10 Most Groundbreaking TV Shows Of The '90s

There have been countless adaptations of the Caped Crusader, both animated and live-action, that have changed the perception of the world's greatest detective. but none more so than the incredible Batman: The Animated Series.

Airing in conjunction with the release of Tim Burton's Batman movies (and borrowing heavily from the dark director's iteration of Gotham), Batman: The Animated Series was far from your average cartoon. The writing and the voice acting is among some of the greatest ever seen on television, and it no doubt aided in moving later Batman interpretations into darker territory.

The series won an Emmy award for the Heart of Ice episode, which entirely re-wrote Mr. Freeze's origin story. The impact of this story was so significant, that it ended up being incorporated in many future Batman adaptations (and some of the comic books). To many fans, this is the only acceptable origin story for Freeze. Perhaps because it humanised a villain, and made his motives somehow less villainous than they had been previously.

Prior to this series, Batman villains were often presented as two-dimensional bad guys. The '60s Batman, for example, often had its foes stealing material possessions, with no explanation as to why they crave them. The Animated Series made huge strides in making the bad guys just as accessible to viewers as the eponymous hero. Additionally, the Emmy-award winning series also created Harley Quinn, who has gone on to become one of Batman's most recognisable characters.

While The Simpsons may be the longest-running animated series of all time, Batman is the strongest written. If not for Batman: The Animated Series, who knows where the Caped Crusader - or the whole superhero genre, for that matter - would be today?