Adam West is inexorably linked with Batman. His performance in the 1960s TV series delighted generations with its earnest absurdity, and in the decades since he has voiced the character in cartoons and performed countless Bat-cameo roles. In the years after Batman, West's career took a self-referential turn when his young fans grew up and began creating roles for him, including a demented version of himself in Family Guy.
His cult following grew even further after he starred in a rejected pilot episode of a TV show called Lookwell in which West portrayed an aging actor who was once famous for playing a TV detective. Complex caught up with him at New York Comic Con to discuss the long-overdue DVD release of West's Batman, and to talk about some of his lesser-known roles.
Batman is finally coming out on DVD.
Warners really did a great job, it'll knock your socks off. The color, the resolution, the technical aspects are wonderful—and it makes me look like a young boy.
Why is this show just now making its way onto DVD?
I have heard from time to time it was because of ownership, and permission to do certain things. It was complicated, but I'm glad that Warners and Fox finally got together and sliced up the pie in a way that was conducive to releasing it.
It's a wonderful thing to be able to make fun of yourself, and to do it in a way that sort of preserves your dignity, but at the same time lets you play the theater of the absurd.
Speaking of long overdue DVD's, Is Lookwell ever getting a DVD release?
[Laughs.] I loved that pilot. Of all the pilots I've done, I think that's my favorite. Written by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel, it gave me a chance to play a comedy, and I enjoy that. Look at Batman—that was theater of the absurd, as is Family Guy. It's fun, I enjoy making people laugh.
You did an episode of Batman: The Animated Series that shared some themes with Lookwell, but that was presented as serious, Beware The Gray Ghost.
The Gray Ghost! We're talking about that as a series, which would be fun, because I have a lot of people come up to me and ask about the Grey Ghost... I've been privy to a couple of conversations in which they're talking about bringing it animated to television.
One of the more touching moments of that episode was when [West's character] Simon Trent realizes that his old TV show had inspired young Bruce Wayne to go out and become a real hero. Do you have grown-ups saying that you inspired them?
Yes. One of the most gratifying, rewarding things is when people come up and they tell you how the show influenced their lives in a very positive way. When I do these things like Comic Con, I get people who are Lawyers, Judges, plumbers, carpenters, and entire families, and it's mostly for Batman. But now, amazingly it's also for Family Guy.
Are there younger viewers who don't realize "Mayor West" used to have some other show?
It's a wonderful thing to be able to make fun of yourself, and to do it in a way that sortof preserves your dignity, but at the same time lets you play the theater of the absurd.
You've had a cyclical, multigenerational career. A whole new generation will discover Batman with the DVD.
I'm the luckiest actor alive, believe me. I keep reinventing myself. Over the years, I've learned that if you can just hang in there and regardless of what's presented to you, take it as a challenge, and try to bring in something fresh. Then it works.
The actor learns from that. I learned from all of those great people who were guests on Batman. You know, how to stand toe-to-toe and play scenes and hold my own. They were wonderful. All of these things, even the turkeys I've done, those little budget flicks. I've learned from them, and it's helped pay the bills.
What's the work that you're most proud of?
Some of the theater. For example I did the Mark Taper Forum. I did Volpone there. In film, it might have been a smaller role in The New Age, or Marriage of a Young Stock Broker. Those are things that you can take a little pride in. But, my greatest source, if you want to call it pride, is seeing people and how much they appreciate and enjoy Batman. Because it makes them really happy, and if it makes them happy, I'm happy.
Getting the Batman '66 character into modern video games has become a recurring joke.
One of the things about Batman when you do it, you're carrying so much baggage with you, but you have the advantage of something in pop culture that was created many years ago and its had so many platforms that if you're at all good, you can't fail. It's pretty hard to abuse that character.
Out of your hundreds of movies and TV shows, which is the worst?
They kind of all run together. There have been so many. A few years ago I really had to struggle to find good material. Let's take a title like Zombie Nightmare. That wasn't the best, most satisfying experience. There were one or two others. You do 'em because you gotta pay the bills, and there's a challenge in it for an actor to elevate it. To bring it above the material if possible.
You made some favorable tweets about a new documentary.
Starring Adam West by James E. Tooley. It's doing very well. It's getting some awards and it's at film festivals. It really explores my life, and my family and myself. And how I conduct my life, and what's important to me. And what has happened with the "Batfans" over the years. It's kinda fun.
When the kids who see the DVD today grow up, will 100-year-old Adam West be out there still kicking?
I have a feeling that he will.
Charles Battersby is a contributing writer. He tweets here.
