Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine RIP Adam West

So sad. He was such a delightful addition to my universe and an inspiration

Thanks to his good-natured hosting of MST3K's Turkey Day Marathon, to me he'll always remain the KING OF FROMAGE!

As well as the only version of Batman I bother paying attention to.

While before my time, he was well-loved by my parents generation and respected (though it might have been long overdue) by the fandom at large. He did great voice-over work in the Lego Batman games as well, proving that age is just a number.

He was extremely good natured and funny in this interview by Gilbert Gottfried from 2014, available for download. He did a lot of awful movies, which he acknowledged and laughed about, since he had to put four kids through school. His stories about the Batman show were pretty good, too.

(Gilbert can be an acquired taste and not safe for children's ears.)

I grew up watching his Batman show on reruns and just loved the hell out of it. It is so funny how child-me took everything at face value and didn't see the silliness at all. I remember being SO scared for Robin when it looked like he'd been eaten by a giant clam!

My cousin and I would play in her dad's old beaten up boat in her back yard and pretend it was the Bat Boat and pretended to be various characters from the show. We would routinely "fall overboard" and climb back in as a different character! That beats modern playing on the phone constantly by a mile!

In college I had the pleasure of attending a lecture (more like a humorous sharing of memories) by Adam around the time the first Burton Batman movie was about to be released. Afterwards, there was an autograph session, and I had the privilege of thanking him for all he contributed to my childhood, which would also include instilling a lifelong love of Batman.

Rest in peace, Adam West, and thanks again for all you did for young Lardy!

I just saw him in a film called Warp Speed. The film makers had reused the sets from DS-3 and possibly Laboratory. Their budgets are even lower than Roger Corman. Something has happened on the Atlas space craft, en route to Saturn. The authorities send a psychic investigator onto the craft, to see if she can assist in their investigations. She gets early flashes, all of which appear in context as the film unfolds. Despite the threadbare resources, there's some good ideas in this one, and it's years ahead of Event Horizon.

Adam West is the ship's captain. He has loads of presence, but his role as the guy who is determined to see out his career with a success pitting him against his crew, and talent mean that he never hogs the plot. A nice treat to see him in this.

I checked this out on YouTube based on your description, thoth. I thought West did a decent job, but it's too bad the movie itself didn't follow through well on its own ideas. (Probably in part because of budget constraints. )

They mislabel their "holodeck" as a "pleasure machine" even though most of the crew seem to experience it more like the dream sequences in that one episode of M*A*S*H. You start out experiencing what you desire the most, and then your external reality makes it all turn grim on you before you can actually escape from the escapism by waking up.

They draw special attention to the fact that West's character is the only one who refuses to use the machine, but we never have the chance to really understand why that is.

Still, I've seen far worse whodunnits and/or space operas.

That'll teach you to watch something on the back of one of my posts.

I liked that they overreached a bit. The budget is so small, I think a bit of audience participation to keep that disbelief suspended (even if you can see the wires) adds to it's appeal.

I think West was too old school to need the device as he was on his last mission. That old school approach embedded itself, when he started to disapprove of the others. Maybe. Maybe that's just what this machine I'm hooked up to is making me think.

It's tough to read him as the elder when his main rival's look is so dated that they both end up reading as the same age.

But honestly, if it's something with West, or Bill Bixby, or Richard Anderson, I'm kind of obligated to try and watch it no matter how half-baked it is or how briefly they're onscreen. It's a Gen-X thing.