When it comes to Batman, it looks as if most people prefer the campy Caped Crusader over the Dark Knight version as Adam West "Powed" and "Zowied" the competition to emerge victorious. If my comic book loving best friend Gary (pronounced Jerry) is reading this, he is probably shaking his head in disgust... he had zero love for the campy 1960s TV show starring West.I find the results funny because shortly after I posted the poll, I was slightly concerned that Adam West would receive only a few votes. My reasoning was that these days the "Batman" movies of the past 18 years are shown more than the TV series (which ran from 1966-68) and as a result, voters would go with what was most likely more fresh in their minds. This concern of mine quickly faded as Adam West took the lead by the middle of the first day of the poll and never relinquished it. Because I grew up watching the TV series in reruns on WXON Channel 20 based in Allen Park (man what an awesome channel that was), I have to side with the majority of you who voted in this poll.
Not too surprisingly, the actor (George Clooney) who appeared in the least critically acclaimed film of the franchise ("Batman and Robin") received the least amount of votes. I normally don't go for the big-budget blockbuster type movies, but I admit that I got sucked into seeing "Batman & Robin". The term "sucked" is appropriate because that's pretty much what the movie did. Although I thought Clooney did a good job in the title role, I felt that the movie as a whole was a disappointment.
Here are the final poll results:
Adam West- 32%
Christian Bale- 21%
Michael Keaton & Val Kilmer- 18% each
George Clooney- 8%
Back in the summer of 2000, I actually saw Adam West while I was in New York. I was there to judge "TV Land's Ultimate Fan Search 2000" competition and he was one of the many classic TV stars who made guest appearances on the shows that we taped. One morning, he walked by my dressing room. Since the door was open, he briefly stopped to look in with a curious "who the hell is this guy" look on his face... which was totally understandable. Just as quickly as he appeared, he was gone. Holy pop culture icons!
Below is a montage of promos for the Adam West series in all its campy glory. I am hoping that Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox can work out their legal issues so that this show can finally be released on DVD.
1 comment:
I went with Michael Keaton....I didn't like Val Kilmer as Batman. I used to watch the Adam West version in the summers as reruns (probably around the same time I saw all the Monkees episodes). I enjoyed the campy version a lot. But, Michael Keaton was great in the movie.
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