By: Daniel Roberts of Films Of Fury
It was approximately 4:30 PM on the sunny afternoon of June 10th as I was hitting NY I-87 North leaving Tuxedo, New York after completing the grueling 4.1 mile Spartan Sprint. As I drove with the windows down on my 2011 Jeep Wrangler away from one of my greatest life moments I needed to grab a few things for the road: Gatorade, Water and Salt and Vinegar kettle cooked chips. As I paid the cashier for my road treats I looked down at my phone to look at my Facebook page, I had posted some pictures of my latest conquest and wanted to see if I received any more likes. What I saw next made me leave the store without grabbing my card from the chip reader. Whatever I posted throughout the day seemed trivial, the pain in my legs from the constant climbing and strain of the course was replaced by a pain in my heart. What I saw broke me down worse than any obstacle I faced that day and brought me to tears: Adam West was dead.
As I travelled home, I turned the music off and just drove. The day couldn’t have been more perfect, but through it all I spent my time car watching. In my two plus hour drive back to Upstate New York I saw something I’ve seen on hundreds of vehicles before: The Bat symbol. An Audi with one on the bumper, a Subaru with one on the back window. A rust bucket pickup truck with several adorned all over the body. The closer I got to home I thought of my childhood hero, The Batman.
My first exposure to the Caped Crusader was not through the groundbreaking Tim Burton film in 1989, quite the contrary. My Batman was not from a grim and bleak world who dispensed justice in a cruel and violent manner while shrouded in darkness. I grew up in a world before Michael Keaton donned the cape and cowl of the World’s Greatest Detective. My Batman was Adam West
It’s been almost three weeks since we lost the Original Dark Knight and the time as given fans the opportunity to reflect on what it was that made Adam West so important to American Pop Culture. Those who were raised on the ’66 series remember West’s dry comedic delivery in the most ridiculous of situations. I can remember being a small child watching Nick at Nite and watching Batman: The Movie and one of the lasting memories from that film was the Infamous Bomb Scene.
As a kid I thought this was the most ridiculously funny scene, The Caped Crusader running around Gotham Harbor with a bomb avoiding marching bands, nuns and adorable ducklings, and the delivery of the line was genuine and you could tell the sincerity in West’s voice that the possible loss of innocent life would devastate Batman.
Adam West was not done with the world of Batman. The next time that West would appear on a Batman television show was episode 18 of the first season of the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series. By this time, Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns had become box office juggernauts and the animated children’s show wanted to capitalize on the noir storytelling of the comics and films. Showrunner Bruce Timm wanted to create a link between the show the creators all loved as kids and their new work so Adam West was brought in to voice Simon Trent, an actor who once starred in the fictional superhero series Beware The Gray Ghost! The show featured a silent guardian of the night who would stop at nothing to put an end to crime in his city. Little would Simon Trent know that an adolescent Bruce Wayne would sit in from of his television mesmerized by the adventures of his hero while his father sat back amused by how his son would enthusiastically watch his show. In the episode of the same title, Trent is an aged actor who can’t escape the stigma of only being The Gray Ghost to Hollywood casting agents and producers. He’s broke, living in a small apartment in Gotham and surrounded by the memories of his heyday. Desperate to make ends meet, he sells off what memorabilia to survive another day.
The paths of Simon Trent and Batman would cross when a villain uses an episode of Trent’s show as a blueprint to bomb Gotham City and hold it for ransom. Simon Trent once again dons his iconic Gray Ghost outfit to assist the Dark Knight in his pursuit of the Mad Bomber, with Batman even bringing his childhood hero back to The Batcave. In one of the most heart wrenching moments of the series, Batman brings Trent to a closed off section of the cave where on display is a tribute to The Gray Ghost including young Bruce Wayne’s Gray Ghost outfit, posters and collectibles. The Dark Knight reveals that not only did he share precious childhood memories of watching Trent’s show with his own father…but that Gray Ghost was his hero.
To look back at this scene now in the context of West no longer being with us, you must think to yourself: How many of us reading this have our own “Gray Ghost Collection”? How many of us have mirrored our collections to emulate the Cave? How many of us remember the feeling of getting our first Batman figure from our parents? And if given the opportunity, would we show our childhood hero to tell them how much they meant to us? This episode was not only the producers way of saying thank you, but it was ours.
Not only was Adam West my Batman, as an adult he also became my mayor. Family Guy is not only wildly addictive but it isn’t afraid to take celebrities and put them in absurd situations. James Woods is your friendly Stalker/Murderer, Rush Limbaugh plays an overly Super-Americana version of himself, but the best celebrity spot on the show is reserved from Adam West who is the Mayor of the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. This pot smoking, womanizing man about Quahog isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed but he leads the citizens through dangers in a way only Adam West could. I can’t mention all of the great scenes he’s taken part in basically because there are too damn man but he did introduce the world to the most devastating weapon to ever be created…The Cat Launcher!
It’s hard to sit in front of a laptop and encapsulate 35 years of memories about an actor whose work permeated your life in such an influential way. Every iteration of Batman since his has been touched by the work. Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight Trilogy, still has his childhood ‘66 die cast Batmobile from when he was a child and you have to imagine he replayed his own childhood memories of playing with that toy as he designed the Tumbler Batmobile from model kits in his California garage. Following the announcement of his passing, Twitter was flooded with remarks from the Batmen of the past and present who remember the man and the actor fondly. After his passing, The City of Los Angeles ignited the Batsignal on the side of City Hall. The image was reminiscent of the scene from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, as an aging Batman comes out of retirement to save the city he loves. At one point in the story, Commissioner Gordon ascends to the roof of Gotham Police Headquarters along with Officer Merkel to light the signal.
“Isn’t there any other way to contact him?”
“At least a dozen.”
“Then why?”
“…So everybody knows.”
No matter where you were. Whether you were at home watching on television, streaming the live video on Facebook, reading the tweets on your phone or watching the posts on Instagram. For one moment on a beautiful night in Los Angeles…everybody knew.
Thank you, Adam West, for being our Batman. For making us laugh as our Mayor. And for reminding us that the world can be a brighter place even in the Darkest Knight.
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