Batman was a 1960s American live action television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It starred two crime-fighting heroes who defended an unruly place... Gotham City. It aired on the American ABC network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968. 

The show was broadcast twice weekly for its first two seasons and weekly for the third, with a total of 120 episodes being produced during its run. The program was best known for its upbeat theme music and delivering camp moral lessons, which included championing the importance of using seat belts, doing homework, eating vegetables and drinking milk among children. 

It was one of my favourite TV shows as a child and it starred Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler among many others. And during my obviously somewhat miss-spent youth, I had somehow amassed the Batcape, the Batcar, the Batcopter and just about every other Bat-thing available from the series as part of my toy collection. It’s sad I know and to be honest it bears no real relevance to my story here but nonetheless, it was true.

And later on in the mid seventies, we witnessed the birth of the trusty old VHS recorder/player and that meant we were now able to record this gem of television for our own personal playback later. I (well dad really) also had a VHS copy of the 1966 film ‘Batman’ that spun off from the TV series, and at the time, it was great entertainment to say the least. 

One of the funniest scenes I can remember from that movie involved Batman getting lowered into the sea on a rope ladder attached to the Batcopter. I honestly don’t remember why now. He was probably just trying to save the world from total destruction as usual I guess.

But to cut a long story short (and without giving away the plot (which I can’t fully remember now anyway)), when the Batcopter later ascends pulling our hero Batman back out of the water, he had what was quite a large rubber shark hanging from his right leg. And undeterred by this seemingly minor inconvenience, he calmly reached down into his utility belt and pulled out a can clearly labelled ‘Shark Repellent Spray’, which miraculously, just happened to be there for him. 

Anyway, a couple of quick squirts from this can into his assailant’s face and the fearsome fish quickly releases its grip of our hero’s leg and dutifully falls back into harmlessness as it re-enters the ocean, leaving our hero free once again to continue saving the world.