Adam West as the suave and sophisticated millionaire
Bruce Wayne, alter ego of TV's Batman
I've known the name and face of West for pretty much my whole life. I'm sure I caught at least some episodes of the show's original run, though I would have been so young that I simply don't remember. As I got a bit older.... still younger than age ten.... I found the show in heavy syndication and watched it as often as possible. And as I entered my teens, I still loved the straight-faced campiness of Batman. I suppose I didn't really get the humour so much back then, but after a few more years, I definitely understood the tone of the show. Plenty of subtle and only not-so-subtle jokes for the older crowd.
But as a young lad, I was insane about Batman. Sure, I had some of the comics in my collection... there was one from the early 1960's that I found at a yard sale, and I amassed a selection of the various Batman titles of the time (the 70's), including the Detective Comics... but my biggest influence was the TV show. I was nuts about that version of Batman, his sidekick Robin, butler Alfred, Catwoman, Joker, Riddler, and all the other villains, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon... the whole cast. The Batcave, the Batphone, the Batpoles (!), the Bat Computer, the Batarang boomerang, Bat Shark Repellent, the Batmobile, the cycle, the 'copter - all the fun gadgets and gizmos that the caped crusaders used to thwart the bad guys. .
As a youngster, I wanted so badly to be Batman that I built myself a Bat Utility Belt. Actually, I had two of them: one was a plastic toy army belt with little pouches, much like Batman's handy-dandy carry-all of all gadgets Bat-related. My other belt consisted of my homemade cardboard "pouches" that I attached to a real old army belt that my grandfather had given me. If only he knew. I'd switch up the belts as needed, depending on the crime at hand. I even made myself a few Bat accessories for the belt... there was my weak attempt at a Batarang boomerang, which didn't really work, but I guess it looked cool enough at the time; and I think there was something of my own invention, a "toy" repellent device that warded off any and all undesirables.
My mother, understanding as she was about my weird imaginative passions, made me a nice long cape that wasn't too far off the one that Adam West wore as Batman. She even made a fabric cowl to match, though I only wore that on Halloween. Best Halloween ever, by the way. But for everyday crime-fighting, the cape was enough. I wanted everyone to know who was banishing evil-doers from the neighbourhood. A few other kids on the block partook in the adventures, some acting as villains while others were unofficial sidekicks. Maybe I let my brother or a best friend act as Robin now and then.
The 1966 feature-length theatrical Batman movie was like an extended television episode. All the cast and the gadgets and Bat-vehicles and villains and the gags... what a hoot! I still love to revisit that movie once in a blue moon. The deadpan delivery of the silliest dialogue cuts me up to this day. The film has aged well.
As a kid, and as a big kid (meaning as an adult who's young at heart), I also enjoyed seeing Adam West at work as characters besides Batman. He had parts in many 60's TV shows that I've seen, such as The Rifleman, Perry Mason, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, and Mannix, just to name a few. He even voiced Hercules in the 1974 Shazam! show... uncredited. I caught West in cameo appearances, often as himself (including voice acting for animation), on shows during the 80's and beyond. Murphy Brown, Drew Carey Show, Rugrats, Simpsons, Animaniacs, Johnny Bravo, King of Queens, 30 Rock, Futurama, Family Guy, and Big Bang Theory. Just a handful of the ones I know for sure that I've seen.
I can't say I've seen West in very many movies, at least not ones I can recall right now, but one appearance I'm sure of is in Robinson Crusoe on Mars (got it on Blu-Ray!). Sorry, Adam.
Quite the career, quite the life, quite the legacy. An impressive man, so talented and funny and down-to-Earth. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
Farewell, o' Caped Crusader!
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