An e-mailer is furious at me because I didn't note here that last Sunday was the anniversary of the day the Batman TV show — the one with Adam West — debuted in 1966. I dunno why he's mad this year. I've ignored it most years in the almost-two-decades I've been doing this blog and he's the first person to flag that as a shameful omission. Besides, he won't like most of what I have to say about it here.
I had and still have very, very mixed feelings about that series. I liked Adam West and Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith and Victor Buono and a few other folks seen on it…and I lusted after Yvonne Craig and Julie Newmar. But as a kid who loved comic books and loved Batman even at his worst in those comics, I wrestled with the feeling that the makers of that show didn't; that they thought it was crap worthy only of ridicule. Later on, as I got into their industry myself, I met a number of those makers and found that I'd been right.
Throughout my early life, I often heard from fellow comic book collectors in my age bracket that they had to deal with scorn and condescension for their passion; that they had parents or teachers or colleagues who thought that comic books were trash made for and appreciated only by the mentally-impaired. The only time I recall ever really encountering that attitude was from the people behind the Batman TV show.
In 1966, I was 14 years old — young and naïve enough to even wonder why the folks at DC Comics would allow an outside company to do that to a wonderful (and valuable) property like Batman. I was probably all of 15 when I came to realize that in this world, the answer to the question, "Why would someone do such a thing?" — no matter what that thing is — is almost always "Money." Once in a while, it's "Sex" and/or "Power" and/or "Fame" but usually, it's "Money." Bob Kane, needless to say, was fine with that and because of that teevee show and the attendant merchandising, DC Comics not only sold a lot of DC Comics, they even sold DC Comics the Company.
Even as I was coming to realize that, I still watched the show but I watched it less and less. My opinion descended further and further, especially after I saw the movie based on the series. It was one thing to watch it at home alone and suspect they were ridiculing something I cared about; quite another to sit in a movie theater and hear an audience hooting and laughing at, not with the Caped Crusader.
But I had to watch because of Yvonne and Julie. I would have watched a test pattern if it had Yvonne and/or Julie in it. One of my adolescent fantasies that was partially filled decades later was getting to meet and talk with those ladies. And I also liked — for very different reasons, I assure you — some of the actors I mentioned, especially Burgess Meredith, who, as we all know, played The Penguin.
Around 1980, I got to spend a little time with Mr. Meredith. I don't think I've ever talked about it before but I will in this space tomorrow.