Struggling to understand why they are doing this. At most it's worth a single series. Doesn't Gordon arrive around the time Batman comes to Gotham? It might be worth a look at the corruption and the mob families and how it all began but I can't see how there's so much to tell?

“The show will arc a young Bruce Wayne from a child (around 12) into the final episode of the series, when he will put on the cape. We will see how they get to become who they are as Gotham is teetering on the edge. It is an operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality.”

Early reports on Fox’s Batman prequel pilot Gotham has made it sound like its mainly about Commissioner Gordon dealing with various challenges in the wild urban jungle.

But Fox chairman Kevin Reilly dispelled that notion at the network’s Television Critics Association press tour panel in Pasadena on Monday. The network’s licensing deal with Warner Bros. includes the rights to ALL the classic Batman characters — The Joker, The Riddler, Catwoman, Penguin and Batman himself. They will all be young versions of the characters and the show will tell how each became the psychologically damaged character we love today.

“This is all of the classic Batman characters,” Reilly said during the panel. “It follows the arc of how they all became what they were. I’ve read the script its really good. It’s going to be this operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality.”

Batman will be followed from the time he’s a child to “the final episode of the series when he puts on the cape.”

After the panel, Reilly added some more details on the Smallville-ish concept, which will be a serialized drama. “This is the Batman franchise, just backing it up,” Reilly said. “There’s a large tapestry of characters to service over many years. They brought us the entire franchise for a healthy license fee.

Pressed on whether there will be absolutely no familiar costumes on the show, Reilly seemed to suggest there will be some — eventually. “We’re arcing to that,” he said. “We’re not starting in that world where the villains are in costume. You see markers for it that are delicious you see where the evolution and eccentricity where they become those characters. We don’t start off with capes and costumes.”

As for the age of these characters — is this Batman Babies? — Reilly said Bruce Wayne will mainly be played by a young man. “Not to say some season we couldn’t skip ahead and jump,” he added.

If the last scene of the whole thing is going to be Batman's first moments, you can't have The Joker. At that point, in classic canon, he doesn't exist. Hell, there's about three versions about who The Joker was before but every origin story I've seen has him being created (sometimes more or sometimes less directly) by The Batman's actions.

This one I liked