Like many of my generation, the Dark Knight was okay, and Gotham was interesting. But, for me, the real Batman was Adam West.
The late sixties series was camp at it’s campiest. West’s deadpan delivery of some absurd lines, followed by Burt Ward’s pseudo adolescent response, then the fight scene, with POW! BAM! ZAP! flashing across the screen, was just the grooviest of the groovy.
The villains always overacted. Apparently, they weren’t paid very well for their roles, but they seem to have had a good time chewing furniture, and declaiming their insidious plans.
Ceasar Romero was the Joker. Burgess Meridith was The Penguin. Julie Newmar and Ertha Kitt both played The Catwoman. She was the most subdued of the baddies.
Liberace, who was noted for his showmanship, must have had a lovely time playing villainous twins.
It occurred to me, watching a rerun last Saturday, that Donald Trump would be a perfect Batman villain.
You can see him, can’t you, at Stately Wayne Manor, enjoying tea with Bruce, Dick and Aunt Harriet, just another Gotham City Millionaire.
They’re discussing yet another fund raiser for the Wayne Foundations many charities. As Mr. Trump pledges his full support, and a large sum of money.
Little do they know that he, his moll and his evil henchmen, in matching outfits, are planning on stealing the funds.
The villainous Trump is broke, a fact he has carefully concealed from Gotham society.
In due time, despite the best efforts of Commissioner Gordon, Chief O’Hara and the Gotham PD, Trump and his henchmen make off with several large bags marked $CHARITY MONEY$.
They head for their lair, at the top of the Trump Tower. Which, from the pictures I’ve seen, does look like a Batman villain’s hideout.
Batman and Robin climb up the side of the building on their batropes, stopping to talk to a celebrity on the way.
What sort of torturous end would Trump the villain create for Batman and Robin?
Even Shame, the villainous cowboy, didn’t shoot them. As I remember, he left them in the path of a herd of stampeding cattle.
Trump, I suppose, would set a mob of his followers on them. You could see West’s Batman holding up a gloved hand and saying “Citizens! You are being misled by this man’s villainous rhetoric!”. Before being saved by Batgirl.
Trump would work just as well as an opponent for The Dark Knight. He could be a little more sinister up against one of the later Batmen.
He would work well in the Fox series Gotham too, where we could see him as a budding evildoer, in a town where Bruce Wayne is just an orphaned rich kid.
The husky semi whisper of his voice. The angry tone he uses. The peculiar way he speaks. It sounds like one of Batman’s nemesis.
Except Donald Trump is real.
He means what he says.
If he becomes president again, we will wish he was The Penguin, because The Penguin would be less destructive.
In 2016, many of us made the mistake of not taking Donald Trump seriously. We should not make that mistake again.