7. Lookwell!
Long before Adam West become a willing participant in lampooning his own persona thanks to a recurring role in Family Guy, a then-virtually-unknown, terminally ginger writer by the name of Conan O'Brien convinced the original TV Batman to mock himself silly via a potentially ground-breaking comedy pilot. Entitled "Lookwell," the show followed a washed up action hero (played by West) who having previously been gifted a ceremonial deputy position by the local law enforcement, decides to start turning up at crime scenes and getting embroiled in things. Cue hilarity. O'Brien and co-writer Robert Smigel (later responsible for some legendary SNL skits) felt the show would be a game changer in the world of TV comedy. A single camera set up (uncommon for productions at the time), lack of laugh track and comedy of the distinctly absurdist and meta-rife variety made it stick out a mile in the landscape of similar shows. It was being produced by Lorne Michael and was a personal favourite of NBC chairman Brandon Tartikoff. Hell, West later went on record as saying it's the best pilot he was ever involved with. So what happened to the show? In short it was way too far ahead of its time, flying miles and miles above the heads of pretty much everyone who'd be responsible for greenlighting a series. Oh, and Tartikoff had the lack of foresight to die, leaving the decision up to folks less enthusiastic about the project than he was.