox (who owns the footage from the classic TV series) have reached an agreement yet on when that will become available, we fans of the Adam West/Burt Ward series must console ourselves with what little DVDs are available. I was in heaven when I found
Image's Holy Batmania under the tree this past Christmas (and what an enjoyable pair of discs it is, too!). So I'm anxiously awaiting Anchor Bay's
Return To The Batcave, which we've known was in-the-works
since last September!
Now we owe our thanks to correspondent Pavan Badal, who's been in touch with Anchor Bay recently and got a slew of release dates from them for us! Pavan's responsible for a half-dozen TVShowsOnDVD news stories today, and we owe him our thanks for all of his regular help. But this is his best news of the bunch, at least to me: he passes along Anchor Bay's word that
Return to the Batcave will hit DVD on
May 17th!!
Stay tuned, and we'll bring you details, cost, and cover art for this item just as soon as Anchor Bay makes it available. And don't worry...we're still watching Fox and Warner for some sign of a change. Hopefully they can work it out in time for us to enjoy the actual episodes of the 1966 series around the time of the June 17th premiere of the new film
Batman Begins. That feature looks like it will be pretty damn good, too!
And it's not like noone else is trying to tie in to that release...Sony Home Entertainment announced yesterday that they are releasing
Batman & Robin: The Serial Collection on March 22nd, a 2-disc set ($29.95 SRP) of the orginal 1949 in-theaters serial films. It was a 15-episode weekly black-and-white cliffhanger series starring Robert Lowery and John Duncan as the Dynamic Duo in their efforts to defeat a villian called "The Wizard". Classic stuff...no Batman fan should miss it!
