Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 26 to 44 of 44

Thread: Adam West Dies at Age 88

  1. #26
    Estimated Prophet notallwhowander's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Coastal California
    Posts
    799
    I wasn't really being sarcastic, by the way. I really don't think the character Batman doesn't merit any more seriousness or dignity than what was on that '60s show. The whole Dark Knight things just gets increasingly harder to swallow, and thereby more tedious, as I age, but Adam West's Batman still entertains.
    Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.

  2. #27
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Dio, Alabama
    Posts
    3,167
    Quote Originally Posted by notallwhowander View Post
    I wasn't really being sarcastic, by the way. I really don't think the character Batman doesn't merit any more seriousness or dignity than what was on that '60s show. The whole Dark Knight things just gets increasingly harder to swallow, and thereby more tedious, as I age, but Adam West's Batman still entertains.
    Did you ever follow the Dark Knight comics or books?

  3. #28
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Dio, Alabama
    Posts
    3,167
    At least Adam West lived a full life. Sad that leukemia took it's toll on him.

    I liked the 60s series, but was not as passionate about it as some here are. My brother was very into it. He loved the show. When he was a wee lad he chose to dress as Batman for Halloween. Flash forward some 40+ years later… he's working and the Batmobile pulls up to his work. The owner was taking it to a Toys For Tots fundraiser and stopped by my bro's work in Corona, California for something. This was one of the Batmobile's used in the series. Anyways, the owner never lets people sit in it, but my brother knew so many facts about the series that the owner eventually asked if he wanted to sit in it. He let him take some pics. I ended up photoshopping the pic of my brother in his Batman costume as a kid into one of the images:



    When I called my brother to tell him Adam West had died, he didn't want to talk...

  4. #29
    Member chescorph's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Philadelphia, PA
    Posts
    351
    RIP. I too saw the movie in the theater. What a treat, all the criminals in 1 movie.

    Adam West was great, and he played along well on the Howard Stern show when asked about all his dalliances. My favorite episode is when Bruce Wayne has to be at some function and Batman is summonsed by Commissioner Gordon. Alfred the Butler (who must have been 75 at the time) is enlisted to slide down the Batpole and appear as Batman. Seeing him in Batman's outfit is classic.

    A great part of the show is when they scaled a building in Gotham City and a window opened with some crazy beatnik party going on. Someone like Sammy Davis would pop their head out and ask what was going on. I always looked forward to watching that show, and Adam West was the main reason why. He also got his fair share of beautiful women on the show, including Catwoman, either Julie Newmar, Lee Meriweather, or (gasp) Eartha Kitt, and Barbara Craig as Batgirl.

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by chescorph View Post
    RIP. I too saw the movie in the theater. What a treat, all the criminals in 1 movie.
    Me, too! Plus, they had the Bat Boat and Bat Copter, among other things that never appeared in the show.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  6. #31
    Estimated Prophet notallwhowander's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Coastal California
    Posts
    799
    Quote Originally Posted by Gruno View Post
    Did you ever follow the Dark Knight comics or books?
    No. When Frank Miller's take was hitting big, I was already onto more subversive stuff. There was nothing about the atmosphere or imagery that drew me in. Batman was never really my thing anyway, even as a boy. Though the temptation to yell "POW!" and, "KER-SPLAT!" while play-fighting with my friends was too much to resist.

    In my teens, my favorite superhero was this guy...



    ...and that comic book didn't take itself seriously at all.
    Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.

  7. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by notallwhowander View Post
    I wasn't really being sarcastic, by the way. I really don't think the character Batman doesn't merit any more seriousness or dignity than what was on that '60s show. The whole Dark Knight things just gets increasingly harder to swallow, and thereby more tedious, as I age, but Adam West's Batman still entertains.
    Well, I certainly agree with you. I still maintain that what works on the page of a comic book doesn't always work in a live action TV show or movie.
    Last edited by GuitarGeek; 06-11-2017 at 05:26 PM.

  8. #33
    All Things Must Pass spellbound's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Eastern Sierra
    Posts
    3,114
    We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
    It won't be visible through the air
    And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973

  9. #34
    Member dropforge's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,857
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Well, I certainly. I still maintain that what works on the page of a comic book doesn't always work in a live action TV show or movie.
    Rather, it was the case because of the limitations in VFX — which are no longer.

    That said, Marvel Studios' characterizations are, for the most part, inferior to their comics counterparts. Too stupid and too jokey. WB/DC gets criticized for putting out more serious, darker takes on their characters, but those were done in comics decades ago.

  10. #35
    Member dropforge's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,857
    Quote Originally Posted by notallwhowander View Post
    I wasn't really being sarcastic, by the way. I really don't think the character Batman doesn't merit any more seriousness or dignity than what was on that '60s show. The whole Dark Knight things just gets increasingly harder to swallow, and thereby more tedious, as I age, but Adam West's Batman still entertains.
    Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns tetralogy (or four-issue miniseries, though each "chapter" had a slightly different title, e.g. The Dark Knight Triumphant, Hunt the Dark Knight) had the opposite effect on me as a teen. There was nothing else like it at the time, and Frank was already on a hot streak with his trendsetting run on Daredevil (the one that retooled his origin and introduced Elektra) and his original work for DC, called Ronin. Frank's influence continues to be felt, but I'm sure you already know that.

    I was also into independents/undergrounds, faves being Xenozoic Tales, Love & Rockets, Ismet, Elfquest, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and all the Warren Publishing and Pacific/First and Heavy Metal stuff. Never really got into Cerebus.

  11. #36
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    small town in ND
    Posts
    6,432
    Batman's move into the darkness began in the 70s. I remember whenever Neal Adams drew him it was a change from the schlock of the previous era. With Denny O'Neil and Adams we got Ra's al Ghul, who was a more formidable foe and a tad more realistic than what we had seen before. Somewhere along the line the writers realized that all these cheesy villains could be turned into crime lords. And that laughing jester played by Caesar Romero was really a murderous psychopath.

    I read the Dark Knight as an adult. An aging Batman who comes out of retirement as a vigilante and ends up battling Superman, that worked for me. That, and Batman Year One, were Frank Miller's peak. After that he started believing his own press and got really sexist as well. But anyway, a Batman who crouches in the darkness as an armed thug comes down the stairs and muses, "Seven defenses from this position, three would kill, three would cripple, and one that will just really HURT". That worked for me as an adult.

    I get the nostalgia for the old 60s Batman. I stumbled upon the old movie a few years ago on cable and it was marvelous. The Adam West Batman is a legitimate version of the Caped Crusader and shouldn't be diminished as inferior to what followed. BUT, I still like the darkness. If I want to read a Batman graphic novel I'll go for The Long Halloween. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman...Long_Halloween And if I watch a Batman movie, it's gonna be the second Christian Bale film because Ledger's Joker is perfect.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  12. #37
    Estimated Prophet notallwhowander's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Coastal California
    Posts
    799
    Yeah, just because Miller doesn't really do it for me, doesn't mean he didn't lead a revolution in the industry. The guy is a giant in that respect. I enjoyed The Watchmen quite a bit, and that owes a lot to Miller, I think.

    I collected Xenozoic Tales and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers too. Ever eclectic, I wound up with some Dark Horse, Eclipse, Fantagraphics, and Kitchen Sinx stuff. This is before the whole indie scene collapsed some time in the '90s. I was broke and on my own before then, and comics books were a luxury I couldn't afford anymore. I was scraping the bins of used CD vendors just to get hold of some Yes or King Crimson.

    RE: Ledger's Joker

    That Joker gave me the willies, straight up shivers down my back. I really wasn't expecting that.
    Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.

  13. #38
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    La Florida
    Posts
    7,554
    To me the best Joker ever was Jack Nicholson.

  14. #39
    Member dropforge's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,857
    The best Joker is Heath, for my money. Jack was cool, but he was riffing Cesar Romero. Heath cooked up his own thing, and won't be matched for a long time. I don't think Leto's going to manage that.

  15. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by dropforge View Post
    Heavy Metal .
    As much as I love the movie, I've never actually read Heavy Metal magazine. Ever. I know there's books anthologizing the stories featuring some of the characters that appear in the movie (eg Captain Sterrn, Zeke, Edsel, etc) but have never read those either.

  16. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by dropforge View Post
    Rather, it was the case because of the limitations in VFX — which are no longer.
    If by "VFX" you mean special effects, I don't think that has anything to do with it. It has more to do with the fact that comic book stuff doesn't work as live action films or TV. That's why they so thoroughly retooled The Incredible Hulk for the TV show, because they knew they couldn't get away with a lot of the stuff Stan Lee had done in the comic book, to the point of changing Dr. Banner's first name, because it was decided alliterative names were "too jokey" (there's also talk that the ABC executives thought Bruce Banner sounded "too gay", whatever that was supposed to entail).
    Batman's move into the darkness began in the 70s.
    Really? I always had the understanding that Batman was dark to begin with. As I recall, his origin involves his parents being murdered by a mugger. And in one of the Joker's first appearances, he murders an entire Boy Scouts troop by giving them poisoned candy.

    I thought the campy stuff only began with the TV show.
    After that he started believing his own press
    You mean he started breathing his own fumes.

  17. #42
    Member dropforge's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,857
    Quote Originally Posted by notallwhowander View Post
    I collected Xenozoic Tales and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers too. Ever eclectic, I wound up with some Dark Horse, Eclipse, Fantagraphics, and Kitchen Sinx stuff. This is before the whole indie scene collapsed some time in the '90s. I was broke and on my own before then, and comics books were a luxury I couldn't afford anymore. I was scraping the bins of used CD vendors just to get hold of some Yes or King Crimson.
    Eclipse had some nice stuff like Ms. Tree and Coyote. Marvel's Epic imprint took over Jim Starlin's Dreadstar (one of my faves, continuing his "Metamorphosis Odyssey" from Epic Illustrated), and published Kaluta's Sunstroke and lots of other non-mainstream books.

    Pacific was my fave of the independent lot, though. The Schanes Bros flamed out too soon because they tried to grow too fast, but Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds featured the crème de la crème of creators who chose to work outside the Big Two. Who can forget these covers!


  18. #43
    Member dropforge's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,857
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    If by "VFX" you mean special effects, I don't think that has anything to do with it. It has more to do with the fact that comic book stuff doesn't work as live action films or TV. That's why they so thoroughly retooled The Incredible Hulk for the TV show, because they knew they couldn't get away with a lot of the stuff Stan Lee had done in the comic book
    VFX = Visual FX. And yes, it has a lot to do with it. THEN: Where do we get a tall, outrageously ripped guy to portray a beast like the Hiulk? Look up guys like Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger (who played Conan the Barbarian). (Even then, they're still not as big as the Hulk.) NOW: Where do we get a Hulk? We hire a mo-cap actor and render the Hulk over him with CG. Done. Stories are always being retooled, anyway. Marvel Studios won't go near the edgier stuff the way DC and Fox do. That's why the whole marital abuse arc between Hank Pym (aka Yellowjacket) and Janet van Dyne (aka The Wasp) was tossed out. The Ant-Man movie was vanilla Iron Man-lite shit, with a lead actor who's nowhere near as good as Downey.


    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    (there's also talk that the ABC executives thought Bruce Banner sounded "too gay", whatever that was supposed to entail).
    I've NEVER heard that before. GTFO with that poppycock!

  19. #44
    re: ABC executives believing "Bruce Banner" to be "too gay",

    That comes from both Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno. It's mentioned on the Wiki page for the series:
    According to both Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno, it was also changed because CBS thought the name Bruce sounded "too gay-ish", a rationale that Ferrigno thought was "the most absurd, ridiculous thing [he had] ever heard"

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •