This Week in Television History: June 2017 PART IV

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,
the more that fact and legend become intertwined.
It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

July 1, 1952

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, the Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Canadian-American comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist is born. 

He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers (with John Belushi) and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

July 2, 1947

Lawrence "Larry" Gene David the American actor, writer, comedian, producer, and film director. 

David is the co-creator and producer of two successful television comedies, Seinfeld (1989-1998) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (1999-present) is born. In 1989, he teamed up with Jerry Seinfeld to co-create the television series Seinfeld, where he also acted as head writer and executive producer. David's work won him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993. In 1999, he created the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a mostly improvised sitcom in which he stars as a fictionalized version of himself.

Formerly a standup comedian, David went into television comedy, writing and starring in ABC's Fridays, as well as writing briefly for Saturday Night Live.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Steve Allen Don Knotts Tom Poston Bill Dana Comic Relief '87

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

Sketch performed by Steve Allen, Tom Poston, Don Knotts and Bill Dana (as Jose Jiminez) at Comic Relief '87 in Los Angeles

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Anson Williams and George Schlatter: Next on TVC

Actor and entrepreneur Anson Williams and writer, producer and director George Schlatter will join us on a brand new edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing June 23-26 at the following times and venues:

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Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 6/25
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Monday 6/26
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San Francisco, CA
Monday 6/26
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with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

PWRNetwork
Ann Arbor, MI ~ Boston, MA ~ Chicago, IL ~ Melrose, FL ~ Los Angeles, CA
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel on PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn

Known to television audiences around the world as Potsie Weber on Happy Days, Anson Williams is also an award-winning television director, writer, producer, and entrepreneur who has been honored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and served on the Board of the USO. An entrepreneur for most of his life, he is always looking to create products that serve an important public need. Anson’s latest product, Alert Drops, addresses the issue of drowsy driving—an ongoing problem not only in the United States, but around the world. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, approximately one out of every five fatal car accidents in the U.S. results from ..., while in European nations, drowsy driving accounts for up to 30 percent of all car crashes.

Inspired by the knowledge and wisdom of Anson’s uncle, Dr. Henry Heimlich—the man behind the Heimlich Maneuver—Alert Drops is an all-natural spray that, when applied to the tongue, uses the citric acid of a lemon to stimulate the tongue’s sensory neurons. This will cause an immediate reflex action that will keep you awake, without caffeine or stimulants, in the event you find yourself nodding off while driving. (Available exclusively at AlertDrops.com, Alert Drops is not intended as a substitute for sleeping. Rather, it is intended to keep you alert long enough to pull over safely, so that you can rest when tired.)

Anson Williams is working with numerous organizations in several cities to create an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of drowsy driving. We’ll talk about the pivotal role that Dr. Heimlich played behind the scenes in the development of Alert Drops, and why Heimlich believed that this product will save even more lives than the Heimlich Maneuver. We’ll also talk about Anson’s recent appearance on The Odd Couple, and more, when he joins us in our second hour.

Also joining us this week will be Emmy Award winner George Schlatter, the creator and producer of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and Real People. A fixture in the world of variety television for more than fifty years, George Schlatter produced the first five years of the Grammy Awards. He also created The American Comedy Awards (and produced that annual telecast for fifteen years), as well as produced a host of series and specials starring Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Elton John, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Doris Day, Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Cosby, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, Nat King Cole, Placido Domingo and many, many others.

The 2017-2018 television season will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. George will share a few memories of the show, and more, when he joins us in our first hour.

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In is now available in its entirety from TimeLife. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: The Complete Series includes all 140 episodes on thirty-eight DVDs—all digitally remastered, all available together for the first time ever in a single collection, and more than half of which have never been released before to the public. The complete series box set also includes a slew of exclusive new bonus features, including the pilot episode of Laugh-In (which originally aired on Sept. 9, 1967); interviews with Dick Martin, Ruth Buzzi, Gary Owens, Arte Johnson, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin and George Schlatter; Laugh-In Memories, a collectible memory book filled with jokes, pictures from the show, behind-the-scenes photos, and a note from George Schlatter; a free bonus DVD; and a whole lot more.

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: The Complete Series is availably exclusively through TimeLife. You can order it right now by going to TimeLife.com/LaughIn.

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Bill Dana

We just want to be remembered before something is set in stone.

-Bill Dana

Bill Dana
October 5, 1924 – June 15, 2017

Dana was born as William Szathmary in Quincy, Massachusetts. He was of Hungarian-Jewish descent. He took his stage name "Dana" after his mother's first name "Dena" as he felt "Szathmary" was unpronounceable. The youngest of six children born to Joseph and Dena Szathmary, Dana benefited from the expertise of an older brother, Arthur, who was fluent in several languages and gave his sibling his second entry into foreign languages. The first was growing up in a polyglot neighborhood where Spanish and Italian were among the languages spoken and having a Hungarian immigrant for a father. His older brother was Irving Szathmary, composer of the Get Smart theme.

During World War II he served in the United States Army with the 263rd Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division as a 60mm mortarman and machine gunner, as well as an unofficial interpreter.

Dana began his career as a page at NBC's famous Studio 6B while performing comedy in nightclubs around New York with partner Gene Wood. In the 1950s, he performed on The Imogene Coca Show, The Danny Thomas Show and The Martha Raye Show, as well as writing for and producing The Spike Jones Show.

Dana's career took a major turn when he began writing stand-up routines for the young comedian Don Adams, including the now well-known "Would you believe?" jokes popularized by Get Smart. From there, he was brought in as a writer for The Steve Allen Show, where he created the José Jiménez character for the show's "Man in the Street" segments.

On an Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Dana related a story of how a woman recognized him on the street, but knew him only as José Jiménez, and asked what his real name was. Instead of his stage name, "Bill Dana", he gave her his real name, "William Szathmary". The woman rejoined: "Wow, no wonder you changed it to Jiménez!"

Dana had several comedy albums but only one that strictly featured the Jose Jimenez character. One of the cuts; "The Astronaut (Part 1 and 2)"...an interview from news reporter, writer and producer Don Hinkley...made it to the Billboard Top 40 charts at #19 in September 1961. Hinkley and Dana met as writers for the Allen show.

Before appearing in front of a television camera for the first time on The Steve Allen Show in 1959, Dana had been a prolific comedy writer, an activity he continued into the 1980s, producing material for other actors on stage and screen. Dana co-wrote the script for the Get Smart theatrical film The Nude Bomb. His brother, Irving Szathmary, wrote the famous theme for the Get Smart television series. In 1961, Dana made the first of eight appearances on The Danny Thomas Show, playing Jimenez as a bumbling but endearing bellhop. The character was so well-received that it was spun off into his own NBC sitcom, The Bill Dana Show (1963–1965). Jiménez was still a bellhop, but now at a posh New York hotel. His snooty, irritable boss was played by Jonathan Harris. The cast also included Don Adams as a hopelessly inept house detective named Byron Glick; when the show was cancelled, Adams quickly used the Glick characterization as the basis for Maxwell Smart, and Get Smart premiered on NBC that fall.

In 1966, Dana appeared uncredited in episode 48 of Batman playing Jose Jimenez, opening the window in the wall Batman was climbing and talking with him.In 1966, Dana wrote the animated TV-movie Alice in Wonderland (or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?), in which he also supplied the voice of The White Knight (using his José Jiménez voice). That same year, the Jiménez character was animated for the Paramount cartoon I Want My Mummy, written by Dana in collaboration with Howard Post.

In May 1967, Dana hosted his own late-night talk show, The Las Vegas Show, on the new United Network. Originated live from the Hotel Hacienda in Las Vegas, Nevada, the program was cancelled by the end of May when the United Network folded.

Joey Forman's 1968 parody album about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, called The Mashuganishi Yogi("mashugana" meaning crazy or bizarre in Yiddish), was produced by Dana, and includes a cameo of Dana as Jiménez, as well as a cover appearance. The album is a mock news conference, an extended question-and-answer session. The ersatz Bolivian–accented Jiménez asks the ersatz Indian-accented Yogi: "Why do you talk so funny?"

In 1970, responding to changing times and sensitivities, Dana stopped portraying the José Jiménez character; however, he played the character again on the 1988 revival of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Dana wrote the script for possibly the best known episode of the hit situation comedy All in the Family, entitled "Sammy's Visit", which featured Sammy Davis Jr. In 1976, he appeared in the "A Doctor's Doctor" episode of the NBC situation comedy The Practice as the hospital roommate of Danny Thomas's character Dr. Jules Bedford.

The José Jiménez character was part of several scenes in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. The government officials watch The Ed Sullivan Show before recruiting the Navy pilots. Sullivan is talking to Jiménez. ("Is that your crash helmet?" "Oh, I hope not!") Later during medical testing, a large, Hispanic worker (played by NFL offensive tackle Anthony Muñoz) takes offense to Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn) mimicking the Jiménez character. The hospital worker gets a measure of revenge later on when it comes time for Shepard to receive an enema.

Although his film appearances were few, Dana had roles in a few movies including The Busy Body (1967), Harrad Summer (1974), I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now? (1975), and the aforementioned The Nude Bomb (1980). Dana would also have a recurring role on The Golden Girls as Sophia Petrillo's brother Angelo. He also played her father in a flashback. In addition, he played Wendell Balaban on Too Close for Comfort, as well as Howie Mandel's father on the series St. Elsewhere.

Dana reprised the role of Bernardo the servant on the CBS TV series Zorro and Son, but his performance was different from Gene Sheldon's silence on the 1950s live-action show. Both series were produced by Walt Disney Productions.

Bill Dana was integral in creating the American Comedy Archives, a series of audiovisual interviews with such luminaries in the comedy world as Phyllis Diller, Dick Gregory, Don Knotts, Norman Lear, Bob Newhart, Tom Poston, Paul Rodriguez, Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, and Jonathan Winters. The American Comedy Archives are housed at the Iwasaki Library at Emerson College, but transcripts of some interviews (Dana's included) have been made available on the library website.

Good Night Mr. Dana
Buenas Noches Jose

Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: June 2017 PART III

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,
the more that fact and legend become intertwined.
It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

June 19, 1897

Moe Howard is born Moses Harry Horwitz. 

He is best known as the de facto leader of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. That group originally started out as Ted Healy and His Stooges, an act that toured the vaudeville circuit. Moe's distinctive hairstyle came about when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors, producing a ragged shape approximating a bowl cut.

June 24, 1987

Jackie Gleason dies. Actor Jackie Gleason dies on this day in 1987.

Raised by a single mother who worked at a subway token booth in New York, Gleason dropped out of high school and began performing on the vaudeville circuit in his teens. Signed to a movie contract by the time he was 24 years old, Gleason played character roles in a handful of movies in 1941 and 1942, but found much more success in television. He became one of TV's most popular stars in a number of shows, including The Jackie Gleason Show, which ran throughout most of the 1950s and '60s. On the show, he created the character of Ralph Kramden, a bus driver who became the beloved star of the spin-off television show The Honeymooners. On June 24, 1987, Gleason died at his Florida home. After a private funeral mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Miami, Gleason was interred in an outdoor mausoleum at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery in Miami. At the base is the inscription, “And Away We Go.” 

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Stephen Furst

The magic is you can change more things than you could ever dream of. 

-Stephen Furst

Stephen Furst born Stephen Nelson Feuerstein
May 8, 1955 – June 16, 2017

Stephen Furst worked as a pizza delivery driver while looking for acting jobs in the mid-1970s, and included his headshot in pizza boxes. After Matty Simmons saw his photo, Furst was cast as Flounder in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). He reprised this role in the 1979 spin-off series Delta House. Others include 'Junior' Keller in The Unseen (1980), as Gonzer in the feature film Up the Creek (1984), as Dr. Elliot Axelrod in the television series St. Elsewhere (1983–1988), and as Vir Cotto in the science fiction television series Babylon 5(1994–1998). Furst was amused by the report that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un modeled his haircut after Furst's character in Babylon 5.

In 1979 he played the role of an overweight high school tuba player coerced onto the wrestling team in Kieth Merrill's feel-good underdog film, Take Down. Also in 1979, as pointed out above, he reprised the Flounder character in the ABC sitcom Delta House. He also reprised the character and repeated his famous line, "Oh boy, is this great!" in the Twisted Sister music video for "I Wanna Rock."

In 1980, he played the character of Harold in the cult classic movie, Midnight Madness, and the character of "Junior" Keller (the unseen) in the horror movie The Unseen. In 1983, he also appeared in a supporting role as Aldo in the provocative ABC TV movie The Day After. In 1989, he played the character of Albert Ianuzzi in the film The Dream Team.

In 1983, Furst also appeared in an episode of CHiPs titled "Fun House," alongside Erik Estrada, Tom Reilly, and Heather O'Rourke; in this installment, Furst acted out a student who belonged to the college fraternity "DDT."

Although not a regular, he also appeared in the short-lived 1992 TV series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys.

In the 1995 animated TV series Freakazoid!, he voiced the character Fanboy. Also in 1995, he took a hiatus from Babylon 5 to star in a short-lived TV series, Misery Loves Company. 

In 1997, he played Derby Ferris in Little Bigfoot 2: The Journey Home. He also voiced a young Colonel Hathi in Season 2 of Disney's Jungle Cubs, had a starring voice role as Booster in the 2000 series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and also played a hulky walrus named Dash in the 2000 Disney movie The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. He starred in Magic Kid and its sequel.

Furst was a regular in the science fiction series Babylon 5 playing Centauri diplomatic attaché Vir Cotto and as Dr. Elliot Axelrod on St. Elsewhere.

Good Night Flounder

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Miley Cyrus Busks in NYC Subway in Disguise

Since I am still in a New York state of mind...

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: June 2017 PART II

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,
the more that fact and legend become intertwined.
It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

June 16, 1952

My Little Margie debuted on CBS-TV. 

The situation comedy starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell that alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952 to 1955. The series was created by Frank Fox and produced in Los Angeles, California at Hal Roach Studios by Hal Roach, Jr. and Roland D. Reed.

My Little Margie premiered on CBS as the summer replacement for I Love Lucy on June 16, 1952, under the sponsorship of Philip Morris cigarettes (when the series moved to NBC for its third season in the fall of 1953, Scott Paper Company became its sponsor). In an unusual move, the series—with the same leads—aired original episodes on CBS Radio, concurrently with the TV broadcasts, from December 1952 through August 1955. Only 23 radio broadcasts are known to exist in recorded form.

June 16, 2002

The first episode of The Dead Zone aired. 

The Dead Zone, a.k.a. Stephen King's Dead Zone (in USA) is an American/Canadian science fiction drama television series starring Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith, who discovers he has developed psychic abilities after a coma. The show, credited as "based on characters" from Stephen King's 1979 novel of the same name, first aired in 2002, and was produced by Lionsgate Television and CBS Paramount Network Television (Paramount Network Television 2002-06) for the USA Network.

The show was originally commissioned for UPN, but the network later dropped the show and it was picked up instead by USA. 03nmThe series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for its first five seasons. The sixth and last season was billed as "The season that changes everything" and production was moved to Montreal.
The Dead Zone was expected to be renewed for a seventh season; however, due to low ratings and high production costs the series was canceled in December 2007, without a proper series finale.

Some rumors spread that Syfy would pick up the series after it was canceled by USA, but it did not happen. Rumors of a made-for-TV movie have all but faded with time.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Adam West

How many actors have a shot at being a part of something that became a part of pop culture?

It's been very rewarding. I'm not getting the 20 million bucks for the new movies, but at least I'm getting warmth and recognition from people wherever I go 

-Adam West

Adam West born William West Anderson
September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017

Adam West died yesterday following a brief battle with leukemia in Los Angeles at the age of 88.

Adam West in The Young Philadelphians 1959 by KierstenTuck

He appeared in the film The Young Philadelphians which starred Paul Newman He had guest-star roles in a number of television Westerns. On three Warner Bros. westerns which aired on ABC—Sugarfoot, Colt .45, and Lawman—West played the role of Doc Holliday, the frontier dentist and gunfighter. He portrayed Wild Bill Hickok in the episode "Westbound Stage" of the 1960 NBC Western series Overland Trail, with William Bendix and Doug McClure.

He guest-starred on Edmond O'Brien's syndicated crime drama Johnny Midnight, and soon snagged a supporting role as police sergeant Steve Nelson in the crime drama, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor. He appeared once on Walter Brennan's sitcom, The Real McCoys.

On January 10, 1961, West appeared as a young, ambitious deputy who foolishly confronts a gunfighter named Clay Jackson, portrayed by Jock Mahoney, in the episode "The Man from Kansas" of the NBC Western series Laramie.

West made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in 1961 and 1962. His first role was as small-town journalist Dan Southern in "The Case of the Barefaced Witness". His other role was as folk singer Pete Norland in "The Case of the Bogus Books".

West starred in an episode of the ABC Outer Limits series titled "The Invisible Enemy". He made a brief appearance in the film Soldier in the Rain starring Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen, and starred as Major Dan McCready, the ill-fated mission commander of Mars Gravity Probe 1 in the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars. In 1965, he was cast in the comedy Western The Outlaws Is Coming, the last feature film starring The Three Stooges. He played Christopher Rolf in the episode "Stopover" of ABC's The Rifleman, which aired on April 25, 1961.

The popular campy show ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968; a feature-length film version directed by Leslie H. Martinson was released in 1966. Producer William Dozier cast West as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman, in the television series Batman, in part after seeing West perform as the James Bond-like spy Captain Q in a Nestlé Quik commercial. He was in competition with Lyle Waggoner for the Batman role.

In his Batman character, West appeared in a public service announcement where he encouraged schoolchildren to heed then-President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for them to buy U.S. Savings stamps, a children's version of U.S. Savings bonds, to support the Vietnam War.

In 1970, West was offered the role of Bond by Cubby Broccoli for the film Diamonds Are Forever. West did not accept, later stating in his autobiography that he believed the role should always be played by a British actor.

After his high-profile role, West, along with Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig (who played crime-fighting sidekicks Robin and Batgirl), was severely typecast. West's first post-Caped Crusader role was in the film The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969). His lead performance against type as cynical tough guy Johnny Cain did not erode his Batman image; the movie was a box office disappointment.

West subsequently appeared in the theatrical films The Marriage of a Young Stockbrocker (1971), The Curse of the Moon Child (1972), The Specialist (1975), Hooper (as himself; 1978), The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980) and One Dark Night (1983). West also appeared in such television films as The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972), Poor Devil (1973), Nevada Smith(1975), For the Love of It (1980) and I Take These Men (1983).For a time, West made a living doing personal appearances as Batman. In 1974, when Ward and Craig reprised their Batman roles for a TV public-service announcement about equal pay for women, West was absent. Instead, Dick Gautier filled in as Batman. One of his more memorable Batman appearances after the series was when he made an appearance in the Memphis, Tennessee-based United States Wrestling Association to engage in a war of words with Jerry "The King" Lawler while wearing the cowl and a track suit, and even name-dropping Spider-Man, though he is a Marvel Comics hero.

He did guest shots on the television series Maverick; Diagnosis: Murder; Love, American Style; Bonanza; The Big Valley; Night Gallery; Alias Smith and Jones; Mannix; Emergency!; Alice; Police Woman; Operation Petticoat; The American Girls; Vega$; Big Shamus Little Shamus; Laverne & Shirley; Bewitched; Fantasy Island; The Love Boat; Hart to Hart; Zorro; The King of Queens; and George Lopez. West was also in an episode of Bonanza that supposedly never aired until reruns were shown and he made several guest appearances as himself on Family Feud. In 1986, he starred in the comedy police series titled The Last Precinct.

West often reprised his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne, first in the short-lived animated series The New Adventures of Batman, and in other shows such as The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour, Tarzan and the Super 7, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (succeeding Olan Soule in the role). In 1979, West once again donned the Batsuit for the live-action TV special Legends of the Superheroes. In 1985, DC Comics named West as one of the honorees in the company's 50th-anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for his work on the Batman series.

West was considered to play Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father, in Tim Burton's Batman. Originally, he wanted to play Batman.West never appeared in any of the theatrically released post-1960s Batman franchise motion pictures and, to date, neither has Burt Ward (Robin, from the TV series). West made an appearance in a 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series on Fox, but not as Batman (as the role of Batman was already being played by Kevin Conroy). Instead, he portrayed Simon Trent, a washed-up actor who used to play a superhero in a TV series called The Gray Ghost and who now has difficulty finding work. The producers nearly considered scrapping that episode, as they figured it mirrored West too much; however, West gladly accepted voicing such a character. West later had a recurring role as the voice of Mayor Grange in the WB animated series The Batman.

The actor vocally reprised his role as Batman for the CGI-animated short film Batman: New Times. He co-starred with Mark Hamill, who vocally portrayed The Joker and had originally played the role on Batman: The Animated Series. West also voiced Thomas Wayne in an episode of the cartoon series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In the same series, he played Batman's prototype robot, named "Protobot".

He played a washed-up superhero in the Goosebumps television series episode "Attack of the Mutant". The boy hero is a comic book geek whose favorite superhero, Galloping Gazelle (West's character), is portrayed as fading and on the verge of retirement. Towards the end, the boy is shocked to learn that the Gazelle is real, though he (the boy) must save the day by himself.During the 1990s, West's status as a pop culture icon led to appearances as himself in the film Drop Dead Gorgeous and in several TV series, including NewsRadio, Murphy Brown, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, The Ben Stiller Show, and The Drew Carey Show. He notably appeared as "Dr. Wayne" in the 1990 Zorro episode "The Wizard", even being shown Zorro's "secret cave" headquarters. In 1991, he starred in the pilot episode of Lookwell, in which he portrayed a has-been TV action hero who falsely believes he can solve mysteries in real life. The pilot, written by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel in their pre-Late Night period, aired on NBC that summer, but was not picked up as a series. It was later broadcast on the Trio channel, under the "Brilliant But Cancelled" block. In 1994, West played a non-comedic role as the father of Peter Weller's character in the Michael Tolkin film The New Age.

In 1994, West, with Jeff Rovin, wrote his autobiography, Back to the Batcave published by Berkeley Books. He also appeared as a guest in the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast in an episode titled "Batmantis", where he displayed his book. That episode was essentially a parody to his Batman television series, where Zorak dressed himself as "Batmantis", a praying mantis version of Batman.

In 1996, Virgin Interactive released the gambling simulation game Golden Nugget on PlayStation. West acted in the video cut scenes of the "Chaos Mystery" storyline subgame. In 2001, he played the super-villain Breathtaker on the short-lived television series Black Scorpion.

In 2003, West and Burt Ward starred in the television movie Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt, alongside Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, and Lee Meriwether. Jack Brewer portrayed West in flashbacks to the production of Batman. In 2005, West appeared in the CBS show The King of Queens. In the episode, Spence first asks Lou Ferrigno to go to a sci-fi convention, but when Spence meets West (playing himself), he leaves Ferrigno and asks West to come with him. He appears prominently in the 2006 video for California band STEFY's song "Chelsea" as "Judge Adam West", presiding over the courtroom scene.

In 2007, West played an attorney for Benny on the show George Lopez, and starred as "The Boss" in the movie comedy Sexina: Popstar PI. Following the release of a Batman game, a host of the show X-Play visited West on the show. In 2009, West played himself in the episode "Apollo, Apollo" of 30 Rock.

West has appeared in a number of videos for Funnyordie.com.In 2010, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. West received the 2,468th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 5, 2012. His star is located at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Guinness Museum in Hollywood, California.

He was interviewed in 2013 on the PBS series called Pioneers of Television in the season-three episode called "Superheroes". Also in 2013, he was the subject of the documentary Starring Adam West.

West is among the interview subjects in Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, a three-hour documentary narrated by Liev Schreiber that premiered on PBS in October 2013.

In October 2014, West was a guest star on the HuffPost Live show, talking about his Batman role and the upcoming release of all 120 episodes of his Batman series.

In February 2016, West guest-starred as himself on the 200th episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Having a distinctive voice, West built a career doing voice-over work on a number of animated series (often as himself), including appearances on The Simpsons, Futurama, Rugrats, The Critic, Histeria!, Kim Possible, Johnny Bravo, and even in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series called "Beware the Gray Ghost", where he voiced the Gray Ghost.

He also appeared in many episodes of Nickelodeon's cartoon The Fairly OddParents as a cat-obsessed version of himself, who is famous for playing a superhero called Catman, and who actually believes he is Catman. His later appearance in The Fairly OddParentswas a parody of himself, hired to play the role of the Crimson Chin in the movie of the same name. Yet another appearance on the show had him as himself in a fairy-sponsored video about how to cope with losing one's fairy godparents. In later seasons, the role for this version of Adam West was recast to Jeff Bennett.

In 1997, West ap

He also performed voice-over work for Futurama 

From 2000, West made regular appearances on the animated series Family Guy, on which he played Mayor Adam West, the lunatic mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island. His role gave him a new wave of popularity since Batman, and lead writer Seth MacFarlane claims to have gone out of his way to avoid typecasting West by deliberately not making any references to Batman.

Some of his latest voice-over performances were playing the role of Uncle Art in the Disney Animation film Meet the Robinsons, and voicing the young Mermaid Man (along with Burt Ward, who voiced the young Barnacle Boy) in the cartoon show SpongeBob SquarePants, in the episode "Back to the Past" of 2010. The Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy characters are hybrid parodies of both Batman and Robin and Aquaman and Aqualad, respectively (both heroes have a television show), and Mermaid Man's old age is a humorous reference to West's age.

West also played the voice of General Carrington in the video game XIII, and has voiced other video games such as Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, Chicken Little: Ace in Action, Scooby-Doo! Unmasked, and Goosebumps: Attack of the Mutant. For the online game Champions Online, his voice is used in one of the website's videos.

In November 2014, West voiced himself, and the 1960s version of Batman, in the video game Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

Good Night Batman

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Tony Figueroa