Batman!

Ah, Halloween time.

It makes me think of years past, dressing up as characters such as Batman. Here’s me on Halloween in the first grade.

Okay, fine.

I still dress like Batman.

Here’s me on Halloween, teaching 4th grade:

 

 

Seeing these pictures makes me realize, wow, I’ve been a Batman fan for a long time.

And it all began with watching Batman cartoons on TV along with reruns of the good old Adam West live-action Batman show.

At the time, I had no idea that the Adam West show was a tongue-in-cheek, campy comedy. To me it was a serious superhero drama at its finest.

There was one episode in particular that really scared me. It ended with Bruce Wayne, who is actually (spoiler alert) Batman, lying on a gurney in the back of an ambulance going uphill. The back door of the ambulance opened and the gurney rolled out onto the street and was heading to a turn in the road with a cliff.

The episode stopped right there, and said it would continue the next day.

All that day I wondered how Bruce Wayne was going to avoid plunging to his death on a runaway gurney. (A plot that could only be in an Adam West Batman episode – haha!)

All that night I wondered…

All that following morning I wondered…

Before the next episode, I had to go somewhere with my dad and older brother – can’t remember where now. And I told them that we had to be back in time for the next Batman episode or there would be trouble, and they assured me we would be back in time.

We came back from wherever we went, and I said we better not be late for Batman or there would be trouble, and they said the next episode was just beginning.

We turned on the TV and I remember seeing Batman trapped in some kind of stone or cement tube.

And I said, “Hey! How did he go from almost falling off the cliff to being in that thing?”

And my brother said that he fell off the cliff into that thing between the episodes.

I asked how he got into his Batman outfit while falling off the cliff.

My brother said the same way he does when he slides down the pole to the Batcave.

And I said, “Oh.”

I enjoyed the rest of the episode, and didn’t think much about it until waaaay later when I got this

for my birthday. The complete Adam West Batman series on Blu-ray! (And this box set is pretty great – I’ll have to do a post on it in the future and show all the cool stuff it comes with.)

As I made my way through these episodes I hadn’t seen since childhood, I finally came across the one with that runaway gurney cliffhanger. And I remembered how strangely the next episode had begun, and was anxious to see it again to see if it made more sense, viewing it now as an adult.

But then as I started the next episode, I was surprised to see it began exactly where the story had left off. Bruce Wayne escapes by grabbing a pole before the gurney goes over the cliff. (Even though his arms had been strapped down in the previous episode – hahaha!)

And then a thought hit:

My dad and brother had fibbed about being on time for the episode to avoid me having a massive temper tantrum meltdown. (And believe me, I would have.)

Sure enough, about halfway through the episode, Batman is trapped in a giant vase, which must have been about the time we turned the show on when I was a kid.

Dad and bro, did you really think I wouldn’t find out?

DID YOU??!!

True, it took me 30+ years, but still.

There will be words exchanged the next time we are all together.

Ha!

Just kidding!

I’m over it.

Kind of.

And that’s it for this week!

We will return on Monday with a scary book recommendation for Halloween time.

Have a great weekend, everyone!