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What if Jack Nicholson played the Joker on the Adam West TV series?

posted 6 years ago by TMC-4 (19416)
4 replies | jump to latest

I don't know how big of a star he was when the Batman TV series first went on the air in 1966. I can't help but think about what a "young" version would've been like as the Joker. His first real movie was in the original Little Shop of Horrors from 1960. He plays this masochistic dental patient (Nicholson was pretty much playing the role that Bill Murray would play in the 1986 version), and he is admittedly very creepy in the role. It makes you wonder if Jack Nicholson was sort of destined to often play unhinged, eccentric people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAli9a8bbys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPQSiTIb2Ac&t=1s

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7401) 6 years ago

He was too young to play him well then. He was born in 38 and would have been under 30 when that show came out. Plus he wasn't that big of a star at the time.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I think he would have been old enough. Wasn't Heath Ledger about 28 when he played the joker?

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7401) 6 years ago

Yes but from the actor they went with they wanted Joker to look older than Jack Nicholson did at the time. Otherwise they wouldn't have chosen a guy over 50 to play him. It seems it became a tradition for Joker to be played by an older guy in live action until Heath Ledger. Of course they wanted Joker to be older in Batman 89 so he could be Bruce Wayne's Parents' killer.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Good point.