RIP Adam West. Thanks for the adventures!

I simply had to comment on Adam West’s passing at age 88 after a battle with leukemia. Like a lot of us, we grew up watching Adam as Batman or Batman ’66 as they now refer to it. The show ran for three seasons: 1966 t0 1968. I grew up watching the reruns after school in the 1970’s. 

I’m not sad at Adam’s passing. He had a wonderful life, and he came a long way. I prefer to celebrate his life.

After Adam’s Batman run in the 60’s, he struggled to find his second wind of a career if you will. Before he became a brilliant voice actor, Simpsons star, and we entered the current age of geek, he made a lot of appearances opening grocery stores and almost any gig he could find to make some money. I first saw Adam at the Toledo Zoo and was scared of him in person as a little boy even though I dressed up as Batman for Halloween. The second time I met him was by accident as I shopped at a mall in Ohio and stumbled upon a small comic book convention (just a few tables). There was Adam West. This was before smartphones, so I have no pictures to share. This time I wasn’t scared and thanked him for the influence on my childhood. He was polite and laughed when I told him his voice was what I loved the most.

Later in high school when the Tim Burton Batman movie was announced I rented a Batman costume and a video camera. I wrote a script and assembled a group of friends to make an ode to Batman, the Adam West Batman. I looked like the Noid (Google it) rather than Batman. The villain was the Honky Tonk Man played by my friend Jeff. My best friend at the time Don filmed the thing on glorious VHS (lost ages ago). Craft services, AKA, my Mom made us all hoagie sandwiches, and we had a blast filming in our studio, the basement. Unfortunately, none of us were familiar with the cutting edge video recorder so we ended up pausing when we should have been recording and recording when we should have been pausing. We still ended up with some unintentionally crazy footage. Also, after we watched it back, Honky Tonk Man didn’t have time for reshoots because he had to work at IHOP. Don and I decided to make a washed up Batman drinking with his friend Smitty. We had a Wild Irish Rose bottle, and I remember rambling on about Robin no longer calling or visiting. Good memories I will always cherish. The tape went low tech “viral” at the time, which amounted to passing the tape around school. The majority of my yearbook messages were about Batman.

Fast forward to 2016. I was fortunate enough to see Adam in Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders up on the big screen. It brought me a lot of joy. Here’s my review on the Guardians of the Geekery podcast with my friend Davey: Batman podcast.

Thanks for everything Adam West. You definitely left a strong impression on me.