RIP Adam West

[thecolorsblend]

West is awesome as Batman because he played the absurd situations seriously.

Hmm. Is that the secret to his success, you think? He played the absurd scenes seriously and the serious scenes... well, not absurd but "lightly"?

Either way, so much of his performance comes down to his voice. He's a very dramatic actor and has one of the best voices in all of Hollywood, if you ask me.

There's an alternate universe out there somewhere and there Adam West was one of the big movie stars of his day. I love his Batman... but sometimes I wonder where his career might've gone if he hadn't had to deal with typecasting.

[GoNerdYourself]

Reliving this series again for the first time since I was a kid (outside of the 1966 movie, of course, I am finding West's performance to be almost genius in terms of the material. He has the perfect tone for the campiness, not overly winking at the audience, but just the right amount of smirk. The humor of the series is great too. There were times I found myself in stitches.

West is awesome as Batman because he played the absurd situations seriously. He had a real sincerity that I connect with, be it his relationship with Robin, Alfred, Gordon or just his desire to be a good man.

But away from the camera, I was recently reflecting how Adam is something of a tragic figure. Think about it. Years after the show ended he was still dressing up in the costume and making appearances at various events as an older man. I don't think he did this out of desire...but for the simple fact it was his career now. He became a performing flea trapped in a prison of sorts. Kinda sad when you think about it.

I was watching a couple documentaries on the subject -- Bio's The Inside Story and a 1989 documentary on Batmania -- and I definitely got that sense. He was at one point considered for the role of James Bond. I believe it was after You Only Live Twice and before George Lazenby donned the tux for his one go-around.

[The Dark Knight]

I was watching a couple documentaries on the subject -- Bio's The Inside Story and a 1989 documentary on Batmania -- and I definitely got that sense.

I watched a documentary on Adam years back, I'm not sure what it was called now, but they explored this in greater detail. Basically, there was a period of time where Adam was depressed for the reasons I described above. But as we know, he came to terms with it.

[GoNerdYourself]

I was watching a couple documentaries on the subject -- Bio's The Inside Story and a 1989 documentary on Batmania -- and I definitely got that sense.

I watched a documentary on Adam years back, I'm not sure what it was called now, but they explored this in greater detail. Basically, there was a period of time where Adam was depressed for the reasons I described above. But as we know, he came to terms with it.

Could it have been Starring Adam West? I haven't seen that yet.

[The Dark Knight]

Yeah, I don't know. This was at least a good ten years ago or more.

In the meantime watch this clip. It's Pure West.

[riddler]

I think the general consensus in the industry is that while West and Ward enjoyed their biggest roles from the series, in a sense it destroyed the remainder of their careers. It's well documented that West had a far better career before the show started than after it ended. I have seen one of Burt Ward's auditions in which he did a bunch of stunts (he studied martial arts prior) and he was so good I think he could have had a fantastic career as a stunt man. Hearing him tell the stories of the stunts and injuries he suffered from the show, I believed him. We will never know how their careers would have gone had they not done Batman but I think we can all agree that they both got pigeon holed in those roles.

I think it's tough to compare the first two catwomen, even though the movie was faithful to the source material, it was quite different. The format of course was far different between a feature length film and the traditional hour long episodes broken into two with a cliffhanger. We definitely saw West take on more emotional tragedy, it was confirmed in this series that just like any incarnation of Bruce Wayne, his parents were murdered by criminals but this is rarely discussed during the series. Batman and Catwoman falling in love outside of their masks was handles extremely well and there was a lot of chemistry between the two. I know we got a happy ending for the most part but the tragedy is that Bruce Wayne fell in love with a villain who was playing him and his heart was broken once he found out her true identity. Having four villains added an interesting dynamic because they all developed relationships with each other and all added their own personal signatures to the plot of the film. The show did pair up villains but never more than two. I think the Avengers may have taken cues from the handling the villains and ensured each of the main 4 developed unique relationships with each other. I think the change in actress helped Catwoman stand out because she was easily the most surprising villain in the sense that we saw her do things she wouldn't normally do; she uses mind control and different methods throughout the series to get Batman under her figure but in this film she just uses plain old deduction. I don't recall see Bruce Wayne fighting too often in the series but he did here. The movie featured far more Bruce Wayne than any other episode although it should be noted that was a condition of West to get him to do the film in the first place. 


Even though the general consensus is that Eartha Kitt was the 3rd best, she deserves a fair amount of respect. Those were tough acts to follow

[The Dark Knight]

West is awesome as Batman because he played the absurd situations seriously.

Hmm. Is that the secret to his success, you think? He played the absurd scenes seriously and the serious scenes... well, not absurd but "lightly"?

I think so. Take the 'Bruce Wayne/Batman has a conversation with himself' video I posted above. I imagine that scene took several takes due to them all laughing. The B66 show presented a world where Batman and Bruce Wayne were thought of by the police and society as good people. They simply were not doubted or analyzed in a suspicious or criminal way. Same thing with Batman appearing in the suit in public places. It's just what he did, and he and others considered it completely normal. The 66 show attempted to normalize the outlandish by playing a straight bat (haha). The success of West in my eyes comes from this because it's both sincere and hilarious at the same time.

[The Dark Knight]

Hard to believe it's been two years already.