It's hard to admit, but I watched the made-for-television movie Return to the Batcave on Sunday night, and really enjoyed it.

Yes, the story was both confusing and hokey. Yes, the acting was sub-par. Yes, the actors from the original Batman series looked extremely old, even covered in a thick coat of make-up. I didn't care.

I was a young boy when the series first appeared on TV. It was a fight to get my parents to turn to Batman twice a week because we only had one TV in the house at the time, and it was a big console black-and-white television that matched our big console stereo system. Even stereo was a new thing (this was 1965, after all), and I only knew one friend that actually had a color TV at home.

I went over to my lucky friend's house one night to watch Batman, and it was almost magical to see the red pin striping on the batmobile and the bright yellow, red, and green of Robin's costume. Later, I even took a sheet of plastic wrap and colored strips on it with crayons, then stuck it on our TV to pretend it was in color. The top strip was blue so that the sky looked right, and the bottom stripe was green for any shots of grass. I can't remember what the center stripe was. Of course, it looked really psychedelic when the image didn't include a lawn and sky, but that fit pretty well for that time, anyway.

My dad took me to a car show that year, and they had a batmobile on display. The car was actually a concept Lincon show car built in the mid 1950's, and modified by George Barris to look right for a caped crime fighter. Barris created a number of custom cars for TV shows at that time, like the Monkees' mobile and the Munster's family vehicle and Grandpa's hot rod. My favorite, other than the batmobile, was the car built for the Pink Panther cartoon show. I saw it at an auto show too, and used to have a photo of it on my bedroom wall until I hit puberty. Those were great times for custom car fans. I feel sorry for guy's that grew up with just Kitt or the General Lee.

I remember getting into a fight with my older sister about the batmobile when I was about seven or eight. I told her that I would get a job and buy it by the time I was 21. I'm more than twice that age now, and I still don't own a batmobile. I do have a videotape from a small movie prop company in Canada that will make me one for about $55,000. The tape shows a batmobile they made for someone else. To be honest, it sounded like an old hoopty when it would take off, because the donor car it is built upon was an early 70's Lincoln town car, but it still looked cool.

The batmobile built for the movie series doesn't do anything for me, really. I want the one from the TV show. And all the props, from the batphone to the drag chutes have to work. I swear that I will own it before I die. My kids will be so embarrassed for me.