BGOL Old Man TV Throwback: Batman '66
- Thread starter playahaitian
- Start date
Quick, Robin, to the Blu-ray Box!
‘Batman,’ the 1960s TV Series, Returns in a Collection
The news arrived via a celebrity tweet.
Conan O’Brien posted in January that one of the most beloved TV series of the 1960s, an action-packed absurdist comedy about a costumed crime fighter and his youthful sidekick was finally coming to home video: “Batman,” starring Adam West and Burt Ward, would be released sometime in 2014.
For decades, nostalgic viewers like Mr. O’Brien have clamored for the show, now referred to in fan-speak as “Batman ’66.” Even a boxed set of the decade’s ultimate lemon, “My Mother the Car,” beat the Batmobile. But the wait ends Tuesday, when “Batman: The Complete Series” comes to DVD and Blu-ray with a utility belt-ful of extras like vintage screen tests.
The series needed an exhaustive remastering to bring it up to Blu-ray standards. The source material was “worn and aged,” explained Rosemary Markson, a senior vice president at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “There was significant graining, scratches and fading, all the things you’d expect from television footage dating back nearly half a century.”
But the reasons the Dynamic Duo took so long to come to home video are as convoluted as a Riddler conundrum.
Warner Bros., which owns the comic book giant DC Entertainment, holds the rights to the Batman character. But the TV series belongs to 20th Century Fox. The rival studios had to reach an agreement, and that wasn’t easy. The three stars of the show — Yvonne Craig joined the cast as Batgirl in Season 3 — and a handful of surviving guest stars needed to sign off on the release, the accompanying toys and new tie-in products bearing their likenesses, and agree to help with promotion. And there were producers’ estates to contend with. The last surviving architect of the show, Lorenzo Semple Jr., who created the series, died in March at 91.
The most curious factor, though, was so-called Bat-shame.
There are said to be some fans who have sought to keep this “Batman” from home video. Bruce Timm, a producer of “Batman: The Animated Series” in the 1990s, is quoted in a documentary in the “Batman” set as saying that the feeling was that the series “ruined the public’s perception of superheroes for decades.”
Purists, he said, prefer their Knight dark as pitch.
The ’60s TV show was anything but. From the get-go — two episodes featuring the impressionist Frank Gorshin as the Riddler and Jill St. John as his doomed moll — the series turned a character who began as a hard-boiled costumed detective, sneaking onto comic-book pages under cover of night in 1939, into a milk-drinking do-gooder in tights. Batman (Mr. West) sings “I’m Called Little Buttercup” in one episode, for heaven’s sake! Robin (Mr. Ward) is eaten by a giant clam in another! Zowie!
To these hard-core comic book fans, the camp sensibility — the show’s scripts were rife with double-entendres and played with the utmost sincerity — was a blight on the superhero’s legacy. It was a besmirching that took more than 20 years, dark reimaginings of the character by the comic artists Neal Adams and later Frank Miller and two Tim Burton movies to erase.
Continue reading the main story
A sneak preview of the restored “Batman ’66” was a hit at the giant San Diego Comic-Con gathering in the summer and at New York Comic Con last month. “As a senior superhero, this is wonderful,” Mr. West, 86, said in an interview.
Judging from what has been made available to the press, the remastering has restored the series with an eye-popping panache. Now, the Joker’s hair is the most vivid green. Batman’s cowl becomes a truly shocking pink when sprayed with a radioactive mist by the Mad Hatter (David Wayne). And Robin really is a red breast. The picture clarity reveals, too, that the Batsuit had nipples long before Joel Schumacher took hold of the “Batman” movie franchise in the 1990s. They’re Mr. West’s, but they’re there.
The renewed excitement surrounding “Batman” pales in comparison with the full-fledged Batmania that gripped America when the series debuted on ABC in 1966. Shown twice a week for its first two seasons, “Batman” touched off a nationwide dance trend (the Batusi), hairstyles, fan clubs and a frenzy of merchandising. In the months after the show’s premiere, Mr. West appeared on the cover of Life magazine, sat on Merv Griffin’s talk-show couch and even hosted the variety show “Hollywood Palace” in costume.
The show worked on numerous levels. Kids thought of it as an adventure series, a comic book brought to thrilling life complete with “Bam!” “Pow!” graphics splashed across the screen, but adults knew it was a sly satire. When the diabolical alchemist Dr. Cassandra, played by the film noir leading lady Ida Lupino, literally flattened Batman, Robin and Batgirl using her “Alvino Ray gun,” children had no idea that Alvino Rey was a 1940s bandleader, but their parents did. Adults also recognized the silver screen stars — Rudy Vallee, Vincent Price, Van Johnson and Shelley Winters among them — who turned up in villain-of-the-week roles.
“It was so cool to be on the show,” said Mr. Ward, 69. “Actors’ and actresses’ children would hound their parents to do it.”
Celebrities who snagged roles included Burgess Meredith (the Penguin), Cesar Romero (who refused to shave his mustache to portray the Joker), Victor Buono (King Tut), Milton Berle (Louie the Lilac), Tallulah Bankhead (Black Widow) and Liberace (Chandell). One of three actors playing Mr. Freeze was the film director Otto Preminger, with whom, Mr. West recalled, it was particularly difficult to work. During one take, Mr. West may have “accidentally” kicked a prone Preminger in the ribs to get him to cooperate.
When there weren’t enough villain roles to go around, Mr. Ward said, the producers came up with the “window cameo,” in which Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, Dick Clark and others poked their heads out a window for a chat with Batman and Robin as they climbed up a building.
Appearing even once in a not particularly good episode of “Batman” is still an unshakable credential. “Nora Clavicle was not the high point of my career,” said Barbara Rush, 87, an actress who was known for the TV version of “Peyton Place” when she was cast as an evil feminist trying to blow up Gotham City with explosive mechanical mice. “Batman” fans recognize her on the street, she said, and “sometimes it’s as if I didn’t do anything else.”
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
The credit for the show’s appeal goes to many, but without William Dozier, the producer who maintained the arch tone of the series and served as its uncredited narrator, it might not have worked.
“He talked them into this special way of tilting the camera,” said Julie Newmar, 81, who played Catwoman. “He picked up on the right things. He was brilliant. He completely understood the project. And he was very good at casting. When he picked Burt Ward, he was not an actor, but his mannerisms and voice and enthusiasm were perfect.”
Mr. Dozier, who died in 1991, is quoted in a DVD extra saying that the series’s popularity cooled quickly. “The joke was over after two or three years,” he said. “I think the public started to get a little bored with it.” Nevertheless, the series’ 120 episodes have been shown in syndication on and off ever since. (Reruns can be seen on IFC.) A cult fervor for “Batman ’66” emerged in the United States and Britain in advance of the big-screen “Batman” starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in 1989.
Given the popularity of Christopher Nolan’s bleak “Dark Knight” movie trilogy and the prequel series “Gotham” on Fox, it could be time again for what Mr. West calls “the Bright Knight” to have another moment in the spotlight.
Ms. Craig, 77, certainly thinks so. “You could get ‘I’m Dickens ... He’s Fenster’ on DVD, and that series lasted for a nanosecond on TV,” she said with a laugh. “I’m really happy they finally did this.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/m...s-tv-series-returns-in-a-collection.html?_r=0
‘Batman,’ the 1960s TV Series, Returns in a Collection
The news arrived via a celebrity tweet.
Conan O’Brien posted in January that one of the most beloved TV series of the 1960s, an action-packed absurdist comedy about a costumed crime fighter and his youthful sidekick was finally coming to home video: “Batman,” starring Adam West and Burt Ward, would be released sometime in 2014.
For decades, nostalgic viewers like Mr. O’Brien have clamored for the show, now referred to in fan-speak as “Batman ’66.” Even a boxed set of the decade’s ultimate lemon, “My Mother the Car,” beat the Batmobile. But the wait ends Tuesday, when “Batman: The Complete Series” comes to DVD and Blu-ray with a utility belt-ful of extras like vintage screen tests.
The series needed an exhaustive remastering to bring it up to Blu-ray standards. The source material was “worn and aged,” explained Rosemary Markson, a senior vice president at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “There was significant graining, scratches and fading, all the things you’d expect from television footage dating back nearly half a century.”
But the reasons the Dynamic Duo took so long to come to home video are as convoluted as a Riddler conundrum.
Warner Bros., which owns the comic book giant DC Entertainment, holds the rights to the Batman character. But the TV series belongs to 20th Century Fox. The rival studios had to reach an agreement, and that wasn’t easy. The three stars of the show — Yvonne Craig joined the cast as Batgirl in Season 3 — and a handful of surviving guest stars needed to sign off on the release, the accompanying toys and new tie-in products bearing their likenesses, and agree to help with promotion. And there were producers’ estates to contend with. The last surviving architect of the show, Lorenzo Semple Jr., who created the series, died in March at 91.
The most curious factor, though, was so-called Bat-shame.
There are said to be some fans who have sought to keep this “Batman” from home video. Bruce Timm, a producer of “Batman: The Animated Series” in the 1990s, is quoted in a documentary in the “Batman” set as saying that the feeling was that the series “ruined the public’s perception of superheroes for decades.”
Purists, he said, prefer their Knight dark as pitch.
The ’60s TV show was anything but. From the get-go — two episodes featuring the impressionist Frank Gorshin as the Riddler and Jill St. John as his doomed moll — the series turned a character who began as a hard-boiled costumed detective, sneaking onto comic-book pages under cover of night in 1939, into a milk-drinking do-gooder in tights. Batman (Mr. West) sings “I’m Called Little Buttercup” in one episode, for heaven’s sake! Robin (Mr. Ward) is eaten by a giant clam in another! Zowie!
To these hard-core comic book fans, the camp sensibility — the show’s scripts were rife with double-entendres and played with the utmost sincerity — was a blight on the superhero’s legacy. It was a besmirching that took more than 20 years, dark reimaginings of the character by the comic artists Neal Adams and later Frank Miller and two Tim Burton movies to erase.
Continue reading the main story
A sneak preview of the restored “Batman ’66” was a hit at the giant San Diego Comic-Con gathering in the summer and at New York Comic Con last month. “As a senior superhero, this is wonderful,” Mr. West, 86, said in an interview.
Judging from what has been made available to the press, the remastering has restored the series with an eye-popping panache. Now, the Joker’s hair is the most vivid green. Batman’s cowl becomes a truly shocking pink when sprayed with a radioactive mist by the Mad Hatter (David Wayne). And Robin really is a red breast. The picture clarity reveals, too, that the Batsuit had nipples long before Joel Schumacher took hold of the “Batman” movie franchise in the 1990s. They’re Mr. West’s, but they’re there.
The renewed excitement surrounding “Batman” pales in comparison with the full-fledged Batmania that gripped America when the series debuted on ABC in 1966. Shown twice a week for its first two seasons, “Batman” touched off a nationwide dance trend (the Batusi), hairstyles, fan clubs and a frenzy of merchandising. In the months after the show’s premiere, Mr. West appeared on the cover of Life magazine, sat on Merv Griffin’s talk-show couch and even hosted the variety show “Hollywood Palace” in costume.
The show worked on numerous levels. Kids thought of it as an adventure series, a comic book brought to thrilling life complete with “Bam!” “Pow!” graphics splashed across the screen, but adults knew it was a sly satire. When the diabolical alchemist Dr. Cassandra, played by the film noir leading lady Ida Lupino, literally flattened Batman, Robin and Batgirl using her “Alvino Ray gun,” children had no idea that Alvino Rey was a 1940s bandleader, but their parents did. Adults also recognized the silver screen stars — Rudy Vallee, Vincent Price, Van Johnson and Shelley Winters among them — who turned up in villain-of-the-week roles.
“It was so cool to be on the show,” said Mr. Ward, 69. “Actors’ and actresses’ children would hound their parents to do it.”
Celebrities who snagged roles included Burgess Meredith (the Penguin), Cesar Romero (who refused to shave his mustache to portray the Joker), Victor Buono (King Tut), Milton Berle (Louie the Lilac), Tallulah Bankhead (Black Widow) and Liberace (Chandell). One of three actors playing Mr. Freeze was the film director Otto Preminger, with whom, Mr. West recalled, it was particularly difficult to work. During one take, Mr. West may have “accidentally” kicked a prone Preminger in the ribs to get him to cooperate.
When there weren’t enough villain roles to go around, Mr. Ward said, the producers came up with the “window cameo,” in which Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, Dick Clark and others poked their heads out a window for a chat with Batman and Robin as they climbed up a building.
Appearing even once in a not particularly good episode of “Batman” is still an unshakable credential. “Nora Clavicle was not the high point of my career,” said Barbara Rush, 87, an actress who was known for the TV version of “Peyton Place” when she was cast as an evil feminist trying to blow up Gotham City with explosive mechanical mice. “Batman” fans recognize her on the street, she said, and “sometimes it’s as if I didn’t do anything else.”
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
The credit for the show’s appeal goes to many, but without William Dozier, the producer who maintained the arch tone of the series and served as its uncredited narrator, it might not have worked.
“He talked them into this special way of tilting the camera,” said Julie Newmar, 81, who played Catwoman. “He picked up on the right things. He was brilliant. He completely understood the project. And he was very good at casting. When he picked Burt Ward, he was not an actor, but his mannerisms and voice and enthusiasm were perfect.”
Mr. Dozier, who died in 1991, is quoted in a DVD extra saying that the series’s popularity cooled quickly. “The joke was over after two or three years,” he said. “I think the public started to get a little bored with it.” Nevertheless, the series’ 120 episodes have been shown in syndication on and off ever since. (Reruns can be seen on IFC.) A cult fervor for “Batman ’66” emerged in the United States and Britain in advance of the big-screen “Batman” starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in 1989.
Given the popularity of Christopher Nolan’s bleak “Dark Knight” movie trilogy and the prequel series “Gotham” on Fox, it could be time again for what Mr. West calls “the Bright Knight” to have another moment in the spotlight.
Ms. Craig, 77, certainly thinks so. “You could get ‘I’m Dickens ... He’s Fenster’ on DVD, and that series lasted for a nanosecond on TV,” she said with a laugh. “I’m really happy they finally did this.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/m...s-tv-series-returns-in-a-collection.html?_r=0
Batman The Complete TV Series Limited Edition Blu-ray
$175
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LT1JHLW/?tag=vp314-20
Batman '66 Vol. 1 Hardcover
$15
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401247210/?tag=vp314-20
Men's Batman Classic 1966 Series Grand Heritage Batman Costume
$140
http://www.target.com/p/men-s-batma...pid=14657186&gclid=CKzH-eOj_cECFWwS7AodvAUAPA
$175
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LT1JHLW/?tag=vp314-20
Batman '66 Vol. 1 Hardcover
$15
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401247210/?tag=vp314-20
Men's Batman Classic 1966 Series Grand Heritage Batman Costume
$140
http://www.target.com/p/men-s-batma...pid=14657186&gclid=CKzH-eOj_cECFWwS7AodvAUAPA
Batman, One of the Last Great TV/DVD Holdouts, Finally Arrives. Was It Worth the Wait?
From VHS to DVD to Blu-ray and (legal) downloads, there have been a few TV shows that never made it to home-video, though the numbers are steadily decreasing. This year, Twin Peaks finally made the leap. WKRP in Cincinnati finally got most of its music rights cleared, so it recently found itself on DVD. But this month comes the white whale, the 1966–68 pop-culture phenomenon Batman.
Delayed due to complex rights issues that pitted DC Comics parent company Warner Bros. against Twentieth Century Fox for decades, the series has now been brought out in all digital formats. (If you've desired a box set whose packaging plays the “na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na … Batman!” theme and includes a Hot Wheels Batmobile, your dreams have been answered.) But after decades of being a punch line and an embarrassment to graphic-novel fans tired of “Wham! Pow!” headlines, is Batman worth a look, especially for the uninitiated?
What’s In
Long before game/competition shows like The Voice and American Idol, Batman appeared twice a week on consecutive nights, with the first episode’s cliff-hanger — typically a ludicrous death trap — getting wrapped up in the first few minutes of the second episode. By the third season, the show dropped to once a week, two-part episodes became a rarity, and a fourth season never happened. But the show made its mark with a weird mixture of straight-faced comedy, fantastic music (the theme was by The Odd Couple composer Neal Hefti, the incidental music by Nelson Riddle), and performances by the charismatic — and slightly Shatner-esque — Adam West as Batman, along with an incredible array of guest-stars (Burgess Meredith as Penguin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler) as his foes.
Regardless of which edition you purchase (the “Complete Classic” edition features all 120 episodes, the “Classic” is a best-of boxed set), the colors pop like they never have before — the show is currently running on IFC and MeTV in the non-cleaned-up version, which gives the sense that Vaseline has somehow gotten smeared on the inside AND outside of your screen. And the colors are really the thing. In one commentary, a DC Entertainment executive recalls that Batman was the show that got his parents to buy the family’s first color-TV set, and it’s easier than ever to see why.
Unlike some classic-TV restorations, where higher fidelity just calls attention to sweat stains and makeup failures (looking at you, classic Star Trek), the new detail adds far more than it takes away. Even though Adam West never looks clean-shaven under his cowl, Penguin’s nose is clearly a different color — and material — than the rest of his face, and you can see some serious tights-bunching on Robin (Burt Ward). It’s worth it to be able to read background signs in the Batcave, where, alongside the nuclear reactor that powered the Batmobile and the clearly labeled sign for the service elevator (which we can only assume was reserved for Alfred’s use alone), we can finally see clearly the “Lunar Scanning Screen” and “Intergalactic Recorder” that never got used to foil Batman’s colorful — but decidedly earthbound — villains.
Extras on the fancier sets include screen tests for Adam West and Burt Ward, as well as Carol Burnett Show and Wonder Woman actor Lyle Waggoner auditioning for the lead; Adam West reading his script notes on the first two episodes of the series; and a roundtable discussion of the show with West and some celebrity fans, among them DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee and a less-annoying-than-usual Kevin Smith. Mini-documentaries — one on Adam West, and one on some of the megacollectors of Batman memorabilia — are surprisingly informative, and a tribute to the production guru who came up with the oversize, comic-book-style “sound effects” that appeared onscreen is an unexpected treat. And what’s misidentified on the menu as the “Batgirl Pilot” — actually a seven-and-a-half-minute-long promotional film to propose adding Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) to the cast for the third season to network executives — has long been findable online, but it’s nice to see a slightly cleaned-up version here.
What’s Out
A short feature where the stars and producers of Warner Bros. shows such as The Mentalist, Supernatural, and The Following talk about the show is mostly forgettable, especially when actors too young to have any real connection to the material pretend to have great affection by humming the theme song. While the various stand-alone documentaries give a sense of how big the Batman phenomena was at the time the show aired (as West describes it, the three Bs of the '60s were “the Beatles, Batman, and Bond”) and West’s recollections of the pilot are engaging, episode commentaries would have been welcome. Viewers are left on their own to notice how Gotham City is portrayed by New York stock footage in establishing shots and rear projection for the Batmobile going through the streets, but it suddenly becomes Los Angeles (often going from day to night and back again) whenever stunt work or multiple vehicles are involved. Also mentioned separately but worth paying attention to during the episodes is how obviously mismatched the stunt doubles are for some of the cast, most dramatically, Burt Ward’s Robin (his double was the years-older and many-pounds-heavier stunt coordinator Hubie Kerns).
And while a quick web search can find annotated footage of some of the more of-their-time cameos in the famous “climbing up the wall scenes,” some in-show context would have been a nice addition. “Carpet King” Cyril Lord is no Jerry Lewis, is all I’m saying.
What’s Missing
Most permutations of the newly released series omit the 1966 movie that featured West, Ward, and most of the show’s top villains (with Lee Meriwether as Catwoman, rather than Julie Newmar, who played the role for the first two seasons of the show), and the one version that does include it doesn’t offer a remastered or Blu-ray version. And while there are separate, stand-alone DVD sets of other Adam West–related Batman projects — such as the infamous 1979 Legends of the Superheroes TV specials, and the various animated series on which he reprised the role as a voice actor — it would have been nice to include at least a taste of some of these outings.
But the real rarities are only available in grainy footage online, and there are a lot of them because, seriously, Batman was a phenomenon that The Sopranos, Twin Peaks, and even The Walking Dead can’t touch. Among my favorites: the 1983 episode of Family Feud that matched cast members from Batman (with Lee Meriwether representing Catwoman, rather than Newmar or third-season Catwoman Eartha Kitt) against castaways from Gilligan’s Island, and the 1972 public-service announcement produced for the U.S. Department of Labor that teamed Yvonne Craig and Burt Ward with Get Smart’s Dick Gautier replacing Adam West as Batman to explain that equal pay for equal work should apply to even superheroes of all genders. Forty-plus years later, it’s a fine lesson for all citizens.
Even without more elaborate bells and whistles, Batman fills a major hole in the pop-culture history of TV, and of TV superheroes specifically. But in a world dominated by the doom-as-destiny of Gotham on one end and the world-is-in-mortal-danger-every-week heroics of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on the other, is there room for a show where candy-colored criminals leave elaborate clues to their crimes, henchmen wear shirts with their names/occupations stenciled on them, and the heroes carefully lock their safety belts before driving their nuclear-powered cars to the rescue?
Humorless types will say no. To them, I say na. (Or, more accurately, “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na.”)
Dude I used to watch this.
The best all time was when Bat and Robin had to fight the green Hornet and Kato.
The old Superman was the shit oo.
Dude used to stand with his hands on his hips when they shot at him and the bullets would bounce off his chest.
But when they ran out of bullets and threw the gun at him he would duck ?
The best all time was when Bat and Robin had to fight the green Hornet and Kato.
The old Superman was the shit oo.
Dude used to stand with his hands on his hips when they shot at him and the bullets would bounce off his chest.
But when they ran out of bullets and threw the gun at him he would duck ?
Dude I used to watch this.
The best all time was when Bat and Robin had to fight the green Hornet and Kato.
The old Superman was the shit oo.
Dude used to stand with his hands on his hips when they shot at him and the bullets would bounce off his chest.
But when they ran out of bullets and threw the gun at him he would duck ?
....
RIP Adam West, the only Caped Crusader that matters…Ambush Bug celebrates the life of one of his personal heroes in this interview from Comic Con 2011…
Published at: June 10, 2017, 12:53 p.m. CST by ambush bug
Hey everyone, it’s M.L. Miller aka Ambush Bug from AICN COMICS and AICN HORROR with some devastating news about the passing of one of my childhood heroes Adam West. To me and many Bat-fans, he was the first and best Batman. I don’t usually do these tributes and I’m sure a more in depth look at Mr. West’s life and his long list of work will be posted by one of the other guys here at AICN. But I actually had an opportunity to interview Mr. West at Comic Con in San Diego waaay back in 2011 and I will cherish that interview forever. I still have the audio for the conversation we had where we sat down for lunch and chatted for almost an hour about everything I could think of in my star struck mind about his life, his work, and of course, all things Batman. It was one of the few times I was nervous going into an interview because as far back as I remember, I was watching reruns of him as the Caped Crusader and those memories were so precious to me. Below is that interview…
Ambush Bug talks with the only Caped Crusader that matters, Adam West!!!
Ambush Bug here with another interview I conducted at the San Diego Comic Con. I usually keep my composure during these interviews, but I have to admit I damn near had pups when I found out I’d be sharing a lunch with Adam West at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Mr. West was getting ready for his panel for the Hub which reunited the actor with his BATMAN co-stars Julie Newmar and Burt Ward. I started taping just as Mr. West was ordering his meal and for some odd reason, capturing Adam West ordering and discussing the deliciousness of clam chowder is a Comic Con memory I’ll never forget. Here’s one of my favorite interviews of the con.
ADAM WEST (AW): Do you have clam chowder today?
[The waiter says they do.]
AW: You do? Oh boy. I’m going to have that. I’m going to have clam chowder.
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): Great.
AW: (To his woman who I assumed was his wife sitting at the table with us) And maybe I’ll share a sandwich if you would like.
BUG: So I’m sitting here at the Mayor’s table with someone who plays a mayor on TV, Adam West. It’s an honor to meet you, sir.
AW: Thank you.
BUG: I’m sure you hear this a lot and I hope it’s not offensive to say, but I’ve seen your face since I was a very, very small child. What’s it like being greeted like that? At this Con, I’m sure…have you been over there yet?
AW: Yes, I was there briefly a half an hour ago and it’s sheer madness. It’s good. It’s very good, because I’m able to come in and see…
[Some one interrupts the interview to introduce someone.]
AW: (To the individual) Your timing is so bad. I was in the middle of an interview! (laughs) Okay, where did we end?
BUG: You were saying the Con was madness. So you said it was pretty crazy over there?
AW: Well it’s crazy in a sense in that it’s so amazingly crowded and there are so many different aspects of it with all of the panels and the Q&A’s and people from all walks of the entertainment world and I like it, because these are the people who are ones who are the deciders. In a sense they are the editors of pop culture and they are certainly the ones who have kept me working and known for 45 years. Even our older BATMAN show is now on the Hub Network and strangely enough a new group called Aqua Bats is another show that they are doing and that’s sort of up to the moment rock and I may be involved in that, but yeah I just do a lot of stuff.
BUG: Yeah, you seem very busy.
AW: FAMILY GUY has been wonderful with Seth Macfarlane and the gang. So I think that anything I can do that expands my fanbase, you know it’s not stupid to do.
BUG: Seems like it’s hard work.
AW: It is, but I sort of thrive on that you know.
BUG: So as far as the Con goes, I’m sure this isn’t your first convention out here. How many times have you been out to the San Diego Con?
AW: The San Diego Comic Con I’ve done only…this is the second time.
BUG: Oh really?
AW: Yeah, the time before my family acquired a booth so that they could introduce my new DVD, ADAM WEST NAKED. I don’t know whether you have seen it, but it’s disgusting.
(Both laugh)
AW: No, I reveal all that anyone ever wanted to know about 120 episodes of BATMAN privately to the camera in the basement. So we had a booth and then I did a signing and a Q&A and I find that when I do these comic cons and especially here the Q&A’s are amazing, because I make it sort of a personal challenge to always keep my answers in conversation somewhat fresh otherwise I get bored and you know…I’m sure the audience does, too. But it is a challenge and I’m telling you to be here in San Diego in this kind of environment and weather and whatever with all of these wonderful crazy enthusiastic fans…I mean, this is a real fix for an actor, I guess.
BUG: So you are going to be going on the Hub panel? Have you gone to that yet or are you about to?
AW: No, I’m going to this evening, yeah. Yeah, that’s this evening and then we do another large press conference and that’s about it and tomorrow I have stuff for Fox and FAMILY GUY.
BUG: So let’s talk about FAMILY GUY a little bit. How is that going? Just working with Seth, what’s that like?
AW: Well it’s a piece of cake. Seth and I share the same kind of absurdities and comic sensibilities and I love the show. I mean there are moments of course when I suppose I freeze inside when I don’t want to say something especially, but then I think it’s the actor’s responsibility. If you created a character and if it’s written well and you are able to change a few things from time to time, but to be able to pull it off and that’s what the challenge is with FAMILY GUY.
BUG: Originally, was it supposed to be a reoccurring character or was this just when you first started with FAMILY GUY?
AW: It was reoccurring and Seth and somebody else had written a pilot for me and we got along great, so when he called I asked him what he was doing and he told me and I said, “Yes, I want to be a part of this,” because I have an appreciation I think for the theater for the absurd and the ironies in life and, you know, it gives you are chance to laugh along at yourself.
BUG: It’s great. You have this distinct voice where all you have to do is say a little bit of anything and it’s recognizable. You know it’s Adam West there.
AW: Yeah, it makes it a little easier I guess. I can’t get away with anything, but when you take those more absurd or quirkier parts of your own personality and magnify them as the mayor it becomes kind of fun and I don’t mind being self deprecating, I think that’s part of maybe one of the keys to the longevity of a career. You know, don’t take yourself too seriously for God’s sakes.
BUG: That’s great. Well, let’s talk about BATMAN. I’m sure you’ve talked about BATMAN to so many different people in one way or another, but does it ever get tired going back to those years from the BATMAN series?
AW: It doesn’t.
BUG: Oh good.
AW: Because I think over the years I’ve come to a conclusion. I’ve made it a personal challenge to always try to keep things fresh and maybe give fresher or different slants or something new, a twist, to whatever the question and answer might be, so you know which I’m doing with you, Mark, I’m trying not to be so mundane and per usual, you know. Your questions are good.
BUG: Thanks! Going through the BATMAN series, it was such a wild series, you had all sorts of different things going on through the seasons. I’ve seen them all. I saw them as a kid. I’ve rewatched them as an adult. Every time I see it on television…I just saw the BATMAN movie again just a few days ago.
AW: But you turned out okay, didn’t you?
BUG: Semi-okay. (laughs)
AW: I’m responsible for that!
BUG: I definitely think you are partially responsible for whatever it is I became now.
[Both laugh]
AW: Oh, I keep hearing that, you know, and it’s somewhat humbling.
BUG: So I’m sure you’ve seen the other actors play Batman in the more modern films; what do you think of the newer versions of the character?
AW: That’s a good a question. First of all let me just say that I’m not a critic. I really don’t have too much to say about it, because I haven’t seen them all. I’ve seen bits and pieces, but from what I’ve seen you know they are beautifully produced and wonderfully put together with great talent and a lot of money and so on and it is after all “The Dark Knight”, and what we did made me kind of “The Bright Knight”, you know, it was tongue in cheek and kind of fun, an homage to the comic book.
BUG: Yeah, but the thing is just rewatching it there are some darker moments in there and the character is a dark character, but I think you walked that line very well during the series, because even though there are some goofy concepts you were playing it pretty straight the whole time.
AW: Mark, it’s not an easy line to walk, but they paid me well, okay? (laughs)
BUG: So how did you get the role in the first place? How did that happen?
AW: Well I didn’t find out really until about a year later after we started and the studio and the producers at Greenway with the late Bill Dozer who was our Exec Producer, a brilliant guy…I loved this man. Anyway, they had seen a commercial that I had done for Nestle’s Quik, in which I played kind of a spoof on James Bond and they said, “that’s the turkey who could do Batman.” So they called us out. I had just finished a movie in Europe and they called us out. I read that pilot script and I said “I’m headed back to Europe unless you sign me today, now, because I want to do this show.”
BUG: That’s great.
AW: I saw something in that script that I thought was hilarious and yet great for kids.
BUG: So do you have a favorite episode yourself of the series?
AW: Well, I think my favorite episode is probably the first one when everything was kind of gelling and we all got married to the same concept and way of handling it and when they stopped sending me memos that I wasn’t doing the right thing and they said “Hey, wait a minute, don’t bother him anymore. This guy’s funny.” So I think that it’s probably my favorite and Frank Gorshin as Riddler was always maniacally brilliant and fun to play off of.
BUG: So what about the comics? Were you able to do much research from the comics going into it or did you know of the character beforehand?
AW: That was a matter I think of sense memory in that as a kid I had read Batman comic books and I just stumbled on them when I lived on a farm in an old shack and I got a chance to read them never dreaming that someday I would be that guy, but I started to play Batman as a kid, so 35 years later or whatever it was you know that sense memory came, so I would pull on the cowl and say “Hey, let’s go play Batman. You be Robin, I’ll be Batman”, and it works. You know, you get that childlike thing going with the character.
BUG: That’s great. So what’s it like…you are going to be coming together with some other people from the show, Burt Ward…who else is going to be there on the panel?
AW: Julie Newmar, who was our first Catwoman.
BUG: Have you guys stayed in touch through the years?
AW: A little. You know, we do occasional signings at comic cons together and that’s about it. You know, we’ve all gone our separate ways and our separate enterprises and lifestyles. Julie is just a great girl and Burt is such a funny guy. It’s just when we get together that kind of chemistry or magic comes immediately back like that.
BUG: That’s what I was going to ask. Does it take you back to all of that time ago, to those days?
AW: Yeah, it really does. Here we will be sitting there together as three curiosities. (laughs)
BUG: Well, I don’t want to take up too much of your time.
AW: Let’s just wrap it up and we’ll have lunch.
BUG: Okay, so you have any messages to your fans? Any last Bat messages at the end there for the audience at Ain’t It Cool News? They are full of people who grew up with you just like myself.
AW: Well yeah, I guess Ain’t It Cool, you know you should take a look at my shoes, my wife said they are really cool.
BUG: They are? Yes, they are cool. Those are some fantastic shoes.
[Both laugh]
BUG: One last question, I wanted to ask you about THE MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST. What can you tell me about this book?
AW: You know, it’s amazing to me and it’s some kind of irony I guess that it’s really come full circle. Now here’s a guy that used to read, again he used to read the Batman comic books and now as I look at this thing on the table in front of you THE MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST, my God I have my own comic book. It’s really come full circle and they have done a terrific job with this.
BUG: That’s great. Well thank you so much for sitting here and talking with me today. I don’t want to interrupt your lunch any further, but have a great con and it was a pleasure talking to you.
AW: Thanks, Mark.
BUG: Thanks a lot. It’s a real honor to meet you.
AW: You made it so easy.
BUG: Good. (laughs)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/78001
Published at: June 10, 2017, 12:53 p.m. CST by ambush bug
Hey everyone, it’s M.L. Miller aka Ambush Bug from AICN COMICS and AICN HORROR with some devastating news about the passing of one of my childhood heroes Adam West. To me and many Bat-fans, he was the first and best Batman. I don’t usually do these tributes and I’m sure a more in depth look at Mr. West’s life and his long list of work will be posted by one of the other guys here at AICN. But I actually had an opportunity to interview Mr. West at Comic Con in San Diego waaay back in 2011 and I will cherish that interview forever. I still have the audio for the conversation we had where we sat down for lunch and chatted for almost an hour about everything I could think of in my star struck mind about his life, his work, and of course, all things Batman. It was one of the few times I was nervous going into an interview because as far back as I remember, I was watching reruns of him as the Caped Crusader and those memories were so precious to me. Below is that interview…
Ambush Bug talks with the only Caped Crusader that matters, Adam West!!!
Ambush Bug here with another interview I conducted at the San Diego Comic Con. I usually keep my composure during these interviews, but I have to admit I damn near had pups when I found out I’d be sharing a lunch with Adam West at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Mr. West was getting ready for his panel for the Hub which reunited the actor with his BATMAN co-stars Julie Newmar and Burt Ward. I started taping just as Mr. West was ordering his meal and for some odd reason, capturing Adam West ordering and discussing the deliciousness of clam chowder is a Comic Con memory I’ll never forget. Here’s one of my favorite interviews of the con.
[The waiter says they do.]
AW: You do? Oh boy. I’m going to have that. I’m going to have clam chowder.
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): Great.
AW: (To his woman who I assumed was his wife sitting at the table with us) And maybe I’ll share a sandwich if you would like.
BUG: So I’m sitting here at the Mayor’s table with someone who plays a mayor on TV, Adam West. It’s an honor to meet you, sir.
AW: Thank you.
BUG: I’m sure you hear this a lot and I hope it’s not offensive to say, but I’ve seen your face since I was a very, very small child. What’s it like being greeted like that? At this Con, I’m sure…have you been over there yet?
AW: Yes, I was there briefly a half an hour ago and it’s sheer madness. It’s good. It’s very good, because I’m able to come in and see…
[Some one interrupts the interview to introduce someone.]
AW: (To the individual) Your timing is so bad. I was in the middle of an interview! (laughs) Okay, where did we end?
BUG: You were saying the Con was madness. So you said it was pretty crazy over there?
AW: Well it’s crazy in a sense in that it’s so amazingly crowded and there are so many different aspects of it with all of the panels and the Q&A’s and people from all walks of the entertainment world and I like it, because these are the people who are ones who are the deciders. In a sense they are the editors of pop culture and they are certainly the ones who have kept me working and known for 45 years. Even our older BATMAN show is now on the Hub Network and strangely enough a new group called Aqua Bats is another show that they are doing and that’s sort of up to the moment rock and I may be involved in that, but yeah I just do a lot of stuff.
BUG: Yeah, you seem very busy.
AW: FAMILY GUY has been wonderful with Seth Macfarlane and the gang. So I think that anything I can do that expands my fanbase, you know it’s not stupid to do.
BUG: Seems like it’s hard work.
AW: It is, but I sort of thrive on that you know.
BUG: So as far as the Con goes, I’m sure this isn’t your first convention out here. How many times have you been out to the San Diego Con?
AW: The San Diego Comic Con I’ve done only…this is the second time.
BUG: Oh really?
AW: Yeah, the time before my family acquired a booth so that they could introduce my new DVD, ADAM WEST NAKED. I don’t know whether you have seen it, but it’s disgusting.
(Both laugh)
AW: No, I reveal all that anyone ever wanted to know about 120 episodes of BATMAN privately to the camera in the basement. So we had a booth and then I did a signing and a Q&A and I find that when I do these comic cons and especially here the Q&A’s are amazing, because I make it sort of a personal challenge to always keep my answers in conversation somewhat fresh otherwise I get bored and you know…I’m sure the audience does, too. But it is a challenge and I’m telling you to be here in San Diego in this kind of environment and weather and whatever with all of these wonderful crazy enthusiastic fans…I mean, this is a real fix for an actor, I guess.
BUG: So you are going to be going on the Hub panel? Have you gone to that yet or are you about to?
AW: No, I’m going to this evening, yeah. Yeah, that’s this evening and then we do another large press conference and that’s about it and tomorrow I have stuff for Fox and FAMILY GUY.
BUG: So let’s talk about FAMILY GUY a little bit. How is that going? Just working with Seth, what’s that like?
AW: Well it’s a piece of cake. Seth and I share the same kind of absurdities and comic sensibilities and I love the show. I mean there are moments of course when I suppose I freeze inside when I don’t want to say something especially, but then I think it’s the actor’s responsibility. If you created a character and if it’s written well and you are able to change a few things from time to time, but to be able to pull it off and that’s what the challenge is with FAMILY GUY.
BUG: Originally, was it supposed to be a reoccurring character or was this just when you first started with FAMILY GUY?
AW: It was reoccurring and Seth and somebody else had written a pilot for me and we got along great, so when he called I asked him what he was doing and he told me and I said, “Yes, I want to be a part of this,” because I have an appreciation I think for the theater for the absurd and the ironies in life and, you know, it gives you are chance to laugh along at yourself.
BUG: It’s great. You have this distinct voice where all you have to do is say a little bit of anything and it’s recognizable. You know it’s Adam West there.
AW: Yeah, it makes it a little easier I guess. I can’t get away with anything, but when you take those more absurd or quirkier parts of your own personality and magnify them as the mayor it becomes kind of fun and I don’t mind being self deprecating, I think that’s part of maybe one of the keys to the longevity of a career. You know, don’t take yourself too seriously for God’s sakes.
BUG: That’s great. Well, let’s talk about BATMAN. I’m sure you’ve talked about BATMAN to so many different people in one way or another, but does it ever get tired going back to those years from the BATMAN series?
AW: It doesn’t.
BUG: Oh good.
AW: Because I think over the years I’ve come to a conclusion. I’ve made it a personal challenge to always try to keep things fresh and maybe give fresher or different slants or something new, a twist, to whatever the question and answer might be, so you know which I’m doing with you, Mark, I’m trying not to be so mundane and per usual, you know. Your questions are good.
BUG: Thanks! Going through the BATMAN series, it was such a wild series, you had all sorts of different things going on through the seasons. I’ve seen them all. I saw them as a kid. I’ve rewatched them as an adult. Every time I see it on television…I just saw the BATMAN movie again just a few days ago.
AW: But you turned out okay, didn’t you?
BUG: Semi-okay. (laughs)
AW: I’m responsible for that!
BUG: I definitely think you are partially responsible for whatever it is I became now.
[Both laugh]
AW: Oh, I keep hearing that, you know, and it’s somewhat humbling.
BUG: So I’m sure you’ve seen the other actors play Batman in the more modern films; what do you think of the newer versions of the character?
AW: That’s a good a question. First of all let me just say that I’m not a critic. I really don’t have too much to say about it, because I haven’t seen them all. I’ve seen bits and pieces, but from what I’ve seen you know they are beautifully produced and wonderfully put together with great talent and a lot of money and so on and it is after all “The Dark Knight”, and what we did made me kind of “The Bright Knight”, you know, it was tongue in cheek and kind of fun, an homage to the comic book.
BUG: Yeah, but the thing is just rewatching it there are some darker moments in there and the character is a dark character, but I think you walked that line very well during the series, because even though there are some goofy concepts you were playing it pretty straight the whole time.
AW: Mark, it’s not an easy line to walk, but they paid me well, okay? (laughs)
BUG: So how did you get the role in the first place? How did that happen?
AW: Well I didn’t find out really until about a year later after we started and the studio and the producers at Greenway with the late Bill Dozer who was our Exec Producer, a brilliant guy…I loved this man. Anyway, they had seen a commercial that I had done for Nestle’s Quik, in which I played kind of a spoof on James Bond and they said, “that’s the turkey who could do Batman.” So they called us out. I had just finished a movie in Europe and they called us out. I read that pilot script and I said “I’m headed back to Europe unless you sign me today, now, because I want to do this show.”
BUG: That’s great.
AW: I saw something in that script that I thought was hilarious and yet great for kids.
BUG: So do you have a favorite episode yourself of the series?
AW: Well, I think my favorite episode is probably the first one when everything was kind of gelling and we all got married to the same concept and way of handling it and when they stopped sending me memos that I wasn’t doing the right thing and they said “Hey, wait a minute, don’t bother him anymore. This guy’s funny.” So I think that it’s probably my favorite and Frank Gorshin as Riddler was always maniacally brilliant and fun to play off of.
BUG: So what about the comics? Were you able to do much research from the comics going into it or did you know of the character beforehand?
AW: That was a matter I think of sense memory in that as a kid I had read Batman comic books and I just stumbled on them when I lived on a farm in an old shack and I got a chance to read them never dreaming that someday I would be that guy, but I started to play Batman as a kid, so 35 years later or whatever it was you know that sense memory came, so I would pull on the cowl and say “Hey, let’s go play Batman. You be Robin, I’ll be Batman”, and it works. You know, you get that childlike thing going with the character.
BUG: That’s great. So what’s it like…you are going to be coming together with some other people from the show, Burt Ward…who else is going to be there on the panel?
AW: Julie Newmar, who was our first Catwoman.
BUG: Have you guys stayed in touch through the years?
AW: A little. You know, we do occasional signings at comic cons together and that’s about it. You know, we’ve all gone our separate ways and our separate enterprises and lifestyles. Julie is just a great girl and Burt is such a funny guy. It’s just when we get together that kind of chemistry or magic comes immediately back like that.
BUG: That’s what I was going to ask. Does it take you back to all of that time ago, to those days?
AW: Yeah, it really does. Here we will be sitting there together as three curiosities. (laughs)
BUG: Well, I don’t want to take up too much of your time.
AW: Let’s just wrap it up and we’ll have lunch.
BUG: Okay, so you have any messages to your fans? Any last Bat messages at the end there for the audience at Ain’t It Cool News? They are full of people who grew up with you just like myself.
AW: Well yeah, I guess Ain’t It Cool, you know you should take a look at my shoes, my wife said they are really cool.
BUG: They are? Yes, they are cool. Those are some fantastic shoes.
[Both laugh]
BUG: One last question, I wanted to ask you about THE MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST. What can you tell me about this book?
AW: You know, it’s amazing to me and it’s some kind of irony I guess that it’s really come full circle. Now here’s a guy that used to read, again he used to read the Batman comic books and now as I look at this thing on the table in front of you THE MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST, my God I have my own comic book. It’s really come full circle and they have done a terrific job with this.
BUG: That’s great. Well thank you so much for sitting here and talking with me today. I don’t want to interrupt your lunch any further, but have a great con and it was a pleasure talking to you.
AW: Thanks, Mark.
BUG: Thanks a lot. It’s a real honor to meet you.
AW: You made it so easy.
BUG: Good. (laughs)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/78001
I got the Blu-ray Box set complete with the Batmobile. I got to find some time to go through it. Got for 50% off during the Holidays back in 2015.
All that you posted and left off the chick I wanted to fukk
That's cause you grew up in the age of transformers and shit..
This was classic tv..
They had a spiderman/ superman team up xmen/ teen titans jell even batman and the hulk metfoivht each other and teamed up. A batman/spiderman team up is long overdue
