Well this is POP! BAM! WOW! Today on their blog, DC Comics announced via Conan O'Brien's twitter feed that the 1960s Batman TV show starring Adam West & Burt Ward is finally coming to DVD. It's about frickin' time, right? It's been a long, tedious conversation involving various rights issues and I honestly thought the day would never come. Last year saw some headway as licensing deals between Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox were struck in order to produce Hot Wheels, Action Figures, Barbies, and statuettes. If they could play nice over toys, I guess the inevitable home video release was not too far behind. But the question remains, will anyone buy a copy after decades of comic convention bootlegging? I sure hope so.
Not too long ago, when Frank Miller's Dark Knight & Tim Burton's Caped Crusader were the tough new reality of costume crime fighting, it was cool to hate on the pop art of Adam West. But times are a changing, the world of nerdom is stretching, and thanks to folks like Kevin Smith & Grant Morrison, Adam West can be cool again. Like most kids my age, I adored the show in my youth but grew apart when my cynical teens kicked in. It took my friend Robert to reintroduce me to the joys of the Dynamic Duo. He snagged one of those bootlegs a few years back and we paired a couple Julie Newmar episodes with Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin for a Movie Night. His intense love for the Dayglo Cowl opened my eyes; the great thing about Batman is that he can support every kind of genre. We all love Miller's neck cracking badass and Bruce Timm's noir avenger, but we're not too cool to enjoy the silly of King Tut or the weird of Book Worm. West's Batman explored the insanity of comics. The lark of it. And it's an essential part of the characters history.
No word yet on an actual release date, but let's hope it's sooner rather than later. And let's also hope there is some massive, ridiculous box set in the shape of a William Shakespeare bust to sit on my mantel. Wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts. Hope The Wife isn't watching too closely because I'm going to spend every last dime on "Holy Memorabilia, Batman!" Until then, let's enjoy some brief Bat-Clips.
--Brad
