Roles That Batman Actors Want You To Forget About

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https://www.looper.com/906781/roles-...-forget-about/

Adam West in Hell Riders

Though technically not the first actor to play Batman in live action (that would be Lewis Wilson in the 1943 Columbia serials), Adam West remains one of the most iconic in the role. Starring in the beloved 1966 "Batman" TV series that combined classic comic book crime fighting with over-the-top camp, West set the standard by which every subsequent Batman actor has been judged, whether they were silly or serious. Unfortunately, after his hit series was canceled, West struggled to find any work as memorable as the Caped Crusader — outside of reprising the role in animation for "The New Adventures of Batman" and "Super Friends."

By the early '80s, West was making guest appearances on popular TV shows while also churning out a number of forgettable film flops, the worst of which might be "Hell Riders" from 1984. West gets top billing alongside another former sitcom star, "Gilligan's Island" alum Tina Louise, who plays a woman who becomes stranded in a remote town that's under siege by a brutal gang of leather-clad bikers. West is the town's gun-toting doctor, and one of the few willing to stand up to them.

A C-grade exploitation film of the lowest caliber, it's remarkable that the one-time TV superstars had both fallen so low to have to star in such reprehensible nonsense. Sleazy and cheesy, with enough uncomfortable scenes to make you wheezy, "Hell Riders" is a nonsensical mess, and easily the worst film in West's catalog.

Burt Ward in Robo-C.H.I.C.

When it comes to TV's original Robin Burt Ward, there's any number of movies we could choose from. During the late 1980s and early '90s, the former "Batman" sidekick appeared in a string of low budget direct-to-video garbage movies, including "Beach Babes From Beyond," "Assault of the Party Nerds 2: The Heavy Petting Detective," and the elegantly titled "Robot Ninja." But the worst of the bunch is without a doubt "Robo-C.H.I.C.," a film so bad that it may have caused the lead actress to quit halfway through filming.

Pop in an old VHS copy and right away you'll see why. The film looks like it was made on a negative budget, the stunts are hilariously pathetic, and its bizarre attempts at comedy make it a slog to sit through. Robo-C.H.I.C. herself is indeed played by two different actresses with no explanation, and the theory that the first one quit on this joke of a film seems as likely as any other explanation we can think of. But Burt Ward stuck it out, playing a villain with a fiendish plot to destroy the world. Opposing him is a nutty scientist named Dr. Von Colon who's created a robotic woman to stop him, the eponymous Robo-C.H.I.C., who is basically just a tall blonde in a bad wig who pushes people over.

More than just a bad movie, it's unforgettably awful, and on home video tried to market itself as a "Robocop" knock-off that it definitely isn't.