Batman: Watch Adam West and Lee Meriwether Talk about the Classic Movie

The DVD release of the original Batman series continues to be tied up by so many copyright issues that you’d think that a group of super villains are behind it. Unfortunately, the studios involved are the only real “Jokers” in this scenario.

Thankfully, the Batman movie isn’t encumbered by such constraints and has been released a couple times on video tape and DVD. The feature film is being released in the Blu-ray format this week with some nice special features. Earlier today, two of the movie’s stars stopped by the Today Show to promote it.

The movie was quickly made just prior to filming of the second season of the TV show and was released in July 1966. To be honest, it feels a lot like an oversized episode of the TV show but its still great to see Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) battling four super criminals — Joker (Cesar Romero), Penguin (Burgess Meredith), Riddler (Frank Gorshin), and Catwoman (Lee Meriwether).

Julie Newmar played the clever queen of the felines on TV but was unavailable for the movie so Meriwether stepped in. Newmar returned to play Catwoman in season two of the series and Eartha Kitt took over the role in season three.

The still-sexy ladies joined forces to present an award to Marlo Thomas on the 2004 TV Land Awards. Here’s an excerpt…