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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio, Arlan Schumer is with us that we're talking

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Speaker 1: about Batman, the TV series, which debuted fifty five years

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Speaker 1: ago January twelfth, nineteen sixty six. So so you're watching

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Speaker 1: this Wednesday night, seven thirty debuts on ABC, and the

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Speaker 1: first the things that jumped out out at you and

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Speaker 1: your brother who's also watching, that you liked, that were faithful,

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Speaker 1: let's say to the comic book world, Yeah, what were

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Speaker 1: those things? First of all, that night we were on

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Speaker 1: our knees in front of the television set like an

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Speaker 1: altar waiting for seven thirty. That's how big the build

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Speaker 1: up was. I'm seven and a half. My brother's Steve

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Speaker 1: is nine. And it comes on and you know, at first,

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Speaker 1: if you remember the very first episode it comes on,

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Speaker 1: you know you're in mold debut there that you're at

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Speaker 1: the World's Fair and there's the explosion and you know,

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Speaker 1: the Riddler's clue comes down and they cut to Commissioner

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Speaker 1: Gordon's office. He's surrounded by you know, Officer O'Hara and

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Speaker 1: Mayor Lynn Seed and all these other you know, men

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Speaker 1: of Gotham, and they know it's the Riddler and they

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Speaker 1: can't handle them alone. They got to call you know

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Speaker 1: who we have to call and they go over to

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Speaker 1: the hot line, the red phone, they pick it up.

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Speaker 1: Then we cut to Wayne Manner and other words, so

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Speaker 1: far so good. Okay, Commissioner Gordon, everything's cool. Now we

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Speaker 1: go to Wayne Mannor we meet you know, Bruce, Wayne

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Speaker 1: and Dick Rayson and you know that's our first time

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Speaker 1: seeing Adam West and bird Wards Robin and they're in

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Speaker 1: Wayne Manner okay, and they go into the bat poles.

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Speaker 1: You know, they say goodbye it you know that Shakespeare

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Speaker 1: head that they use to trigger the bookcase is opening

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Speaker 1: and other words, so far, so good, everything's cool. And

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Speaker 1: then it cuts to the animated opening, which is one

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Speaker 1: of the pop culture classic aspects of the show. The

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Speaker 1: theme song composed by Neil Hefty, the guy that did

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Speaker 1: The Odd Couple and so many television themes, and you

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Speaker 1: know his original version, not Nelson Riddle ended up doing

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Speaker 1: the version that was arranged for television. But oh it

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Speaker 1: wasn't the Marquettes original wasn't the Marquettes Arland that performed

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Speaker 1: at the Marquel. Now you see, if that's the version

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Speaker 1: you play. There were so many cover versions. Even the

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Speaker 1: group The Who from England did a released version of

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Speaker 1: the Batman theme. Um. I like the Neil Hefty original.

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Speaker 1: It's it's got more bottom, it's heavier. You can really

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Speaker 1: sense the Peter gun dundun dun dun dunsundun Sun Sun

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Speaker 1: Sun Sun Sun. You know that's the that's the origin

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Speaker 1: of the Batman theme. He built on that and to me,

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Speaker 1: the Nelson Riddle version that was put on television. When

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Speaker 1: you compare the two, the Nelson Riddle version is lighter,

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Speaker 1: it's a little slicker. But if you get the Neil

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Speaker 1: Hefty original, I think that's the greatest version of the song.

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Speaker 1: That When I do my lectures and webinars on the

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Speaker 1: TV show, like I did the night of January twelfth,

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Speaker 1: a month ago, I always used the Neil Hefty version. Right.

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Speaker 1: So you like the stately Wayne mannor you like the

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Speaker 1: bad Poles, you like the Batcave. We love the animation.

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Speaker 1: The animation is classic, right you know. I found out

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Speaker 1: years later that the animation was designed by a great

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Speaker 1: animator named Lee Michigan. And this guy Lee Michigan, he

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Speaker 1: worked on everything from Popeye in the fifties, he worked

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Speaker 1: on the Mister Magoo Christmas Carol, which is one of

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Speaker 1: the great versions of the Christmas Carol with one of

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Speaker 1: the greatest version of the Scary Ghosts of Christmas Future,

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Speaker 1: and he ended up doing the Batman TV show animation,

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Speaker 1: so that was great. Okay, Then we cut back to

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Speaker 1: the episode of live action. They come down to the

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Speaker 1: bat poles. They look cool. They're in the backcabe, the

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Speaker 1: backhabe at school. They jump into the batmobile. So far,

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Speaker 1: so good. Everything's good. They get Commissioner Gordon's office, they

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Speaker 1: discuss it. So far, so good. Okay, we're starting to

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Speaker 1: Robin looks just like the Infantino Robin. But We're looking

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Speaker 1: at this Batman and already I'm not kind of liking

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Speaker 1: what I'm seeing. But so far that the episode is

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Speaker 1: played straight. Then they go on their mission and the

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Speaker 1: first thing they do, this is five minutes into the episode,

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Speaker 1: they climb the wall for the first time, in the

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Speaker 1: classic one of the icons of the series. They rope

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Speaker 1: climbing up the wall. You know exactly, yes, yes, this

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Speaker 1: is the first time they do it. And you know,

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Speaker 1: Batman throws up his battery and they climb up the

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Speaker 1: wall and again, so far, so good. This is very cool.

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Speaker 1: They get to the sixth floor and they want to

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Speaker 1: get into the windows where they think the Riddler is,

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Speaker 1: and Batman takes out his layer. There's bars blocking their way,

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Speaker 1: so Batman takes out his laser torch from his utility

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Speaker 1: belt and laser torches the bars, and Robin takes the

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Speaker 1: bars once they're laser torch and is about to drop

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Speaker 1: them to the ground six floors below, when Batman stops him,

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Speaker 1: and so is Robin. Hold on, you know you might

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Speaker 1: hurt innocent civilians down below, even though of course they

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Speaker 1: were in a deserted barking lot. Takes so Batman takes

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Speaker 1: out again from his utility belt a bat suction cup

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Speaker 1: with a hook, sticks it to the wall, takes the

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Speaker 1: bars and hangs them on the hook. When that happens,

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Speaker 1: my brother and I remember we're kneeling on the floor

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Speaker 1: in front of our zenis nineteen inch television black and

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Speaker 1: white set like an author. We look at each other

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Speaker 1: and almost in unison, Richard, we say out loud, they're

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Speaker 1: making fun of Batman. Now we didn't know what the

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Speaker 1: word camp was. I found out years later the famous intellectual.

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Speaker 1: Susan Sontag wrote the essay I mean famous writer published

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Speaker 1: you know Susan Sontag. She wrote this famous essay in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four for the partisan review magazine Is I Want.

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Speaker 1: It's called National Gutrigate and called notes on Camp. And

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Speaker 1: that's where the term camp is coined. Which, by the way,

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Speaker 1: it came from the gay community to subculture. And and

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Speaker 1: they based it on World War Two and the soldiers

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Speaker 1: would dress up in drag when they would have these

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Speaker 1: their entertainments, camping it up. It came from from army camp.

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Speaker 1: So may see how these things sort of happened. But

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Speaker 1: the reason why, and this gets to talk about Sean Connery,

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Speaker 1: James Bond. You know, by December of sixty five, that's

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Speaker 1: when Thunderball came out, the fourth James Bond film was

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Speaker 1: Sean Connery. We as kids had already seen the first

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Speaker 1: four Bond films as kids, we love the Connery Bond.

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Speaker 1: And if you think about Connery's Bond, those were serious

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Speaker 1: spy films. Yeah, there was some comic relief, Yeah, there

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Speaker 1: was some comic relief quips, but you know, from Russia,

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Speaker 1: would Love was practically a Hitchcock film. We expected Batman

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Speaker 1: to be as serious as Connery's Bob, which, by the way,

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Speaker 1: the Infantino Batman was more like Connery's Bond. So when

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Speaker 1: there was going to be a live action Batman? When

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Speaker 1: when when we found out in December of sixty five,

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Speaker 1: we had just come from seeing Thunderball, that's the Batman

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Speaker 1: we were expecting you, right, instead coming into a disc

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Speaker 1: attheque and doing they Bond two see right right? Instead

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Speaker 1: you had Adam West. You had a very earnest Adam

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Speaker 1: West tune. He was sort of delivering, you know, make

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Speaker 1: sure you buckle up for safety, Robin. It was a

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Speaker 1: very earnest Yeah, but we as kids recognize that it

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Speaker 1: was We didn't again, we didn't know the word camp.

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Speaker 1: But when we said they were making fun of Batman

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Speaker 1: when he went into that disc atheque midway through the

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Speaker 1: first episode and asks for an orange juice and then

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Speaker 1: does the back to see with Joel Saint John, we

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Speaker 1: could not imagine in our lives Sean Connery's Bond going

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Speaker 1: into a disc atteque in any one of those Bond

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Speaker 1: movies and doing the Bond two seed. Do you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean? Richard sure, sure, Now let me ask you,

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Speaker 1: because we have to talk now about what we were

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Speaker 1: I can imagine. But so then we have to talk

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Speaker 1: about William Dozier, the producer, and why he decided to

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Speaker 1: do it this way, and it actually takes us to

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Speaker 1: a very unlikely location, Playboy Mansion. Tell us about that. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's an interesting track. How did Batman come to be

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Speaker 1: on ABCTV in the first place? Okay, so that's very interesting.

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Speaker 1: So we got us which you know, you brought up

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Speaker 1: the Playboy Mansion in Chicago at the time or moved

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Speaker 1: to la in like seventy two, I think in the sixties.

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Speaker 1: Hugh Hessner comes out of Chicago and Hue Heffner grew

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Speaker 1: up reading the comics. He loved the comics and he

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Speaker 1: remembered seeing as a kid the Batman serials in the forties.

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Speaker 1: And if you've seen them, we've seen pictures of them,

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Speaker 1: you know, they're ridiculous looking versions of Batman and Robin.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Robin's mask is like a Domino mask. You'd

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Speaker 1: buy a woolworts, you know what I mean. Batman in

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Speaker 1: one of those films looks like he's got devil horns

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Speaker 1: and they're not exactly built like Charles Charles Atlas. They

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Speaker 1: were glubby Batman. I mean again when I say ridiculous,

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Speaker 1: there are people that love this stuff. Everybody. You know,

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Speaker 1: because of the Internet, there are fans of everything, both

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Speaker 1: great and bad, you know what I mean, the bad

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Speaker 1: and the people. I just saw that movie on TV

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Speaker 1: on TCM with Kurt Douglas, you know, the bad and

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Speaker 1: the beautiful full you know. But that's that's that's what

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Speaker 1: they were. And and Heffner, starting in the mid sixties,

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Speaker 1: around sixty four, start showing in his private screening room

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Speaker 1: at the Playboy Mansion for the entertainment of his very

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Speaker 1: literati guests, which were the height of what was hipped

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Speaker 1: back then. Tony Bennett would be on you know, Playboy

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Speaker 1: after Dark. You know Duffner, you know he had that

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Speaker 1: Empire Bruce but you know he had that late night

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Speaker 1: TV show, and you know he was what was hip,

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Speaker 1: you know. You know, this is in the early sixties,

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Speaker 1: you know, right around the time the Beatles, you know,

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Speaker 1: in sixty four, and you know again Bondmania, you know,

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Speaker 1: these were there was the three bs in the sixties,

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Speaker 1: you know, Bondmania, Beatlemania and Batmania and um, so Heffner

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Speaker 1: is showing these cereals late at night to his guests

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Speaker 1: while they're all drinking and partying, and it's like, you

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Speaker 1: know what happened with the Rocky Hart Picture Show in

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Speaker 1: the mid seventies, when people would yell back at the

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Speaker 1: screen and dress up all that and can in a

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Speaker 1: sense make fun of the thing that they're watching. And

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Speaker 1: that's what they were doing with Batman, because they are ridiculous,

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Speaker 1: old fashioned cereals and Batman Robin look ridiculous and it's

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Speaker 1: you know, Syria, They're they're you know, they're they're terrible,

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Speaker 1: but they're goofy, and you know there's a charm to them.

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Speaker 1: So William Dozu was in attendance watching, Yes, so in

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Speaker 1: attendance sometime in sixty four, was an ABC executive, I

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Speaker 1: forget his name, and he was witnessing that all the

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Speaker 1: hip intelligencia, you know, literati literati that was hanging out

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Speaker 1: with Hefner were having a ball with these Batman things.

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Speaker 1: Then he went back to LA and suggested that they

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Speaker 1: get the rights could the Batman as a TV show?

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Speaker 1: That they think it would be a cool idea, and

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Speaker 1: they gave it to William Dozier, the producer to do

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Speaker 1: it right in nineties, and he Doozer describes the Batman

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Speaker 1: TV series as a as a sitcom without a laugh track. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know coms with fans like me and my brother

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Speaker 1: were laughing at it, but we were disliking it. We

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Speaker 1: were laughing at it, not with it, you know. But

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Speaker 1: you see, you didn't know Batman. The reason why this

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Speaker 1: show is so well loved to this day is that

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Speaker 1: if you didn't know the Infantino Batman, if you didn't

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Speaker 1: know the Batman from the comics, especially the Infantino Batman,

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Speaker 1: because the Batman of the fifties reprint those ass was goofy,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's the Batman. In a weird way, Dozier

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Speaker 1: ended up adapting. He didn't really adapt the Infantino Batman

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Speaker 1: the series the Connery Bond Batman we were expecting right now.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting that the first villain in the first episode

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Speaker 1: is the Riddler played by Frank Gorshen, which is an

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Speaker 1: interesting choice because, if I'm not mistaken Ireland, the Riddler

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Speaker 1: was kind of a minor villain in the comic book.

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Speaker 1: So tell me about the decision to go with the

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Speaker 1: Riddler and This is why Dozier is the producer was

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he didn't know anything about comics.

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Speaker 1: It's the spring of nineteen sixty five. He's going to

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Speaker 1: La or whatever to go to the meeting, and he

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Speaker 1: has to stop up at the airport to pick up

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Speaker 1: some Batman comics to familiarize himself with the character. He

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Speaker 1: happens to pick up in the spring of sixty five

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Speaker 1: the Batman issue, which at the time brought back The Riddler,

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Speaker 1: who hadn't been published since nineteen forty eight. But the

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Speaker 1: editor Batman, who brought in Infantino in this thing called

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Speaker 1: the New Look in sixty four, decided to bring back

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Speaker 1: the Riddler. So the Riddler, you know, like I said,

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Speaker 1: he hadn't been seen for decades, and that was the

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Speaker 1: issue that wound up being adapted for the first episode.

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Speaker 1: So only by chance that it was the issue that

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Speaker 1: those are who knew nothing about comics picked up. He

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Speaker 1: thought comics were junk. He was an elitist. He only

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Speaker 1: knew the fine art world and television ironically that he

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Speaker 1: was producing, and you know, they gave him the show,

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Speaker 1: probably because he was doing Burke's Law with Gene Barry,

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Speaker 1: which get This Richard was about a wealthy playboy socialite

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Speaker 1: who drives around in a limousine in Los Angeles with

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Speaker 1: his young ward fighting crime. Sounds familiar, indeed. Listen to

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Speaker 1: more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one a m.

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Speaker 1: Eastern and go to Coast to Coast am dot com

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Speaker 1: for more