10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Batman: The Animated Series
5. The Reason Why It Changed To The Adventures Of Batman And Robin
Warner Bros.
Batman: The Animated Series tends to denote pretty much every incarnation the show went through, which includes both the Adventures of Batman & Robin and The New Batman Adventures. However, while the reason for the change to TNBA was fairly obvious and publicly documented, the explanation for the first name change isn't so well known.
The showrunners behind BTAS have frequently discussed their battles with Fox over the direction of the series, and it's also the reason why the show underwent a name change for its final fifteen episodes. Not content with giving pages upon pages of feedback to BTAS' writers on what they could and couldn't depict, Fox also asked that they change the name of BTAS to include Robin, and to include the character as much as possible.
Fortunately for the writers Robin was already one of the show's best characters, with Loren Lester turning in great performances as the character. Sadly though, Fox's restrictions meant certain episodes never saw the light of day - the aforementioned Canary/Catwoman story being just one of them.
Robin had to be in everything, and it was only when the series made the jump to The WB that BTAS' showrunners were given greater creative freedom.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
