If one iconic action hero is good, imagine how much better two would be, even if their pairing doesn’t make much sense on the surface. On one side of the coin, there is the muscular jungle man, Tarzan – the vine-swinging character based on the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And on the other side, the masked and caped crusader, fighting the good fight in the asphalt jungle of Gotham City, created by Bob Kane in 1939. Perhaps the only thing these two heroes had in common is that they commonly swung from a rope (vine, whatever.)

But like the chocolate and peanut butter in a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, sometimes you need to think outside the box and take a chance, and that’s precisely what happened in 1977 with the Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour. A year earlier, Tarzan had been given his own animated show, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle. And when CBS decided the show needed to be spiced up a little, the added Batman to the marquee and renamed the show.

Tarzan stayed in the jungle, dealing with his own wild adventures, while Batman and Robin took care of their own crime fighting responsibilities in Gotham City, along with a little help from Batgirl, and a comical little alien midget named Batmite. And most importantly, the voices of Burt Ward and Adam West from the campy 60s show to give some added familiarity.

It was all too good to last, however, and soon Batman would be moving on to bigger opportunities, such as pairing up with Superman. Meanwhile, Tarzan once again got his own new show, Tarzan and the Super 7. And through all of this a lesson was learned: Just because you take one great thing and mix it with another great thing, doesn’t mean the result is always going to be great. Sure, sometimes you get a heck of a candy bar, sometimes you get Sonny and Cher. But, sometimes you get Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone - or the Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour – and often, it’s just better to cut your losses and move on.