Posted in: Movies | Tagged: adam west, Batman, burt ward, entertainment, film, joker, robin, television

NYCC: Adam West Comes To New York To Talk Batman

Rich Epstein writes for Bleeding Cool:

On November 11, 2014, Batman is finally being released on Blu-Ray and DVD.  No, not that one.  Or that one.  The original 1960s tv show and movie has been remastered in all of its cheesy glory.  And to celebrate the release, Adam West was at New York Comic Con on a panel moderated by Damien Hollbrook of TV Guide.

We got to see a few clips of the show and specials that are included in the set.  One of the clips, was a side-by-side showing the difference in the remastered version.  It looks absolutely amazing.  When you look at The Joker, and how washed out he looks in the original, the colors of his hair and costume look great.

The set includes a few extras, such as interviews with the case members, a scrapbook detailing Adam West's own archive, trading cards, documentaries and a Hot Wheels style Batmobile.

Adam West himself was really cool to listen to.  He really seems to appreciate his fame and several times remarked on how lucky he was to have the career he has had.  He was also pretty funny, referring to himself as a "senior superhero" and telling stories about how he gets stopped at airports because fans need to act out a scene from the show for him. His impersonations of George Sanders (Mr. Freeze) and Liberace (Chandell) had everyone laughing.

He spoke a bit about what it was like filming the series.  The show aired twice a week, and they shot the movie at the same time as the show.  They would sometimes shoot pieces from different episodes on the same day, to the point where he needed to have someone feeding his lines and reminding him which script they were doing.

The show is, of course, known for its guest stars, which Adam West spoke a bit about.  He said that he was able to work with great actors because they all wanted to do the show.  It was the rare show that was family friendly and the children could enjoy it on one level while the adults would get the humor of the show (this is something he thinks is missing from the new versions of Batman).  At the same time, the actors were given free reign to be "Shakespearean" and ham it up as much as they wanted. He told of doing a scene with Vincent Price (Egghead) who started throwing eggs at the crew during an egg fight.  It seems like it was just a fun experience for the actors.  He spoke about how Cesar Romero (Joker) would sit in his chair and sleep when he wasn't involved in the scene.  But the second he was called on, he was full of manic energy.  Adam West said that he learned from Romero how to pace himself as an actor.

I was one of many kids to grow up with this show.  When I was younger, I loved it for the action.  Then I loved to watch it to laugh at how cheesy it was, before realizing that was the joke.  I can't wait to see the new set and show it to my kids.

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