Batman (1966 TV Series)
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50 free Batman (1966 TV Series) trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The 1966 Batman was the biggest TV phenomenon of its decade: 120 episodes on ABC, twice a week for two seasons, with a rhyming two-part cliffhanger and a narrator urging you to tune in tomorrow at the same Bat-time. Adam West got the role after a Nestle Quik commercial, William Dozier decided the only way to play it was as pop-art camp, and a parade of Hollywood names queued up to play villains, from Cesar Romero's Joker to Vincent Price's Egghead. These 50 questions cover the whole run and its spin-offs: the producer who was also the uncredited narrator, why Burgess Meredith quacked, which actor replaced Frank Gorshin as the Riddler for two episodes, how Batgirl was sold to ABC, the Green Hornet crossover, the tie-in singles written by Mel Torme and Frank Zappa, the 1966 film's bat-shark repellent, and the destroyed sets that ended NBC's rescue plan. Easy questions stick to the core cast and catchphrases; the expert tier asks about auction prices, chart positions and the Godzilla crossover that never happened. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation. Play it solo or print it for a retro TV night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 1966 series?
Adam West
Adam West played it so straight that typecasting stalled his career for years, reducing him to paid appearances in his cape and cowl at car shows and carnivals.
Q 02Who played Dick Grayson, Batman's teenage sidekick, in the 1966 series?
Burt Ward
Burt Ward had trained in karate and did many of his own stunts, which by his own account kept landing him in hospital.
Q 03Which US network aired the 1966 Batman series?
ABC
ABC planned an hour-long show, then split each story across Wednesday and Thursday nights when two half-hour slots came free. Both nights ended the season in the top ten.
Q 04In the first episode of the 1966 Batman series, the Caped Crusader breaks into which dance?
The Batusi
The Batusi has Batman drawing two fingers past each eye like a mask, and the show's star later claimed he made the moves up himself.
Q 05How did the 1966 Batman series film Batman and Robin scaling the walls of buildings?
With a sideways camera
With a sideways camera: the pair walked along a flat floor with their capes held up by strings. The gag let film stars pop out of windows, as so many wanted to be on the show.
Q 06Which actor played the Joker in the 1966 Batman series?
Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero refused to shave off his trademark moustache for the part, so the Joker's white makeup was simply smeared over it, in every episode and in the 1966 film.
Q 07Who played the Penguin in the 1966 Batman series?
Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith had watched his screen career stall when he was blacklisted in the 1950s. Playing the Penguin made him popular all over again.
Q 08In the 1966 Batman series, why did the Penguin's actor improvise his trademark quack?
To avoid coughing
To avoid coughing: the Penguin's cigarette holder held a real lit cigarette, and the smoke kept catching in his throat, so he covered each cough with a squawk.
Q 09Who played Catwoman in the first two seasons of the 1966 Batman series?
Julie Newmar
Julie Newmar made the costume her own, moving the belt from her waist down to her hips to show off her figure. One of her catsuits is now in the Smithsonian.
Q 10Who took over as Catwoman for the third season of the 1966 Batman series?
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt played the part in the 1967-68 season. In January 1968 she criticised the Vietnam War at a White House lunch, and her American career went into a steep decline.
Q 11In the 1966 Batman series, Robin's famous exclamations all begin with which word?
Holy
Holy: the blank was filled to suit the moment, so the 1966 film alone has "Holy sardine!", "Holy Polaris!" and "Holy heart failure!".
Q 12Who was the original Riddler in the 1966 Batman series?
Frank Gorshin
Frank Gorshin earned an Emmy nomination for the part. But when his agents asked for more money, the show refused and briefly recast the role.
Q 13Which Addams Family star briefly played the Riddler in season two of the 1966 Batman series?
John Astin
John Astin filled in for a single two-part story while the regular Riddler's agents held out for more money. The original actor was back for the third season.
Q 21Which future Carol Burnett Show regular screen-tested for the lead in the 1966 Batman series?
Lyle Waggoner
Lyle Waggoner filmed his screen test alongside a would-be Robin of his own. The footage survived and was released on DVD decades later.
Q 22Lorenzo Semple Jr., who wrote the pilot of the 1966 Batman series, later scripted which 1980 space adventure?
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon got the same deliberately over-the-top comic-strip treatment he had devised for Batman, whose pilot he wrote while living in Spain.
Q 23In its first year the 1966 Batman series was nominated for an Emmy as outstanding what?
Comedy series
Q 14Who played Batgirl in the third season of the 1966 Batman series?
Yvonne Craig
Yvonne Craig had been the youngest dancer in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and that training helped when it came to performing Batgirl's stunts.
Q 15In the 1966 Batman series, what is Barbara Gordon's day job?
Librarian
Librarian: in the short film made to sell the character to the network, crooks lock her in a library lounge, which happens to hide her costume in a secret closet.
Q 16Why was Batgirl added to the 1966 Batman series for its third season?
To win more female viewers
To win more female viewers: ratings were sliding, young boys made up much of the audience, and the producer reckoned a heroine could bring in just as many girls.
Q 17Who played Alfred the butler in the 1966 Batman series?
Alan Napier
Alan Napier recalled that he had never read a comic and asked his agent, "What is Batman?" He took the job on hearing it might be worth over $100,000.
Q 18Which regular character was invented for the 1966 Batman series rather than taken from the comics?
Chief O'Hara
Chief O'Hara was created for the show, and within months the comics had borrowed him. Aunt Harriet looks like a TV invention too, but she reached the comics first.
Q 19Who was the uncredited narrator of the 1966 Batman series?
William Dozier
William Dozier, the executive producer, voiced it himself. He had been unhappy to be handed a comic-book show at all, until he saw it could play to adults as well as children.
Q 20The star of the 1966 Batman series was spotted playing a Bond-style spy in an ad for which product?
Nestle Quik
Nestle Quik: the ads cast him as a James Bond-type spy, and he was away in Europe shooting a spaghetti Western when the producer sent for him.
Comedy series: the superhero show was filed alongside sitcoms such as Bewitched and Get Smart, and lost to The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Q 24Batman belongs to Warner Bros., but which rival studio produced the 1966 TV series?
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox owned the footage while DC Comics owned the characters, and the show only reached home video in 2014, when Warner released it under licence from Fox.
Q 25Whose 1964 screenings of the 1943 Batman serial are said to have helped inspire the 1966 series?
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner's Playboy screenings in Chicago drew so much attention that Columbia put the two-decade-old serial back into cinemas the following year.
Q 26Who composed the theme tune of the 1966 Batman series?
Neal Hefti
Neal Hefti called the simple-sounding theme the hardest piece he ever wrote. He tore up a lot of paper and nearly gave up on it, then won a Grammy for it.
Q 27What do the lyrics of the 1966 Batman theme consist of?
A single repeated word
A single repeated word: eight singers cry "Batman!" in harmony with the trumpets. The show's own star later misremembered the voices as horns.
Q 28What name was given to the merchandising craze set off by the 1966 Batman series?
Batmania
Batmania filled the shops with Batman merchandise, and the producers had a feature film in cinemas within months of the first episode.
Q 29Which sign-off closed the cliffhanger episodes of the 1966 Batman series?
Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel! At first the promise was literal: the second half of each story aired the very next night, in the same slot.
Q 30The 1966 Batman series often films its villains at a tilt to hint that they are what?
Crooked
Crooked: the tilted shots, known as Dutch angles, were used mostly in the villains' lairs, and each villain is said to have had an angle of their own.