Aside from a few truly haunting moments, such as when Dick Grayson’s parents perished in “Robin’s Reckoning,” or when Barbara Gordon died by literally falling onto the hood of a car carrying her own father, “Batman: The Animated Series” never took things beyond a point its audience could handle. Much of that may well be down to the censors reeling them in, but generally, it seems Bruce Timm was keen to keep his core audience in mind even while striving to keep his noirish aesthetic and gritty ambitions in place.
In an interview with Warner Bros.’ Popcorn & Shield show, star Kevin Conroy opined that “Batman: TAS” was successful due to the fact that Timm never “viewed it as a kids’ show.” The co-creator responded by elaborating on the point:
“We obviously always tried to keep the kid audience in mind as well […] but it was aspirational. It wasn’t talking down to them. I always just thought to myself, when I was a kid some of my favorite shows were, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ You look at them and there’s not a lot of action in them really, but it was kind of cool and it was certainly a little more adult, but I enjoyed that. And ‘The Wild Wild West’ […] had great action sequences and stuff in it. And it’s certainly not really a ‘kids’ show […] I was trying to make the show that I myself would’ve loved when I was like eight years old.”