Warner Bros. gains licensing rights for 1960s Batman TV shows products

Warner Bros. has secured legal rights to license all sorts of products related to and inspired by the 1960s "Batman" TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, Variety reports.

What's not mentioned is whether we'll ever see the program on DVD. It's airing now regularly on Me-TV and the Hub on cable, but has yet to appear on disk. The show was originally produced by 20th Century Fox, but the Batman character, and DC Comics, is owned by Warner. Hopefully, this new arrangement will pave the way for eventual DVD release, too.

Here's some info from Variety:

For the first time in 40 years, Warner Bros. Consumer Products will be able to use the likeness of the show's stars, including Adam West, Burt Ward, Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith, on everything from apparel to toys, home goods, publishing and promotions.
WBCP will introduce the new "Batman" product opportunities to potential partners and retailers at next week's Licensing Expo, running June 12-14 in Las Vegas. First products will launch in the spring.
Retailers had requested a larger merchandise line tied to the show over the years, but studio arm had previously been able to use only the series' logo, POW!-packed animated opening sequence and the Batmobile for product, not the actors, due to rights issues as the series was produced by 20th Century Fox. As a result, studio was limited to a small line of T-shirts and a die-cast Batmobile made by Mattel.

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