Adam West on ‘Batman,’ Fame, and His Legacy in an Exclusive Unpublished Interview

In the world of pop culture, the 1960s birthed a lot of “manias,” but there’s no question that the biggest were Beatlemania in music, Bondmania on the big screen and Batmania on the small, which Adam West, who was at the center of the latter as the star of Batman television series, refers to as “The Three Bs.”

“You know,” he related in an exclusive 2016 interview promoting Batman ’s release on Blu-ray, “I was asked to play Bond after Sean Connery left the series for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service . And then The Beatles talked to me about playing drums instead of Ringo — but he turned out to be a great guy. But I got Batman and one out of three’s not bad.”

As anyone who has watched an episode of Batman can attest, the late West had the ability to deliver almost any line with a deadly seriousness that sometimes made it difficult to tell when he was joking, so let’s settle one thing right now: the Bond story is true, The Beatles tale is not. What’s also true is that Batman was huge .

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Batman the series aired on ABC from January 1966 until March 1968, twice weekly in its first two seasons and once in its third. It’s generally credited with ushering in the wave of superhero adventures that impacted Saturday morning cartoons fall 1966, inspired costume-changing dolls like Captain Action, short-lived syndicated show such as Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice and was even the subject of a feature film released between seasons 1 and 2.

Lasting 120 episodes, the Adam West Batman co-starred Burt Ward as Robin the Boy Wonder and, in season 3, Yvonne Craig as Batgirl; while the villains consisted of the likes of Cesar Romero as the Joker, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin and Julie Newmar as Catwoman.

Adam was born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington. Drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he was an announcer for American Forces Network television and, following discharge, ended up in Hawaii where he worked as a sidekick and eventual host of local kid’s program, The Kini Pop Show , working alongside a chimp going by the name of Peaches.

His next stop was Hollywood, where he began scoring guest appearances on a number of TV Westerns and detective shows. In 1963, he shot a television pilot for an Alexander the Great TV Show alongside William Shatner as the title character. Three years later, the role of Batman came his way after series producer William Dozier caught a Nestle Quik commercial where he was portraying the James Bond-like Captain Q.

In the following interview, Adam West reflects on all things Batman and his role in it.

WOMAN’S WORLD: In a weird way, with all the excitement that surrounded the 50th Anniversary and the release of the series on Blu-ray, did it feel like 1966 all over again?

Adam West: Yes, in a way, because the excitement is noticeably the same. I mean, if I put a thermometer into the excitement water it would read about the same as when the show broke in 1966.

WW : On a personal level, what’s your feeling having been involved with something that has touched people so deeply for so long?

Adam West: What does an actor want? I guess to be loved every time he goes out onstage or before the camera. “Love me! Appreciate my work! I’m really doing my best here!” If I made people happy, and I know I have; and I’ve given them a lot of laughs, then I’m a happy guy. Of course, there was a time when I was typecast so terribly, and up for a number of big features I couldn’t get. The producers casting would say, “No, what would happen if he went to bed with the leading lady? They’d forget the whole story — “Look, it’s Batman in bed.” That was a problem, but I decided years ago to love the character, because people love it, and I should be grateful to have that. My god, to be one of the few icons around... this is neat.

WW: This might be too broad a question, but can you encapsulate what that period was like in that it’s the mid-60s, things are exploding everywhere, especially in pop culture, and this show is happening at the same time?

Adam West: First of all, I never really thought about it. That is to the extent of what was going on in the sixties. I was just too busy solving crimes [ laughs ]. But as time went along, I became aware with a lot of people that the sixties was a very interesting period, maybe one of the most interesting in a hundred years, and I was very pleased to have been part of it in that we tried to be socially satirical and to reflect the things that were going on, which I think we did. Everything from the artwork, the color to some of the political things. And if you look at the show carefully, you’ll make all kinds of discoveries like that.

WW: When you find yourself in that kind of insanity back in the day, is it hard to cope with when they kind of turn off the applause sign, so to speak? The show burned very brightly for a couple of years, but then burned out.

Adam West: Well, in a sense it is. For example, oh my God, I guess at three or four in the morning some nights I would wake up with something biting at me like piranha fish, because I’m thinking I don’t deserve this, and I can’t deal with this. Look, I grew up on a farm in Walla Walla, Washington, I worked in the fields for years, among other things, and when things break that big for you and you become like a rock star, of a kind, it’s tough to deal with, but I’ve been very fortunate, I just stayed drunk! [ in a lower voice ] He said comfortably, not drunk!”

WW : Personally speaking, the Batmobile from that show remains the coolest.

Adam West: Wasn’t it wonderful? We had all of those early scientific technological advancements; we had the first car phone, even though it had a cord; we had flames coming out of the back and a parachute to help us stop and we did 180-degree turns. It was fun pretending to be driving such an advanced machine. George Barris was a genius at that, because the care he designed for us was so funky and the kids loved it. And they remember it. The other Batmobiles, I’m afraid to say, I don’t want to be critical, are pretty brutal and slick.

WW : On a show like this, the relationship between Batman and Robin is key and you have to create that chemistry almost instantly. What was it like behind the scenes meeting Burt Ward and having to dive right into this relationship?

Adam West: I told them I wanted to test with him. I was already signed, but I wanted the chemistry to be right and when they told me about a couple of young actors who were up for it, I tested with Burt and it took me no more than three or four minutes to know that this kid was right. The chemistry was there, because he was enthusiastic. He was vital, he was bright, he was athletic and he was worshipful of Batman. It was really fun stuff.

WW: Over the course of its three seasons, did you think that the show needed to change directions?

Adam West: In the last year, the studio was close to getting enough episodes, enough content, enough material to go into reruns forever and it became an evergreen show. They weren’t spending as much money on production design, on writers … on anything. I sense that maybe this thing was wearing a little thin. But the first two seasons were wonderful, and the third, and this is true based on the fan mail I’ve received over the years, wasn’t as good; that something was missing.

WW: The history of the character is that Bruce Wayne is this kid who sees his parents get murdered and he becomes Batman, a very serious, dark kind of thing. Yet you get cast in a show that wraps all of that up in a happy face.

Adam West: You really hit the nail on the head. Batman’s nutty, so I kind of played it that way, and super serious and always moving, musing, trying to put clues together, and very physical and solemn. We didn’t need all those explosions and flames and people blowing up. We didn’t need that, because we planned to be funny and yet be wonderfully exciting for the kids. Which was no more than an evident homage to the DC comic book.  It wasn’t the Dark Knight; I decided to be the Bright Knight and to bring the laughs.

WW: Speaking of the Dark Knight, when they made the movie with Michael Keaton in ’89 and you were having such a hard time getting work because of Batman, yet couldn’t play the character in a movie, was that frustrating?

Adam West: Yes, it was. It crossed my mind, I thought about it and I was frustrated from time to time, but I found myself trying to keep so damn busy just paying the bills that it didn’t bother me that much. Especially when I knew that they were going in an entirely different direction — darker with the Dark Knight and I was, like I said, the Bright Knight.

WW: George Reeves who played Superman in Adventures of Superman , died without knowing the impact he had made. You’ve been lucky to see over the decades how much that love is there for you and your portrayal of Batman and the impact you’ve had.

Adam West: Thank you for saying that. I actually feel quite humbled by that. Again, I say I’m probably the luckiest actor alive, the fact that I’ve become kind of an icon and people have an affection for me… this is wonderful.  I wake up sometimes late at night, and I think, “Why me? What happened?” I was a farm boy from Walla Walla, Washington, I don’t know what the hell happened to me. It just did.

Some Additional Bat-Facts

• Adam West wrote the autobiography Back to the Batcave , which was adapted into a TV movie
• A new generation of fans discovered star Adam West as the voice of “Mayor West” on the animated TV series Family Guy .
• Both West and Burt Ward reprised their roles vocally in the animated film Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders
• Among his credits was one that became a bit of a cult hit, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980)
• In 2012, the actor was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• The 1966 movie version of Batman saw Lee Meriwether step in to the role of Catwoman
• Adam West died on June 9, 2017 at the age of 88

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