I suspect for a lot guys our age Adam West's Batman was the "gateway drug" into comics.
Back when the series originally aired, my mom liked it (yeah, I've said it before: my mom was/is cool). So I'd end up watching it with her.
Then, when we'd be in the local grocery store, I'd see Batman comics in the spinner rack and ask her to get me one. Being they were only twelve cents (or, as she said, "cheaper than a little golden book") she would buy and read it to me as a bedtime story.
As a result, I was a Batman fan from, basically, the age of two. I had the cheap Halloween costume, the Captain Action figure, the corgi Batmobile. It was always Batman.
I love the TDKR. I love O'Neil/Adams. I love Englehart/Rogers. I love TKJ. I love the first two Nolan movies.
But to me, as campy as he was, Adam West will always be the real Batman.
