20th Century Fox
Batman was produced by Greenway Productions for 20th Century Fox for ABC Television- confusing isn't it?
This is the former main entrance to Fox
Studios on Santa Monica Blvd.
The 20th Century Fox Studios is located at 10201 Pico Boulevard Century City, CA. The lot started in 1928 filming Tom Mix movies then progressed to where it is today.
During the time of the show, 20th Century Fox was filming on their stages such shows as Lost In Space, Peyton Place, Voyage To the Bottom Of The Sea, Tammy Grimes - plus a ton of moves and other productions.
Batman when shooting their pilot episode used only the 20th Century Lot and soundstages for filming with some exteriors shots at Warner Brother's New York St. After the series was sold, the decision was made to move the entire production to the Culver City Studios owned by Lucy and Desi Arnez.
The Vincent Peale Art Gallery in the first episode was really part of the Fox personnel office on the studio lot.
In 1966 Batman was part of a successful 20th Century Fox TV lineup but things hadn't always looked so rosy for the studio. In 1964 the studio was actually faced with closing it's doors.
Because of a series of
events Fox was in ruin. Darrel Zanuck , the Hollywood mogul had left
the studio. In their quest for a "big picture" ,
they started filming the epic - " Cleopatra". Production started in
1960 yet it was not released until 1963. It used three different directors
and the costs involved were staggering - $40 million dollars. While the film was
well viewed, it did not even break even until 1966. 
Not
surprisingly, Television was still just coming on the scene. Batman in fact was
one of the "new" programs broadcast in color. The whole industry had
to adjust but would Fox recover before they went under ? They produced several
movies during 1963 and 1964 but not any that generated that much cash until they
hit on their savior - a little film about a family in pre WW2 that sang.
"The Sound of Music " was the sound of cash for the studio and
they once again could breathe easy yet during that time to generate cash flow
they had sold of a majority of their backlot. In 1961 due to the blood loss from
" Cleopatra" Fox sold the entire backlot for $43 million dollars to
Alcoa Aluminum Corp and then leased back 76 acres to continue film production.
Slowly the backlot was turned into commercial property.
In this scene shot on the edge of the Fox lot, the new Century Plaza Hotel was right off camera. When the Riddler's car blew up - sparks and rubber flew over the fence and caught the hotel on fire which had to be put out by the fire Department.
In 1965 Batman comes along and after the pilot is a hit, they must figure out where to begin regular production. William Dozier's office for Greenway Productions is already located on the Fox Lot. They decide to move down the street to Desilu Culver. The entire production including the Batcave had to be recreated on the Culver Studio lot and everything was loaded on flatbed trailers and taken across town.
Notice the differences in Commissioner Gordon's Office at the Fox Studio vs Later on the Culver soundstage.
The main reason for Batman being forced to move was space. Fox had sold off most of their backlot and they also thought - "hey, the Sound of Music was awesome " so lets do three more multi million dollar musicals !!! The produced " Star" in 66 "Dr Do Little" in 67 and "Hello Dolly " in 69. These took up a great deal of space on the studio.
In Front of the Administration Building Filming in Episode 3
Moving from one studio to another and the problems getting on the lot at Fox cost the series time and money. See below for a memo on production where the cast and crew were kept from using the Fox backlot due to problems.
Batman still used The main Fox lot for shooting but most of the locations were the actual offices for the studio rather than the shrinking backlot. They did on occasion use the New York Street that ends up appearing in the Hello Dolly movie set.
The Studio as it looked during Hello Dolly in 1974
The 1966 Batman movie used the Fox lot, off set locations such as Marineland, The Santa Barbara Pier and the studios at Culver. If you notice in the movie you don't see the exterior of Commissioner Gordon's office ( where they drive up and run inside ) that was on the Warner Brother's lot and due to cost of paying to use that studio in a movie, they decided to eliminate that from the script.
As the Show went on due to a limited budget, they used exterior shots less frequently until the end of the show. Below are some comparison shots from Batman all filmed at 20th Century Fox.
Power Building Used On Episode 27 On Fox Lot
The Main Fox Studios In 1944
Above - Photos : Penguin Enters The lot , Batman Responds, Woodrow Roosevelt High School, The old Writers Building
Eventually Century City took all the old backlot at Fox but the main studio still stands. After Batman, the hard times for the studio weren't over, things got so bad because of their debt that in 1970 they only released one major motion picture. Slowly they began to recover but never to the former glory they had in the 40's and 50's. That era was over for all the studios. The new York Street is still there and was recently the set for NYPD Blue.
The Fox Lot Today
I'm sure the studio will never forget the Bat visited from 66 - 68 :)
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