Holy Something-or-Other!

The Hollywood Museum is located a hop, trip and stumble from the intersection of Hollywood and Highland in — guess where! — Hollywood. It houses a lot of movie and TV memorabilia and is always worth a stroll-through but for the next two months or so, there's a special bat-reason. It's offering an exhibit saluting the 1966 Batman TV show — the one that starred Adam West and Burt Ward.

As I'll explain, I have mixed feelings about the series but there are many people who adore it and some who collect or re-create — often for vast sums of cash — props and costumes from that show. Most of the major collectors of such items have been persuaded to loan them out for the exhibition, which will be there through March 17. Here — read this…

The exhibit, which will consist of four popular sections (Wayne Manor, The Batcave, Gallery of Guest Super Villains, and The Collectibles of Batman '66), will pay tribute to the memory of Adam West and honor the other half of the Dynamic Duo, Burt Ward, and the iconic show, still seen today in the U.S. and around the world weekly.

The Batman 66 exhibit will feature original costumes and props from the show, which have not been seen since it originally broadcast from 1966-68. Dadigan says, "We have costumes and props that evoke one's childhood memories of the ever popular TV series, Batman. There is something for everyone — from the Batmobile and Batcycle to Burt and Adam's original costumes worn during the show's 120 episode run on ABC TV Network, as well as guest villains — and one of my favorites — the original Dr. Casandra costume worn by TV and film star Ida Lupino, that has never been seen publicly before.

"Dadigan" is President and Founder of the Hollywood Museum, Donelle Dadigan. As of this moment, there's nothing about the exhibit on the museum's website but you can get the address, directions and so forth there and I imagine more details of the bat-displays will appear there momentarily. I'm going to drop by one of these days but let me explain about the "mixed" part of my mixed feelings…

I liked Adam West, loved Julie Newmar and Yvonne Craig and Lee Meriwether, loved most of the guest villains in a different way and was somewhat fond of other components of the enterprise. I just didn't like the show's underlying disrespect for the source material…and in fact, for all comic books. This was something I suspected while I watched the program when it first aired and it was something I had confirmed when I met some of those who worked behind-the-scenes on it. They thought Batman was a stupid idea — stupid premise, stupid character, stupid stories, etc.

And before you write and remind me that, yeah, some versions of the characters and some runs of issues were, let me clarify: I don't mean that. What I got was that they thought the whole thing was to be ridiculed for reasons that would probably apply to everything ever done with the franchise, before or since.

I really got that from the folks I met and then when I first met Bob Kane in 1968…well, many things disappointed me about the man. One of them came when I told him how I wished the show wasn't making so much fun of what I then thought of as his "creation." What I got back from Mr. Kane was a pretty firm attitude of "Hey, as long as my credit's on it and the checks clear…"

That caused me to view the show in a bit of a different light. So did the show's endurance and more importantly, the character's durability. I now am fonder and more forgiving of the subtext of ridicule built into the series…and as I say, I like a lot of the performers and much of the art design and style, as well. I just don't think that's Batman or even a loving spoof. I was fourteen years old when it went on the air and so should have been the perfect audience for it. But I wasn't and I still have a hard time loving the show as much as some of my friends do.