To The Batpoles! Batman 1966 – Details, episodes & analysis

This time we wrap up our discussion of Lorenzo Semple Jr's  BATNOTES memo for prospective BATMAN 66 writers. These last few pages of the memo cover the show's running characters, including a surprising early take on Aunt Harriet, as well as the now-familiar format of the show and the question of showing supered titles on the screen rather than narration!

Listen to Bat Bits and see the memo we're discussing by subscribing to our Patreon for at least $2 a month! For $4 a month, you ALSO get our monthly discussion of silver age Batman comics as Paul or another in our stable of co-hosts joins Tim to examine individual Batman stories from the 1950s and '60s! Slide down your Batpole to join our Patreon today!

On the latest Bat Bits, we discuss Lorenzo Semple Jr's guidelines regarding Batman's arsenel: The Batmobile, the Batcave, and all his various devices. We discuss reasons to label everything in the Batcave and Batman's general resourcefulness. Whatever he needs is always there when he needs it!

Listen to Bat Bits and see the memo we're discussing by subscribing to our Patreon for at least $2 a month! For $4 a month, you ALSO get our monthly discussion of silver age Batman comics as Paul or another in our stable of co-hosts joins Tim to examine individual Batman stories from the 1950s and 60s! Slide down your Batpole to join our Patreon today!

While Rik Vollaerts' early draft of The Bookworm Turns was very different from what was broadcast, surely the final script is exactly what we saw? But no, that's never true; some changes always occur at the hands of the director, and perhaps the actors. A significant scene (and significant henchman) disappeared from this story as broadcast. Was it simply cut for time, or were there questions of taste? In the latest BAT BITS, Tim and Paul discuss the differences and what may account for them.

Listen to Bat Bits and follow along with a PDF of the script by subscribing to our Patreon for at least $2 a month! For $4 a month, you ALSO get our monthly discussion of silver age Batman comics as Paul or another in our stable of co-hosts joins me to examine individual Batman stories from the 1950s and 60s! Come on over to patreon dot com slash decon comics to join the fun!

The Riddler, a one-off villain in a Bill Finger/Dick Sprang comic book story in 1948, languished for nearly two decades until, in 1965, Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff happened to bring him back… just as a certain TV producer, William Dozier, was researching the idea of making a Batman TV show. Riddler ended up in the premiere episode, played by Frank Gorshin, and Gorshin was nominated for an Emmy for the role. Thus was the Riddler cemented as one of Batman's greatest foes.

So the '66 show is responsible for The Riddler's prominence, but didn't it also determine some specifics of the character? How he acts? How he dresses? How he talks? The show's influence over how the Riddler was played lasted decades. In this episode, we're joined by a voice actor who met Gorshin and has played several versions of the Riddler himself, Wally Wingert, to discuss these aspects of the Riddler, and explore the approach of his alter-ego, Frank Gorshin.

Plus, your mail about our discussion in episode 149 of Alan Napier's memoir!

Brian Cronin article on the Riddle - find the inaccuracies!

Frank Gorshin performs "The Riddler" on Dean Martin's show

Frank Gorshin on American Bandstand, 1975

Evolution of the Riddler in cartoons in 11 minutes

Burt Ward on Conan O'Brien

1966 Batman Golden Records comic book + LP boxed set (submitted by Chris Cavanaugh)

Bat-Van submitted by Martin Noreau

Help Tim move away from his cough-inducing apartment

We've looked at Batman: The Movie from a director's standpoint; this time, we look at it from a cinematographer's. Howard Schwartz, Director of Photography on that film, published an article in American Cinematographer magazine's June 1966 issue called Bat-motography, or Capturing Batman on Film, which not only tells us some of the issues that came up in terms of lighting the film, but also certain scenes in the first season, and plenty of other interesting tidbits. This time, we discuss the article, and also the sixth issue of the Batman '66 comic book, featuring a (nearly) spot-on take on the Bookworm by Tom Peyer.

Also: the Batman theme as played in 2008 by Chicchi, a (then) young girl playing surf guitar; and your mail about our talk with the principals of Batman at Washburn!

Help Tim move away from his cough-inducing apartment

Chicchi playing "The Cruel Sea"

One of our favorite Batman arcs growing up was the three-parter "The Zodiac Crimes" featuring the mind-blowing combination of Joker and Penguin! But when Stephen Kandel wrote it, it was a two-parter introducing a new villain: The Astrologer. Why might it have been switched to a three-parter starring established villains? How much in the script did Stanford Sherman change when he was asked to rewrite it into what was broadcast? And, can a huge meteorite falling on you cause you to be… burned to death?? We'll see as we walk through the script!

Read the script

Also, guitarist Marcos Kaiser performs the Batman themes of 1966 and 1989, and your mail about our discussion of Sherman's letters prompts us to drill into the probable causes of the gradual "slide" in bat-script quality.

Akron newspaper article about Stanford Sherman (click to enlarge)

Alan Napier was the third-billed star of Batman, and is, somewhat remarkably, the only series regular who has a memoir currently in print. The book, Not Just Batman's Butler, was written by Napier around 1970, and writer James Bigwood has edited and annotated it. At some points, Bigwood has filled in some quite large gaps that Napier left concerning his acting career, as the actor tended to focus more on his personal life. Batman does get a chapter, but it's among the shortest in the book. So, is it worth the bat-fan's time to pick up this 356-page tome? We've read the book and we try to answer that question in this episode.

ALSO: The Golden Orchestra's version of Hefti's Batman theme, and your mail about episode 146, in which we revealed the Batman at Washburn fan film!

Alan Napier on becoming Alfred

Batman and Robin: A Mission to Fight Crime, within the Comic Book Heroes Collection playlist

The Alfee "Mary Ann"

You know about the 1966 Batman at Washburn fan film, made by students at Minneapolis' Washburn High School. (If you missed it, listen to episode 146!) But questions remained unanswered. How did the students get the school to let them shoot the film at school? How did they come up with the idea, and determine the casting? Why did they go with original villains? Why is there no Batcave? And...what's with that funky orange wash on some of the shots?

In this episode, we meet some of the stars of the film -- Tim Olson (Batman), Mike Smith (Professor Sin), and Ross Olson (the narrator) -- who fill us in on the answers to these and other questions. Tim even found a trove of documentation of the planning of the film and news reports about its making! And we get to hear about the world premiere of the film on June 3, 1966, and more details on what happened to the film between then and its finding its way to collector Mitch Kaba!

(EDIT: Ross sent us one more document - a handwritten plan for the narration and music cues! See it here.)

ALSO: Jan and Dean's Batman theme (and some other details of Jan and Dean Meet Batman that we missed back in episode 28), and your mail about episode 145, our discussion of director Leslie Martinson's input on Batman: The Movie!

Batman at Washburn

Jan and Dean Meet Batman discussed on Bizarre Albums

Batman theme by Jan and Dean

Jan and Dean Meet Batman on YouTube, including unused skits

66 Batman Message Board thread on cut or missing scenes from the show, including Therin of Andor's posting of a still of Sterling Holloway as Major Terry, left on the cutting room floor of Batman: The Movie

Most TV writers don't become stars. If we're fans of a show they wrote for, we probably know their names, but nowhere online can we find most writers' photos or dates of birth, let alone anything about their inner thoughts. Especially not writers who did their work decades ago.

Collector Mitch Kaba has come along to help us get some insight into one of the more prolific Bat-writers: Stanford Sherman. Courtesy of Mitch, we have some letters that Sherman wrote to his girlfriend in 1965-66, which include references to some of his early Batman work; in particular, Hizzoner the Penguin. Sherman visited the Bat-set during the shooting of that two-parter, and his account of the visit gives us an amazing look behind the curtain.

Also in this episode, we discuss the fifth issue of the Batman '66 comic book, featuring appearances by the Sandman and Catwoman (Eartha Kitt version)! Do you want to be evil?

ALSO: The Tito Iglesias version of the Batman theme (holy catfight!) and your response to our Leslie Martinson discussion in episode 144!

"Bat-motography, or Capturing Batman on Film" - American Cinematographer, June 1966

Eartha Kitt: "I Want to be Evil"

Breaking bat-news! The earliest-known Batman '66 fan film has been revealed! It was made by students at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the spring of 1966. As Batmania raged nationally, these kids decided to celebrate their school by making a Batman film in and around their school, with the cooperation of the school, including screen appearances by the principal, Carl W. Anderson, and two teachers! In this episode, we meet collector Mitchell Kaba, who found the film on Goodwill's auction site and was able to track down many of the students involved in the film - including John Powers, who also joins us. We discuss how the film was made, where it's been all these years, and the historical significance.

ALSO: "Holy Deja Vu" takes us to Dallas, Colie Brice rocks out with "Batman Blues in G Major", and your response to episode 143's talk with Jeff Bond blows us away!

Watch the film