When we think of the first TV screening of Batman we automatically think of the 1966 TV series when Adam West took on the role as the caped crusader. However it was the actor Lewis Wilson who first portrayed the Batman on the TV screens.
This day 75 years ago, July 16 1943, the Batman made his first TV appearance.
The series from Columbia pictures consisted of 15 episodes and were produced by Rudolph C. Flothow, directed by Lambert Hillyer.
They were really Wartime propaganda movies.
The Batman/Bruce Wayne , and his side kick, Robin/Dick Grayson ,played by Douglas Croft, are secret government agents following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The city is still Gotham city but there is no Bat mobile but there are however bats in the Bat cave, The duo do not fight any of the villains we know from the comics and the newer Batman movies. No Joker or Riddler but instead Dr. Daka, aJapanese mastermind of a wartime espionage-sabotage group.
Dr Daka has a death ray which is powered by radium and can pulverize walls but can also turn normal men into electronic zombies and do the work for Dr Daka.
Funny enough Dr Daka is played by J. Carrol Naish a New York born Irish-American actor.
The titles of the episodes were: 1. The Electrical Brain; 2. The Bat’s Cave; 3. The Mark of the Zombies; 4. Slaves of the Rising Sun; 5. The Living Corpse; 6. Poison Peril; 7. The Phony Doctor; 8. Lured by Radium; 9. The Sign of the Sphinx; 10. Flying Spies; 11. Nipponese Trap; 12. Embers of Evil; 13. Eight Steps Down; 14. The Executioner Strikes; 15. The Doom of the Rising Sun.
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Sources
IMDB
History of Sorts 
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