After some of the most popular movies made in the late 80s and 90s, it was inevitable that a batman cartoon would be made. What people didn’t expect was that it’d be so bloody good. Bruce Timm decided to make a cartoon that captured the essence of the comic and movies, as opposed to a saturday morning cartoon that just used the characters from the comics (like superfriends did. Dear God, I hated that show).
This is actually quite a surprising thing, because the comics and movies were violent, and dark, and gritty. Admittedly, it wasn’t violent, dark and gritty like an show for adults, but it was for kids, and its style and substance was in stark contrast to every other show out there. Batman: The Animated Series was the first Saturday Morning Cartoon made in the US in 20 years to have guns in it. Actual guns. That’s how far from the days of Yosemite Sam banging off his pistols in every Looney Tunes episode US cartoons had come.
It was also the first cartoon to have a character shot in as much time as well.
It was a hit. It started the DC Animated Universe, leading to Superman and JLA, not to mention a whole bunch of other Batman cartoons, and is still, today, the benchmark by which all superhero, nay, action cartoons are based.
I loved the batman series back in the day. Although, for me it was weekday afternoons, but i suspect just once a week. My favourite “looney toons” night of the week for sure.
A bit of grit was indeed really needed against the rest of what was on offer.