Holy Reunion, Batman!
Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt is a made-for-TV movie that's half tongue-in-cheek parody and half biographical look at the making of the television show, Batman.
Thirty-five years after the show's end, Adam West and Burt Ward (each playing a hyperbolized version of themselves) reunite at a gala where the Batmobile is part of a charity exhibit. But surprise, surprise, the lights go out and the Batmobile is stolen! Now it's up to the former dynamic duo to recover the Batmobile and figure out who from their past is holding a decades-old grudge.
The movie cuts between this plotline with flashbacks showing the behind-the-scenes chronology of the Batman show as Adam and Burt piece together who's behind the theft.
Return to the Batcave contains examples of:
- Adam Westing: Duh. Adam and Burt
- Affectionate Parody: While the flashbacks are presented in a fairly straightforward way, the present storyline is done very much in the 1966 Batman style, with canted angles, over-the-top clues and Adam West doing his best strait-laced performance.
- Ascended Meme: Yep, you guessed it. In flashback, the notorious Shark Repellent Bat Spray shows up as one of the props Past Adam is showing to Burgess Meredith.
- Badass Normal: Adam West is humorously shown capable of holding his own in a fight, surviving an explosion, flirting up dames and of course, figuring out the mastermind behind the whole thing.
- Berserk Button: Do NOT call Adam's butler "Alfred". It's Jerry.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Just like in the show, there's 6'4" Adam West next to 5'7" Burt Ward.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Adam's Genre Savvy demand ("Don't touch that red button!") is a pretty transparent attempt to trip up the Big Bad...who falls for it anyway because of their compulsion to rebel.Frank Gorshin: Rat! He knows! He knows whenever he tells me "don't", I have to.Julie Newmar: It's a trick! Don't.Frank Gorshin: I have to. It's a character flaw!
- Chekhov's Gunman: Why is the waitress at the diner willing to pick up the tab for Adam and Burt? She reveals that she's the woman that Adam had autographed the boob of during the flashback story.
- Driving Question: Who stole the Batmobile and why?
- Food Fight: Initiated by Vincent Price, of all people.
- Foreshadowing: When Frank Gorshin is introduced he points out how the villains should be the true stars of the show...which is what becomes his motivation for revenge.
- Here We Go Again!: The film ends with the Batmobile being hijacked... again. But with Adam and Burt back at it again.
- Irony: Frank Gorshin is revealed as the Batmobile thief with his motivation being that the show's villains never got their due... which is ironic considering that for the entire run, he was the only who was ever Emmy nominated for his performance.
- Narrator All Along: The narrator turns out to be Lyle Waggoner, the guy that almost had Adam's role as Batman.
- Shown Their Work: In-universe, Past Adam mentions having "watched all the old serials and reading The Scarlet Pimpernel" in order to prepare for his performance as Batman.
- Take That!: During the lead-in to an ad-break, the narrator ponders if the orphans will have to settle for the car from The Munsters (which is somewhat ironic, as the Munster Koach and the Batmobile were made by the same guy, George Barris).
- Vanity License Plate: Adam's car flashes a plate that reads: "KAPOWWW!"
