BY JOHN BILLINGER
During the production of a television show, a pilot episode is made to showcase what the series its pitching will be like. Some shows are picked up, but many are not and get thrown to the side. Some shows that get picked up last for many seasons, but others either end after one season or get canceled halfway through the first season. The pilots that were either not picked up or canceled during season one are…DEAD ON ARRIVAL. Today, we will discuss one such show.
In the case of today’s subject, this is a little different. It’s not a pilot for a television show. It’s a pilot for a character.
In 1966, the Adam West “Batman” show premiered and became an overnight pop cultural phenomenon, and even to this day, it has still endured popularity. However, in its original run, the success was short-lived. By the end of season two, the ratings were decreasing and to keep the show going forward, show producer William Dozier had an idea to introduce a new character. That idea was Batgirl. The basic idea of this character was not a new one. There was already a pre-existing Batgirl who made a few appearances in the comics during the early 1960s, but she had already been long phased out and forgotten by this point.
Rather than utilizing the earlier character, Dozier decided that their new version of Batgirl should be tied to an already existing supporting character in the show, Commissioner Gordon. With that, Barbara Gordon was created and implemented into the comics in the January 1967 issue of Detective Comics. To pitch the network the new character, Dozier had a small seven-minute pilot filmed to showcase her and the new dynamic she would bring. The pilot itself is a loose adaptation of her first appearance in the comics involving Batman, Robin, and Batgirl fighting the villain Killer Moth, played by Tim Herbert (as of the writing of this article, this pilot remains Killer Moth’s sole live-action appearance).
If you’ve seen any episode of the show or have seen the 1966 “Batman” movie, you know what to expect. The seven-minute pilot is a quick fun superhero story involving the Dynamic Duo. However, it’s not just a Dynamic Duo anymore. As the narrator states, it’s now the Triumphant Trio. Batgirl, played by Yvonne Craig, is a fun new addition to the show and she added some diversity to the cast. The only significant female character in the cast that wasn’t a guest star or villain was Robin’s elderly Aunt Harriet, so it’s nice to have a character that could actually take part in the crime-fighting.
The villain Killer Moth (who never appeared in an actual episode of the show) is about as lame as he was in the comics, and aside from that, there really isn’t much else to say about the pilot. It’s short and sweet and did its job in pitching Batgirl to the network, so a third season was approved featuring the character added to the roster.
While ratings did improve, it was not enough to save the show. ABC canceled “Batman”, airing its final episode on March 14, 1968. There were plans in place to make a fourth season for NBC, but by then, the original sets had been destroyed and NBC abandoned their plans. The show soon gained a second life on rerun syndication, gaining new fans, and continuing popularity to this day.
As for Barbara Gordon, she continued on as Batgirl until Alan Moore’s controversial graphic novel “The Killing Joke” left her paralyzed. She continued on, however, in the form of computer hacker Oracle and eventually regained the use of her legs and became Batgirl once more. While there have been other Batgirls introduced in the comics, Gordon still remains the most popular interpretation of the character. Yvonne Craig, who originally brought her to life in the 1960s, continued on in her acting career for a period. She scored a guest appearance in “Star Trek” in 1969 and reprised the role of Batgirl in an equal pay PSA in 1974, but eventually phased out of acting to do a career in real estate. Craig died on August 17, 2015, at the age of 78. To her credit, she still remains the best live-action version of the character, and will probably remain one of the most iconic depictions of Batgirl for years to come.
Overall, the 1967 Batgirl pilot is an interesting chapter in the long saga of Batman projects that have turned up in the nearly 85 history of the character. Perhaps in a future article, we’ll look at another one.