The adventures of the Caped Crusader and his sidekick first aired Jan. 12, 1966 and quickly became a success. The two episodes, aired Wednesday and Thursday, each week consistently made up the top 10 watched shows that season, according to CNN.

"I remember sitting in my little apartment with a little television. I had not seen it put together in any form whatsoever, and I watched it and thought, 'Gee, this is really good,'" Ward said in an interview with CNN.

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The studio scrambled to make a movie that summer.

The show featured prominent actors in roles as guest villains including Vincent Price as Egghead, Cesar Romero as the Joker and Burgess Meredith as the Penguin. Other stars would vie for a cameo during the wall walk scenes, including Jerry Lewis, Dick Clark and Sammy Davis Jr.

"Every one of the (guest villains) was a treat. I was like a kid in a candy store," Ward told CNN. "These were people I looked up to growing up."

For its third season, the show aired once a week. Ratings began to fade. It was abruptly cancelled in March 1968 but not before airing 120 episodes and spawning a fascination with the Dark Knight which still continues.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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