The ‘Batman’ Episode Adam West Called a ‘Low Point’ Is Even Wilder Than You Remember
What To Know
- Adam West disliked the 1966 Batman TV episode because he felt it crossed the line.
- This episode is notable for featuring “Bat-nipples” on Batman’s costume.
- Despite West’s criticism, the episode is beloved by many fans.
Quite often, comic book fans like to blame director Joel Schumacher for the downfall of the original Batman movie series that started in 1989 with Michael Keaton donning the cape and cowl and ended eight years later with George Clooney. Among the director’s biggest crimes, die-hard fans claim that his movies featured, for the first time ever, nipples on the Caped Crusader’s costume. However, that is simply not true.
In reality, the dreaded Bat-nipples go all the way back to an episode of the 1966 Batman TV series. And wouldn’t you know it, the star of that show, actor Adam West, did not like that particular episode one darn bit. Truthfully, he thought it was pretty stupid.
In a Season 3 episode titled “Surf’s Up! Joker’s Under!”, the Joker (Cesar Romero) electronically steals the surfing skills from one of the sport’s best and plans to become the king of Gotham Beach, hoping his newfound fame will give him control over the hearts and minds of the citizens of Gotham City. The episode is totally bonkers and makes no sense whatsoever. To make matters worse, whatever the filming conditions were the day that they chose to film the surfing scenes, a close look at Batman’s costume reveals the truth. Yep, without a doubt, Batman fans all over the world owe Schumacher a huge apology.
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In his autobiography, Back to the Batcave, West said this: “Surfing in the batsuit was a low point for me. We crossed the line between parody and stupidity in this show, I fear.”
Yet, while you would be hard-pressed to find many TV scholars who would disagree that the third season was the weakest, that particular episode, despite West’s reservations, remains an absolute delight for many.
Among those fans is Chris Sims, who, while writing for ComicsAlliance, called the episode “the single greatest Joker story ever.” He went on to say that it was “the absolute best example of the Joker just straight up doing weird stuff to mess with Batman.”
Of course, much of the magic comes from Cesar Romero. He is a big reason why this and every other single episode of Batman featuring the Joker works so well. Each one of his performances as the Clown Prince of Crime contains an exuberant sort of glee and fun that has been missing from later interpretations of Batman’s number one villain. A strong case can be made that he was the ultimate Joker.
Writing for 13th Dimension, comic book fan and blogger Jim Beard said this: “Cesar Romero’s Joker is the comic book Joker. Or, at least, he’s the comic book Joker up to 1966. In fact, I’ll state unequivocally that Romero’s Joker is the closest version of the character to the source material ever. And I’ll die on that hill.”
One more fun piece of Bat-trivia: whenever a scene took place in a villain’s secret hideout, the cameras were tilted at an off-kilter Dutch angle. This technique, borrowed directly from comic book panels, helped visually convey that the villain was crooked, evil was afoot, and trouble was brewing.
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