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Saturday, 10 June 2017
ADAM WEST PASSES AWAY...
Alas, ADAM WEST, TV's BATMAN has passed away from leukaemia. It's been a bad month for childhood heroes dying, but they'll live on in our hearts and memories. Our condolences go to Mr. West's family, friends and fans - and, of course, to ROBIN.
What can we say? His Batman cast a shadow for over fifty years. If you ask a man on the street to hum the Batman theme it'll be his tune. That's how influential his performance was.
Adam (or William West Anderson to give him his real name) and the show were part of the '60s and my childhood, so both him and it will be fondly remembered by me, PS.
His self-parody voice work included episodes of The Fairly Odd Parents and Kim Possible. In each, he played a retired actor who believed himself to be the superhero that he had once played in a TV series. ("Catman" in the former, "The Fearless Ferret" in the latter.)
A 2010 episode of Cartoon Network's Batman: the Brave & the Bold had a flashback sequence retelling the hero's origin, and West and Julie Newmar played Bruce Wayne's parents.
Awww that's a shame a genuine pop culture icon. I always liked seeing him appear in TV shows like The "Big Bang Theory" and when he voiced all those cartoon characters most parodying himself (Simpsons etc) with good humour. My favourite was when he voiced the "Grey Ghost" Bruce Waynes childhood hero, in an episode of the fantastic "Batman animated series"
Yeah, another childhood legend gone, PM. There's not too many left for guys our age. He seemed to have a second career playing himself (or various versions thereof) in the latter part of his career. I'd actually have liked to see him do the 1989 Batman movie. He was only about 60, and as it was mostly body doubles in the costume, I think he'd have got away with it if they'd pitched it as an older Batman. He lobbied for the part, but was only offered a cameo as Bruce Wayne's father.
Yeah so many childhood legends from film, tv , comics, pop and sport have gone and it seems like someone "leaves" us every week now. Like most folk I keep forgetting they are getting older as they are firmly fixed in my consciousness as being eternally young . I was at the shops getting mild and the "Sunday Mail" banner read "Batman Dead!" I think Mr West would have liked that :)
I heard this on the radio yesterday ( I wasn't online yesterday ) and immediately I just KNEW that you would do a piece about it, Kidda! My brother and I used to just LOVE watching it on the telly in '66! 'Twas my next favourite after Doctor Who and it was just like seeing my comic books brought to life! - SOCK! POW! We would watch the first episode at our Granny's on a Saturday and it always ended on a cliff hanger, so we would eagerly tune in the next day in our own house, "SAME BAT TIME, SAME BAT CHANNEL", to see Batman pull something out of his utility belt to get out of the predicament with! And the show made me buy more Batman comics! And then the movie came out and I rushed to the cinema to see that upon release! And, as a kid, I never noticed ANY of the silliness, - it was all exciting adventure to us! Great times to be young! In recent years, the comics have killed of Bruce Wayne and made Dick Grayson the new Batman, but now Batman is REALLY dead! Somewhere in a room, I can see the TV Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman dancing around, laughing! Well, I'm not laughing!
Well, the TV Joker, Penguin and Riddler are also dead, JP, but even if they weren't, I think they'd be shedding a discreet tear. (Not in front of one another obviously. Can't be seen to be soft when you're a villain.) Actually, if not for the TV show, the comic would probably have been cancelled, so Batman fans owe Adam West a lot, whether they realise it or not.
16 comments:
Farewell, old chum!
Now who will make sure Dick Grayson attends to his studies?
It's okay JfD, he graduated a good few years back.
First Bond, now Batman. I dread to think who's next. Why can't the good guys live forever?
What can we say? His Batman cast a shadow for over fifty years. If you ask a man on the street to hum the Batman theme it'll be his tune. That's how influential his performance was.
Adam (or William West Anderson to give him his real name) and the show were part of the '60s and my childhood, so both him and it will be fondly remembered by me, PS.
Adam West was also the voice of the mayor on Family Guy so he was a part of modern TV too.
He did a lot of voice work in quite a few TV cartoon shows, TC, often either as himself or a parody of himself.
Kid, I'm CJ not TC. Yes, the mayor in Family Guy was a parody of Adam West (he was called Mayor West).
I was just checking to see if you were paying attention, CJ.
His self-parody voice work included episodes of The Fairly Odd Parents and Kim Possible. In each, he played a retired actor who believed himself to be the superhero that he had once played in a TV series. ("Catman" in the former, "The Fearless Ferret" in the latter.)
A 2010 episode of Cartoon Network's Batman: the Brave & the Bold had a flashback sequence retelling the hero's origin, and West and Julie Newmar played Bruce Wayne's parents.
And, of course, he, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar reprised their roles for a recent Batman cartoon.
Awww that's a shame a genuine pop culture icon. I always liked seeing him appear in TV shows like The "Big Bang Theory" and when he voiced all those cartoon characters most parodying himself (Simpsons etc) with good humour. My favourite was when he voiced the "Grey Ghost" Bruce Waynes childhood hero, in an episode of the fantastic "Batman animated series"
Yeah, another childhood legend gone, PM. There's not too many left for guys our age. He seemed to have a second career playing himself (or various versions thereof) in the latter part of his career. I'd actually have liked to see him do the 1989 Batman movie. He was only about 60, and as it was mostly body doubles in the costume, I think he'd have got away with it if they'd pitched it as an older Batman. He lobbied for the part, but was only offered a cameo as Bruce Wayne's father.
Yeah so many childhood legends from film, tv , comics, pop and sport have gone and it seems like someone "leaves" us every week now. Like most folk I keep forgetting they are getting older as they are firmly fixed in my consciousness as being eternally young . I was at the shops getting mild and the "Sunday Mail" banner read "Batman Dead!" I think Mr West would have liked that :)
I'm not so sure he would have liked the 'dead' part, but the 'Batman' description would certainly have appealed to him.
I heard this on the radio yesterday ( I wasn't online yesterday ) and immediately I just KNEW that you would do a piece about it, Kidda!
My brother and I used to just LOVE watching it on the telly in '66! 'Twas my next favourite after Doctor Who and it was just like seeing my comic books brought to life! - SOCK! POW! We would watch the first episode at our Granny's on a Saturday and it always ended on a cliff hanger, so we would eagerly tune in the next day in our own house, "SAME BAT TIME, SAME BAT CHANNEL", to see Batman pull something out of his utility belt to get out of the predicament with!
And the show made me buy more Batman comics! And then the movie came out and I rushed to the cinema to see that upon release!
And, as a kid, I never noticed ANY of the silliness, - it was all exciting adventure to us!
Great times to be young!
In recent years, the comics have killed of Bruce Wayne and made Dick Grayson the new Batman, but now Batman is REALLY dead!
Somewhere in a room, I can see the TV Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman dancing around, laughing!
Well, I'm not laughing!
Well, the TV Joker, Penguin and Riddler are also dead, JP, but even if they weren't, I think they'd be shedding a discreet tear. (Not in front of one another obviously. Can't be seen to be soft when you're a villain.) Actually, if not for the TV show, the comic would probably have been cancelled, so Batman fans owe Adam West a lot, whether they realise it or not.
(Originally published 11 June 2017 at 14:40.)
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