Adam West has passed away at the age of 88.
Our beloved AW passed away last night. He was the greatest. We'll miss him like crazy. We know you'll miss him too – West Family pic.twitter.com/8bkEq1C2ao
— Adam West (@therealadamwest) June 10, 2017
West died peacefully in Los Angeles after a brief battle with leukaemia, a family spokesperson said.
His tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Batman and the superhero’s alter ego Bruce Wayne won a cult following.
He later struggled to find big acting roles, but won a new generation of fans in more recent times after joining the cast of Family Guy.
First appearing in season two in 2002, he voiced Quahog’s eccentric Mayor Adam West, described by series creator Seth McFarlane as an “alternate universe”, satirised version of the actor.
“Our dad always saw himself as The Bright Knight, and aspired to make a positive impact on his fans’ lives. He was and always will be our hero,” the actor’s family said in a statement, reported in Variety.
Adam West, the ardent actor who managed to keep his tongue in cheek while wearing the iconic cowl of the Caped Crusader on the classic 1960s series Batman, has died. He was 88.
West, who was at the pinnacle of pop culture after Batman debuted in January 1966, only to see his career fall victim to typecasting after the ABC show flamed out, died Friday night in Los Angeles after a short battle with leukemia, a family spokesperson said.
West died peacefully surrounded by his family and is survived by his wife Marcelle, six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
West had recently returned to his best known role in a DC animated movie rejoining costars Burt Ward and Julie Newmar in voicing their characters.
A sequel was planned.
Ready to move out!
Mnemosyne
True fact: after the first couple of episodes, you will always see an insert shot of Batman and Robin buckling their seatbelts after they get into the Batmobile. The National Transportation Safety Board asked the producers to add one because it was a kids’ show and they were trying to get everyone used to the idea of wearing their seat belts.
I used to watch the show in syndication every day after school when I was in grade school and, for me, it still holds up. And I love that West was able to enjoy another decade of recognition with his voiceover work.
The Red Pen
I recommend any fan of the 60s Batman to check out the animated film. It’s great.
Laura
When we we’re wee, my brothers and I would shake mom down for enough money to each buy an 8-pak of crayolas and then grab some pillow cases and color us up some capes and paper masks. Mike, being the oldest, was Batman, and Tom and I were both relegated to Robin. If memory serves, Batman was on twice a week, and nothing, I mean NOTHING got in the way of us three and the TV on those nights.
It was truly, the biggest deal going when we were wee.
Rest easy Caped Crusader, your work here is done.
Shell
And Glenne Headley died yesterday at 62. Jesus!
tom
I was in junior high when Batman first aired on TV. I knew it was silly but still thought it was cool. Post-Batman, Adam West always seemed like a gracious man.
aimai
OMG how I loved that show when I was a child! I was born in 1960 so it seems like I was about six when the show began. I can remember the intense excitement we felt during the whirling graphics that broke it up for commercials. The amazing scenes of Batman and Robin walking up the sides of buildings and talking to the (famous) people who would stick their heads out of the windows were foundational moments of humor for me–they were always sardonic, tongue in cheek, or filled with puns that at the time we didn’t always get.
Favorite lines: when Batman throws Robin the bat-rope and robin catches it in his teeth batman says “Saved! By DENTAL HYGIENE!” I remember another episode in which Batman is saved from poison because he drank a protective glass of milk with his cookies. What a great show!
Adam L Silverman
@tom: Lot of nice responses, remarks, and remembrances in the tweet from the family I posted up top that get right to your point.
Adam L Silverman
Adam L Silverman
This scene was apparently written by and/or for our local pedants!
raven
Wasn’t in my wheelhouse but happy trails to him.
Mart
Batman came out when I was eight years old and this was the best thing on TV by far (for an eight year old boy). I delayed my annual birthday dinner at my the restaurant of my choice (we only went out to eat on birthdays) to the following day so I did not miss an episode. How could Batman get better?, Batman two times a week instead of once! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. I also did an awesome job on my plastic model Bat-mobile. Got me reading about turbine engines. When a turbine was entered in the 1967 Indy 500, great goobly moobly that was fantastic. RIP Mr. West.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman:
Let the record reflect that i approve of this message.
Omnes, efgoldman, et al will surely weigh in later.
#Pedant4Life
donnah
I grew up with that Batman and Robin and I had a big crush on Burt Ward. The show was cheeky, campy, and fun. My mother thought it was silly, but she let us watch it.
I had seen Adam West on Big Bang Theory recently and was glad he still was cheeky and clever. He lived a long time and entertained many of us.
RIP, Adam West.
Mark
Great show when I was a little guy. It aired in two half hour shows on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The first nights airing conflicted with Lost in Space. Hard choices for a 9 year old.
BIFF, POW, ZOWIE, SPLAT.
RIP Adam.
Mart
Also too, it was Clinton, Batman has long been on the Illuminati hit list.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Can you imagine the outrage today if anyone had the audacity to make a similar request?
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
And let’s talk about the fact that there was a GIRL SUPERHERO ON OUR TEEVEE! And she was Batman and Robin’s equal! Who rescued them sometimes!
Because I was watching it in syndication in the early 1970s, there were no Batgirl costumes available on the shelves, so my mom made one for me by adapting a Butterick pattern and hand-dying it so the lower legs were the yellow “boots.”
Sadly, the photo of me in that awesome costume is long lost in one of our family’s moves. ?
CarolDuhart2
Batman Villains of the 1960’s Series.
Amazed at the quality of that list. Iconic actors who didn’t mind being on such a campy series. Hats off to whoever was able to get that done.
Batman was when I was grade school: twice a week and great cliff-hangers and even better toys. Like Star Trek, the tv series ended too soon. I heard that the budget was too high to sustain for too long. But still, couldn’t they have had another year? But maybe it was for the best. I find it hard to see how it could have continued into the more cynical 70’s without losing its humor and grace.
Mart
Also three, the show had some great actors as vilians, and everyone was all in on the full cartoon campiness.
Mart
@CarolDuhart2: Oops.
Mnemosyne
@CarolDuhart2:
I got it on Blu-Ray from Amazon and I think Frank Gorshin as the Riddler is still the best villain overall. He hits exactly the right balance of funny and menacing.
And, on Blu-Ray, you can see why he asked them to let him wear a suit instead of the bodysuit in the later episodes. Even in those pre-spandex days, it was a little, um, revealing. Mrs. Gorshin must have been a happy woman. ?
ETA: According to IMDb, Gorsbin was the only “Batman” actor to get an Emmy nomination.
Karen
the show was so campy, yet couldn’t resist watching
sigaba
It was under this theory that the writers of the Batman series were hired to write the Dino de Laurentiis version of Flash Gordon, the one with all the Queen music.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Alex Ross, in his amazing art for Kingdom Come, based his Riddler off of Gorshin’s:
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/2/22/Catwoman_Kingdom_Come_01.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100518062549
And his Riddler in Justice is an adaptation from Gorshin’s Riddler:
http://img12.deviantart.net/88b4/i/2012/352/2/e/alex_ross___riddler_2_by_superman8193-d5oecsw.jpg
Mnemosyne
@sigaba:
That explains why Flash Gordon is still my favorite guilty pleasure. And didn’t Lorenzo Semple Jr write Buckaroo Banzai? I don’t feel like opening up IMDb.
ETA: The main problem with Flash Gordon is Sam Jones. I think a better lead would have made for a better movie overall.
moops
It was a remarkable accomplishment for a TV show: To be full-on camp comedy show for the adults, and completely on the up-and-up for the kids. Part of it was the utter sincerity the actors put into their performances. They sold it for the kids, and with a good script and committed actors it could pull off the camp for the adults. You could slide into cynicism over your aging process, and yet still come back and enjoy the show. Even the “comedy” in the show stayed in the camp framing. I can vaguely recall that time in my life as I grew out of being a kid viewer, to becoming an adult viewer. Being a pre-teen and catching on that it was an elaborate gag, but realizing that I just couldn’t get mad at Batman. He never winked at the adults or did a 4th-wall-breaking move to regain his cool with the adults at the expense of laughing at the kids. He remained pure.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Why does Selina Kyle have a talking cat in that panel? I didn’t think Catwoman had actual superpowers. ?
Jeffro
@tom: @aimai: @Mart: ME TOO!
There’s a large “LEGO Classic TV Batman Batcave” set stashed in the back of my closet, to give to Jeffro Jr. as a birthday present later this summer. He’s going to be absolutely thrilled to see it and put it together. I’ll be sure to help him with the dialogue during the battles once the set’s all put together. =)
germy
I remember being taken to a car show in the mid-60s (I must have been 10 or so) and seeing the George Barris batmobile (or one of them, anyway). I got to see it up close! And then afterwards I got a small model of the batmobile that shot real yellow projectiles from its rocket launchers.
germy
(from previous thread):
I saw Gorshin on a talk show in the ’80s and he talked about how he came up with the Riddler laugh.
He said he experimented with a variety of laughs (he was a talented nightclub impressionist) including a hoarse Richard Widmark laugh (from the film where he throws the old lady down a flight of stairs) … but finally settled on the loud giggle.
Late in life, Gorshin did a great theater performance as George Burns.
Mnemosyne
@moops:
The writers made Batman 100 percent a goody two-shoes, and West played the part absolutely straight-faced, which is what it needed. Re-watching it as an adult, I forgot how many “lessons” got inserted into the show about doing your homework, wearing your seat belt and, yes, dental hygiene. Batman wouldn’t even park the Batmobile in front of a fire hydrant!
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: She doesn’t. That speech bubble is for Catwoman, not the cat. The Unseen speaker off to the side is for Lex Luthor. Who, despite being bald, bears a striking resemblance to a certain NY real estate developer.
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/e/ef/Lex_Luthor_%28Earth-22%29_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110619061633
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Everything about that show was wonderful. High camp, but with a real earnestness about it. I’ve been following Batman 66 Labels on twitter for a couple of years, and OMG, the set designers must have had so much fun.
RIP, another piece of my youth.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
A Gorshin quote from IMDb about his Riddler laugh:
Shana
@Mnemosyne: What a great mom. I would have loved to see that picture.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
I like my version better. ?
And as multiple people have pointed out before me, when Lex Luthor was elected POTUS in the comic books, he divested himself of Luthor Industries, which means that Trump is officially less ethical than an actual comic-book villain.
Shana
@moops: Rocky and Bullwinkle managed the same balance. You knew as a kid that there were jokes you weren’t getting but loved it all the same.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Sounds like West knew what was truely imporant in life.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Well, that sucks. At least 2017 isn’t grabbing them nearly as fast as 2016 did. In other news, I went to a Ralph Northam event today and got my picture taken with the next governor of Virginia. He grew up on the Eastern Shore, where my mother’s family has lived for 400 years. His parents went to church with my grandparents. I suggested that when he wins in November, he should change his official residence to Onancock, so we can have another governor from the Eastern Shore. There’s only been one so far, and that was 160-odd years ago, and he later fought for the confederacy, so we’d like another, better one. He said he’d do it, but I’m not going to hold him to it as a campaign promise, since I kind of caught him off guard.
germy
@Mnemosyne: I remember Roddy McDowall as “The Bookworm” with his glasses and noisy suit.
It wasn’t until recently I learned a pilot was filmed with two other actors as Batman and Robin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-BHYo4U0M4
?BillinGlendaleCA
The Batcave.
NotMax
He certainly milked his shtick for all it was worth while not tarnishing the image, and more power to him for that. Clayton Moore pretty much paved that road of carrying it off without becoming tiresome nor a parody of oneself.
Even when the TV show was brand spanking new, thought both lead actors looked (and were) too old for the parts so mostly skipped it.
Mart
@germy: Always fun until a yellow projectile gets you in the eye.
Mnemosyne
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Your link is a little screwy, but I still managed to find the Twitter feed, where one of the tributes they posted today is this moment from “Batman” where the Caped Crusader discovers the hard way that his new girlfriend is Catwoman.
mattH
The Batman Animated series had a very meta episode with West doing voice-over of what is essentially himself. His voice work was good only got better over time.
HeleninEire
That’s my childhood on its way out. LOVED Batman and Robin.
Adam L Silverman
@mattH: Beware the Gray Ghost! One of my favorite BTAS episodes.
Ridnik Chrome
For me Batman will always and forever be Adam West. I watched the TV show as a kid, and remember it fondly…
moops
@NotMax: That was one sore spot for me as a kid: Batman and Robin looked a little past their prime on TV compared to comic books. Burt was early 20’s and even a youngish early 20 year old is a very different look from the Boy Wonder. West I didn’t mind as much. Batman hadn’t been buff or young in the comics, just utterly fearless. But yeah, I was not that ga ga over someone my dads age being a superhero as a kid. Thankfully I stopped noticing after a season. They made the characters work and took over.
Adam L Silverman
I forgot to mention that the Greek immigrant to Canada who invented Hawaiian style pizza also passed away yesterday:
NotMax
Pair of Patrick Warburton’s heroes, The Tick and Brock Samson, owe a lot to the foundation laid by West’s Batman.
The Tick learns about death
Phylllis
@Mnemosyne: Mark Evanier wrote a lovely remembrance of Yvonne Craig. I really wanted to be her when I grew up. A librarian/superhero. What a dream life.
Mnemosyne
@moops:
FWIW, the Robin that Ward is playing is supposed to be a junior or senior in high school, so I didn’t find him totally implausible. I was also young enough that the ages of the actors didn’t bother me, because everyone from about age 16 up was a “grown-up” to 5 or 6-year-old me.
jharp
My brother and I loved that show.
And I remember having to wait an entire week to see how Batman was going to escape form the predicament he was in.
Nicole
My dad was in college when Batman debuted. He told me those nights were standing-room-only in the TV room and the entire room would shout out the BAMs and BOFFs and OOFs. I think it’s why he was sympathetic to my weekly outings to the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the 1980s- he knew the fun of being with a bunch of friends, yelling at a screen.
The Christmas before he died, we gave him the Batman series on blu-ray. He put it on the TV and within ten minutes, the entire family, from aged 6 to 69, were rapt. A really nice memory of the last time the whole family was together.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Are you going to hang that around their necks?
/pendant
Mnemosyne
@Phylllis:
Heh. I had to laugh in that article when he ended up sitting between Yvonne Craig and Julie Newmar, because when I was a little girl, it would be week-to-week on whether I wanted to be Batgirl or Catwoman while I was playing with my friends. It was always a tough decision, and I switched back and forth a lot.
I now know a lot of librarians because of my current job, and Batgirl/Barbara Gordon is still a big heroine for librarians.
ETA: 2015 posters from the American Library Association (ALA).
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
The aunt also rankled. Not so much the insertion of the character, more that as written for TV she necessitated the heroes lying to and deceiving her.
(In the comics, Aunt Harriet had been brought in after Alfred died – now that was a shocker of an issue – and she was not as flighty and clueless as the TV version.)
BBA
Nobody messes with Adam We.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
I assume as an adult that Aunt Harriet was put on the show to reassure everyone that Batman and Robin weren’t sleeping together, because they had a chaperone living under the same roof. Though the woman was so clueless that they could have been doing the nasty every night without her ever realizing it, which was also probably part of the joke.
Remember, one of the reasons the Comics Code was brought in was that the crazy psychiatrist who wrote Seduction of the Innocent was convinced that Batman and Robin were being portrayed as lovers, and TV censors had only just started allowing women to wear pants onscreen.
sigaba
@Mnemosyne:
Lorenzo Semple did not work on BB, but Semple also worked on much more straight-ahead things like Three Days of the Condor.
I think the big difference between a film like BB and Flash Gordon is everybody on BB knows exactly what kind of movie they’re in and they’re all working towards the same goal. NOBODY in Flash Gordon knows what kind of movie they’re in, Di Laurentiis wanted a Star Wars ripoff, something more like John Carter (a movie I’ll defend any day). Everyone in the movie seems confused though, some of the people seem to know what they’re doing (like Brian Blessed and Topol) but everyone else is out to sea. This is the same sort of thing that tended to derail Paul Verhoeven’s movies.
Batman was never like that, either, they could unabashedly camp it up on a kids TV show and nobody had any illusions about what it was supposed to be apart from that.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: I’d have been more worried about the child endangerment issues. One of my favorite set of panels from the Justice League in the early aughts:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BNu_mmDD2nw/US-Dg5jxzVI/AAAAAAAAA5c/_Ox8uKd3Z58/s1600/wallywentthere.jpg
mattH
@sigaba:
John Carter suffers from the fact that everyone stole from it, so by the time it came out, it didn’t feel “innovative”. Still a good film and should have lead to some amazing sequels. I’m interested in seeing how Valerian does. I really hope it kicks some ass. (odd that the italics html tag seems broken)
Cermet
The ONLY person that both understood the role and managed to pull it off. He will be missed.
mattH
@Adam L Silverman: HAHAHAHA, that is so good.
scav
Never actually watched the show, but we nearly always had a bat-pumpkin every year at Halloween. Dad’s signature carving. (Made one just a few years ago for my cousins’ boys.) And the Biff! Pow! Holy Insetword Batman! is nevertheless ingrained.
Adam L Silverman
@mattH: That series and the Geoff Johns’ run on the JSA were excellent. There were always crossovers every year so you got to see the two teams interacting. And it included having two women run each team: Black Canary running the League and Power Girl running the Justice Society. They even did a crossover that included the Legion with Dream Girl being Legion leader.
sigaba
Internet informs me that Lorenzo Semple also worked on Never to Young to Die, the John Stamos/Gene Simmons James Bond ripoff/parody/who knows. It’s all beginning to make sense now.
But he also wrote Papillon with Dalton Trumbo. You figure it out…
NotMax
@sigaba
As opposed to Flesh Gordon.
;)
Miss Bianca
Oh, man…just like everyone else here, loved loved loved Batman and Robin! I was a very serious little kid, so what’s really funny to me in retrospect is that all the campy stuff that appealed to grown-ups irritated me – now, of course, it makes me howl. And Batgirl! I loved how Batgirl ended up jockeying Bruce Wayne’s racehorse, Waynebow, in one episode. And villains! Frank Gorshin’s Riddler, Burgess Meredith’s Penguin, Julie Newmar *and* Eartha Kitt as Catwoman (a role so cool they had to get two actresses!), and then my next favorite after them…Egghead, played by Vincent Price. Good times. RIP, Mr. West.
ETA And Caesar Romero as the Joker scared the crap out of me.
Mnemosyne
@sigaba:
There was a lot of internal wrangling over who was in charge of marketing for John Carter, Disney or Pixar, and it hurt the film’s chances at the box office. Plus half the studio wanted to be rid of Richard Ross (including many plebes, not just executives) and it was a handy excuse to get rid of him and a bunch of the legacy marketing people left over from the Eisner days.
It’s not a bad little movie, though, and I don’t think we could have successful CG-heavy live action films like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Jungle Book without it.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Three actresses played Catwoman.
http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Catwoman_(Lee_Meriwether)
MomSense
I really loved the Batman tv show and Adam West was the best. I remember watching it for the first time as an adult when my boys were little and realizing how funny it was. I realized why my parents didn’t mind watching it with me.
trollhattan
@Nicole:
A sweet story.
When I hit the dorm the communal television program was probably M.A.S.H., with the regrettable detour of the Munich massacre. The school year was bookended by the Watergate hearings, which had everybody crammed into the rec room when not cramming for finals. Somewhere in the timespan the ’60s ended, ushering in an even worse decade.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
While as an adult I appreciate Eartha Kitt’s Batgirl as a kid there was only Julie Newmar, if you get my drift. Much as there’s only the Mrs. Peel Avengers.
Nicole
@trollhattan: Both MASH and Batman have nice entries in Cult TV, a fun book that came out in the late 1980s. I remember watching MASH‘s final episode with my dad.
Fair Economist
I was a big fan of the show in syndication when I was in elementary school. I’m acquainted with John Newmayer, the brother of Julie Newmar aka Catwoman, and he has an interesting story about her taking the role. He was in college when the show came out and he and his friends were very big fans of it from the start. She talked to him after she’d been offered the role and said she wasn’t sure if she should take it or not. His immediate response was “Are you nuts? TAKE IT!” And she did.
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: I got to meet Lee Meriwether when I was at the 2015 comic-con. I loved her Catwoman, not as much as Eartha, but all the Catwomen meant something to me. And, Batgirl? Wooo boy! I wanted to be like her.
Keith P.
I had no idea the old Batman series was revered this much. It was a mere curiosity for me growing up (it was on Nickelodeon or maybe TBS)…I only really know Adam West from being Adam West (and, as I said in the previous thread, the *excellent* TV pilot “Lookwell”)
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Great Caesar’s ghost, I forgot all about Lee Merriwether!
trollhattan
@trollhattan:
Oops Catwoman, not Batgirl. “You’re the Batgirl, you’re the Batgirl!”
Mr Stagger Lee
@Adam L Silverman: There was a debate over Hawaiian Pizzas on a local radio show, Sorry I think it is blasphemous to put pineapples on pizzas though my side is increasingly getting small. Now I here of apricots and pears on pizzas, Scandalous!Adam West, Batman The Batusi!
.
Adam L Silverman
@Mr Stagger Lee: It is not my preferred toppings. After living in Scotland for three and 1/2 years I can honestly say you’d be amazed what people will put on a pizza.
Gravenstone
@mattH: As i mentioned in the previous thread, that episode is the favorite role I’ve seen West in. A great episode overall.
amygdala
@Adam L Silverman: I’m afraid to ask. Wandering around Inverness last fall, I saw a menu that featured Haggis Nachos. Globalization, I tells ya. ;p
I’m not averse to weird things on pizza–eggplant, especially–but pineapple is just wrong. And I’m part Hawaiian.
Another Scott
@sigaba:
That was my reaction on seeing it in the theatre, and I was well acquainted with the old B&W serial. It was very confusing.
I felt the same way about the 1984 version of Dune (I had not read the book(s)).
Oh well.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gravenstone
@Miss Bianca:
Three, actually – the third was Lee Meriwether.
Keith P.
@Adam L Silverman: I saw an episode of one of Tony Bourdain’s shows where he went to Pizzarium in Rome. The guy puts anything on pizzas. Some are cooked, others are flatbread with raw toppings added. He did a Hawaiin pizza for Bourdain (adding sautéed peppers apparently makes it) that looked OK, as did one with goat cheese, potatoes, and raspberries. It really comes down to “do you want to call any topped flatbread ‘pizza’?” because really that’s all it is. I know of a few people who, if I mention these pizzas, will immediately launch into a diatribe about “proper pizza”…I just want to talk about the toppings and my desire to eat them.
Gravenstone
@Another Scott:
That abomination should never be spoken of in public. The original novel is one of my all time favorites. The movie came out while I was in college. Several people in our dorm had gone to see it, and were effusing over the whole ‘his name is a killing word’ bullshit. I knew right then that I would hate the thing should I ever come across it – and I was right.
Iowa Old Lady
On the topic of super heroes, I just got back from seeing Wonder Woman. All the people who told you it was great were right. I usually find fight scenes boring, but in this movie, even they were great.
Another Scott
@Keith P.: CBC – As it Happens:
I think the worst “pizza” I ever had was in Italy (Erice, Siciliy, to be precise). Burnt, flavorless, really awful.
Cheers,
Scott.
Scamp Dog
One Halloween during the original run, my brother and I dressed up as Batman and Robin. We were probably 7 (me, Batman) and 5 (bro, Robin) at the time. I’ll have to ask Mom if she still has that picture of us in those costumes. We’re both wearing big grins, just loving being the Dynamic Duo.
SFBayAreaGal
@Shana: The old Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny cartoons did the same thing. I loved them as a kid for the antics, love them as an adult for the dialog.
Adam L Silverman
@Keith P.: I saw the same episode and it is very interesting. As with many things, what Americans think of a type of food is both very limited and quintessentially American. Pizza as we understand it is really developed in the US, then redeveloped in the US, then exported back out to the world. The same thing happened with what we think of as Chinese food.
Adam L Silverman
@Gravenstone: The movie was terrible. I read the book purposefully so I’d have a better understanding when I saw the movie and the movie was horrible. Syfy’s three part, nine hour adaptation is much, much better.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
The essential problem with the first film was that it ought to have been two (or even three) movies.
It was like they got two hours in and were like “Holy crap, we’ve still got 600 pages of book to film. Better rush to wrap this puppy up.”
re: the SYFY one – they certainly went out of their way to get actors who closely resembled the ones in the theatrical film.
PaulWartenberg
I loved the Batman: Animated Series where they cast Adam West to voice Simon Trent, an actor who got typecast playing The Grey Ghost, a costumed hero that Bruce Wayne worshiped as a child. It was a nice nod to West, who was struggling post-Batman to find a steady career, and it helped bring him back to public awareness as a cool funny guy.
SFBayAreaGal
@Iowa Old Lady: I saw Wonder Woman earlier today. I loved the movie. I too wished one of the fight scenes on the beach was longer.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
Pizza is the invention of immigrants to America, just like chop suey and corned beef and cabbage. They have various types of flatbreads in Italy, but what we think of as “pizza” is purely American.
@SFBayAreaGal:
“Aha! Pronoun trouble.”
Or
“What did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?”
NotMax
@PaulWartenberg
Always suspected that moniker came about because the very similar owned one came with some cultural baggage.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: seconded on Johns’ JSA, as well as the awesomeness of “The Lightning Saga”
SFBayAreaGal
I was ten when the Batman show started. I loved the show. This show is what got me hooked on comic books. I collected comic books of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. I still love picking up a comic book of Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman, to see what is going on. I also loved Justice League of America comic books.
Now, I’m a big fan of Gotham. The portrayals of the villains are so good.
I was also a big fan of Smallville.
tom
@Adam L Silverman: A friend just emailed this to me:
Mnemosyne
@tom:
I’m almost tempted to see Spiderman: Homecoming just because its star Tom Holland is already visiting children’s hospitals in costume. I like to reward good kids, even good kids who are movie stars.
Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne
@Adam L Silverman: Frank Gorshin’s Riddler was his pièce de résistance.
Amir Khalid
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I’m just a wee bit surprised that an American town would have a name like that.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ve often wondered why a Spanish tortilla is an omelette, but a Mexican tortilla is a flatbread very much like a chapati.
steverinoCT
The sad thing to me about that trailer is how old AW sounds. It happens, but when you have the magic of movies/TV and can have instant juxtaposition it really can be jarring. There’s a (local?) series of TV commercials where the actor’s voice fades as he ages. He passed away several years ago but they still use an animated image of him and his signature closing line.
Lazada
The Sadness is almost unbearable. For those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s, although the cinema has given others, very good in theirs, it was he who gave us many joys in childhood and we waited week after week the outcome of situations that astonished those who were children, Rest in peace, Batman.