Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 19, 2024 | 9 comments

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: The show ended but the actor kept returning to the Batcave — and became a national treasure…

By CHRIS FRANKLIN

Adam West was the first actor to make an indelible mark on the character of Batman. Through 120 television episodes and a theatrical film, West personified the most noble, kind, and yes, square iteration of the Caped Crusader. The 1966-68 Batman television series was a two-layer cake: a straight adventure for the kids, and a biting satire of their parents’ old comics for the adult crowd. The balance of the series rested on West’s masterful ability to ride that line between the inspiring and the absurd.

But Batman wasn’t merely a popular show, it was phenomenon. The show burned bright but quickly, and in its wake left West’s career on incredibly shaky ground. Perhaps more than any actor before or since, West was forever typecast in the role that made him famous. For years he tried to act against that type on screen, while still accepting the opportunity to voice Batman in animation, or even appear in live action, whether on TV specials, or at personal appearances.

When the children who idolized West’s Batman as their personal hero slowly took over Hollywood, the actor received a reprieve, allowing him in on the joke, and able to lampoon himself and his most famous role. Eventually this would lead to perhaps his second most famous part, playing a mad version of himself as the Mayor of Quahog on Seth McFarlane’s Family Guy. But the Batsignal continued to shine, and West answered, embracing his iconic role in pop culture. Old fans watched these new projects with their children, and even grandchildren, and West’s status as a true pop culture icon grew.

On the occasion of his birthday — the late actor was born Sept. 19, 1928 — let’s take a look at 13 other times West played Batman, or characters inspired by/or connected to the Caped Crusader, in chronological order:

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The New Adventures of Batman (Batman/Bruce Wayne – 1977). Filmation dusted off their model sheets from the 1968 Batman cartoon and gave the Caped Crusader another go with this CBS production. The big pull here was the coup of scoring both West and Burt Ward to reprise their roles as the Dynamic Duo. While Filmation’s first effort often copied the style and humor of the live-action series, New Adventures seemed a bit more serious… if you don’t count the annoying presence of comic relief Bat-Mite in every episode. It was still fun to hear West and Ward play their famous roles in a more straightforward manner.

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Legends of the Super Heroes (Batman – 1979). NBC aired these two Hanna-Barbera-produced, live-action specials as a pilot for a potential series in 1979. West reunited with Ward as Robin, and in the first special, “The Challenge,” their initial TV foe, Frank Gorshin’s Riddler. I saw these when they first aired, when I was only 4 years old, and for years thought I had dreamed them up.

While it’s great to see them all back in costume (although I wish someone had tucked Adam’s cowl properly under his cape), along with all the additional DC heroes and villains, these particularly unfunny comedy specials show just how talented the staff and crew of the ’60s Batman TV series actually were. It’s no small feat to walk that thin line between satire and action. These specials fall face first into farce. They aren’t without their charms, and the costuming for the most part is very well done. Where else are you going to see the Helena Wayne Huntress in live action?

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Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show/ Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (Batman/Bruce Wayne – 1984-85). West returned to the DC Universe in the final two seasons of ABC’s long-running Super Friends animated series from Hanna-Barbera, revived to tie-in to the Super Powers toy line from Kenner. West replaced Olan Soule, who had also voiced the Caped Crusader in the first Filmation animated series. Soule moved on to voicing Firestorm’s alter-ego, Professor Martin Stein, and West got to interact with other DC characters, including Kasey Casem’s Robin. The highlight of West’s time, and the entire final two seasons, is “The Fear,” written by future Batman: The Animated Series writer/producer Alan Burnett. West, as Batman, narrates his own origin, which is shown for the first time outside of the comics medium. West is allowed to give his Batman sincere emotional range as the Masked Manhunter struggles to overcome his childhood trauma, aggravated by the Scarecrow’s fear toxin.

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Zorro (Dr. Henry Wayne, “The Wizard” – 1990). Things came full circle when West guest starred on The Family Channel’s Zorro series’ episode “The Wizard,” starring Duncan Regehr in the title role. Since Bob Kane and Bill Finger were partially inspired by Johnston McCully’s pulp character, and Douglas Fairbanks’ original screen version in their creation of Batman, it only makes sense for West to make an appearance. Here he plays an inventor with a familiar surname, Dr. Henry Wayne. Wayne is contracted by the corrupt Alcalde to use his gadgets to trap Zorro.

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Batman: The Animated Series (Simon Trent/The Gray Ghost, “Beware the Gray Ghost” – 1992). No doubt West’s most famous Batman-related role (other than the obvious one), “Beware the Gray Ghost” is also one of the best episodes of the excellent Batman: The Animated Series, originally airing on Fox. West plays Simon Trent, an out-of-work actor typecast in the role that made him famous, the mysterious crimefighter, the Gray Ghost. When a series of bombings seem to be tied to the old TV show, Batman contacts Trent, and asks for his help, going from actor to actual crimefighter. The poignant, true-life aspect of the episode is made even more touching when Batman reveals that he was a huge fan of the Gray Ghost as a boy, and it helped inspire his career as Batman. Hearing Adam West and his successor Kevin Conroy act together is one of the highlights of this legendary series.

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The Simpsons (Adam West, “Mr. Plow” – 1992 / Batman, “Large Marge”). Also on Fox, just a few weeks later, West got his first chance to really poke fun at himself in this Aeason 4 Simpsons episode, during the heyday of the show. Homer, Bart and Lisa encounter West at a car show, and find him slightly unhinged, especially when he starts Batusi-ing to no music! Later when Homer comes to plow West’s driveway, he finds he’s been beaten to the punch by his friend/rival Barney Gumble. Adam pulls away in a broken down Batmobile, as Barney calls out “Your secret’s safe with me, Superman!”

This episode set a precedent for West playing a fictionalized, often somewhat crazed version of himself over the next three decades. He would appear, often in recurring roles, on many animated comedies such as Johnny Bravo, Kim Possible, The Fairly Oddparents, Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, and The Super Hero Squad Show, where he voiced Marvel’s Batman analog, Nighthawk. West would even return to The Simpsons in Season 14’s episode “Large Marge,” voicing Batman, along with Ward as Robin, as Bart and Milhouse watch a “rerun” of their classic show.

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Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (Adam West – 2003). This CBS TV movie, based in part on West’s own memoirs, Back to the Batcave, reunites him with Ward, playing exaggerated versions of themselves, as they search for the Batmobile, stolen from a car museum. Looking for clues, they flashback to their time working on the Batman TV series (where Jack Brewer and Jason Marsden play their younger selves) and along the way wind up crossing paths with their old screen foes Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, Frank Gorshin, and even alternate Batman choice Lyle Waggoner! This is as close to a true Batman reunion special as the series ever got, and while the flashbacks aren’t often historically accurate (and sometimes quite salacious), the film is fun either way, if perhaps not as family friendly as the original series!

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The Batman (Mayor Marion Grange – 2004-06). Following the precedent set by BTAS, Adam West provided voiceover work for another solo Batman animated show, this one airing on the Kids WB lineup. This was the first Batman series where West was a recurring character, and not the Caped Crusader himself, played here by Rino Romano. West voiced Gotham City’s Mayor Marion Grange across seven episodes during the show’s three-season run.

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Batman: New Times (Batman/Bruce Wayne – 2005). No doubt the most obscure project on this list, this student short film was made by the graduating class of the DAVE (Digital Animation & Visual Effects) School and is based on the C3/Mini-Mates Batman building sets made by Art Asylum. The students roped in some real ringers for the cast, with West voicing Batman for the first time in years, and Mark Hamill reprising his Joker role from Batman: The Animated Series. Courtney Thorne-Smith portrays Catwoman AND Miss Kitka, in a nod to West’s Batman feature film. Dick Van Dyke rounds up the all-star line-up as Commissioner Gordon in this 12-minute adventure, which finds Batman foiling Joker and Catwoman’s plans to rob Gotham on New Years’ Eve.

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Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Thomas Wayne, Proto Bot – 2010). This Cartoon Network-aired show captured the spirit of the ’60s Batman series perhaps better than any production. In the Season 2 episode “Chill of the Night,” written by BTAS writer/producer Paul Dini, West portrayed none other than Batman’s father, Thomas Wayne, as Batman goes back to the past to finally close the case on the Wayne murders. Thomas appears in his “Bat-Man” costume ball attire, allowing B&B’s Batman, Diedrich Bader, to team up with “The First Batman.” He even refers to Batman (who he doesn’t realize is his grown son, Bruce) as “Old Chum”! The icing on the cake is Julie Newmar, the first of three Catwomen who played opposite West, as his wife, Martha Wayne!

West returned later that season as the voice of Proto Bot, a malfunctioning robot Batman built to help him in his war against crime. Mattel made an electronic toy of this character for the series’ action figure line, with West’s voice!

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Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders/Batman vs. Two-Face (Batman/Bruce Wayne – 2016, 2017). West got one last chance to play the Caped Crusader proper in these direct-to-home media animated sequels to his classic TV series. Reuniting with Ward, Newmar and Meriwether, the films capture the spirit and humor of the classic series, while also allowing West a chance to hilariously riff on later iterations of Batman, such as Frank Miller’s Dark Knight and Michael Keaton’s version. In the second film, released after his death, and dedicated to his memory, he even got to take on another icon of ’60s television, William Shatner as Two-Face. These are a wonderful swan song to West and his version of Batman, but there was still more to come.

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Powerless (Chairman Dean West, “Win, Luthor or Draw” – 2017). West appeared in a live-action DC production for the last time in this short-lived comedy. After providing narration in the series’ pilot episode, West played Dean West, the strangely addled chairman of Wayne Industries in the 11th episode. Unfortunately, the series was canceled by NBC before this episode had a chance to air, but it is now available to watch with the rest of the series on streaming platforms.

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Batwheels (A.D.A.M., “To the Batmobile” – 2023). Despite having died in 2017, West made another appearance in a new Batman production in 2023. Batwheels is a show aimed at preschoolers featuring anthropomorphic versions of the Batman Family’s vehicles. When the series’ vehicle team goes missing, the show’s Batmobile teams with the original version, based on George Barris’ classic TV series design, named A.D.A.M. (Awesomely Dynamic Auto Mobile). Prior recordings of West from the animated Batman ’66 sequels are used to voice the character.

The title of the episode is, of course, a nod to one of West’s most famous lines, said to Robin as they’d dash off to adventure.

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MORE

— ADAM WEST Goes DARK KNIGHT RETURNS in This Brilliant BATMAN 85th Anniversary Cover. Click here.

— How ADAM WEST, NEAL ADAMS and MEGO Made Me a Lifelong BATMAN Fan. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor Chris Franklin is a graphic designer, illustrator, writer, and podcaster, who co-hosts and produces several shows on the Fire and Water Podcast Network, including JLUCast.