#ripbatman

Batgirl’s civilian identity of librarian Barbara Gordon, daughter to Gotham City Police Department’s Commissioner James Gordon, debuted in Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino’s Detective Comics (Vol 1) 359 in January 1967. This heroine was introduced on the thirty-minute prime time live action television series Batman, featuring Adam West and Burt Ward to bring in a bigger audience. The figure to help this decline in ratings turned out to be Yvonne Craig. When the ABC producers approached Craig to be their Batgirl for the series, although she had never seen a previous episode, she said she would watch the re-runs all summer long to get a feel of how her character can fit into this action-adventure comedy. While she starred in other major roles in 1965’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” and the 1968 Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Whom Gods Destroy”, Craig became the Barbara Gordon who rose to intense popularity in ‘Detective Comics’. She premiered in the first episode of the third season, “Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin”, which originally aired on ABC September 14th, 1967. Craig’s Batgirl for the remainder of the series stood tall with the male dominant Dynamic Duo as the smart, beautiful, independent ally, becoming an overnight symbol of female empowerment to young girls and women watching that was a social and political struggle within the 1960s. Although both Yvonne Craig (1937-2015) and Adam West (1928-2017) have passed away, what both actors brought to the mythology will forever be cherished, for it shaped in many ways the Batman and Batgirl personas we celebrate today. #RIPBatman #RIPBatgirl [Sources: imdb.to/1vPTGta, bit.ly/1hNmB06 ; History of the Batman is releasing this content under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0.] ✌🏼💙🦇🎬🙏🏼

Thank you #AdamWest for teaching me how to fight crime all those afternoons after school on WPIX. You might not have been a real super hero but you were a super human & will be greatly missed. #RIPBatman

"Anything that triggers good memories can't be all bad." #sundaywithlego #newyearwithlego #himandme #52weeksofhimandme #week24 #lego #legos #instalego #legostagram #legominifigure #legominifig #minifig #legographer #legography #legophotographer #legophotography #qotd #quote #AdamWest #rip #batman #thejoker #ripAdamWest #ripBatman #legobatman #latergram

#RIPAdamWest #RIPBatman 😢😢😢 #AdamWest #Batman

Afternoon Gothamites. Before we begin today’s sessions celebrating the career of Adam West who passed away last night after a short battle of leukemia at the age of 88, we also remember another member of the ‘66 Bat Family that we lost in recent years, actress Yvonne Craig who was Barbara Gordon / Batgirl in Season 3 of the television series. Both became true pop culture icons for those who watched the tv show and comic book readers, setting the stage for animated and live action actors to take on their roles and we miss them dearly. Stay tuned for more Adam West as we remember Batman. Thanks for following. #RIPBatman #RIPBatgirl ✌🏼💙🦇💜💛🙏🏼

Attended the Adam West Tribute at Los Angeles City Hall among over a thousand Batman fans. The Bat-signal was lit in remembrance of the Bright Knight. ✌🏼💙🦇🙏🏼

The beginning of the Silver Age of Comics, 1950s and early 1960s, saw a decline of Batman comic book sales due to the new installment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954, censoring story lines and characters in DC Comics and other publications. It wasn’t until 1963 that the new editor of Batman comics, Julius Schwartz, decided to revamp the Caped Crusader with a “New Look”, including the now famous yellow oval chest emblem, and more detective driven storylines. With this along with the new American POP Art scene, there was no better time for the concept of a Batman television series. After ‘An Evening with Batman and Robin’ aired in January of 1965, a collection of the 15 chapter black and white serials from the early 1940s, the idea to make a parody of this seemingly “camp” series was in the works. Producer William Dozier was on the project at the ABC network and decided to create a show that would play out as a fun parody for adults but an action adventure tale for children. Dozier made the Silver Age Batman books come to life, the first being “The Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler” from Batman (Vol 1) 171 from May of 1965, which inspired the pilot episode originally airing January 12, 1966. Dozier also found Adam West from a Nestle Quick tv commercial and discovered his suave “James Bond” like persona mixed with humor fit perfectly for what this Dark Avenger represented. Although now it seems there could be no one else in place of Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo, both actors auditioned and did screen tests for the parts (video presented), in particular up against Lyle Waggoner and Peter R.J. Deyell. As Waggoner would be part of the DC Universe a decade later as Steve Trevor in the Wonder Woman television series alongside Lynda Carter, West would begin his start as the Caped Crusader in 1966. Casting Adam West and Burt Ward was just a small part of what the entire ensemble cast brought to the character and his mythos for the next three years, which we will continue to explore tomorrow in our celebration of Adam West’s Batman. #RIPBatman ✌🏼💙🦇📺🙏🏼

We continue to celebrate the life of the late Adam West as we look at his role within the Batman universe. After the cancellation of the live action “Batman” series in 1968, for almost a decade Adam West wanted to separate himself from the Caped Crusader persona. It wasn’t until 1977’s animated television show “The New Adventures of Batman” produced by Filmation and distributed under Warner Bros. Television that both Adam West and Burt Ward return to voice Batman and Robin. While this illustrated brief but commercial success, 1992’s episode from the classic “Batman: The Animated Series” titled ‘The Gray Ghost’ (left poster by VegetarianGoat on Deviantart, right poster by Phantom City Creative on Mondotees.com) introduced a new generation to Adam West’s Batman. In this episode, it shows in a flashback a young Bruce Wayne watching his favorite television hero; “those with evil hearts beware for out of the darkness comes…'The Gray Ghost!” The episode, titled 'The Mad Bomber", when an unknown villain destroys a building using an explosive, becomes relevant to present Bruce Wayne / Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) when a similar explosion occurs in Gotham, attached a signed note from “The Mad Bomber”. With a shrine to the Gray Ghost in the Batcave, Batman’s fictional hero now can serve as a real life one when he seeks help from the Gray Ghost himself, Simon Trent (voiced by Adam West). A now bankrupt actor who recently sold his 'Gray Ghost’ merchandise, Batman’s contact with Trent was at first filled with anger and disappointment. But once the Gray Ghost realized crimes in the city were paralleled to one of his episodes at the height of his career, he finds the courage in himself and through his idol to team up and save Gotham. West’s 1960s portrayal of the Caped Crusader in the television series 'Batman’ turned this DC Comics character into a cultural icon. With him as Paul Dini’s first choice to voice Simon Trent, 'The Gray Ghost’ illustrated the dynamic duo of Kevin Conroy and Adam West, bringing together two of the most celebrated Dark Knights today. #RIPBatman ✌🏼💙🦇🙏🏽