Last month I posted dramatically higher quality fall previews for The Headmaster and The Interns. At the time I noted that this wasn’t something I’d be doing often. However, I do have a higher quality version of a Batman promotional spot that features Batgirl, featured in my article Batgirl and the Batman Phenomenon.
Here’s a still from the original video that shows how washed out it was:
It still upsets me to this day that the ABC brass moved very quickly when they canceled ‘Batman’ in the spring of 1968. The network didn’t even have the decency to air summer reruns and recoup some of their investment, like they did with ‘The Green Hornet’ when that show died.
But at least there wasn’t a tentative fourth season which would’ve seen a budget slashed even further through cost-cutting and the elimination of Robin and Chief O’Hara. And Batgirl being Batman’s permanent partner probably would have resulted in ratings dropping lower than they were in the third season.
I knew you’d post this one {again}, sooner or later.
This is a promo that aired shortly after the third season began in the fall of 1967 (when the series was cut back to one night a week). Gary Owens, who was the voice behind most of ABC’s “A Very Special Season” promos that year, is heard as the deliberately hammy announcer. In January 1968, he’d bring those same talents to NBC’s “ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN”…
…Good find, but can I make a suggestion? If whatever editing/capping/conversion software allows for it, go to whatever filter it has for adjusting chroma levels and tweak up the overall color density about 10%. As those of us who’ve had experience with transferring old films have known for a long time, the color stock used back in the 60’s tends to fade over time, especially leaving the content with a dismal “fade to red”. Bumping up the chroma after the cap won’t totally restore the film back to it’s original color density, but it’ll still help make the final result look better.
…One other suggestion I probably should add: depending on the results you get on the first pass of the cap, you might need to tweak the contrast/brightness as much as +10% for the contrast, and anywhere from -5% to +10% for the brightness. And a final pass through a Sharpness filter will help if you’ve capped at a larger size and are shrinking down a second pass copy for uploading to YouTube.