Yeah, West was an over-the-top, hammy Batman, but so was the entire show around him. I mean, Burgess Meredith was a great actor, but he played the Penguin solely for laughs. Still did a great job, even if he wasn't being serious.
Who? It was an extremely popular show when it was on and only a couple of years after it finished airing the Denny O'Neil run on the Batman comics started, which brought the character even more popularity. If anything, the Batman show in the 60's helped bring about more interest in the character after a lot of people had stopped reading his comics in the 1950's.
Of course its not true, and Batman comics throughout the 50's were humorous so the show was just following suit. It never stopped people from buying the comics.
Sure, O'Neill said bringing the comics back to their dark roots was important, but it was more a cyclical thing than anything else, while also being reflective of the current social attitudes of the time. The 1950's to the mid 60's were a happy time, while the late 60's and early 70's were not.
So what you're saying is 1989's Batman wasn't legitimate? Also, what "entirely different" aspect did Bale bring to the character? Talking in a gruff voice?
I didn't mind Kilmer's portrayal of Bruce Wayne, but I wasn't all that thrilled about his Batman. On the other hand, I didn't mind Clooney as Batman, but I hated his Bruce Wayne and the movie was just so unbelievably bad that he could have put on an Oscar-caliber performance and it wouldn't have made a difference.
