"I was rushed into some not very good movies, and I just hit the beach and nursed my wounds for a while," said West, who eventually got work doing voiceovers and guest shots. "Part of it was the dinosaurs of Hollywood went away, people who didn't get it. I was certainly more welcome when the younger people came in."

Whatever bitterness West felt is gone. He lives in Ketchum, Idaho, with his third wife. They've been married 31 years and have six grown children between them.

"I have such a fondness for it. It's my signature role," he said. "I'm grateful I had a chance to create a classic character. I don't want to be a bitter, aging actor who thinks he's typecast. My God, what man wouldn't want to be Batman for a night?" The movie sounds like a lot of fun, although Ward is frankly unrecognizable in the publicity shot:

"I had a fantastic time with Adam," said Ward, who lives outside Los Angeles and runs Boy Wonder Visual Effects, providing 3-D animation and special effects for movies and television. "You put the two of us together and we don't have to say anything and people start laughing. We were doing things on the first or second take."

....The adventure reunites them with Frank Gorshin (Riddler), Julie Newmar (Catwoman) and Lee Meriwether (Catwoman). In one bar scene, Newmar plays a vivacious vixen who grooves with West to the old "Batman" theme.

"That was a reference to Batman drinking the mickey in that first episode and him doing the Batusi," West said. "I'm always asked, 'Do the Batusi?'"

Viewers of the old show will appreciate the inside jokes, as well as familiar touches like a spinning Batmobile between scenes, cartoonish exclamations on screen during a fight, and voiceovers (by Lyle Waggoner ) leading into commercials asking if the Caped Crusader and Robin the Boy Wonder can solve the mystery.