Batman The Animated Series is arguably the best animated show of all time. It cannot be disputed, however, that it is the best comic book animation in existence; this is an empirical fact. It’s blend of classic style, modern storytelling, and undilu🐼ted Batmannery make it an instant cl🦩assic held up as the gold standard of cartoons. Not only did the show distill Batman down to his most pure and relatable form, it innovated and evolved not just the main character, but many supporting characters as well. Without this show, Batman would not be the same as he is today.
The show was not your typical kid's superhero show with bright colors, mustache-twirling bad guys and a moral at the end of every episode. In the same way Batman brought dark and gritty storytelling to the mainstream in both comics and superhero movies, so too did the animated series. It was the first widely popular “mature” kid’s show that put storytelling above merchandising (at least, for a while). We certainly would not have gotten the excellent DC Animated Universe without the show, but we also may never have had cartoons like the Avatar series or Samurai Jack had Batman not paved the way for harder hitting, unsterilized stories in ca𝓰rtoons.
Batman The Animated Series (TAS) was not set up for success, however. The show creators had to fight and persuade their way to get greenlit, and many of the successful components came about by coincidence. Also, with a universe as storied, diverse and well-liked as Batman’s, tons of past influences affected the show and it had future impacts on the franchise that are not so apparent. ꧒So, there are a lot of surprising backstage stories and lesser-known facts about the show floating around that even casual fans of Batman would be interested to know.
25 One Of The Show’s Creators Loves Drawing...
Bruce Timm was the lead character designer for Batman TAS. He wasn’t the only show creator, but he drew the Batman characters in their iconic animated designs and set the style for the fuꦛture of the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) also known as the Timmverse. But Timm didn’t get into comics to draw kids stuff. His interests were more... mature.
Timm made a name for himself and continues to be popular for his first love: Pin-ups. Drawing female characters in lewd or flat out unclothed poses helped make him the darling of comic fanboys everywhere. His classic style influenced by art deco and the 50s and 60s has made hi�🍸�m one of the best artists to ever draw delightful stuff. There’s a reason Harley Quinn is a global symbol these days. Speaking of her…
24 The Show Invented And Redesigned 𝓀Some Of Today’s Favorite Characters
It isn’t exactly a secret that Ha⛎rley Quinn was an original Batman TAS character. Th🔯e now ubiquitous antiheroine was invented by show creators Paul Dini (lead writer) and Bruce Timm specifically for the show after being inspired by a bit i🍸n a soap opera starring Arlene Sorkin. She’s been a major player ever since.
But a lesser-known contribution to modern canon is Victor Fries. Bef📖or💞e Batman TAS, Mr. Freeze . Just some schmuck with an ice ray who turned evil. But the animated series reimagined him as a tragic character who became physically altered in a botched experiment designed to save his dying🅰 wife. His failure drove him to⛦ a life of crime to acquire resources in an attempt to bring her back. The result was the complex and relatable villain that we know and love today.
23 Fate Has a Sense of Humor
If you didn’t know that Mark Hamill, Luke freaking Skywalker, voices the most iconic and loved iteration of the Joker ever, do me a favor and Bat-slap yourself. Every Batman fan should know that and Hamill deserves all the credit in the world for his fantastic portrayal. But him becoming the Joker was more or less an accident that was set in motion by Hamill’s🃏 nerd status.
Hamill loves comics and Batman. When he heard that the animated series was happening and that they were doing it right (all dark and stuff), he asked to be part of the show. Not wanting to disappoint a Skywalker, the show creators gave him a guest part as the tycoon responsible for Mr. Freeze’s wife’s death. Hamill geeked out and asked to be part of the show permanently, hoping to be a minor character without a historꦓy of representation like Clayface. The show’s creators, however, needed to replace the current actor playing the Joker and had Hamill read for the part. The rest is history.
22 Almost a Very Different Joker
But wait! Who was the Joker before Hamill? Who did he replace? Th🌸e first cho꧙ice for the Joker was actually Tim Curry of Rocky Horror, Home Alone and Wild Thornberrys fame. Curry is a phenomenal and unique actor, so why give him the ax? He just sounded too scary. Seeing as how he played Pennywise the 🐼clown in It, yeah I can understand that.
One of the show-runners just thought that Curry’s Joker was too sadistic and had him replaced after already recording a𓃲 few episod𒁃es. They felt that the Joker needed to sound goofy as well as dangerous, with evil lurking just below the surface. They wanted a more whimsical and maniacal Joker as opposed to a sick and twisted one. It’s too bad Curry was too old by the time The Dark Knight rolled around; he would have nailed it.
21 The First Laugh
So Mark Hamill strolls in and creates the Joker off the top of his head because he’s a legend, right? Not so fast. Hamill, like many voice actors, draws upon personal experiences, observed people or past roles, then mix in some emotions and backstory. The show-runners l▨oved the broken soul and unhinged psyche that Hamill added to the character, but where did the trademark Joker laugh come from. Did Hamill spend hours watching patients in an insane asylum? Interview killers on death row? Watch some episodes of Dance Moms? None of the above, but the Dance Moms was actually the closest.
Hamill h🧸ad experience on Broadway starring in the lead role in Amadeus. In the play, Mozart is this and Hamill gave him a silly yet oddly eerie laugh. The unsettling cackle was intended to hint at th☂e darkness underneath the facade and chill the listener. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that the Joker’s over the top camp came from the bright lights and tܫhe big stage.
20 Robin Ruined The Show
Dedicated fans of the series know that ಞthe show went through some changes as it went on, going through several iterations. The title of the show cꦫhanged to The Adventures of Batman and Robin, and then to The New Batman Adventures. The quality also began to go downhill as the style and charm of the first run was replaced by less compelling stories and bright♍er color🐬s. The turn falls at the feet of one person: Robin.
Ok no🦂t actually Robin, but the idea of him. The suits and executives up in marketing loved the success of the show and naturally wanted more. They fell onto their old standby: market hard to the kids. They demanded that Robin be in every single dang episode to grab the kid audience. Later, they demanded again that Dick Grayson transition to Nightwing and Tim Drake tak🙈e on the younger, more relatable Robin role. Needless to say, the show declined under such constraints.
19 A Huge Missed Opportunity
Not convinced Robin ruined the show? Well, take for example one idea for an episode that never made it. The episode would have had Catwoman teaming up with Black Canary, the classic fishnet wearing DC 🍎heroine. Bruce Timm drawing two of the best DC ladies in their own episode? Sign me up. 🐻But alas, Robin strikes again.
Notice anything ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚabout that Selena/Canary team idea? Yeah, no Robin. The suits did not like t💜hat. Since the higher-ups wouldn't budge on excluding Robin for one episode, the idea got scrapped. Robin is like the little puke kid barging in on mommy and daddy time and ruining it for everyone.
18 The Episode Almost No One Has Seen
The lady team idea episode never saw the light of day, but there was another episode that only saw daylight for a brief moment before being nearly forgotten. You guys remember Sega CD? It was a gigantic add on to the Sega Genesis that played, n▨aturally, CDs. Despite its innovation, it fell victim to a godawful games library including a terౠrible Batman TAS game.
The silver lining to this game, however, was around . It lived up to the standards of the show, and fans consider the collected animation to be a lost episode. One reviewer described the game a꧙s a good Batman episode with a mediocre driving game forced into it. Check it out.
17 Dark Beginnings
Batman TAS was a dark (literally and figuratively speaking), violent and morally grey show from the first episode. Normally, this is where I would say, “but it wasn’t always that way.” But that just wouldn't be true. In the earlyꦺ stages of the show’s creation, the creators set forth a sort of constitution. A document laying out the series’ spirit and direction.
In the , as it was called, the creators set forth with three primary rules: “No aliens. No Ghosts. And no [humanitarian] awards. Batman was not some squeaky clean, smiling G.I. Joe who gives a moral or lesson at the end of each episode. They began with the idea that “One thing and one alone keeps Gotham from drowning in a sea of corruption and despair. It is a grim being cloaked as much in mystery as he is in shadows. Like a bat he dives out of the night to feed on Gotham’s evil... He is... Batman!” They stuck to their guns on these ideas despite pushback from the studio, and eventually convinced everyone they were on to someth🍷ing special.
16 Outsmarting The Man
Just because the show-runners got their way, however, doesn’t mean they never caught flak from the censors. They had to pitch the ideas for their show to the studio heads and got clever when “following their rules.” In the beginning, for example, the network w𓂃ould say things like, “You can’t show violence!” and the show-runners would say, “Well you just hear gunshots in an alley and someone falling over, so you never actually see any violence!” The executives admitted that they were technically right, and those rascally show-runners got away with it. When it cღame to more adult things, they grabbed their thinking caps and got even more creative.
At one point, Bullock asks a disguised Harley where he’s seen her before. She replies, “I think I served you a subpoena once... it was a small subpoen💝a.” Harley and Mr. J also have a slew of innuendos just between the two of them such as Harley asking the Joker if he wants to “rev up his Harley” or “try some ofꦿ her pie.”