I’d argue that they weren’t. The animated shorts released by Disney, Warner Brothers, and (especially) Fleischer Studios weren’t necessarily intended solely for children, and they tended to be more sophisticated. Saturday morning cartoons are directly targeted toward children.
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And teens/adults who enjoy fun.
Saturday morning cartoons are the best toy, breakfast cereal, snack food (including Sunny D!), movie, hip clothes (love those Liefeld Levis!) ad machine ever devised.
To say nothing of driving nostalgia-based merchandise sales decades later.
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TAS is the best but I like both. TAS was perfect. It took the characters and really got to what mattered. No detail was too small. The “looks,” the music, the art, the stories. Everything got to the core of the characters.
2004 is good but it a markedly different take on the old characters. I liked seeing some of those differences and put up with the rest. (Besides, they gave me the closest thing to a Red Rain movie I’m going to get)
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Teens and adults sleep in on Saturdays like decent human beings. 
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Maybe in Fantasy Land, but this adult gets up early to watch former Saturday morning greats on DCU. Keep the experience going, I say. 
I would get up early for current Saturday morning fare, but…well, no. DCU’s got them all beat.
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Never been a fan of The Batman. If you’re going to water down Batman for a younger audience Batman: Brave and the Bold is the much better offering. As for Batman TAS, it’s DC’s best animated series. It succeeds on many levels (story, action, characterizations, style and nuance); but TAS mostly succeeds on the strength of Kevin Conroy’s seminal voice acting.
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I want a team up of all three versions for a crisis on infinale batmen movie
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the Batman was ok. I liked some of it. I was never down with some of their character designs though. I always though joker, bane, and Mr. Freeze we’re drawn a little too weird for me. The voice acting was pretty good though. Being a kid who grew up mainly in the 90’s, Batman TAS will always be my number 1. Great voice acting, stories, and animation. It had it all.
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Batman The Animated Series obviously.
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Don’t forget the Mission!
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TAS for me, for sure. I’ve tried watching The Batman a few times but really struggle with it. It’s not bad or poorly done, but I found it difficult to look at.
I’m always blown away by the voice acting in TAS. Mark Hamill aside, George Dzundza as both Scarface and Ventriloquist is mind-blowing.
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Agreed. His Perry White on STAS was on-point as well.
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Batman The Brave And The Bold is my favorite honestly.
But BTAS over The Batman. BTAS was my introduction to Batman and most importantly my introduction to the world of comics
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I love both, but I prefer The Batman. I loved the new character designs and the epic intro. I also really enjoyed its Clayface origin story.
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Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?!
I like both Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman, but I prefer TAS over all. I think out of all the media outside of comics it captured Batman the best, and it had some of the best episodes of any TV series, animated or live action. That having been said, I do agree Batman seemed to get knocked out an awful lot on the show.
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You know which one I’m talkin about 
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2004 can go kick rocks. TAS for life! It’s influence cannot be denied nor can its reception.
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