Forget going to the club; If you wanted to be cool in the 1960s, you had to make your way onto the Batman set. The popular superhero series was a beacon for celebrity cameos, and more than a few actors cut their teeth as villains.

“It was a show that everyone wanted to do at that period,” said actor Roddy McDowall, better known as The Bookworm, according to The Official Batman Batbook by Joel Eisner. “It was such fun. They were larger-than-life cartoon characters, which were very interesting to play…I loved being part of the whole series. The costume, though, was very hot to wear. It was a wonderful part. I think there was talk about doing three episodes, but I don’t know what happened, because there was only one segment. I don’t know whether they changed their minds about the Bookkeeper or whether I was doing other things.”

Burgess Meredith, who played The Penguin, agreed with McDowall’s sentiment. “After its first few episodes, Batman became the in-thing to do,” said Meredith. “Everybody, including Frank Sinatra, would either play a villain or appear as himself in that cameo showcase where a celebrity would poke his head through the window of a building that Batman and Robin were climbing.”

Watch Batman on MeTV!

Saturdays at 10:30 PM

*available in most MeTV markets

In fact, the exposure the series gave actors seemed to outweigh the money gained from filming.

“Actually, we didn’t get as much money from the show as you might think, although we were paid decent money for the feature film version,” said Meredith. “The main incentive to continue appearing on Batman - beyond the desire to get some TV work - was that it was fashionable.”