Who Was the Narrator on the Original ‘Batman’ Series? The Answer Will Make You Say “Holy Voiceovers, Batman!”
If you watched the classic 1960s Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, you remember how often Batman and his trusty sidekick, Robin, got into situations so sticky they resulted in a cliffhanger — which a narrator promised would be resolved in the next episode, “same bat-time, same bat-channel.”
You likely just assumed the narrator was just a professional voice actor. But his real identity is a Batman-worthy twist.
The show’s creator, William Dozier, was actually the narrator on the show, dramatically announcing the dynamic duo’s impending doom, week after week.
Dozier was a successful writer and producer, but he wasn’t an actor. So why did he narrate the series? He apparently had a very specific vision for the voice, and after auditioning several voice actors, decided to take on the task himself.
He also had onscreen cameos in the first and last episodes of the series.
Everett Collection
He joked about the auditions and said that “none of them did it right because they couldn’t stand to be that bad.”
While Dozier is best known for creating Batman, he wasn’t always happy that most people only knew him for the show. He once explained, “I know now how Joan Fontaine, to whom I was once married, felt when she was invariably told by new acquaintances how much they had loved her in Rebecca as if it were the only thing she ever made. Nobody remembers anything else I’ve done, either.”
20th Century Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection
Dozier began his career as a television writer and, while married to Fontaine, cofounded Rampart Productions with her. By the early ’50s, he moved up to become an executive producer for CBS. In 1964, he founded a new company called Greenway Productions and developed Batman, and, later The Green Hornet.
He also narrated The Green Hornet and his voice can be heard in the opening, next-episode trailers and recaps for two-part episodes. Sadly, he passed away on April 23, 1991, at the age of 83, after suffering from a stroke.
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