There's a lot different about the opulent, gothic mansion occupied by the Wayne family in Gotham, compared to other on-screen incarnations. For one thing its tenants, Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth, aren't a grown man in a bat costume or a posh, well-spoken Englishman; rather, they're a weeping child who stands on the roof in order to conquer fear after the death of his parents, and a Cockney geezer (and former member of the SAS) who tells him to "get bloody arse down off there!" So, yeah, pretty different. Wayne Manor itself may have seemed familiar to viewers watching the pilot of Gotham, though, and there's a good reason for that. It is familiar. For exterior shots, at least, Gotham uses the Webb Institute - a private undergraduate engineering college in Glen Cove, New York on Long Island - as the stand-in for Wayne Manor. Because, y'know, Wayne Manor isn't a real place. Because Batman isn't real. What is sadly real, despite how many times we've wished otherwise, are Joel Schumacher's incredibly campy Dark Knight movies which sunk the character as a viable cinematic prospect for years, until Christopher Nolan came back and made them all serious business. And those films (Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, lest we forget) (please let us forget) also used the Webb Institute for the building's exteriors, a nice little shout-out to the character's on-screen past. There's a screenshot above proving it from Batman Forever.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
