If you've never seen it, his sitcom pilot Lookwell about an actor who can't distinguish between the TV detective he used to play and real life was ahead of its time.
In fact, as the similarly themed sitcom The Grinder got cancelled after one season and similarly themed film Mindhorn didn't get wide distribution, it's probably still ahead of its time.
My first exposure to the world of DC Comics was watching reruns of the '66 Batman as a kid. This hits close to home for me.
With that said, I don't own any episodes of Batman '66. And my VHS tape of Batman: The Movie is in a box somewhere in my closet. And I'm lazy. And I don't have Netflix. But I really want to watch something to honor his memory... Waitaminute. I can see my Alias Smith and Jones box set from where I'm sitting. I'll just watch the episode "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg". I mean, Andy Devine's in that episode, too, and he was Santa Claus in two episodes of Batman. Close enough, right?
Rest In Peace. Big part of my childhood and at the very start of my lifelong love of Batman. Glad I got to say hi and thanks and get a sig a couple years ago.
Apparently, this was Adam West's phone listing in his hometown of Ketchum, ID.
*golf clap*
RIP Batman
-chris
Chris - Thanks for finding that and posting it. I had heard about this, but never seen it.
I was 4 years old when Batman first aired. My Dad would watch with me. It was serious stuff to me. HaHa. It would open the world of comics and Batman to me. Adam West is #1 on my Batman list because of that.
West was my introduction to Batman. He couldn't have been cooler. You could even say he "ruined" Batman for me, as dark, brooding Batman never jived with my childhood mental file of what Batman was all about.
While Super Friends was probably my first exposure to the superhero genre, the Batman TV show and my first DC comic, a 100-page Justice League issue, weren’t very far behind. My first Halloween costume was a Ben Cooper Batman costume—which I still have—in large part due to my love for the Batman TV show. When I was in college, the Family Channel was airing the show in the afternoons, and I taped them all on my VCR (I still have the tapes) and watched them many, many times over the years, and eventually with my son when he was young. So you can keep your Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy. Make mine Adam West!
Ugh. I checked in my for daily dose of CGS joy and found this very sad news. Being born in 1960, this show made my childhood. I remember waiting on a line that stretched around the block in New York City to see the Batman feature film when it was released. And parked in front of the theatre? The actual Batmobile! Nirvana.
My relationship with Adam West is probably mirrored by many of you. As a kid, he WAS Batman... he taught me right from wrong, and how to be a "good citizen". He always saved the day, and did it with a smile. He was warm and friendly, and operated in the daytime. He drove the coolest car ever imagined and fought the meanest villains. He, in his world of Full Color, dealt in stark black and white.
Then, as I got older, a surly hulking teenager, I grew apart from that Batman, and saw Neal Adams' brand of Batman as the way it should be. More serious, darker, skulking in the night, operating in the gray areas of morality, within the Comics Code's perameters, of course.
Then came the Dark Knight Returns - the definitive Batman, the way he "should have always been". FINALLY! Then the Batman movies, and decades of dark, unrestrained Batman. At this point I full-on RESENTED the Adam West version of the character.
Subsequently, I'm an adult... a father... and suddenly, I tire of the relentless darkness... and yearn for the days of the 70's Batman. A little lighter, not quite as dark...
And, now, I'm middle aged... I've seen joy, sadness, birth, death, peace, riots, love, war. And I yearn for the days of my childhood, when the complexities of life were years away, and Batman in Full Color was a bright shining knight. So, yet again, in the wisdom of my advanced age, he is once again, My Batman.
DAR
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BOOOO DEATH!
RIP old chum
In fact, as the similarly themed sitcom The Grinder got cancelled after one season and similarly themed film Mindhorn didn't get wide distribution, it's probably still ahead of its time.
With that said, I don't own any episodes of Batman '66. And my VHS tape of Batman: The Movie is in a box somewhere in my closet. And I'm lazy. And I don't have Netflix. But I really want to watch something to honor his memory... Waitaminute. I can see my Alias Smith and Jones box set from where I'm sitting. I'll just watch the episode "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg". I mean, Andy Devine's in that episode, too, and he was Santa Claus in two episodes of Batman. Close enough, right?
Seriously, though, I'll miss you, Mr. West.
*golf clap*
RIP Batman
-chris
I was 4 years old when Batman first aired. My Dad would watch with me. It was serious stuff to me. HaHa. It would open the world of comics and Batman to me. Adam West is #1 on my Batman list because of that.
Thank You Mr. West.
Then, as I got older, a surly hulking teenager, I grew apart from that Batman, and saw Neal Adams' brand of Batman as the way it should be. More serious, darker, skulking in the night, operating in the gray areas of morality, within the Comics Code's perameters, of course.
Then came the Dark Knight Returns - the definitive Batman, the way he "should have always been". FINALLY! Then the Batman movies, and decades of dark, unrestrained Batman. At this point I full-on RESENTED the Adam West version of the character.
Subsequently, I'm an adult... a father... and suddenly, I tire of the relentless darkness... and yearn for the days of the 70's Batman. A little lighter, not quite as dark...
And, now, I'm middle aged... I've seen joy, sadness, birth, death, peace, riots, love, war. And I yearn for the days of my childhood, when the complexities of life were years away, and Batman in Full Color was a bright shining knight. So, yet again, in the wisdom of my advanced age, he is once again, My Batman.