We have two things to be grateful to the TV series for: Alfred and Batgirl.
Alfred was originally nothing like Alan Napier and (I think) had even been killed off in the comics by the time the TV series was commissioned. On the other hand, maybe Bob Hoskins would have played him instead of Michael Cane, which might have been interesting.
Batgirl was introduced in the TV series to provide Robin/Dick with a love interest in response to the gay accusations that went around at the time. Originally, Aunt Harriet was intended to dispel those rumours, but that was a mis-judged ploy. Anyway, Dozier put Batgirl into the TV series and, in collaboration with the comics, Carmine Infantino put her in the back pages of Detective, too.
Curiously, while the camp humour of the TV series began to reflect itself in both the Batman and Detective periodicals, Infantino (and Denny O Neill, I think) made Batgirl a little more serious than that. Not much, but a little.
The series and the film that went with it were my first exposure, of course, and actually seeing a real live Batmobile was about the biggest thrill of the whole Bat-experience in a time when custom cars were very, very rare and Pimp My Ride hadn't even come close to being a glint in the eye of the intent of the whim of the grandfather of the man who brought X-ibit and West Coast Motors to MTV screens worldwide.
But as for the first encounter with the real Batman, that was delivered by Tim Burton in 89, mere months after I'd devoured the Miller canon on the subject.
)
