Adam West, the TV Batman, died at 88.
The TV program in my opinion beat the movies in creativity. The shows had some over the top ways to do away with the Dynamic Duos. They also had some great cameo appearances going up the “side” of buildings. You had to like the villains too. They were in a sense pre-Colombo-ian. That is they used the formula of taking a famous actor and making them a villian. Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, and Victor Buono to just to name a few.
What are some of your best Bat Memories?
The script writers and and the prop guys had a lot of fun, too.
Two shows a week.I thought it was great drama, but I was only six or seven.
I was in grade school as well, but raced home every afternoon to watch Adam West and Burt Ward.
The aftermath continued. 30 years later, I was attending Halloween parties dressed as Cat Woman.
Some of us refuse to grow up.
https://goo.gl/images/4qDEqk
Liz,
For the last 20+ years, if you went to do a patent search at the US Patent and Trademark Office database at
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.htm
one of their search examples is: in/newmar-julie
Go to that link and paste:
in/newmar-julie
into the query field and hit search.
Never thought of a patent having sexy diagrams like the ones in “Pantyhose with shaping band for cheeky derrier relief” (4,003,094).
The things we learn on BDB.
I’ll miss West, but the shows weren’t that great. It was the LOOK… the blend of shiny colors in dark sets at weird angles that grabbed you. I saw them as re-runs as a kid in the 70’s. Now, we Lee Majors goes, THAT’s gonna hit me.
My thoughts were just on the creativity of the show. They were original. They were on twice a week and end the show often with a cliff hangar. The music also added to the show.
I agree the shows were not that great but compared to a lot that goes on today and then they were not bad. They were more of a fad. I thought they did well in translating a comic book to a small screen. The movies I believed failed because they took themselves too seriously. They were never a lot of fun except for the 1967 Adam West one. (I hope I got the year right.)
Julie Newmar vs. Lee Majors… no contest!
The campy element of the show with the Bam! Boom! Zow! commentary was hilarious and an awful lot of fun. Not to mention the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler..
Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, and Frank Gorshin are irreplaceable.
Let’s not forget the Batmobile, the Batcave, the Batpoles, and the Batboat. I wonder if someone will put up the Batsignal with a tear as a graphic tribute.
Come to think of it, has anyone ever had a better mancave than Bruce Wayne? I mean the most any of us ever have is some small room, right?
Not to mention his impeccable butler Alfred Pennyworth who knew everything but was the ultimate in discretion.
Batman had some wonderful character actors. Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and the police chief really added to the show. They played it straight. Another program with a great character actor was Get Smart. The Chief made that show believable. He looked like a long suffering bureaucrat and had an air of authority. Alfred also looked like a butler.
Good shows always have depth in the small parts.
Don’t get me started on Agent 99! She was my idol. :)
She was a great straight “man” for Max. 99 had a great mix of being capable and feminine. She was superior but never had a chip on her shoulder. A great role model in my opinion.
This agent was my favorite role evah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHbPiPOsj3Y
Hat tip to Instapundit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdVJWyoncdU
Cameos video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLuT38m-anc
Batman and Joker surfing with trunks on over their normal costumes. Nothing will ever top that. Julie Newmar as Catwoman. Great fun to watch. I have the whole series on DVD (this and WKRP were the two I never thought would be released due to all of the entangled rights involved). Favorite villains? Gorshin as Riddler, Romero as Joker (who refused to shave his moustache for the part), and Victor Buono as Tut. It shares much the same feel (and many guest stars) as other contemporaneous shows of the era such as The Monkees, Get Smart, and the Wild Wild West. Great period for TV only surpassed by the late 70s.
I remember the show a bit fondly. as it tried to be camp in a 60s style. West was perfect to play a comic book hero , playing seriously without taking it seriously.
The role doomed him but he seemed to handle it in good humor, playing the hand he got dealt with a smile most of the time.
The producer was a genius in that the show was all about the villains, with West as the straight man to play against fun, over the top performances.
In that time, television and movies were separate from reality, which seems to be slipping as a construct for many.
Good thread, good comments.
Now this is worthy of an hour and thirty minutes but not an hour thirty-five minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLXPYQ6bu8Y
Just the right amount of camp; enjoyed the cameos and dramatic actors getting a chance to have fun! Great Wednesday-Thursday cliffhanger, too. Loved the “Bat-tusi” after the spiked orange juice. :-) RIP, Mr. West!
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