The Ongoing Relevance of Adam West's "Batman"

[regnak]

For anyone who get metv they show Batman Saturday nights from 10-11. The episode last night ended with the villain in prison playing on a striped piano.

[Powerboy]

For anyone who get metv they show Batman Saturday nights from 10-11. The episode last night ended with the villain in prison playing on a striped piano.

That would have been a Liberace episode as Chandel.

[Jokerz79]

That would have been a Liberace episode as Chandel.

Watched it last I'm liking MeTv Saturday Nights I grew up in the 80's and they're airing a lot good old shows on Saturday Night all the way to Sunday morning basically 6 to 6 with Wild Wild West, Wonder Woman, Svengoolie and whatever old movie he shows, Batman, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Kolchak the Night Stalker, and Swamp Thing. For a Night Owl with Insomnia like me who loves old Sci-Fi it's great.

[Powerboy]

Watched it last I'm liking MeTv Saturday Nights I grew up in the 80's and they're airing a lot good old shows on Saturday Night all the way to Sunday morning basically 6 to 6 with Wild Wild West, Wonder Woman, Svengoolie and whatever old movie he shows, Batman, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Kolchak the Night Stalker, and Swamp Thing. For a Night Owl with Insomnia like me who loves old Sci-Fi it's great.

I've noticed of late that I'm getting DVDs of all sorts of old shows. I've got Batman, the Wild Wild West, the Six Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman and am thinking about getting the Man from Uncle (having just seen the movie). I love a lot of current shows but there is something appealing too about those old shows that just got on with the adventure without relationships in trouble and every choice in every story having to be some soul searching moral decision.

[regnak]

I've noticed of late that I'm getting DVDs of all sorts of old shows. I've got Batman, the Wild Wild West, the Six Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman and am thinking about getting the Man from Uncle (having just seen the movie). I love a lot of current shows but there is something appealing too about those old shows that just got on with the adventure without relationships in trouble and every choice in every story having to be some soul searching moral decision.

I would recommend you get the Man & the Girl from UNCLE plus Get Smart.

[Osiris-Rex]

Watched it last I'm liking MeTv Saturday Nights I grew up in the 80's and they're airing a lot good old shows on Saturday Night all the way to Sunday morning basically 6 to 6 with Wild Wild West, Wonder Woman, Svengoolie and whatever old movie he shows, Batman, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Kolchak the Night Stalker, and Swamp Thing. For a Night Owl with Insomnia like me who loves old Sci-Fi it's great.

Kind of sucks that MeTV stopped running Adventures of Superman and Incredible Hulk though.

[Jokerz79]

Kind of sucks that MeTV stopped running Adventures of Superman and Incredible Hulk though.

Yeah but Hulk is on Hulu if you have it.

[Osiris-Rex]

Yeah but Hulk is on Hulu if you have it.

Adventures of Superman is on the Heroes & Icons channel too. But it is at 3:00 am on Saturday. I liked them being on MeTV because they were on during prime time or were free.

[WontonGirl]

I'm glad that the show is finally out on video. Maybe this is the perfect time, now that Blu-Ray is a thing. If the show came out during the VHS era that would have been ostentatious with all the multiple video cassettes.

But there was really no need to see it on VHS because it was on TV all the time because of syndication. That's how almost 2 generations grew up on the show. They watched it on TV all the time.

[WontonGirl]

I don't think any version of BATMAN in 1966 would have been different from the Adam West incarnation. Even if the TV show had played the character more seriously--it would still have been a joke to the adult viewers. The GREEN HORNET series that followed had much less humour, but it still wasn't taken very seriously by our parents. Us kids took all of these shows very seriously, of course. But the Adam West Batman was only a little more obviously camp than the comic book adventures of Batman at the time.

And as much as I love Adam West and the BATMAN TV show, I think it's important to recognize that this was not the first super-hero TV show (remember THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, with George Reeves) nor was West the first actor to play Batman--that was Lewis Wilson, followed by Robert Lowery. Nor should we forget all those other trailblazers that voiced and performed the roles of many childhood heroes, on the radio, the big screen, or the TV screen before the 1966 BATMAN--Douglas Fairbanks, Bud Collyer, Jackson Beck, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, Kirk Alyn, Gordon Jones, Buck Jones, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Dale Evans, William Boyd, Clayton Moore, Buster Crabbe, Orson Welles, Johnny Weissmuller, Hugh O'Brian, Fess Parker, Guy Williams and others.

As for the costumed villains, the BATMAN TV show is probably responsible for many of them being revived at all. At the time the series first aired, the Riddler had just recently been revived after remaining nearly defunct for almost two decades. The Penguin had been revived not long before that, after almost a decade of disuse--and the Mad Hatter had been brought out and refurbished only to be put back again. Only the Joker had remained in almost continuous publication since his debut. The TV show revived Catwoman well before the comics got around to it.

For good or ill, because of the TV show--those weirdly costumed crooks are now closely associated with the Caped Crusader and have become virtually a requisite for any screen adaptation.

The costumed crooks are associated with the Caped Crusader because they have always been associated with the Caped Crusader.

Regardless if certain characters like Riddler had been out of the scene for a bit, they took characters that were popular or missed or they felt fit in with the show and they took off. Not all characters develop will have the same type of impact. A lot of the people that were involved in the show probably grew up on the Riddler.

Like all camp shows, it was popular, until it was not. Adults, Teens, Kids; lots of people watched that show while it was on AND it grew in popularity after it went off the air too.

[WontonGirl]

The revival of interest and respect for Batman 66 a healthy sign that the pendulum has swung away from the limited, boring dourness of the Bale Bats to something more nimble and expansive. Props to The Brave and The Bold for sparking off this appreciation.

And also there is the Batman 66 comics AND the Batman 66 cartoons as well, and a new Batman 66 animated movie. All under the recent "Batman 66" label. People are hungry for nostalgia simply because a lot of people miss the stuff of past years because they feel it's not as good as stuff right now.

I'm seeing this now with a revival of the 90's with remade TV shows, cartoons and even 90's sounding music by artists right now.

The affect of THAT show is iconic and long lasting and I'm happy about that.

[Jokerz79]

But there was really no need to see it on VHS because it was on TV all the time because of syndication. That's how almost 2 generations grew up on the show. They watched it on TV all the time.

It still would had been nice at the time to be able to watch the episode you wanted you're only hope back then was to keep a blank tape free in case your favorite episodes came on. Sadly the rights issues were nightmares for decades stopping for the longest time there being any release I was so thrilled when they finally announced the release to Blu-Ray I almost thought it'd never happen.

[WontonGirl]

It still would had been nice at the time to be able to watch the episode you wanted you're only hope back then was to keep a blank tape free in case your favorite episodes came on. Sadly the rights issues were nightmares for decades stopping for the longest time there being any release I was so thrilled when they finally announced the release to Blu-Ray I almost thought it'd never happen.

It was streaming on Netflix for a little while but now it’s just on DVDs again. Hopefully they start streaming it again.

I mean it was just last year in fact.

[Jokerz79]

It was streaming on Netflix for a little while but now it’s just on DVDs again. Hopefully they start streaming it again.

I mean it was just last year in fact.

That's was during the age of streaming and yes that was great but I'm a person that also likes a physical copy. But as for the being able to watch the episode you want I was speaking of the VHS age the 80's and 90's well before Streaming when Adam West's Batman was on TV everyday in most markets but it wasn't on any home video and thus unless you got lucky and taped your favorite episodes off the TV you were at the mercy of the telecast.

[Powerboy]

And also there is the Batman 66 comics AND the Batman 66 cartoons as well, and a new Batman 66 animated movie. All under the recent "Batman 66" label. People are hungry for nostalgia simply because a lot of people miss the stuff of past years because they feel it's not as good as stuff right now.

I'm seeing this now with a revival of the 90's with remade TV shows, cartoons and even 90's sounding music by artists right now.

The affect of THAT show is iconic and long lasting and I'm happy about that.

Given the context, I'm guessing you meant that a lot of people feel the stuff now isn't as good as it was then.

I find that age is a great generator of nostalgia and, the more the world moves away from my youth, the stronger it gets.

I was a little kid when the 1960s Batman show started. In fact, it was my introduction to Batman.

By the time I was a teenager, I hated the show because "That's not what Batman was supposed to be". When I first heard about Michael Keaton being cast in the movie, I hated it because, Keaton being primarily noted for comedies, I assumed they were again going with a comedy version and that wasn't what Batman was *supposed to be*.

When the Post-Crisis era started, I loved it with a few exceptions, largely because it was new and of my young adult era.

In the overall scheme of things, I prefer the shows nowadays because they have consequences from episode to episode and the relationships change and develop. In the old shows, you could generally shuffle the episodes like a deck of cards and show them in any order and it would make no difference because nothing changes and there are no consequences from anything that happens.

However, when it moves too far from the world you grew up in, and age becomes a factor, you tend to get nostalgic.

I don't know how big Batman '66 is with younger people. The comic reading crowd tends to be a somewhat older lot now and I strongly suspect that the readers of Batman '66 and Wonder Woman '77 and so on are probably towards the oldest end of the comic reading crowd. Likewise people buying the Batman '66 show and the new animated movie.

I don't necessarily think the stuff back then was better than the stuff now. But it's still a nostalgia thing.