To The Batpoles! Batman 1966

Famously, Burt Ward has said that, in the episode BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, he was placed above a pit of tigers, with meat hanging above him that encouraged the tigers to jump. Meanwhile, in THE OFFICIAL BATMAN BATBOOK, Joel Eisner says there were no live tigers, just a clip from an old movie. Who's right? The answer may surprise you! Scott Sebring has shared his interesting research on this topic with us, and we share it in this episode - available only on Patreon!

The first episode of our book-writing-hiatus Patreon podcast is now live! We discuss memos among the Greenway and Fox teams about Adam West's chronic lateness on the set, and answer the question: How is Bill Clinton separated by three degrees from Batman '66?? Support us for two dollars a month and get BAT BITS every two weeks!

All the supporting players on Batman had many years of acting experience — considerably more than the stars of the show did! That also goes for Stafford Repp, playing stereotypical Irish cop Chief O’Hara. But what was his background? When did he get into acting? What are some of his other roles, pre- and post-Batman? This time we take a closer look at Repp.

Also: Bat-Audio of Adam and Burt on Entertainment Tonight in 1987, your response to several recent episodes, and a special announcement!

Bat-Message Board: #215 Women in Season Three, pt 1

Bat-Message Board: #217 Wil Shriner Show Bat-reunion

All-Soldier Musical Show Here Tuesday, Wednesday (4/11/43)

TV Face, Not Name, Rings Bell (8/24/63)

Character Actor's Big TV Try (10/19/63)

Holy Palpitatin' Policemen: This is Police Chief O'Hara (5/21/66)

Adam West and Burt Ward on Entertainment Tonight, 1987

The Frito Bandito Meets Chief O'Hara

Batman Stop-Motion Intro

Sorry! We're going to have to delay the next episode by a week or two.

Six months after Batman’s final broadcast on ABC, CBS premiered The Adventures of Batman, the character’s first animated show, produced by Filmation. While the look of the show is totally divorced from the Adam West version, relying mainly on the comics, the influence of the live action show can definitely be felt in the writing; just ask “millionaire Bruce Wayne” at “Stately Wayne Manor.” 

This is a show we never saw as kids, or really at all until now, so this time we take a look at the cartoon, without any nostalgic rose-colored glasses. And we have a blast doing it!

ALSO: The Dynamic Duo’s version of the theme (who ARE they behind those masks?), the conclusion of the 1989 Bat-reunion on CBS This Morning, and the message board weighs in on the reasons for 1988 Batmania!

There have been many Batman cast reunions on talk shows over the years, particularly as the 1989 Batman movie’s release approached. Previously we talked about the 1988 reunion on The Late Show with Ross Shafer, an overbooked, poorly stage-managed affair. This time we look at another reunion in 1988, on The Wil Shriner show. Shriner’s show kept the number of guests to a manageable number, and Shriner was more knowledgeable about the show than Shafer, making this reunion about the best you could hope for on a talk show for a general audience. This time we discuss this Wil Shriner episode.

Plus, the Silverwood Clarinet Choir plays an interesting arrangement of Hefti’s Batman theme, and we get a look at a particularly sexist take on Batgirl from Detective Comics 371. 

Watch the Wil Shriner Batman reunion episode

The Clock King’s Crazy Crimes/The Clock King Gets Crowned is the one Batman ’66 arc written by Bill Finger, now credited as a co-creator of the character, and Charles Sinclair. Unsurprisingly, the first draft of the script reveals a writer not well versed in the rules of Hollywood, such as that an actor who says one word on screen is more expensive than one in a non-speaking role. This time we look at the first draft, final, and revised final scripts of the Clock King story, finding bits that changed significantly as shot, and answer some of our questions about odd parts of the story.

ALSO: The London Music Works version of the Batman theme, Burgess Meredith on the origin of the Penguin’s quack, and your mail!

Message board comments on the scripts

Message board comments on our Mr. Terrific discussion

One of the most striking things — in a good way, for once! — about Batman’s third season is the number of villains who are women. Also, of course, this is the season of Batgirl, who is more aggressively “feminized” than any other woman on the show, perhaps because she’s doing “a man’s job.” This time we begin a look at how the show presents women in season three by looking at the season's first five episodes, and we’re joined again by novelist Nancy Northcott.

PLUS: What if King Crimson performed the Batman theme? A Batman writer turns out to be a war hero! And, Bat Audio from another Batman reunion in 1989.

Read the Clock King scripts we’ll discuss next month:

• First draft
• Final draft
• Revised final
• Comment on the script on the message board

Panel discussions on Nancy's ConTinual channel

If King Crimson performed the Batman theme (from JB Anderton!)

A Marine's-eye View of the Battle of Iwo Jima (yes, it's bat-relevant!)

More about the Iwo Jima video project, including our Bat-writer bravery medal recipient

Frank Cockrell on OldTimeRadioDownloads.com

1989 Batman reunion on CBS This Morning

Mr. Terrific was cancelled after half a season, but… was it really a terrible show? Is star Stephen Strimpell partly to blame? This time, we push back on Thirteen Week Theatre’s take on Strimpell, consider why pill popping was such a common way to get superpowers in the Sixties, and the show’s …. agressive … laugh track. Also, were the network execs commissioning superhero sitcoms really trying to imitate Batman, or just cash in?

Plus, The Music Within’s bass guitar cover of the Batman theme, more from Adam and Burt on Hour Magazine, and e-mail from our listeners!

Excerpt from Outré magazine's Stephen Strimpell interview (ilovegetsmart.com)

This time we look at the other sitcom that tried to cash in on Batman, CBS’s Mr. Terrific. It’s goofier than Captain Nice and not as funny (although the laugh track clearly doesn’t think that!), but with a surprisingly good cast. We discuss the unaired pilot, and the first 8 episodes of the 17-episode series, which is quite different from the pilot, with an utterly different cast and different situation for Mr. T’s alter ego, Stanley Beamish. 

Plus: Max Diaz Music’s “punk” version of the theme, Adam and Burt appearing on Hour Magazine in 1984, and your response to our discussion of the Batman cast reunion on Fox’s Late Night with Ross Shafer, in episode 211!