[TMC]

Originally Posted by ph1l

We were lucky enough to get 70 episodes before it was cancelled because of poor ratings. Apparently ABC's Batman, which was in colour, was the major culprit. I would have loved a third season partly because it probably would have been in colour.

How Batman '66 Killed The Munsters

However, on January 12, 1966, The Munsters faced a new threat the macabre clan of monsters living at 1313 Mockingbird Lane couldn't overcome: Batman, starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as Robin the Boy Wonder, premiered "in color" on ABC and brought splashy comic book derring-do to network television. Batman was an instant smash that kicked off a merchandising bonanza dubbed "Batmania" in 1966, but it was the superhero show's unique twice-weekly airing schedule that gravely impacted The Munsters. Batman aired at 7:30 pm on Wednesdays and each episode ended with a cliffhanger to be resolved in the second episode that aired Thursdays at 7:30 pm - directly opposite The Munsters. With the audience more interested in seeing how Batman and Robin escaped each week's deathtrap on Thursday nights, The Munsters' ratings eroded.

Butch Patrick confirmed Batman's deleterious impact on The Munsters' ratings to Daily Mail in 2019. In a look back on the series that made him a child star, Patrick said that Batman "'just came in and took our ratings away." The Munsters' popularity couldn't compete with the bonafide pop culture phenomenon Batman became during its first season. The Munsters was canceled by CBS in May 1966, just five months into Batman season 1.