Batman: The Animated Series has finally arrived on Blu-ray!
Hurrah!
To celebrate this milestone release, I am publishing Batman: The Animated Series: Revisited – a collection of posts which focus specifically on the show’s recent upgrade to high definition (HD). For the past few days I’ve been watching episodes – commenting on the upgrade, the stories themselves and my recollections of watching them when they first aired in the UK.
In this post, I’m taking a quick break from watching the episodes in order to talk a little about the way in which the series aired.
As previously noted, episodes of Batman: The Animated Series initially aired in the UK in a different order to how they aired in the US, so while working my way through this boxset I’ve been trying to figure out a broadcast order. This is something which is not an easy task, as the show had a bit of truncated broadcast on this side of the pond, appearing on at least two different Saturday morning shows and two different TV stations.
Thanks to YouTube user ADC TV Collection I have acquired at least some of the information about the broadcast order – well, the episodes that appeared on Saturday morning kids show, What’s Up Doc?, anyway. After What’s Up Doc? it all gets a little bit hazy, with some guesswork thrown in for good measure.
ADC TV Collection has uploaded every episode of What’s Up Doc? onto YouTube, so I’ve combed through all the episodes and have worked out the UK broadcast order for the first 54 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.
The order us Brits saw the episodes in is as follows:
- 1 The Cat and the Claw – Part 1
- 2 The Cat and the Claw – Part 2
- 3 On Leather Wings
- 4 Pretty Poison
- 5 Be a Clown
- 6 The Forgotten
- 7 P.O.V
- 8 The Last Laugh
- 9 Underdwellers
- 10 Two-Face – Part 1
- 11 Two-Face – Part 2
- 12 Heart of Ice
- 13 Nothing to Fear
- 14 Feat of Clay – Part 1
- 15 Feat of Clay – Part 2
- 16 Christmas with the Joker
- 17 Fear of Victory
- 18 The Clock King
- 19 The Joker’s Favour
- 20 I’ve Got a Batman in My Basement
- 21 Mad as a Hatter
- 22 The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- 23 Night of the Ninja
- 24 Heart of Steel – Part 1
- 25 Heart of Steel – Part 2
- 26 Vendetta
- 27 Eternal Youth
- 28 Appointment in Crime Alley
- 29 Beware the Gray Ghost
- 30 Dreams in Darkness
- 31 Perchance to Dream
- 32 The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- 33 Cat Scratch Fever
- 34 Moon of the Wolf
- 35 Off Balance
- 36 What is Reality?
- 37 The Mechanic
- 38 Terror in the Sky
- 39 The Laughing Fish
- 40 Zatanna
- 41 Robin’s Reckoning – Part 1
- 42 Robin’s Reckoning – Part 2
- 43 The Man Who Killed Batman
- 44 Joker’s Wild
- 45 Birds of a Feather
- 46 The Demon’s Quest – Part 1
- 47 The Demon’s Quest – Part 2
- 48 His Silicon Soul
- 49 Prophecy of Doom
- 50 Day of the Samurai
- 51 Fire from Olympus
- 52 Blind as a Bat
- 53 If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- 54 I Am the Night
From this point on (in early 1994), as far as I can tell What’s Up Doc? stopped airing episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. The episodes pretty much ran up until the end of the second season of What’s Up Doc?, but didn’t quite see the season out.
Before What’s Up Doc? finished it’s second year, Batman: The Animated Series was dropped from the show’s line-up and was replaced by episodes of Tazmania. When What’s Up Doc? returned for its third year, in late 1994, Batman: The Animated Series was nowhere to be seen and to my knowledge the show didn’t return to ITV until 1995 when Scratchy & Co began airing episodes of Batman: The Animated Series as part of its Saturday morning line-up.
I distinctly remember the two-part story, Shadow of the Bat being the first episodes to air on Scratchy and Co, so I guess these two episodes would have been #55 & #56, but beyond this I have no idea of what order the rest of the episodes would have aired in.
I know Scratchy & Co aired all of the episodes that fell under the banner of The Adventures of Batman & Robin (i.e. Batman: The Animated Series Season Two) and I remember episodes such as Almost Got ‘Im, Mudslide, Harley and Ivy, Worry Men, Read My Lips and Paging the Crime Doctor airing too, I just don’t know what order they appeared in.
I have no recollection of when See No Evil, It’s Never Too Late or Tyger Tyger aired, but I presume it was during the Scatchy & Co days. That is, unless they appeared elsewhere on ITV.
I don’t believe ITV aired any of episodes that appeared under the banner of The New Batman Adventures, so after the first 85 episodes ITV was done with Batman. I know these episodes aired on SKY at some point during the early ‘00s, but I don’t know exactly when or in what order. I would guess that SKY aired the episodes in production order, but I could be wrong.
If anyone reading this blog can help fill in the gaps it would be much appreciated, as I’d love to know the complete broadcast order for Batman: The Animated Series in the UK. Let me know in the comments section if you have the details and I’ll update the list accordingly.
More tomorrow…
***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***
Since I first published this post I have a little more information on the order that Batman: The Animated Series first aired on UK TV screens. The show aired in the order as stated above BUT a few more episodes aired on What’s Up Doc? than I initially thought.
The reason I didn’t spot this is because What’s Up Doc? dropped Batman: The Animated Series from its line-up for a few weeks to make way for episodes of Tazmania and Animaniacs. However, possibly due to viewer feedback, the Saturday morning show brought Batman: The Animated Series back for six weeks… before dropping it again without any explanation.
I’ve updated the list to include these additional six episodes.
The REVISED order us Brits saw episodes of Batman: The Animated Series:
- 1 The Cat and the Claw – Part 1
- 2 The Cat and the Claw – Part 2
- 3 On Leather Wings
- 4 Pretty Poison
- 5 Be a Clown
- 6 The Forgotten
- 7 P.O.V
- 8 The Last Laugh
- 9 Underdwellers
- 10 Two-Face – Part 1
- 11 Two-Face – Part 2
- 12 Heart of Ice
- 13 Nothing to Fear
- 14 Feat of Clay – Part 1
- 15 Feat of Clay – Part 2
- 16 Christmas with the Joker
- 17 Fear of Victory
- 18 The Clock King
- 19 The Joker’s Favour
- 20 I’ve Got a Batman in My Basement
- 21 Mad as a Hatter
- 22 The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- 23 Night of the Ninja
- 24 Heart of Steel – Part 1
- 25 Heart of Steel – Part 2
- 26 Vendetta
- 27 Eternal Youth
- 28 Appointment in Crime Alley
- 29 Beware the Gray Ghost
- 30 Dreams in Darkness
- 31 Perchance to Dream
- 32 The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- 33 Cat Scratch Fever
- 34 Moon of the Wolf
- 35 Off Balance
- 36 What is Reality?
- 37 The Mechanic
- 38 Terror in the Sky
- 39 The Laughing Fish
- 40 Zatanna
- 41 Robin’s Reckoning – Part 1
- 42 Robin’s Reckoning – Part 2
- 43 The Man Who Killed Batman
- 44 Joker’s Wild
- 45 Birds of a Feather
- 46 The Demon’s Quest – Part 1
- 47 The Demon’s Quest – Part 2
- 48 His Silicon Soul
- 49 Prophecy of Doom
- 50 Day of the Samurai
- 51 Fire from Olympus
- 52 Blind as a Bat
- 53 If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- 54 I Am the Night
- 55 Read My Lips
- 56 Harley and Ivy
- 57 See No Evil
- 58 Almost Got ‘Im
- 59 Worry Men
- 60 Mudslide
The list now accounts for 60 of the first 65 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. I would guess the remaining five episodes aired on Scratchy & Co., along with the 20 episodes of The Adventures of Batman and Robin.
Read: Batman: The Animated Series: Revisited – Part 7
Read more:
- Aquaman ‘The Trench’ in development?
- Review: The Legend of Batman Collection (Eaglemoss)
- Batman Beyond is coming to Blu-ray
It's A Stampede! 
10 Responses to Batman: The Animated Series: Revisited – Part 6
Great article. I hope my comments may be of some use to you. Batman Animated Series first aired in UK in July 1992 on What’s Up Doc? First episode to air was Cat and The Claw Part 1. I remember this as Batman Returns was in cinemas and ITV obviously juggled the episode order so Catwoman was prominently featured. You’re correct that when Scratchy and Co replaced ‘Doc the series moved across; by this point i think it was re-named The Adventures of Batman and Robin. I don’t think ITV aired all the episodes . In Christmas holidays 1995, some regions repeated a small selection of episodes every week day morning at 9:25 . These included Heart of Ice, Feat Of Clay parts 1 and 2, Joker’s Favour, The Underdwellers and a few more. In 1997 Batman Mask of The Phantasm had its terrestrial premiere on ITV , with minor edits to language and violence. It was scheduled to last around 90 mins (with adverts) but finished at around 75 mins so they filled the rest of the time with Looney Tunes cartoons. Batman: The Animated Series was briefly shown on CITV in 1999 at 4:50pm on a week day. However, only 2 episodes were aired (the Olympus one and one featuring Scarface ). It was pulled after just 2 weeks. In 1997 , The Adventures of Batman and Robin (which actually may still have been repurposed Batman Animated Series episodes not originally aired in UK) aired Saturday mornings on a kids tv show called Mashed. But ITV stopped airing Batman and Robin that year and I’m not sure how up to date they ever got with it.
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Thanks for the clarification. 🙂 Although B:TAS started on What’s Up Doc in Sept, a few hours before it aired in the US. I know, because I re-watched all of What’s Up Doc a couple of years ago and it started on Sept 5th. Maybe Batman Returns opened in the UK a little later than July? Or was possibly still playing in cinemas?
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Also , Sky One definitely aired the episode Mud Slide as this was one that I had missed initially but had seen advertised on video. I’m sure they aired the later episodes (not early ones like Heart of Ice etc).
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Hi Alex, I think you’re right- Batman Returns was released in cinemas in July 1992 but would have probably been still out in cinemas come September, they were definitely capitalising on Catwoman still being current/fresh in people’s minds. Do you know if any episodes were edited for content? Scarecrow and Clayface eps scary for their time and the Samurai eps had martial arts weapons (I know these were banned from UK broadcasts of Ninja turtles during this time). It’s a shame BTAS was never upgraded to a full time weekday slot on CITV like Beetlejuice and Hulk Hogan’s Rock N’ Wrestling!
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That’s a good question, and while I’m not certain about edits during What’s Up Doc?, I do recall at least one edit when the show aired on CITV for a few weeks. The very first Scarecrow episode had a slight cut in it. But even at the time it aired, I always suspected this was a glitch during the broadcast, rather than a deliberate edit.
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I think they got away with a lot content-wise as it was a serious/dark cartoon on a show that certainly wasn’t serious! I don’t recall any complaints but I think a lot of parents assumed it was a cartoon like any other at that time. BBFC did make a cut of just seconds on Adventures of Batman and robin bumper collection vhs. This may have been scarecrow-related but not sure. It still got a PG certification. Mask of The Phantasm got cut by seconds on video for use of ninja throwing star in 1994. ITV’s version cut Alfred’s exchange with Batman (language) and most of the fight between Joker and Phantasm was trimmed.
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Despite the cuts, I’m glad ITV showed it. But I can’t recall watching Mask of the Phantasm on TV, mostly because I got the VHS tape for Christmas.
It’s crazy to think that back then, we used to have to wait a week for a new episode! And we also had no idea how many episodes there was, what the episodes were about etc.
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I don’t think ITV showed it that frequently- Mask of The Phantasm was only shown a handful of times, not sure if repeat showings had further edits. I remember seeing it for first time on rental in 1995, disappointed that we didn’t getting the cinema release! Yeah that was true for all lot of cartoons back then . On terrestrial television they would sometimes only buy the rights to a smaller selection of episodes and then repeat them years later. Before the Internet,was impossible to know how long some of these things lasted! (When the channel ceased showing them we just assumed that was the end of it). Seeing that list I’m actually surprised how many different episodes ITV actually showed.
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Yeah, I remember watching the ‘90s Spider-Man cartoon, which ends on a sort of cliffhanger, and thinking ‘is there any more?’ It was a few years before I found out that was the end.
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Thanks very much for this page, great work!
I’ve been trying to track down when I saw the BTAS episode “The Forgotten” – it would be the Scratchy & Co era but tracking these dates down is difficult. I thought it would have broadcast in January 1996, but then Scratchy & Co was off from December 1995 to May 1996
I don’t have much useful info, but I found this when trying to track down when an episode was broadcast. The first time I saw the episode “The Forgotten” would have been in it’s 1995-1996 broadcast, but I’ve had no luck in tracking down when that would have been. I suspected it was January 1996 but it seems Scratchy and Co finished a season in December 1995. Maybe Batman stopped showing on Saturdays until it returned in May, maybe my memory is totally wrong.
Again, thanks very much for this work though.
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