9. Adam West Makes Batman More Of A Clown Than The Joker
The passage of time has been kind to Adam West: he has gone from being the lead of the disastrous, and inevitably cancelled Batman TV show, which almost threatened to kill the Batman comic, such was its permeating malevolence, to being a beloved, self-parodying hero. But there is no glossing over the fact that West, and the 1960s show's producers and writing team should be held accountable for what they did in the name of Batman. The show might now be considered a kitsch, camp delight, but it has been forgiven by the sands of time, and the distance now put between it and Nolan's take on the property, and on its own terms, it is a creative travesty. Not only did it completely ignore the context of the characters, which were enjoying a resurgence thanks to a move towards grittier content, it also featured some acting performances that wouldn't have looked out of place in a day-time soap opera. There is a reason why Adam West, Burt Ward, and even Cesar Romero aren't particularly well-known for their careers away from the show: they simply weren't very good actors. The show was camp, badly-written, and downright stupid, and West's performance as Batman was the personification of everything that was wrong (and perversely, everything that is now loved) with the show. His straight performance was funny but one-dimensional, and he reduced Batman to an anachronism and an amalgam of every bad cowboy hero, and superhero serial star.