"Batman: The Animated Series" Turns Twenty

Has it really been twenty years since "Batman: The Animated Series" premiered? Good grief, it's true. Time for a little nostalgia, boys and girls.

"Batman: The Animated Series" premiered on FOX Kids back on September 6, 1992, when I was young enough to still be genuinely frightened by some of the episodes. Before this, I only knew Batman from the campy 60s series with all the Bat puns, and a few glimpses of the Tim Burton's "Batman" movies that I wouldn't watch until I was older. It was my first introduction to characters like Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Bane, Killer Croc, Ra's Al Ghul, Clayface, and Two-Face. And it was, I suppose, my first real exposure to the noir genre, through the wrenching tragic tales of villains like Harvey Dent and Mr. Freeze. Throughout the 90s I kept telling myself that I had to stop watching cartoons and grow up, but how was I supposed to give up a show that was telling me such dark and interesting stories, that it hardly seemed like a cartoon at all? I was glued to the television set every weekday at 4:30PM for years.

For most Batman fans of my generation, I think this is the version we're the most familiar with, and it's fitting that the show borrows from so many different sources in the Batman mythos and distills them down to their essence. Oh sure, the Penguin is clearly modeled after the Danny DeVito Penguin from "Batman Returns," but Batman himself has shades of every version that came before him, from the goofy Silver-Age Bat to the grim, Frank Miller Dark Knight of the 80s. It certainly had its own point of view as well, highlighting aspects of the character that others had not. This Batman was a detective first and a bruiser second, and his psychological wounds were far closer to the surface than I'd seen before. It was the psychoanalytical approach to many characters that I found the most interesting, and some of my favorite episodes were the various villain origin stories that traced how mental illnesses and personality problems became full-blown supervillainy.

There were plenty of bad and boring episodes. I own the first two box sets of the show, and on the last rewatch I was surprised at how many misfires I found. Everyone remembers "Heart of Ice" and "Harley and Ivy," but there was a "Moon of the Wolf" or a "I've Got Batman in My Basement" for each of the good ones. The animation ranged from the outstanding to the painfully mediocre, and one of the overseas animation studios that worked on the series was actually fired for not being able to perform up to standard. However, I'm still impressed by the show's ambition, particularly in the early going when they would do almost totally straight crime stories like "POV" and "Paging the Crime Doctor." I used to groan every time "Appointment in Crime Alley" aired during the initial broadcasts, because it was one of the least flashy stories and it seemed like they reran it so often, but now the episode is one of my favorites.

"Batman" became an important touchstone for all the action shows that followed. Many fans point to the series as the origin point of a new breed of serious American animation for grown-ups, though I think that claim is a little oversold. "Batman" was the beginning of the DC Animated Universe, which would include "Superman: the Animated Series," "Justice League," "Batman Beyond," and a handful of movie spin-offs. It would also influence series as wide-ranging as "Spawn," "Gargoyles," and "The Big O." However, the animated "Batman" was never really embraced by the mainstream. FOX tried airing it on prime time for a few months, but it couldn't hold on to adult viewers. It was the kids who grew up with it who still cherish it the most strongly, who it really had an impact on, far more than the Burton movies ultimately.

Subsequent shows, even the ones with the same creative team involved, never quite matched up to the 1992 "Batman" series. I chalk it up to none of the successors ever having anything quite as distinctive and visually appealing as the "Dark Deco" style, and that the period setting was largely dropped. The later Batman cartoons took place in the modern day, instead of that stylized 1940s midnight world that gave the show so much texture and atmosphere. I was disappointed that "Superman" actually took less from the style of the Fleischer "Superman" cartoons than "Batman" did.

In the end it's the little things pop out in my memory. Victor Fries and his snow globe. The Mark Hamill Joker laugh. Shirley Walker's glorious orchestral themes. The sheer terror at watching the robot sentry stalk Barbara Gordon in "Heart of Steel." Harley Quinn on holiday. Alfred flying the Batwing. Nerding out every time we got a Riddler episode, because he was my favorite villain from the old live-action series. Spotting the giant penny in the Batcave. The spectacular finale of the first Clayface story.

Happy 20th, "Batman: The Animated Series." To borrow the popular fannish turn of phrase, it'll always be my "Batman."
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