Married to the cape: Adam West, Batman and signature roles on the small screen

This thesis addresses a gap in scholarship by theorising star status for those performers whose public image is defined by a single televisual role. It proposes the ‘signature role TV star’ as a new category of stardom by evaluating Adam West as a quintessential example of this type of figure. West was best known for playing the titular role in the television series Batman (ABC: 1966-1968), which became a worldwide phenomenon after its debut in 1966. Despite its initial popularity, Batman was cancelled after three seasons and West was unable to develop a lasting career as a mainstream leading man, meaning that his signature role remained the defining aspect of his stardom. West’s connection to Batman continued to manifest, as he occasionally reprised his former role, whilst also taking other parts that evoked his superhero success. Meanwhile, he regularly played himself in a parodic fashion in his latter-day career. West demonstrated that the strong link with a signature televisual role can generate new inflections over time, meaning that he embodies both the advantages and disadvantages of this form of stardom. By theorising West’s star status, this thesis contributes to knowledge in the field of television stardom. Influential theoretical paradigms in this area posit that television is unlike cinema because it creates personalities rather than stars (Ellis, 1992; Langer, 1997). Conversely, Deborah Jermyn (2006) challenges prior theories by analysing Sarah Jessica Parker’s image, suggesting that it may be time to revisit the notion that true stardom needs to be associated with a range of different roles. Although Jermyn links this to the contemporary scene, her notion is also relevant to figures like West who are primarily associated with earlier eras. American television stars of the 1960s and 1970s were particularly likely to be defined by their connection to a flagship part, because this period was characterised by scarcity of viewing options (Ellis, 2002: 39-60), the emergence of repeats as a quintessential televisual form (Kompare, 2005) and a strong cultural tradition of American programmes being exported to nations such as the UK (Rixon, 2006). In conjunction, these factors helped cement the association between prime-time TV stars and popular characters. Such connections are an underexamined area in current TV star scholarship and therefore theorising signature role TV stardom as a distinct type of fame addresses this gap in the field of star studies. The analysis of West as an archetypal signature role TV star is accomplished within a star studies theoretical framework that focuses on his onscreen roles, his promotional and publicity appearances and the criticism and commentary that has been produced about him. Richard Dyer’s star theory (1998) is modified and combined with elements of the work of John Ellis (1992) and Jermyn (2006), to argue that the latter’s suggestion that a theoretical star image can be associated with a single TV role can be expanded to conceive a distinct category of stardom. By employing this approach to theorise West as a signature role TV star, this thesis demonstrates that Jermyn’s observation applies across a broader chronological timeframe than previously recognised. Therefore, the signature role TV star category can be utilised to illuminate the cultural significance of other television stars who have hitherto been overlooked by scholars.

Citation

Sweeney, C. (2023) Married to the cape: Adam West, Batman and signature roles on the small screen. University of Wolverhampton. http://hdl.handle.net/2436/625298

Publisher

University of Wolverhampton

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/2436/625298

Type

Thesis or dissertation

Language

en

Description

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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Theses and Dissertations