56 Years Ago Tonight At 7:30, A Beloved TV Classic & The Best Theme Song Ever Were Gifted To Us

For Stoolies of a certain vintage (read: old), the reaction to hearing that song and seeing those images is a giddy, Pavlovian smile. For they take us back to discovering Batman and his bad-ass song and giving us an idea what falling in love must feel like. I'd already been a Batman kid with the beanbag and Mego action figures and Batmobile and shit. But this was something totally different: a groundbreaking live-action superhero (and his ward) on TV and I ate it up.

The famous cowl. The colors. The camp. Robin's nut-huggers. The tilted angles. The iconic villians. The Bat-phone. Mid-fight comic book flourishes ("POW!"), and, of course, a steady stream of ridiculously attractive women that were shown in all of their complicated splendor (goodie-goodie girl-next-door Batgirl vs. a trio of comely lasses playing the role of the sultry Catwoman). I loved all of it.

Like any grade school kid, I hated getting outta bed for school. But "Batman" was the only show that I ever set my alarm early for so that I could catch the 6:30AM airing on WSBK-TV 38 every weekday. They all felt like cliff-hangers and I coudn't bear to wait another day to see if Batman & Robin would somehow get out of the latest calamity in which they appeared to be doomed. But I did. And then I was there every day until it got yanked. Same Bat-time. Bat-channel.