A Geek History of Time - Episode 84 - Batman through the Ages Part VI

Episode Date: December 5, 2020

The World Disney Yes, beloved, beloved figure of our pop culture. That's how they get you. And out of Yada, she eventually causes her own husband to be born to death. And that makes me so happy on cold nights. Especially in and badly for the idiot Pecker Woods.

You have a bottle of scotch. Okay, that's twice that he's mentioned redheads. It is un-American to get in the way of our freedom to restrict people's freedom. That was the part I know plenty about this thing. I love me some Bobby Drake. Well, if that's all we've got then we're being really lazy. Yeah. Y'all bone.

You can literally poke a hole in it as soon as someone gets pneumonia. Well, I'm not as old as you. Well, ha ha mother fuck motherfucker, I got a wizard. This is a geek history of time. We're lead connect, Gregory to the real world. I'm Ed Blalock. I'm a world history teacher and part-time English teacher here in Northern California. Right now doing all of that through an internet connection. And who are you,

sir? I'm Damon Harmony. I'm a full-time Latin teacher teaching full-time distance learning through an internet connection. It appeared in Northern California. And for this foreseeable future, we'll see how long this lasts. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know, you know, and in my own case, my district has indicated that we are not going to go back any sooner than January,

14th, which is interesting because Word has also come out from Solano County, where my district is located, that if Solano County doesn't get their house in order quickly, they're going to go back into the purple tier, which for those of you not in California, in the road map to reopening our state's economy, purple is no, no, you can't do that. Yeah. That is the most restrictive tier. And yeah.

Here's how bad it is. You hope to be in the red. And I've never known any time in my life where I hope to be in the red. I don't even like medium rare steak. Like red is never something I want to be in. Like, that's just not how it goes. Yeah, well, you know, you and Vincent Valentine.

Yeah. I'm going to race car in the red. Yeah. So, Vincent Vega. Vincent Vega. Yeah. Thank you. But, yeah, we are still in negotiations still yeah because you know that's

the state of existence in your district. Yes. So you know, you're either in negotiations or you're you know on the verge of strike. Yeah. It's just not really you know in the time that I have known you and and certainly most especially in the time since we started doing this podcast, I have never known your district to be in any state other than one of those two. You know, I was doing the math. The kids who graduated from me last year

were kids who were born largely because of 9-11. Literally because of 9-11, okay. In their time, in their time, in school, when they were hitting about second or third grade, very formative years, the housing bubble collapsed. And you had tremendous economic destruction happening. People were living with other families, like it was a very bad time,

and there was a lot of uncertainty in chaos by the time they got to high school We started having smoke days where you had to take the day off because the world was on fire we started having Well, we almost went to a strike then we did have to go to a strike Then we had the parkland shooting which then spawned the copycat stuff that we had to deal with of a bomb threat and a live shooter threat, both on the same day. And then the next year, COVID hit.

No, I'm sorry. Then the next year was a strike. Then the next year, COVID hit. And I was another actual strike. And then the year after that COVID hit. Yeah, these poor kids. Oh yeah. It's it's through. Yeah, it's six shades of ad for them. So yeah, sucks. Yeah, speaking of horrible times.

Yes, and the depression. Yeah, horrible, horrible fucking times. Yes, yes, and it led the way for fascism. Now, as of this recording, we're four days from deciding which way we're going to go on that. So that's fun. But in 1943, there were several countries that were very much headed that way, and there were several who were like, no, we don't really like that. And there was a whole war on. Everybody showed up. It was good times. Yeah. Yeah. So we have been talking about Batman for the last, I don't know, four or five episodes. Yeah, we have. And so, really, to be honest,

I've been talking about Batman. Yes, nausea. My wife actually, for those of you in the audience, Tameen already knows about this, but at the end of our last recording session, my wife had come down at one point in the middle of us recording and had been put around in the kitchen and left. You may have heard her in the background, don't know.

But when I went to bed that night after recording, she said, so did Damien do any talking? Like we're in this podcast. Yeah, like with a smirk on her face, you know, because like, you know, she's given me a hard time, but you're up. So, so I held, held forth at grade, at grade length, or although maybe not grade brightness, but at grade length, about the history of the comics and, you you know my central thesis there. And so I had thought in the process of doing that that by bringing the history of the comics up to

you know the 80s that I had been teeing you up to then go into the history of the movies. And you had? And well and I had, but in our in our conversation after we finished recording, I found out that no, no, no, no, no, the history of the films goes back like way fucking farther than I had even imagined. But I had been thinking, I know I'm flaking on the name, the director of Tim Burton. I had been thinking Tim Burton was the genesis of the character on the screen and on a silver screen and turns out I was like way ridiculously fucking wrong wrong by about 45 years. Yeah, yeah, I am very very long long period of time. So yeah So so and lighten our audience and maybe give them the the same, you know mind blown

and maybe give them the same, you know, mind blown kind of from a tar. Where does this start? Well, if we want to understand Batman in cinema, we have to go back to Ubu Roy. No. The look I just got. You beat me to it. Yeah. As I was going to make the same joke. No, that's. And this ladies and gentlemen is how you can tell that one of us has gotten his master's to

believe. And the other one has not. I'll give you three guesses, which one of us it is who, you know, spent the time doing research and historiography. Not me. Fun story about getting my master's during two of my historiography classes not me. Well, fun story about getting my masters during two of my historiography classes, two of them, two different ones. The professors, independently of each other, said specifically when writing, because they're like, okay, now we want like a four to five page historiography. I'm like, all right, cool. And they just look straight at me and they said, Damien, no more than six books.

And I was like, really? And they're like, it's a four-page paper. You don't need ten books. And I was like, but I need to address the historiography. I need to look at all the seminal works. They're like six books maximum. Okay. Top's.

Yeah. And what I always pointed out was that, you know, because and everybody else was just like astounded because I was also teaching and all that kind of stuff. And what I always pointed out was that in fact, other people could do more with less. I was deficient. That's why I needed all that extra books. And I think there's some truth to that. Okay, I get where the imposter syndrome attacks you along the angle. No, I really do think that it led me

to being better read and all these things that you've known me as, but I do think that other people were able to analyze deeper and better on the books that they did, whereas I did a change over time. If I had more data points, I could chart it, but they were able to really get in there and like just, just get up between two of them. Okay, so more, more an issue of your perception. I'm not necessarily going to give a great deal of credence to your interpretation, but you are, you are, because where the fuck do you find the energy? Dexidrin is a hell of a drug.

He's the only answer I can think of. Except you know I don't do anything. Yeah, I know, which like is fucking unfair. But so, so the, the, the, what I get from that, or where I kind of want to take away is you, your perception was other people were able to get an inch wide and a mile deep. And you had to go mile wide and inch deep to get the same volume. Okay. The same amount of... Okay. I can understand that I yeah still

Chronically leave me feeling woefully under prepared I pick my topics like in you know, so but okay, so we got to go to 1943 Which is what five years after Batman came out as a comic? Um, came out in the 38. Okay. Thirty, thirty, thirty nine. Thirty and nine? Okay. I don't remember.

But anyway, yeah, it's been a week and I forgot all my dates. Sure, sure. But yeah, so are five years. So 1943, we have the first Batman on the silver screen, but it's not a true movie. It's a serial. But it still counts. So it's a, believe a 15 part serial, and it stars a man named Lewis Wilson, who was the youngest man to ever play Batman in a movie. He was 23 years old at the time. Holy cow. Yeah.

And unlike the Superman movies, where like everybody who plays Superman is somehow just fucked Wilson seemed to live a pretty decent life Deciding to leave behind show business after about 1954 and he eventually went to work for General Foods and he married a novelist Really? Yeah, and he dies at the age of 80 in 2000 All right, so in many ways he was a thoroughly unremarkable person and and I I think that's a really good thing Honestly if you were in the movies and then you have an unremarkable life after it's better

Yeah, I think yeah, yeah, yeah, based on yeah the way the way the way the rest of those Biopics tend to go. Yes. Yeah. That's the best way for things to end. So quietly, in your beds surrounded by your loved ones. Now this movie had Robin in it. And Robin was played by a fellow named Douglas Croft, who was only 16 when he played Robin, who was also the youngest to ever play Robin.

Logically. Previously, he played the young version of Lou Garrig in Pride of the Yankees. Oh really? Yeah. And much like most of the people who play Robin, his life is bad. He dies at the age of 37 in October of 1963. I just point that out because the very next month something else happened. He dies of alcoholism related ailments. So, the... That's a bummer.

Yeah, yeah it was. Reading, I was like, oh this is sad. So it was a 15 part Batman and Robin series, a cinema serial and it was just called Batman. And it was as most things would be at the time, set in World War II, because it's 1943. And in this one, Batman is somehow a secret US agent and he's aimed at defeating the Japanese

and their schemes to take over Gotham. Okay, wait. Yeah, hold on. Sure. All right, so it's 43. Yes. So we're in the middle of WWE, I.I. Yep, wait. Yeah hold on. Sure All right, so it's 43. Yes, so we're in the middle of WII. Yep, obviously Okay, and He's working as an agent to Batman. Mm-hmm Working as an agent of the US government. Yes

Fighting with Japanese who are trying to take over Gotham. That's right. Trying to take who are trying to take over Gotham. Yeah. Yeah. In a 15-part serial. That I kind of want to watch that now just because that that sounds like the kind of thing that Philip K. Dick would have written as like an alternative, an alternative history Batman. Yeah. Like like an apparel universe. This is who Batman was. Like there are so many elements of that that are not Batman. Yeah. No, it's it's I mean, at some point, he brandishes as a gun. Like some of that was Batman. He, well, it's, I mean, at some point he brandishes a gun. Like, some of that was Batman-E. Well, he went that time. In 43, that was still pretty bad, manny.

Because that's before CCA. Yeah. So, the prohibition against, I will not kill, I will not. Right, right. Yeah, he was still fighting mobsters and crime stickets and... Well, now he's fighting the Japanese. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Who are from a real country defending a fake city? Yes. Yeah. Well, okay. And there's a certain level of license and kind of forgiveness that I think we kind of need to give the production team here because it was 1943. And, you know, everything wound up centering

on the war, whether it did or not. So, you know, I mean, I can kind of understand that, but like, do we know, is there any record of like they're having been a representative of the Roosevelt administration in the writing room, go and you know what? And it'd be really awesome if we could get Batman behind the war effort. No, not really.

It's just they're trying to cash in on people's interests. And honestly, like you said, the war has infiltrated most writing rooms. And we know that this will hit hard and so let's take Bruce Wayne's girlfriend Linda and Have her uncle get captured by the sinister doctor DACA of Japan Who I found just I just want to throw in here. That's not even actually any kind of Japanese anything DACA. No But anyway, go ahead. Sorry. So Dr. Daka of Japan has captured Linda's uncle,

and Dr. Daka is actually, here's a fun one, played by the same guy who played Rassinoff in Bojeste. Now that is absolutely narrowcasting, because my dad and I love the movie Bojeste. So Rassinoff is the skinny little mousey fuck who ends up... he has a very hyena like laugh, he ends up being kind of a totty to Sergeant Markov. So he plays Dr. Daka. And it seems as though they were ready to make him into the Joker because his hideout is in the fun house.

But World War II, so let's make him Japanese. Oh, okay. Yeah. World War II, so anti-Asian racism, okay, cool. Yep, by the way, since this guy played a character named Rassin off in another movie, I feel like I need to ask the question, even though I already know the answer.

I'm assuming this is a white guy. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, a white guy who looks vaguely ethnic though. You could make the case that perhaps he comes from Siberian ancestry, maybe. So yeah. But it doesn't even really actually look Japanese or does they in fact go yellow face?

Oh, they went yellow face. I mean, as much as you can in the black and white movie, because it's 1943. Yeah, I know, but still. The guy who played him was a guy named Jake Carol Nash, an A.I.S.H. Okay. I guess his pronounce Nash.

And he's actually just an Irishman from New York. So. Okay, well, yeah. But yeah, so here's Dr. Daca Who okay, but yeah, okay hold on I'm sorry. I got I got a backup a bit so Bruce Wayne's girlfriend. Yes Linda Linda. Yes, okay her uncle. Yes I mean your father's best friend's former roommate. What does that make us absolutely nothing?

Yep. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Carry. Okay. No, carry is not on this one. She's in the next one.

Is Linda? Well, we'll play. Thank you, sir. Thank you. So, uh, Dr. DACA in his sinister plan is, is going to steal Gotham's entire radium supply so that his ray gun has unlimited power and then he can dissolve anything. And he doesn't just have goons. Dr. Daca has an electronic brain device controlled goon who does his bidding for him.

You with me so far. Remember, this is a serial. Yeah, I understand, but, but, um, why, why does the city of Gotham have a radium supply to begin with? You know, it never really gets answered. And, and I would point point out it's radium. Like it makes shit glow. Like it's what makes glow in the dark watches work.

Or young women lose their jaw. Like it's not. Yeah, they have their hair fall out. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Batman and Robin capture one of DACA's goons after a brawl

and they take him to the bat cave. Okay. All right. Okay. We'll get it back on some milk. Yeah. Yeah. Back on more familiar ground here. And then they threaten that the bats are hungry. So the goon of course caves, no pun intended there actually. Because you know, man, we can elect like that or vulnerable to fear. Right.

So the Goon lets on what the plans are and the game is a foot. And so serial serial serial serial, serial ray gun, alligator pit, racism racism racism, uncle is an electrified brain implant zombie, trained to real man, victory plans rescued and the bad guy falls to his death in his own alligator trap in episode 15. Wow. So yeah. That's. Okay, so here's another question.

So something occurred to me. How much of that overwrought weirdness is an artifact of that having been a cereal script. A ton. Because the cereal is gonna be the same setup punch, setup punch every time. And then you gotta end with the cliffhanger. So you gotta get more and more out there.

So you almost don't need the plot to hang together. So long as you can get me from the end of one to the beginning of the other, you've got me. And then just, you know, we can resolve that somehow. And then go. These were all, these were all like, in the same spot as cartoons before the main feature of a, of a movie. Yeah. Presumably. Yeah. Now here's some things that set out, or that kind of stand out about the serial. First of all, it's set in Gotham, but it has the real world intruding, like I said, a real country. Okay, yeah.

Secondly, he's got the Batcave. This is the first time we ever see the Batcave. Even to the point where the comic book responds by making there be a Batcave. We're going to see this again and. We're the movie inspires the comic. Yes. And at the time. Okay, wait. Yeah, okay.

Fuck me. Okay. Okay, I just, I somehow, that particular detail was not something that like came up again, again. This is what happens when I'm the one writing the episode supposed to Damien You'll notice that nowhere in my four part five fucking episodes I spent on it Magnum Opus about the history of the comics that I mentioned when the fuck the bat cave appeared because to us

It has always been so why would you go looking for when it started? That would be like saying, well, when's the first time he had a cowl? Like to us, Batman is defined by like three things, the mobile, the cowl, and the cave. Like those are the things. Yeah, okay. I give you a big pass on that because shit, if I hadn't found this in this movie, I wouldn't have known. All right. So, but at the time, it's called the Bats Cave, apostrophe X because it's because it's full of bats. It belongs to the bats.

Right. Yes. Sorry, that's a possessive. The bats cave, the cave that belongs to the bat. Yeah, singular, singular possessive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way, yeah, belongs to the bats. Yeah. The cave that's filled with the bats. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. By the way, yeah. Walk to the bat. Yeah. The cave that's filled with the bats. Yeah, the bats cave. The bats cave. I had to do a little bit of rock there. The bat as a collective, yes.

The bats cave. Yeah, yeah. Alfred was in this one too. Oh, really? And he was thin, proper, and competent. In the comics, he was chubby and bumbling, which I really think that both of us missed out on calling this podcast, chubby and bumbling.

Yeah. Yeah. So there's no bad. Did it leave though? Did it leave though? It's not too late, starting in episode 101, you know. There you go, all right. Now there's no bat mobile, and and largely this is due to budget constraints.

Well, yeah, because if you're going to have a Batmobile, you have to have a fucking car. Well, Alfred drives them everywhere. Can't wait. Yes. So what we're saying here is that Alfred in this cereal feels the wheelman of, well, he feels the role of Kato to the green hornet. Yes. Who, you know, green hornet, of course, being semi-batman, the man-servant.

Yes. The thoroughly deconstructed, of course, in the recent film. But wow. Yeah. They also don't have utility belts. And I think most importantly, he's legally sanctioned by the US government because censors didn't want vigilantes in the movies. Okay.

That, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Try to remember, yeah, okay, because this is post-haze code. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, vigilances would not be, would not be smiled upon. Right. Especially at this time.

Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. Now, this particular serial can't help itself, but be hella racist. In 1943, is the middle of World War II, bad guy is the Japanese. Yes.

They mentioned his skin, his eyes. There's also, I don't know if you know this, but in Gotham, there's a little Tokyo. I had not realized it, but okay, there is one for this movie at least. And now here's where it gets really fucked up. It's almost entirely deserted because quote, this was part of a foreign land transplanted bodily to America and known as little Tokyo. Since a wise government rounded up the Shifty Eye Japs, it has become virtually a ghost street. End quote.

Fuck you. Yeah. Fucking kidding. Nope. Nope. That happened. I need to find a video of that for when I teach US history. I think we can find it because like, no, no, no, I need you all to see this.

This is how this was presented at the time. Yep. Let's talk about that. Yeah. Holy fuck. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

So that's a thing. Oh my god, I don't have anything to say to that. I mean, I have plenty to say, but it's all the same phrase. Over and over again. Fuck. Yeah. So let's move on to 1949, Batman. Yes, please, quickly. So there was another serial that came out in

1949 and this one is hilarious. So Columbia released another serial of Batman with nobody being the same It was called Batman and Robin And this time it stuck much more to the comic world that was created His love interest was, yeah, well because the war is over, you know, but his love interest is Vicki Vale, who one year prior had been introduced in the comics. Yes, okay, okay. He works with Commissioner Gordon. Yes.

Now throughout this serial. The vigilant is still not smiling. Exactly. So he's got to have some kind of partnership. Yes. Now throughout this serial, vigilant, still not smiling. Exactly. So he's got to have some kind of partnership. Yeah. Yeah. This serial they take on the wizard. Now, okay, the wizard has a remote control that can control all the vehicles in Gotham. But of course, it requires diamonds to run on. Hence all the heists. Okay, you know what? I'm still more behind this than the radio. And we're going to have gone like, okay, no, no.

This one, this one at least follows kind of standard comic book logic. Yeah, that's true. Like the other one was just like wacky, wackdoodle, like, okay, I gave, yeah, I gave, I gave my six-year-old a taper corner and just listened to what he wanted to say to a plot-wise. This one I look at and go, okay, knowing anything about science or physics or electronics or automobiles, I know none of that shit would actually work. But within the confines of, you know, it's comic books.

I can just look at it and go, okay, now that hangs together. Okay, yeah, I mean, this is at a time where... If I know that I'm in comic book mode, I can go, all right, okay, I can see that. Tell me more. Yeah, okay, so I would just like to point out that it's 1949. So vehicles are not like that old yet as a part of the American landscape. So I could see some anxiety about them losing control. I mean, left hand turn signals were not like stoplights were not particularly common.

You still had the cop out there to do it. And prior to that, it was the Wild West. Yeah, no, I just understand what you're saying. I think it has less to do with vehicles themselves being a novelty and it has more to do with, now they are everywhere. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with it. They're are everywhere. Yeah, I would agree. They're ubiquitous.

Yeah, it was now there. You ubiquitous. Nobody has horses anymore. But it's still, I think that's time that has been completely done away with. But in your parents' generation, like if you're a kid in 1949, going to see the serial,

in your parents' generation, they still remember a time without cars. Fairly recent. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a time without our vehicles is still within the living memory. Yes. Yes. So now, this time, there was no budget put into to costuming apparently, or props or anything like that. So all the things that make Batman Batman were just the most slip-shod costuming, the shittiest devices, the shittiest everything. The entire serial almost entirely takes place

in the daytime. Batman's outfit is clearly not made for the actor at the time. Oh, Jesus. His name, by the way, is Robert Lowry. Here's a fun fact. Robert Lowry and George Reeve appeared in an army training film called Sex Hygiene. All right.

I watched it. Because I know. I know. He had a fairly long career that saw a lot of guest spots on a lot of TV westerns and stuff like that. So Larry was a working at a journeyman. Yeah. You actually get to see Batman doing detective work though. And at one point he goes undercover and infiltrates the wizard's gang. But this particular serial is a lot less remarkable except for the fact that it's the wizard's gang. But this particular cereal is a lot less remarkable,

except for the fact that it's so shitily done and has no budget, especially the outfits. I wanna say that the car that they're driving is like just a mercury. What? Like yeah, it's bad. I'm crazy about a mercury. Yeah.

I don't know why you're complaining. Well, because it's Batman. I'm gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road. There you go. What you're talking about? So that that's the cereals which start getting played in the 1960s in film festivals to start them off like a lot of you know college towns or having film festivals and they'll

play the Batman movie and stuff like that. And the result is that that inspires the TV series with the resurgence of these serials being rediscovered. The TV series is seen as a viable possibility. Okay, and some executive... Yeah. You heard that, hey, the college kids are really into watching these old... Yes. ...that man's cereals... ...and laughing their asses off at it.

And laughing their asses off, they got money to burn. Yep. Okay. Yep. Okay, that makes way more sense than I wanted. So, this brings us to the 1966 Batman, the famous one, the Adam West one, the Bert Ward one, the one where you've got the four main bad guys. You've got, you know, the Penguin, the Joker, the Riddler and Catwoman. You've got all of them

in it and it's this wonderful. It's it's it's frankly the inspiration for what Thanos did in Avengers Endgame or in Avengers Infinity War. Okay. Well I mean he snapped and everybody turned to dust. Okay. And you know something occurs to me that Catwoman so the series only lasted two years And if I'm remembering right there were three actresses who played catwoman. Yes, Julie Neumar. Yes, who Forever is gonna be my favorite Kit is a very very close second. Uh-huh And right now I'm blanking on who the third actress was. She was in the movie.

Oh, OK. Yeah. And it's because I believe Julie Numer was physically unable to do it, and I forget why. I might have the notes in here as to why, though. OK. But so fun story about the 1966 movie version of Batman. OK.

You got to set the way back, machine two, about 1988, 1989. My little brother is four. So we're talking. 88, 89. He has PJs that are of Robin. And he has PJs that are of Batman. And he prefers the Robin ones,

because they're much more colorful. And on the back of them They have like a Velcro yellow cape and they got the little R and the the red and all that right so my parents go to we live in Bronson, Florida, which is a town of about 804 people at the time and when we moved out it was 800 and My brother and I were home watching on one of the three channels that was available, the Batman movie. My parents had gone off to a concert because living roughly in that same town was bow

diddly. No shit. I went to school with his granddaughter. I choose kind of an answer. No shit. I went to school with his granddaughter. I choose kind of an old. I know you this long and I haven't like Dude. Yeah, okay. So my parents are at my high school gym. Now again, I'm in fifth or sixth grade. My parents are in my high school gym at my town's high school, the Bronson Eagles, the fight and Eagles. And my parents go to that concert and they're having such a good time that they decide,

let's go get William and Earth. William, Jesus Christ. I will never not mix up Bowie and William for some reason. But I'm sure my brother is going to hate that and my son will eventually. But they say, let's go get Bowie and Damien. Because this is really, really fun. Well, Bowie and Damien are sitting at home watching the Batman movie. Bowie in his Robin PJs. Get up. Yeah. So they come get us. Now it's like probably 20 miles to get back to our house because we're in the middle. Bum fuck nowhere. We're like way up close to the taint of Florida.

in the middle, bum fuck nowhere. We're like way up close to the taint of Florida. Yeah. Yeah. And so they come get us, they take us back there. Bowie is still in his pajamas. Okay. Four year old Bowie, in his Robin pajamas, jamming out to Bow Didley.

Because of this movie. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. That's very cool. So. And by the way, yes. Just because I had to look it up, it would drive me nuts. Otherwise, Lee Maryweather. Thank you. Yes. Was the third actress to play? Yes. Catwoman. So, so because of this movie, your brother attended a pondentably concert wearing Robin pajamas. Yeah. There we go. That's

and that's and that's why your brother has more nerd cred than I will ever achieve ever in my entire life. He started young. Holy shit. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Okay. So this time, this is the one of the movies that everybody knows, right? Adam West, who's never really quite escaped the TV series

And the movie stink of his campiass Batman and Bert Ward who claims his dick was so big that he had to take dick shrinking pills to get the series Right with the League of Catholic decency Yeah Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And somehow managed to miss that particular detail. Oh, yeah. His time in the green shorts, but OK. Yeah.

So. I mean, I knew I knew that he had for a long time made a very great deal of just exactly how much tail he caught. Yes. Because of that role. Yeah. Yeah. And while he was in that role. Mm-hmm.

Now, okay, at the time, I'm trying to remember here, I want to say that Adam West was in his late 30s or his 40s at that point. And Bert Ward was in his 20s. Late 20s and 30s, I'm gonna say yeah. 30s. Yep, yep. And just had, you know, boyish enough figures, boyish enough features and figure. Yeah.

To, to, you know, get away with playing the Ward. Okay, that's all. So, yeah, he's shrinking his dick so that the League of Catholic Decent Sea doesn't come down on the show. Yeah, so this is the guy that everybody remembers. So, now this is again the plot where the world's leaders are all dehydrated into Thanos dust by the Penguin, Ridd woman and Joker. Yeah, it's a beautifully can't be movie. Yeah, here's some production notes. So, um, they just can't get rid of a bomb. Yes. Yes. So did you know that Jack Lillane was in a scene?

No. Yes. Uh, they had a stunt cameo by Jack Lomaine. Yep. I'm going to have to get back and watch this movie because I'm going to love it on a whole different level than what I was for. Oh, crap. Okay. The movie was actually made to increase interest in the TV show because the TV show was already running.

Yeah. The TV show came about partly, like I said, because of the 1943 serial that was getting popular again because of film house festivals where they'd have, quote, a night with Batman and Robin. And people loved the serial, so the TV show comes out. Yeah, yeah. The TV series is intentionally campy.

And some say that's what comics were at the time. They're not wrong. Originally, it was meant to be a Saturday morning TV show for the kids, similar to like the lone ranger or Superman, but CBS fucked it up. I don't think they did. I'm just gonna say I don't I don't think I mean I think at the time that they made that decision everybody was, what are you doing? No, no, they fucked it up as in they lost the rights to it and ABC came in and gobbled it up. Oh, so ABC grabbed it up from DC. Oh, okay.

ABC then turned it over to 20th century Fox, which then handed it over to William Dozier. Now, William Dozier had a production company called the Greenway Productions, and he did the Green Hornet and Batman concurrently at the same time. The problem here though is that Dozier hadn't really read Batman when it was handed to him. So he did do research by reading as many of the comics as he could and he decided that it should be Campy Pop Art in its style.

As opposed to the green hornet, which was a much more serious, pretty detective series. I mean, notably with Bruce Lee in the role of Kato, you know, kicking ass taking names like only Bruce Lee could and still having to be second fiddle to a white guy. Yeah. So this, this particular series was, it went that way, and ABC and 20th Century Fox did not think it should have gone that way. So yeah, he said it kind of in opposition to the green hornet.

He's like, well, we're already doing this. So let's go this other way, you know, because remember, what else is coming out of that time is all kinds of broad brush like psychedelia TV shows. You got the Partridge family, the monkeys, and shit like that. So a lot of counterculture is on TV. Life in.

Yeah. But so the espionage, I'm really interesting. Yeah. But stupid. So a lot of the espionage novelists who were set to dig into writing the scripts were stunned at how he decided to envision it. And so it really threw a lot of people for a loop based on their expectations. He went camp and everybody was thinking he was gonna go serious. Also interesting. He was the uncredited narrator.

No kidding. Yeah. Meanwhile, yeah, stately weighing matter. Really? Yes. Gotham City. Gotham.

Gotham, the city that never sleeps, but this time the riddlers here, that guy. That's William Dozier. So it was totally formulaic. It was absolutely mainstream in its appeal and it was a very successful TV show. So here's here's some fun interplay with the TV series Barbara Gordon, which is the commissioner's daughter, who later becomes back created for the TV show. Yes. And I remember I remember an interview with her where she found out and I don't remember whether they told her this or if she like you know read something that wasn't necessarily supposed to be something

she saw as they actress but she found out out the character had been created to increase audience interest amongst, it was men from 18 to 50 and girls under the age of 13. Yes. And she said, and I read that and I went, well, okay, based on the costume, I can understand why one of those groups is going to be more interesting. Where does the other one? And apparently she ran into somebody to convention

and it was, you know, somebody who had been a girl at the time the show was on, who said, you know, I'll cut, now I can't remember the quote, but it was something like, you know, anytime I see a scene where somebody gets their head kicked in, I think of you. Wow. Actually, okay, well, there's, there's that's how that worked. I guess they were right. Yeah. Yeah. So. So, yeah, Dozier came up with her for the TV series for those reasons. Then it works its way into the comics one year later.

So again, you see interplay between the screen and the page. She was played by a woman named Ivan Craig, who also played the green Orion slave girl named Marta on Star Trek in 1969. Wait. Wait. Yep. I'm looking it up because I don't believe you. named Marta on Star Trek in 1969. Wait, wait, yep. I'm looking it up because I don't believe you.

Okay. You're kidding me. She's the same holy crap. Oh my God. So many parts of my sexual awakening are just playing right here. Okay. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Wow.

So, this approach obviously catches a lot of flack for the TV show, but really it is kind of representative of comics in the 1960s. You've got overwrought language, clever use of angles, non-lethal, everything, lots of primary colors, et cetera, et cetera. Comics were campy, even if they weren't trying to be because that was what the genre was because of the CCA. Well, okay, because of the CCA and because this is also, I'm trying to remember when Warhol became Warhol.

Late 60s, early 70s. Okay, so this is the era of pop art. Yes. And I'm trying to, Warhol is the only name I can think of right now, but, you know, they're the art form had become. Mm-hmm. It had gotten, it had flagdorized itself.

Yes. At this point. You know, we're all really gets going in the early 60s, but like, yeah, yeah. So, but the silk screening and all the colors, yeah. You know, yeah, and so, yeah, you're entirely on the money that, you know, the comics had not yet had a generation react to what had been done to the earth for him by the CCA. Right. Like so this is so Congress said, we're going to regulate you unless you do something in

the comic industry went, okay, well, we don't want that right do we yeah, we'll self regulate and and like triple to down on no No, no, we got to make sure they don't they don't come in here and mess with us Mm-hmm and and so yeah, and so we have all the restrictions on storylines Mm-hmm, and then that has a knock on effect on the artwork, which has a knock on effect on the movies, the scripting, which has knock on effect on every other medium that winds up being tied into it. Yes. TV series, everything else. Yes. And at every one of those steps, like like ripples expanding out from a pond, you get a magnification effect. And so, yeah, by by 68, that is that is almost actually I'm going to say that is in the comics 68 69 is the high

watermark for the comics being about as campy as they got. Yeah, yeah. Because then in the 70s, they had a new crew of writers come in and go, okay, no, I've gone back and I've reread the original material. And we need to go back in this direction. I think there's also a cultural shift that happens because of all the failures of 1968. You have, you know, you essentially have, you know, RFK getting killed. You have the tanks coming into Czechoslovakia,

you have Charles De Gaulle getting elected. You've got a huge surge of conservatism. By the way, you got Nixon, you've got a deepening of the conflict in Vietnam. The world is getting shittier. You've got the rise of barbituants much more than psychedelics and pot. Even the drugs take a different take. Like you've got a lot going on in 68, 69, all the way leading up to Altamont and 70. I think it was in 70. And so you absolutely have all those things.

So the world got darker and the artists 100% reflect that. Yeah. Well, does it guys moved away from goofy? Yes. Like like the monkeys, the monkeys could not have existed in 71. No, they could not have started. Yeah. They could right started. Yeah. In 70, we're like that that wouldn't have been a thing. Yeah. Just because 70 were like that that wouldn't have been a thing. Yeah, just because everybody everybody had had gotten burnt out and the goofball factor was just not cool anymore. It was true. Something you get away with doing. Yeah, and so okay. All right, so moving back to the movie. In many ways, it's even broader stroke approach to the campiness that we're seeing on TV.

Adam West is fairly unflappable as Batman and he'd actually agreed to do the film if he could be in more scenes as Bruce Wayne because specifically, he knew that eventually this Batman thing would end and he needed people to see that he could actually act and they needed to see his damn face He even had a love interest with several scenes with Miss Kitka as Bruce Wayne Which of course end with him getting kidnapped as Bruce Wayne And thus he as Bruce Wayne has to fight out of it and he as Bruce Wayne kicks a lot of ass

So in many ways Adam West is showing that he can kick ass. Okay. Now here's where it gets real weird. For working, for working actors, this is meaningful. Absolutely. Now here's where it gets real weird. It was scheduled to premiere in Austin, Texas on August 1st, 1966. It was canceled. Would you like to guess why? Austin? Austin, Texas. 66.

Think of really aggressive Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm blanking Charles Whitman. Oh, shit. He's up in the watch tower. Oh Well done. Thank you. We're a long way in. Oh, I had another one earlier, but yeah, yeah, but but well Yeah, and this one was particularly dark and terrible Charles Whitman attacked the University of Texas. Yeah. There's actually a really good documentary on it where they illustrate as they're narrating

and they're getting narration from people. It's really good. Find it. I think I've seen it. One of the things that I find most interesting about that is the theory now is that he had a brain tumor. Yes. That his, his, you know, complete, like all of a sudden, changing behavior was, you know,

neurologically based. And it's actually because of, because of that, that's, that's actually one of the theories that's been put forward about the Las Vegas. Yeah, yeah. That it was a similar neurological, creating that paranoid behavior. Yeah. So, yeah. That canceled the the original release

The documentary by the way was called Tower All right, okay, so This particular movie was very much aware of its times Similarly to how the first Batman cereal was okay the first Batman cereal was all about World War 2 It was very conscious of the time that it was in this. It was very conscious of the time that it was in. This one is also very conscious of the time that it's in. It involves the United Nations. And it sees the United Nations in 1966 as an absolute good, but also as a perpetually arguing body. So, yeah, to the point where yeah, so the people doing the writing were paying

some level of attention. Oh yeah, yeah. And again, you've got the real world intruding on some level because it's still, you know, goth them. And this is to the point where the mix up of everyone's language is actually seen as a hopeful sign to Batman because he says, well, at the end, remember they scoop up everybody's Thanos dust and they rehydrate everybody. And then suddenly the guy from Nigeria speaking English and the guy from England is speaking Japanese and the guy from Japan is speaking French and the guy from France is speaking Nigerian and on and on and on. So Batman says, you know, maybe they'll finally find a way to communicate.

It also deals with cold war stuff. Specific. Well, because how could it not? Yeah, true, true. It specifically calls out the Polaris Missile as a plot device. It also pokes fun at the Pentagon and at a glory-seeking president.

Also, if you go back to Bruce Wayne's love interest, Miss Kitka, there's an inherent distrust of Russians. Okay. Mostly though, it's just kind of a fun, campy movie. And Batman is very tongue in cheek. And he's both wooden and superlative all at once. And you know the thing is I think within popular culture, I think within within fandom,

this isn't a problem, but I think within popular culture as a whole, I don't think Adam West gets nearly enough credit for managing to walk that tight rope in the role. I think he 100% did what they asked him to do, which is becampy as shit. Yeah. And at that time, that's what it called for. Because remember, this is still almost 20 years before the more version in the comics Okay, you know, this is 19 is 1966 so it's a campy time still You'll well. Yeah, but but I How to put it? He he he approaches all of that material with as say, he simultaneously wouldn't and superlative.

And watching it again asks an adult, one of the things I notice is that even as he is being 110% deadly do right of the Mounties, there is a level of self awareness. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Is in his portrayal that that that's that tongue in cheek. Yeah.

To my dad and to all of the other, you know, junior officers sitting there, you know, watching the show in the ready room, like I mentioned, you know, in my episodes, um, that, that was, was I think what made it cool. Sure. And yeah, and I don't think for all of his charms as the boy wonder, I don't think had the same level anywhere near the same level of of of simultaneous. He didn't manage to actually bring gravitas to it because because Adam West managed to to somehow through subtext make it clear that he was in on the joke. Yeah, it was that smokey look he had. Yeah, yeah, he added gravitas to the whole thing. Yeah, I would agree. That that that Bert Ward didn't quite ever manage to pull off. Yeah, it looked like Bert Ward was trying too hard.

Yeah, which is kind of perfect for being Robin. It really is. It really is. You get down to it. And, you know, and, yeah, and I think in the process of doing all of that, I think there was, and I'm maybe getting ahead of myself, but I think in the later adaptations

that were a response to the 66 years. And thank you for saying that because that's, yeah. In all of those responses, I think there was this rush within fandom and within the later movies themselves, to kind of kick sand over the memory of 66, and be like, well, we're not doing that. And I think the urge to be taken seriously in retrospect, because I was totally part of that when I saw the first Burton movie, and the movies that came after that that I totally bought into that narrative but looking

back on it now I'm like you know what that's doing a disservice to like literally everybody who acted in the TV series and in that movie you know Gorshin's Gorshin's Riddler is iconic. Oh yeah, I genuinely, I genuinely not think anybody else who has played the Riddler since in on TV or in the films has gotten anywhere near managing to capture that character that well. Well, I think it was. Go ahead. I was going to say, I think that you hit on it in two spots there, especially. One, the whole series was iconic. They're icons. They're not fully fleshed out characters. They are one dimensional.

And that's okay because that's what that was, but it's almost as though it was a separate genre from those that came after. But the other thing you pointed out is is kind of the point I want to end on for this episode. And that is everything that came after this was 100% responding to whether it was rejecting or paying homage to it was responding to the Adam West TV series and movie. I don't think you could get Burton and everyone who followed after him if you didn't get Adam West's Batman. No, no, no, I think that's one of those very strong statements that we feel like we need to defend. But as we say that in a room full of bad man fans, nearly all of them are going to be like, well, yeah, yeah, you know, one of those things is like, no, no, I'm going to this is the hell I'm going die on everybody else is like and I'm gonna die on it with you.

Yeah, well, and yeah, this man also is the last one who actively works with the police and doesn't work parallel to them. Because yeah, it's an interesting note. So yeah, and we'll see that there's's in subsequent episodes. Yeah, there's some symbolism there. Yeah. So what is your takeaway from these three Batman films? I'm still getting over Gotham City having a radium supply. And just how wildly incredibly yellow-paral racist the narration couldn't get. And like the historian in me, here's that goes, well, you know, 43 World War II, etc. But the group in California and Hawaii surrounded by Asian classmates probably goes, the fuck?

Like, like, really? Interesting. The hell, the hell produced this was this was this done in Alabama? No, it was Columbia. The Holy Hell. Columbia pictures. Yeah, no, I mean, I mean, intellectually. yeah, but on emotional level as a as a Gen X or Who again, you know grew up

Surrounded by you know Asian peers Everywhere I went. Mm-hmm. Like I can't imagine I just can't wrap my head around anything that blatantly racist. Yeah, well. And yet, I mean, like I said, I want to get a hold of it to show it to my students like, no, no, really. It was a thing because like it's an important,

it's an important thing to recognize in our history, but yeah, that's yeah, yeah, wow. Yeah, it's it's YouTube, by the way. Okay, all right, I'll have to, I'm going to have to look that up. So cool. Well, is there anything that you are reading or watching that you want people to check out? Well, right now, I'm in the middle of getting student work graded in order to let my students know, pardon me, what the assignments are that they need to get caught up on before the end of our grading period at the end of this coming week. So I don't recommend that to anybody. Like at all. And the teachers and teacher adjacent people in our audience are all going to go, yeah, I'm so yeah, I don't I don't have anything that I can,

that I'm currently reading that I can recommend. But I will say, again, coming back from my episodes, I am very much going to recommend Batman Year One. Because there's going to be reflections of Batman Year One in the films that we're going to be talking about coming up. Yes. And if you have a strong stomach and you really want to get into developments in Batman canon, then the killing joke, uh, but I am going to say it requires a strong stomach because there was some ugly, ugly shit in there. Uh, Alan Moore himself said in retrospect that the editors of DC should have rained

him in. Yeah, he said that only a few months after too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was very shortly after its initial publication. It was like, yeah, they buy their stuff in there. I shouldn't have done. You know, but, but as a, as a part of the, of the development or evolution, development, the wrong word is, as a part of the evolution of

all of the characters involved, I think it's important. Okay. What did that find? How about you? I'm gonna recommend a documentary. Well, it's really a mockumentary. It's called The Civil Hoax. And it's about Civil War deniers.

And it's only an hour long, and it is goddamn hilarious. Okay, wait, hold on. It's a mockumentary. Yes. But I, but I need to, I need to ask, are there actually people who denied the Civil War? Oh, yeah. Oh, shit.

Yeah, really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We have a president who denies aspects of the Civil War. Well, okay, okay, aspects. Yeah. Fine, but like they

deny that the fucking thing happened. Well, they deny the reasons for which it happened and they say that it was other reasons. Or there's you got to watch it. I don't want to give it all away, but it is it is hilarious. Okay, so yes, I recommend strongly that one, the civil hoax. Okay, and we both right now are at different points in our way watching our way through letter Kenny.ias, I am EH Blalock on TikTok and the Twitter machine. And on Instagram, I am Mr. Blalock. And you can find the two of us collectively at Geek History time on the Twitter machine. And Mr. Harmony, where can they find you? You can find me on the Twinsta at duh Harmony,

two H's in the middle, both on Twitter and Insta. You can also find me every Tuesday night on a Geek History of Time. No, that's Friday nights. That's Friday nights. Yeah, you can find me every Tuesday night on capital punishment on Twitch.tv-flash-capital-puns

Now this episode is gonna come out many many weeks later But I would just like to point out that my brother was on the show as was friend of the show Tessa and They slayed and then my brother went on and whoop the hell out of me and my partner. Proving once again he's the more clever of the two of us. But he didn't win. No, of course not. It's a boss battle.

It's set up for people to lose. But he did, he did own pretty hard. Oh yeah, well, and that's standard big brother fair is oh no, you did own pretty hard. Oh yeah, yeah. Well, and that's, standard big brother fair is, oh no, you did better and I still win. So. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right.

So much I missed out on his normal child. Oh, no. No, the other thing. Yeah. The opposite of that. There we go. So yeah, well Bruce Wayne also an only child. Uh, so.

What? Anyway, yeah. All right. All right. Uh, so... Whaaat? Anyway, yeah. Alright. Alright, so for a geek history of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and tune in to Catch Us Again. Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel. Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Nara na.