When did the series Jump The Shark?

It's hard to pinpoint it, but, yeah, from season two onwards saw the rot gradually creeping in.

The villains just weren't as good. West mentions in his autobiography "Back To The Batcave" that he pushed for classic "Batman" villains like Two-Face to be included in the show, only to be over-ruled, so instead the viewers were offered Minstrel as the season two headliner (!); and although they kept a classic Batman villain in the Riddler, Astin's performance was nothing like as compelling as Gorshin's knock-out portrayal.

Basically, the knowing archness of the first season was replaced by too much overt silliness, giving the impression that the producers of the show were laughing at the audience, rather than sharing a joke with them. There's also the argument that "Batman" was the victim of its own success, with celebrities queuing up to do those "popping heads through a 'window' as Batman and Robin scale a building" bits, which again added to the general air of silliness.

Season three was just unbearable. This isn't a jibe at the recently deceased Craig, as I quite liked her Batgirl, but the show really had lost its way badly by then - single episode adventures? Minimalist sets? Ah well, at least they brought Gorshin back...

I'm not pretending season one is perfect. The Bookworm episodes fall a bit flat, and seem to rather ominously foreshadow the increasingly silly direction the show would go on to take. Still, re-watching season one, I'm surprised at just how good it is. West and Ward are both great, and a great double act; the production values are excellent; the writing is sharp; and many of the performances are excellent. I've mentioned Gorshin before, but Meredith's Penguin, Newmar's Catwoman, and Romero's Joker were all great turns - the latter's refusal to shave his moustache be damned!

Oh, you may also be interested in reading these thoughts and venting your own at:

http://www.jumpedtheshark.co.uk/tv-shows-b/batman-1966/

It never jumped the shark.
In the third season, they slashed the budget, and the novelty of "wow its in color" was over, so that was the last season.

You're perverted, twisted, and sick. I like that in a person.

It jumped the shark in Season 3, because the scripts and the villains got worse and worse. Adam west noticed the drop in quality and realized that ABC had written the series off, and was just stringing it out till it could get into re-runs.

You has some good stuff in Season 3, like "Shame" and the old standby's like the Joker, Riddler, and Penguin. But Ethel Merman, Van Johnson, Milton Berle, and Ertha Kitt were just awful.

That was in the Batman movie with Adam West, but it was a phony shark. I think it was the Penguin who planned it. But Batman was at his best here and thankfully was carrying his shark repellant to get away from that fake exploding shark. In this TV series, there was no shark

Probably Season 3, when they introduced Batgirl and changed the format to once a week.

I don't at all blame Yvonne Craig as she did her best but I don't know if Batgirl should've been utilized or shoehorned in every single episode. It just felt like a testing ground for a potential spin-off since the future of the main Batman series was at that point, in doubt.

And with the reduced episode count (going from two-parters, to only one story per week), there just was never going to be enough time to develop a story if you're going to introduce a new major character like Batgirl.

Plus, the show at this point, felt really cheap. You can tell right away, that the budget was slashed by how the villains' hideouts were always had these black backgrounds with essentially, cardboard cutouts as "sets". It didn't help that the show by this point, felt like a full-blown self-parody.

with the Shark Repellent. lol.

Wonderful show.

I think it started AFTER jumping the shark.