1 Wait, we get paid for this? In 1971, three years after they finished the Batman TV series, Yvonne Craig and Burt Ward returned to their roles (along with Dick Gautier filling in for Adam West) to film a PSA in support of the Federal Equal Pay Act for the Department of Labor. The act had passed in 1963, making it illegal to pay men and women different salaries if they performed jobs that required equal skill, effort, and responsibility. Nearly ten years later, though, many employers still ignored the law. So the Department of Labor enlisted the Bat crew, including producer (and narrator) William Dozier. The ad shows Batman and Robin tied up in a warehouse with a bomb when Batgirl shows up and wants to talk about why it is that she gets paid less than Robin for doing the same job. Batman says they can talk about it later, but Batgirl seems willing to press the point as the time runs out on the bomb. The commercial ends on a cliffhanger—did Batgirl get a raise? Did Batgirl let Batman and Robin die? Sadly, we’ll never know.
2 Nope, no ulterior motives here! I love having a PSA devoted to how awesome gun events are. It’s almost as if the number one sponsor of DC Comics were a BB gun company…oh, wait, DC was sponsored by Daisy BB guns.
3 Spider-Man sticking up for Planned Parenthood. Called Spider-Man versus Prodigy, the comic appears like a “normal” Marvel comic book, including artwork by regular Spider-Man artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito…but the tagline “A special Planned Parenthood issue” gives it away. The comic involves the evil Prodigy, an alien who has a terrible plot to take over the Earth. He will get the youth of America to have unsafe sex and get pregnant—that way, they will be weakened when his alien invasion comes! Spider-Man, as you might imagine, is quite dismayed at the situation. Luckily, Spidey defeats the bad guy in the end, and then readers are treated to some helpful information about sexual education.