Did anyone watch this and actually think it was meant to be SERIOUS?

hmmm  It's like - yes and no on the serious side and the frivolous side - because yes - it has some frivolity - and yes - it has some big time serious compelling moments - like when they tie poor Robin to the power saw - or when they squeeze him into some king of electronic mechanism - or into that giant egg timer - just like when that wicked witch does the same with poor Dorothy and Toto, too.

Batman - you just know that he's going to escape - and you just know that he and Robin are going to rescue poor Aunt Harriet any time when she's kidnapped - and Alfred, too.

But for poor Robin - yeah - it's totally compelling no matter how many times you see those reruns - and that is all because you never know if Batman is going to get out of his own trap in time to rescue Robin - and the odds are much greater than the Dynamic Duo is going to get kidnapped and trapped into a torture device than say Aunt Harriet or Alfred ever do, right?

Plus - Robin - the Hot one - really just has to get rescued if anybody does - because then there just wouldn't be really much reason to watch anymore, right?

 Mellow Salutations!

I tried to take it seriously when I was about 12, but ended up finding that frustrating. I wanted a serious Batman show, but had to make do with this.

Technically, I think the Batman TV show is a form of melodrama - specifically a descendant of Victorian stage melodrama in which heroes and heroines were put in peril by the villain through such methods as being tied to railroad tracks before approaching trains or placed on moving conveyor belts in sawmills. Crime was a central element of such stage productions.

This kind of unsophisticated drama survived in the movie serials of the silent era as well as those of the 1930's and 40's. As audiences grew more sophisticated, this kind of melodrama was mostly appreciated by children, who still took it seriously. By the 1960's, such productions were knowingly offered as "camp" to adults (see "Dudley Do-Right," "The Great Race," "The Perils of Pauline," "Thoroughly Modern Millie"), but still enjoyed by children.

The Batman TV show simply set this kind of dated melodrama in "ultra" modern times where technology played a role. My recollection is that the Batman TV show was actually classified as "science-fiction" during its run.

It's worth noting that there are two types of "camp": "Low-camp," where the humorous nature of the melodramatic material is unintentional ("Plan 9 From Outer Space"); and "high-camp" where the humor is very intentional. So, basically, the 1960's Batman TV show was a "high-camp melodrama."

The fact that you are watching a descendant of stage melodrama is made very clear in the opening narration of the very first episode:

"You think Gotham City is a peaceful city? Ho, ho, ho! Put your gum under your seats, hold your breath, and get ready to cheer Batman and hiss his diabolical enemies."

No!

Of course it was a serious show and this show showed us that Batman is the greatest crime fighter in the history of the world. The villains who would visit Gotham had some of the greatest criminal schemes of all time, but Batman always was a step ahead of them

I certainly took it seriously... I was eight in 1966. Of course I couldn't watch the show when it was on the air because my family didn't have a TV. But everybody knew about it - the theme music was everywhere - and there were at least three sets of Batman trading cards to supplement the comic books. I particularly treasured the 80 Page Giants, which mostly contained stories from the late '50s through the early '60s and were profoundly weird with aliens, magic and an endless array of silly supervillains - goofier than than the TV show - in truest Silver Age fashion. Furthermore, I did see the feature film and also the 1943 serial, which was re-released at theaters. I took it all seriously. Hell, I finally got to see the series on TV in 1969 and still took it seriously... for a very brief time. I was slow to catch on to the notion of Batman as parody but when I did, I dropped the TV show like a hot stink-bomb. It took me another decade or two to admit that it was pretty funny for what it was.

That's the beauty of watching things as a kid; you don't consider this kind of aspects or understand what 'sarcasm' or 'camp' means.

You simply watch something to enjoy it - if it's fun to watch, you like it, if it's boring or not fun, you don't like it. You are not getting the nuances or adult jokes, but on the other hand, you're having a lot of fun with a show like this.

Of course the fun comes from a different dimension when you watch this as an adult - Adam West's speeches have me almost rolling on the floor, and Burt's enthusiasm never fails to tickle my soul. As a kid, you wait for the action and love the BWAM! SPLOOSH!-stuff (of course still fun for adult mind), but as an adult, you fully understand the hilariosity (?) of Batman and Robin's incredible, wholesome purity and respect for the law.

No wonder they went to the 'dark and broody' direction after this kind of camp, but holy hilariosity, Batman, would this world be poorer if this show didn't exist.

I'd rather watch this series that the nerd based today comic book movies. All you fucking geeks who jack off over the stupid Avenger and colored Panther movies.