If you believe that the gay "Batman" of TV was the "original", you are ignorant beyond all redemption.
If anything, the Batman movies of the past few years have represented a largely successful attempt to cast off the insulting, effeminate "Batman" of TV and to return Batman to the truth of his comic book origins, which were indeed dark and "dramatic".
The real Batman has never been "fun".
I never saw the comic book hero as 'dark'.
That is a liberal concept.
Sorry to burst the ol' bubble, but there never was a *real* Batman. Just a fictional character meant to entertain.
We're assigning way too much importance to the characters of childhood's "graphic novels" (well, except for Doc Savage, of course!)
here here!