My Inevitable Post on Batman '66

With it FINALLY being released on DVD and Bluray this year, a bunch of sweet merchandise, and a successful comic book series based on its weird version of the character, the Bill Dozier 1966 Batman is having a bit of a revival, and I couldn't be happier.

I am vengeance, old chum!

For a long time, it was the cool thing for Batman fans to disown or mock the show, but I always said

Fuck

That

Shit.

Word.

I've always loved that strange, hilarious, brilliant show.  When I was a little kid, it was straight adventure, and as I grew up watching and rewatching it on various stations, I could appreciate the humor and parody of it.  I haven't seen it in probably about 8 or 9 years or so now, but IFC is running it, and I'm rewatching it yet again.  I'll get the Bluray at some point, too...but that's a bit of a monetary commitment.

Anyway, gotta say: still awesome.  I love Adam West's measured performance.  I heard in an interview that he tired to portray Batman as someone who is always thinking, even about every word he chooses, kind of lost in thought all the time, hence the deliberate way he speaks.

I love Burt Ward's crazed Robin, enthusiasm literally unable to be kept in check, and how weirdly violent he gets at the prospect of fighting mostly harmless villains.  Supposedly, he did most of his own stunts and knew actual martial arts.

Who's next?

Pictured: author's puberty

I love Yvonne Craig's cute and spunky Batgirl, who I still find totally sexy to this day, and who wasn't allowed to throw a punch on the show, because sexism, and so she only ever kicked bad guys.  Because that's better somehow?

I'm thrilled that WB and Fox have finally worked out a deal to release it, in what looks like a BEAUTIFULLY restored package, and that interest in it seems to be on a resurgence.  Hopefully another little dork like me will discover it and fall down the rabbit hole leading to the wonders of the batcave and the adventures, in all his incarnations, of one of the greatest and most enduring characters ever created.