Filmation's original Batman-Superman Hour

Those of you who have the Adventures Of Batman DVD set of Filmation's 1968-70 Batman series are probably bewildered as to the missing interstitials to the hour-long program from whence it came: The Batman/Superman Hour, which debuted on September 14, 1968 on CBS., a good half-year after the end of the live-action series on ABC. Yes, if there was a candidate for a Holy Grail of Animation, this is surely one of them.

For the record, its generically the 1969 intro and original 1968 end credits. Just like the 1985 Super Powers VHS tape. Whereas the original intro to The Superman-Aquaman Hour Of Adventure has been posted every which way but loose, the Batman/Superman Hour's open has remained mysteriously persona non grata.

Here are the lyrics to the original Batman-Superman Hour, as recalled in a FB post by Ferd Appleby:

Batman! Su---perman!
Watch. out. villains. here. we. come!
(music then);
Penguin, Riddler, Jo-ker too...the caped cru-sader's af-ter you!
(music)
Batman!
(more music)
Batman!
To combat crimmmeee, they work together;
Batman....Batman,
It's a bird, it's a plane.......
It's Suu-perman!
It's Superman, The Man of Steel, it's Superman!
(music)
Batman!
Superman!
Batman!
Superman!
(announcer): The Batman-Superman Hour!

Here is a screenshot I made from an original Batman-Superman Hour commercial outro from 12TVcartoon's now-defunct YouTube profile:



And here is a clip of Batman and Robin from Sesame Street which boasts the catchy, toe-tapping background music theme (without the vocals) to the original 1968 CBS opening of The Batman-Superman Hour:



Well, that's about all I can dig up. If anyone out there has any more, please feel free to contribute!

Bud Collyer played the voice of Superman/Clark Kent as he did in the radio shows in the 1940s. Sadly Collyer died in 1969...ironically the same Fall season in 1969, the two classic game shows he hosted in the 1950s and early 1960s, "To Tell The Truth" and "Beat The Clock", were revived with new episodes and new hosts (Garry Moore for "Truth" and Jack Narz for "Clock"). Collyer was considered to host the revivals but his health was in very bad shape.

Olan Soule and Casey Kasem played Batman/Bruce Wayne and Robin/Dick Grayson respectively in the Filmation "Batman" series and they were cast in Hanna-Barbera's "Super Friends" series in the same roles.

Ted Knight was the narrator and played mostly all of the villains (except for Jane Webb as Catwoman) in the Filmation show. Knight was the narrator in the "Super Friends" first season with hour long episodes. Bob Lloyd and William Woodson took over the narrator duties in the second season of "Super Friends" and Woodson performing full time as the narrator for the rest of the series run.