West was the 'Bright Knight'

Nobody thought to call Adam West's Batman a "Dark Knight."

The screen Batman of the 1960s was pop, not noir; the Joker he battled was not an "agent of chaos" but an icon of camp.

"People ask me about the new Batman movie, which I haven't seen, but I've seen bits and pieces of it, and the trailer and some of the ads, and my only impression at the moment is that if you like anarchy and nihilism and Gotham City in desperation, you might enjoy this," said West, 79, now a regular character as "Mayor Adam West" on the hit Fox animated series "Family Guy."

In other words, if Burt Ward's Robin had been among the thousands who watched the grim adventures of "The Dark Knight" this past weekend, he might have exclaimed: Holy bummer!

Said West, in a recent telephone interview from Santa Monica, Calif.: "My feeling is, they have their Dark Knight — I'm the Bright Knight."

Paired with Ward, who portrayed Batman's "Boy Wonder" sidekick, West starred as the Caped Crusader from 1966 to 1968 in 120 episodes of the ABC-TV series "Batman" and in a spinoff movie, also titled "Batman."

Sometimes called "Batman: The Movie" for promotion purposes, the 1966 film was released on Blu-ray and on a "Special Edition" DVD on July 1 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The release obviously was timed to ride the capetails of "The Dark Knight"; in fact, the misleading packaging and advertising for the new discs exploit the connection.

A color ad for the Blu-ray release that has been running in Entertainment Weekly magazine darkens the figure of West-as-Batman into a near silhouette, and it places this newly spooky character against an ominous sky filled with bats. Any "Dark Knight" fans unfamiliar with West's Batman who fall for this ad will be shocked when they discover that the movie they've bought showcases a Batman in unflattering tights rather than high-tech body armor and a Joker (Cesar Romero) who actually is more clown than psycho.

They'll also find a movie that begins with an onscreen dedication to "lovers of adventure, lovers of pure escapism, lovers of unadulterated entertainment (and) lovers of the ridiculous and the bizarre."