Holy DVD! Adam West calls 'Batman' DVD set bat-tastic

Adam West knew going into the 1960s TV series

Batman

that there was a good chance he would be typecast. Once you've played a costumed crimefighter on a camp comedy, it's hard to be taken seriously for dramatic roles.

Despite the super efforts West had to make to shake the shadow of the Bat after the TV show ended in 1968, he doesn't regret his choice to put on the cape and cowl.

"I think it was a good decision. How many actors get to play a character who becomes so iconic? I was typecast and it was tough for a while. But, as I look back, I'm so happy I did it," West, 86, says. "I am one of the fortunate ones."

He has had plenty of opportunity recently to look back at his work on Batman, which has finally defeated its greatest enemy - tangled film and TV rights - and been released in boxed sets.

Batman: The Complete Television Series is available in a limited-edition boxed set ($269.97) that includes all 120 episodes in remastered Blu-ray, plus a Hot Wheels replica Batmobile, 44 vintage replica trading cards, the Adam West Photobook, and episode guide. It's also available as just a DVD set ($199.70) and Batman: The Complete First Season DVD ($39.98).

"We understand the widespread demand for Batman: The Complete Television Series, and we also appreciate the varying degrees of fandom surrounding this release," says Rosemary Markson, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group senior vice president of TV brand management and retail marketing. "To that end, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has created an option for virtually every fan's level of interest."

No one is happier than West that the series is finally available on DVD.

"For over 40 years, the great fans of the show have been asking me over and over again when will it be available. I'm happy to tell them it is out today," West said Tuesday.

He was beginning to have his doubts. The series has long been the most-wanted program on DVD, but because so many parties owned portions of the show, getting the rights to create a DVD set were tougher than the Riddler's riddles.

Once the rights were granted, the process of remastering the shows began. The episodes are much brighter and crisper than the versions that have aired in syndication for decades.

"The shows look beautiful. They are so clean, pristine, and gorgeous," West says, " ... a lot like Batman. I had no idea they would look so clear. This means the show can continue to go on."

It has been 48 years since Bruce Wayne first directed his ward, Dick Grayson, "to the Batpoles." Because the show was designed with the bright colors and tilted look of comic-book panels, there's a timeless quality to the show.

West calls it "our own little world" where Gotham City could pass for any major metropolis, evil minions wore T-shirts with their criminal names, and villains dressed in garish outfits.

"I knew when I read the script this show was something special. It was the funniest pilot I had ever read. It was carefully put together to be colorful for kids and funny for adults," West says. "It was a tightrope to walk the line between absurdist social satire and appearing to be serious.

"I told my agent I really wanted to do the show. If they don't sign me, I will go back to making spaghetti westerns."

West, a native of Walla Walla, Wash., had been a working actor for a decade before Batman with roles on TV shows such as Lawman, Cheyenne, and 77 Sunset Strip. He went to Stanford to study radio and TV, but weeks into his first year, the McClatchy Co. (owners of the Fresno Bee) recruited him to work in their TV and radio stations in Sacramento. That ended when he was drafted into the Army.

None of his previous work - and very little since then - has been as successful as Batman. The show was so hot that the biggest names in Hollywood - Sammy Davis Jr., Art Carney, Cliff Robertson, Vincent Price, Roddy McDowall - wanted to be on the program.

When West looks back at the shows, he remembers one thing: "The paycheck," he says with a laugh.

Seeing the DVDs reminds West of "all the laughs we had making the show and the wonderful people we worked with."