OK, in summary, the article starts off by talking about "camp sensibility," and goes on to talk about ABC's Batman being the first attempt it in a mass medium... and says that there was way too much camp, and neglected the essence of the original! Noted especially was Adam West's performance of the Bat-Tusi in an early episode of the seires (calling it appalling), criticizing the pouches on the utility belt instead of the vials, calls the Batmobile overdone (really? my favorite TV car of all time, overdone?), and so on... criticism of casting Cesar Romero as the Joker despite his not wanting to shave off his mustache instead of casting John Carradine (who I think wouldn't have worked in this show, personally)...
The writer, Stuart E. Samuels, seems to be of the same mind as many other comics fans of the era (at least, the adult ones) who were offended by the entire presentation of the show, and how it didn't even attempt to re-create the comics as they saw them. I can only guess that Samuels was not responsible for the incredible error of including a picture of Batwoman on her motorcycle (from probably 6-8 years ago) and saying it's how Catwoman currently appears in the comics - this despite the photo of Bob Kane with a painting of Catwoman he'd supposedly done (although word has it Kane didn't do any of the paintings he's credited with)...
...but as I believe I've mentioned before, while I also felt the same way for a long time, I've learned to just relax and accept that show for what it was... a children's show, intended to also amuse adults, much like Bullwinkle. I'm not sure a deadly-serious Batman would've been nearly as successful (witness the follow-up Green Hornet series, which was more serious, but nowhere near as successful).
Next time: Laird Cregar and Victor Buono!
Jon
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5 comments:
Thanks for posting the article scans.
I really like the 60's Batman TV show and have never had an issue with it, then again I am not a reader of the comics. Most TV and Movie adaptions I see as 'Elseworld' tales, different variations of the same stories and characters.
I have always wanted someone to take footage from the 60's Batman, the 50's Superman and the 70's Wonder Women and digitally combine them into a storyline so we get all the characters together together.
The 60s Batman was a bit on the camp side but not really when you look at the state of the world shows at the time and stuff like that. i felt the acting was great (well.. for the most part). I am always disgusted when i see an image of Bob Kane... for what that man did he should be hated by all.. what's worse is his grave.. boy that made me feel sick when i first saw a picture of it... but this, this is kinda my view on things..
So, who do we think REALLY did that image? Bob Kane's Private Studio had alot of good artists so there are alot to pick from..
come to think of it, there is a story at Lying In The Gutter about a pretending to be Art Adams.. and how nasty he is.. Was Bob Kane much different? maybe even worsse cause he claimed credit for the stuff being his?
Brian - You're welcome! I had a problem with the show myself for a while, until I got over it and found myself enjoying it (on a different level than when I was a kid) as an adult.
Did you ever see the mercifully short Wonder Woman pilot the Batman people did?
Manic Man - Kane always had aspirations of being a comic strip artist like Milton Caniff (for example)... and back in the day, it was not unusual for the creator of a strip (once it became popular) to hire other artists to "ghost" his style... he probably saw nothing wrong with doing that for Batman, since for the longest time, his basic "style" was used (although a bit tweaked here and there).
ah, but the main problem wasn't his 'private' studio, but things like the classic Batman image from the days, being a trace of a Tazan image, he and his father made a deal so that Kane would get SOLE credit for Batman and give the two finger salute to Bill Finger.. Also, the WHOLE comic was ghosted by people that though Kane was doing atlest SOME of the work...
OK, there was the massive amount of swipes, too... Kane was really a piece of work, nobody is trying to claim otherwise (at least, not since he passed away, anyway).
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