Bill's Bulletin Board

Many, many people in this part of the world, including David Anderson, our new young reporter with this group of community newspapers, were extremely excited over the recent release of the new Batman movie.

And while I did not share that excitement myself (I suspect age had something to do with it), I did note the film drew record attention and attendance. And from what David told me, and what I read and heard from other sources, it lived up to just about everyone's expectations.

I have not yet seen it, and I doubt I will for some time. In all likelihood, I'll wait until it comes on TV, and then maybe I'll watch it then. On the other hand, I might not.

There was a time when I would have gone to two, and sometimes three movies in a week. But that was when my wife and I were just dating. After we were married, when there wasn't any pressing need to go out on dates, our movie outings dwindled. In fact, I think we have been to one movie in the last year.

Despite that, we still enjoy watching them on the small screen, and I have what I like to think is an impressive collection of taped movies in my home. Frequently we will start a quiet evening together with me going through several shelves crammed with tapes (I estimate I have about 300 of them, most of them containing between two and four movies) until I stumble upon something that strikes my fancy. Then all I have to do is sell Beth on the idea, which is usually quite a bit easier than I make it sound here.

Such was the case last Saturday night, when I suddenly came up with a tape with several movie titles scrawled on the label. And one of those titles was Batman.

No, I do not mean that rather depressing and disappointing (at least in my humble opinion) offering from 1989, staring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Go back another 23 years and think of the real Caped Crusader and his sidekick, the Boy Wonder. That's the flick I found, and that was the one I wanted to see. Because that is what will forever be Batman, at least in my eyes.

So I popped the tape in the VCR, Beth and I sat down on the couch to watch it, and I fell asleep about half an hour into it. Beth later confessed she lasted about 20 minutes longer than I.

Truth is it wasn't that great a movie. But it has always been a happy reminder of some of the nicer times when I was a kid.

The 1960s were a time of great cultural happenings, which seemed to start around the time I started school. I was in kindergarten when the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and I well remember my teacher telling us we shouldn't watch them. I don't remember exactly what her problem was with the Fab Four, although I think the length of their hair had something to do with it. My parents, as I recall, were rather easygoing when it came to the Beatles. While they didn't have much use for the music, I think the hype was intriguing enough for them to watch them on TV. I was also fortunate enough to have an aunt who thought they were the greatest, and who just happened to be over for dinner that Sunday night.

But it was the opposite when it came to Batman.

Teachers were tolerant, and even supportive of the adulation the caped crime fighter received. Those of you in my age group might remember this was a period when bringing comic books to school was severely frowned upon, yet one girl brought in a Batman comic for Show-and-Tell one day, and the teacher hardly noticed. And at the Halloween party that year, there was a group on stage performing a few songs that no one cared much about. But once they cranked up the Batman theme (they were probably up all night memorizing the words), the reaction of the audience might have led some to conclude the Beatles had suddenly appeared on stage. School authorities would never have allowed any such thing.

Batman was the main focus for us little kids, and provided endless fodder for debate at recess and lunch time. I well remember one kid, named Patrick, munching on his sandwich and asserting that Batman would never die. That was followed by some discussion, during which it was resolved that the actor who played Batman (none of us could think of his name at the time) would probably kick the bucket some day, but the Caped Crusader would go on forever. The actor's name, incidentally, was Adam West, and as far as I know, he's still very much alive and kicking.

But the reception at home was very different, as my folks did everything they could think of to curtail the efforts of my brother and myself to watch the show.

In the summer of 1966, the people responsible for the show, seeking to cash in on its overwhelming popularity, came out with a big screen adaptation, using the four main villains, as well as some really swell equipment, like the Batcopter and the Batboat.

I was only eight years old at the time, meaning parental consent was needed to go to the movies, if not parental accompaniment. To the surprise of no one, including myself, such consent was never given. There was no way my folks were going to let me be exposed to something like that.

I have never been able to figure out exactly what their problem was with Batman, apart from an apparent loathing they had for appearing to be trendy, and a parental desire to pass that trait down to their offspring.

The interesting part was that I did eventually see the film a couple of years later, when it appeared on TV. I wandered into the room where our set was, and found my father sitting there watching it, and suggested that I might find the movie of some interest. I never did figure out what sparked his sudden interest in watching Batman, and frankly, it never occurred to me to ask.

Some years later, when I acquired a VCR and started taping movies that I wanted to have available, this version of Batman was added to my collection at the first opportunity, as were other classics like Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur and Rocky Horror Picture Show.

In those years, when I was out from under my parents' roof, I watched the show in syndication as much as I could. Indeed, up until about a year ago, it was on TV Saturday and Sunday mornings, and Beth and I would watch it while slurping our morning coffee.

And over the years, I've come to a couple of conclusions about this TV show. I guess I buck a couple of trends when I say that my favourite villains were the ones who appeared infrequently, like Shame or the Book Worm, although I always found the Joker (Cesar Romero) entertaining. At the risk of seeming sacrilegious, I personally think Robin was a better fighter than Batman. It might have had something to do with Burt Ward's martial arts training (he had sparred with Bruce Lee).

I've also come to the conclusion that these guys were a lot more entertaining on the small screen that any of the other latecomers have been in the theatres.

But we're talking about the Batman I grew up with.