Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Episode #116: Remembering Adam West

Episode Date: June 15, 2017

This week: Uma Thurman does the Batusi! Adam teams with the Three Stooges! The genius of Neal Hefti! And the unsung brilliance of "Lookwell." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...ices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 That's the sound of unaged whiskey transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for a smoother taste, one drop at a time. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. Hi, this is Gilbert. Yeah, hi. How are you? Okay. What is this? This is Gilbert Gottfried, and I'm here with Frank Santopadre, and this is Gilbert and Frank's amazing colossal obsessions. Very good.
Starting point is 00:00:55 And we've got someone in the room whose help I don't need. Mr. Rayburn? I'll try to track him down for you. Yes, okay. What about Gene Rayburn? Would you prefer that? Oh, that would be good. Yeah, I try to track him down for you. Yeah, sure. What about Gene Rayburn? Would you prefer that? Oh, that would be good. Yeah, I have to get a shovel.
Starting point is 00:01:09 Yes. You know, I'm kicking myself. We just had Peter Asher in here. You sang Lady Godiva. Yeah. And as you were singing it, I thought he should be breaking into a little Jerry when you get to the lady part. I know. Believe me.
Starting point is 00:01:24 Did it occur to you? When I saw it going, lady. The producer in me was saying, why didn't I tell him to do that ahead of time? All right. So Paul's here. Gilbert's here. And we're going to talk about someone we just lost. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:43 Another one of our podcast guests has left us. And this was a particularly sad one. They're all sad. That's Adam West. Adam West, the all-time greatest Batman. And I remember that, I think, was at my apartment. No, I'll tell you where we did that one. We did that one at...
Starting point is 00:02:04 Dara, who is your friend? She lent us her photo studio. Dara's going to come in and join this. Oh, okay. So we can get this right. You know, I listened to it today, and the audio, I was cringing at the audio and how far we've come since Frank has come into our lives. Frank has set a new standard for us. What is your friend's name?
Starting point is 00:02:20 Her name? Adrian. Adrian. Right. We did it at Adrian's studio. That's where we did that one. Yeah. On theenne. Adrienne. Right. We did it at Adrienne's studio. That's where we did that one. Yeah. On the telephone.
Starting point is 00:02:27 I know. Well, I was talking those earlier ones where people would send us emails going, was that done in, you know, Lincoln Tunnel or something? It was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listening to it today, you know what's funny is Adam sounds better than we do.
Starting point is 00:02:43 Oh, much better. We're in this echoey room and, you know, the great Frank Verderosa was not in our lives then. I'm looking right at you, Frankie. If he was, we'd have no copy of it. She would have lost it. There is no compliment
Starting point is 00:02:58 that Gilbert can't turn into an insight. I'm actually, I'm FaceTiming my daughter goodnight while you're complimenting me. Okay, fine. You've got more important things to do. But he was great. He really delivered. And he was, I listened to it today. I went back and listened to it today.
Starting point is 00:03:13 And, you know, you're breaking his balls about things like zombie nightmare. Oh, yes. And he's going with it. And he's just, he's funny. He's, you know, of course, as I said on Facebook, he made self-deprecation into an art form. And the funny thing is, is like, this may come as a surprise to you, but sometimes I can be as smart as an insult. No. No one would say that about you.
Starting point is 00:03:36 It's like with Adam West, it was just like there was nothing you could say about him that he couldn't beat you to it about himself. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's making jokes like, send me the check. You're asking about working with the Three Stooges, and he's going, oh, just send me the check. So I went back and listened to the episode today, and I did a little bit of research, nothing compared to what you guys do. But I did come up with— I have some breaking news. Let's hear it.
Starting point is 00:04:09 Breaking news. Breaking news. Uh-oh. It was drugs. Yeah. Not that news. This is – so I know you're tired of hearing me talk about La La Land on the podcast. So forget I ever mentioned it.
Starting point is 00:04:22 But I went back and saw the Batusi episode or the Batusi episode. Oh, well, it's in the podcast. So forget I ever mentioned it. But I went back and saw the Batusi episode, or the Batusi episode. Oh, well, it's in the pilot. It's in the first one with the Riddler. Right, so you can find it on YouTube. And then I thought immediately of Emma Stone in the pool scene in La La Land, or one of the pool scenes, while Ryan Gosling
Starting point is 00:04:40 is in the hokey, you know, band, and she does this ridiculous dance by the pool that is very reminiscent of the Batusi. And I feel like some legal action may be necessary there. Doesn't Uma Thurman break into it in Pulp Fiction? Yes. It's the eye thing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:57 And he claims, Adam claimed that he made that up in the car on the way to work. He just kind of improvised it. He mentioned in the episode, it was in that clip too and he walks into the bar and he walks quietly and he says try not to attract too much attention yes i should wish to attract too much attention and and also a lot of people have been uh emailing and tweeting about that he did go into detail about being kicked out of an orgy with Frank Korsh. It was the lead
Starting point is 00:05:30 in the New York Post article about our podcast. There's another article in the Post today about his sex life. It's just all this crazy stuff coming out. I think they took a lot of that from Burt's book. Yeah. Because he said Burt likes to embellish things, but I'm okay with it because he made me sound like King Kong. But it's a sweet episode.
Starting point is 00:05:52 I mean, I cringed a little, like I said, at the subpar audio because it's the pre-Vertarosa era. But I couldn't believe how sweet he was with us and how generous he was and, again, how much of a sense of humor he has about his career. And so willing to put himself and his career down in a funny way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And why, oh why, did he turn down Bond when Cubby Broccoli came calling to ask him to do Diamonds Are Forever? That was a major mystery.
Starting point is 00:06:22 Yeah. Yeah. Well, he sort of said it just it just wouldn't be right it should be a british actor that bond should be a brit he stood on principle right yeah yeah yeah william west anderson of walla walla washington was his real name born in 1928 september 19th we asked him too about his name about where adam came from and he just liked the way adam looked with west which was obviously his uh his real middle name and he just liked the way Adam looked with West, which was obviously his real middle name. And I had the pleasure of meeting him twice, too.
Starting point is 00:06:49 And before we sign off, I'll tell two quick stories about him. But he was good with you, and he paid you a great compliment. Oh, my God, did he ever. One that you'll take to your grave. Yes. Yes, Adam West the original and greatest Batman said to me he said
Starting point is 00:07:09 you know Gilbert, you would make a good penguin. Isn't that nice? That was amazing My whole body was in chills when he said that Of all the compliments you've gotten You've had Carl Reiner tell you he's a fan Dick Van Dyke when when he was on,
Starting point is 00:07:26 told me I would have made a great Buddy Sorrell. And Buddy Sorrell as the Penguin. Yeah. And Dick Van Dyke knew from Penguins. Orson Welles told me I would have done a better directing job in Citizen Kane. He said it would have been better.
Starting point is 00:07:44 He said it would have been a much better film. You would have been better than Agnes Moorhead. I'm just glad that Adam's compliment meant so much to you. Oh, yeah. What else did you come away with, Paul? Well, we also talked about, or you guys talked about, he was in a pilot with Bill Shatner. Oh, yeah. They did Alexander the Great.
Starting point is 00:08:09 Which is interesting because they both have what I think of as the constipated delivery, you know, like just a moment. Yes. You know who does a great Adam West who did it for us? Yeah. Dana Gould. Oh, yeah. Do you remember him doing Adam West? Yes.
Starting point is 00:08:21 He does just a dynamite Adam West. I mean, his career, you know, he had a resurgence. I mean, in... Well, with Family Guy. Absolutely. He was hysterical. Very funny as Mayor West on Family Guy. But even in the 90s, his career took that.
Starting point is 00:08:38 He started kidding himself. It became like Adam West as Punchline that he embraced. There's that Simpsons episode where he's at the car show. You know what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. The Mr. Plow episode. Mr. Plow. And Homer's very excited to meet him.
Starting point is 00:08:53 Adam West! And then they get up to meet him, and he's just rambling incoherently about how he didn't need a muscle suit to play Batman. And finally, Homer says, just walk away slowly. Don't look him in the eye. And he was just great about it. I mean, he was wonderful about sending himself up. And then there was one in Family Guy, and he sings it to us. Oh, Edelweiss.
Starting point is 00:09:17 Yes. Adam West. Did we make him sing that? I can't remember. I don't remember. He did sing it. Is that on there? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Yeah. Yeah. Did you break his balls, too? I'm trying to remember. Did we ask him about Legend of the Superheroes? Because we really should have. Oh, I think we had to have. I only listened to portions of it today.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Boy, oh boy, oh boy, was that a scary TV show. And that was the point in his career after Batman had gone off the air and he was a victim of typecasting, which he's been very public about, and he was trying to, you know, he was taking the jobs that he could get. You think of people like, recently I saw something that Daniel Craig said he would kill himself if he had to do another
Starting point is 00:09:58 Bond movie or something, and we know hundreds of people like that who get famous in some role and couldn't escape it, and most of them get bitter about it and angry sometimes but he just he may have gone through a phase there he sort of hinted that he went through a transition but then he just embraced it and he did
Starting point is 00:10:14 you know he did the personal appearances as Batman and all these things. There were some rough years where he was being shot out of cannons at state fairs and you know showing up at wrestling matches. But he did, if you look at IMDB or Wikipedia, he's been in like 70 or 80 films, even more TV shows. I mean, he...
Starting point is 00:10:37 I can't believe how much he's done. We had somebody on here once who talked about an answering machine saying, whatever it is you're asking, the answer is yes. I don't know. But anyway, that's kind of what he was like. He was an actor who said yes. Yeah. He was an actor who said yes.
Starting point is 00:10:50 I mean, we talked to him about it. I mean, he did some interesting things. He did a show called Elkini Popo in Hawaii where he was the sidekick of a monkey. Oh, jeez. Peach is the monkey, which I believe we talked about. Voodoo Island with Karloff. We talked about Zombie Nightmare. He did The Outlaws is Coming with the Stooges.
Starting point is 00:11:11 Oh, yeah. That's at the point in the episode where he says, I don't care, Gilbert. Just send me the check. Very bad Adam West impression. He did a lot because he'd signed to a contract, a services contract with Warners. Interestingly, two of the other people they signed when he signed were Roger Moore and Roger Smith. Oh, my God. And they both just passed as well.
Starting point is 00:11:36 They all passed within the month, which is strange and interesting. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. And now back to the show. He was in the Paul Newman movie called The Young Philadelphians, which is actually a pretty good movie. He did a lot of TV. He did a lot of TV.
Starting point is 00:11:57 He did Maverick, Bewitched, Outer Limits, 77 Sunset Strip. You know, he was a working actor. And then Batman came along at the right time. You know, it's hard to believe that it was only two and a half seasons because it's so important, such a huge thing. I found one interesting thing. ABC canceled the series and NBC was asked if it would run the show and it said yes,
Starting point is 00:12:19 but the set had already been dismantled. Yes, they destroyed the sets. Believe me. They wouldn't build another set. It's caused me much grief in my life, the fact that the show did not come back. And what did he say about Julie Newmar? Well, he said a lot of things.
Starting point is 00:12:35 He used to say she caused curious stirrings beneath his utility. That's it. That's it. I was trying to remember that. He was fond of that. Well, he always let a little of that slip through. A little of that stuff. You know, he was a bit of a rake. But I'll tell you, you know, his career is the career of a working actor.
Starting point is 00:13:01 That's right. Of a guy who had highs, who had lows, who had low lows. Yeah. And high highs and a lot of middles. And when you look at that IMDB page or Wikipedia,
Starting point is 00:13:10 you know, and you look at that journey, I mean, and he said to us on the show, look, you've got a family to feed. I was going to say, several times he mentioned supporting the family,
Starting point is 00:13:19 you know, which the rest of us try to do in all kinds of different ways. Yeah. Yeah. I remember him in Marriage of a Young Stockbroker with our pal Richard Benjamin,
Starting point is 00:13:29 who we just had on the show. He's in Hooper with Burt Reynolds. Jeez. Playing Adam West. He played himself a lot. And, of course, the happy hooker goes Hollywood. Although Dick Miller's in that,
Starting point is 00:13:43 another podcast guest. Oh, my God. And Owen what? Oh God, I forget her name. The name of the Happy Hooker. Xavier Hollander? That's it. Yes. He also said we did our bit
Starting point is 00:13:57 and then they went off and did the naughty bits. Yes. You'll give him props for this, Gil. He was in Poor Devil with Sammy Davis Jr. and Christopher Lee. Oh, wow. In 1973. Wow. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:13 And also, I want to recommend to our listeners, and I know people know this because I've seen it posted around the web, Conan and our buddy Robert Smigel wrote a wonderful pilot called Look Well. Have you seen it? No. You must see it. You must see it. And both of you, have pilot called Look Well. Have you seen it? No. You must see it. You must see it. And both of you.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Have you seen Look Well? No, I haven't. He plays an actor, a TV actor named Ty Look Well, who plays a cop. And basically he's starting to lose it and he thinks he's the cop. So he shows up at crime scenes flashing a badge. And the cop didn't you used to play it's really a wonderful kind of you know I can't imagine anybody being better
Starting point is 00:14:57 in that role than him I'll have to show you guys look well there was another one you dig into these films and all these things he did and there's endless interesting things. The January 6, 1971 issue of Variety had a section called Italian Films in Production. Okay. And listed there was a movie starring Adam West, Claudine Auger, Giancarlo Giannini.
Starting point is 00:15:22 Well, he was a big star. He was in the Lena Wurtmuller movies. Swept away, yeah. Right. Giancarlo Giannini who was in the Lena Wurtmuller movies. Swept away, yeah. And Philippe Hursant. It was called Cold Fury
Starting point is 00:15:28 to be directed by Bruno Gaburo. Produced by Franco... These are your people, Franco. No, Gilbert loves these movies. He's like the Dr. Butcher crew. It was supposed to be... And here's the end of the item. No evidence exists
Starting point is 00:15:41 that the film was completed or released. Yeah. Like I said, there were... The dead letter. was completed or released. Yeah. Like I said, there were rough times. But, you know, I was looking at the IMDb page and I'm saying, well, he had rough times, but he kept working. There really aren't gaps. You know, he turns up on a love boat or a fantasy island, whatever it was, there he was. He was constantly grinding it out. He wasn't out on the street at any point. No, he made
Starting point is 00:16:06 a good living. Well, he presumably told his agent, look, find what you can get, you know. Yeah, he even agreed to do our show. That's pure desperation. That's one of the lows. That's when you know it. And he was, you remember a show called The
Starting point is 00:16:21 Detectives with Robert Taylor and Mark Goddard from Lost in Space? He was on that show. Yeah. Does that ring a bell? Yeah, not that one. Yeah, that's a picture on his Wikipedia page. And as the story goes, William Dozier, the Batman creator, producer, saw him in a Nestle's Quick commercial, which is on the web.
Starting point is 00:16:42 Captain Q? Right. That's like a bomb thing. was his the key to his success that's how he got started with that commercial right because that was noticed right it's it's it's a little bit of a bond thing right you know and when you're a kid and i you know and when when the show aired i was five you know you don't know what camp is no yeah that i don't know you're older than older than me. So did you watch Batman? Yeah. And I, too. In first run? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:07 Yeah. And I, too, was kind of like I wasn't sure. Right. Because you were slow for your age. Yes. Yes. But I was watching it and I was 45. But I always remember there's one part where they rush into a bank.
Starting point is 00:17:32 You said that to him on the episode. And one of the tellers goes, oh, Batman, you don't have to wait online. Come right up ahead. And he goes, no, I'll just wait here with the rest of these citizens. You know, it's a credit to him that he carried that stuff off as well as he did. It's not as easy as it looks. It's also not easy to play that kind of comedy. Right.
Starting point is 00:18:01 Let her straight. I mean, he became a master of it. And, of course, he beat out lyle waggoner oh yes for the part and i think you can see his i think his screen test is is still on on youtube as well um and he said he saw burt and um he knew right away that burt ward was right yeah right for the part and they had i think they had a tumultuous relationship at times too but but a real friendship forged yeah over over five uh five decades and i think what probably formed the friendship was not as much batman as when they were both showing up at county fairs well there yeah i mean i think there were i think there were lean times for both of them but uh i you know he talks about how he finally embraced the Batman thing after resenting it for so long and making peace with it. And I hope that—I hope he really did make peace with it.
Starting point is 00:18:56 I hope he was happy. You know, I know a lot of people would come up to him and say, you're my Batman. You're the only Batman. You know, you're my generation's Batman. I hope that meant something to him and say, you're my Batman. You're the only Batman. You know, you're my generation's Batman. I hope that meant something to him. Well, you know, you mentioned we just had Peter Asher in here. And how many times has he done World Without Love? Right.
Starting point is 00:19:14 How many times has he done it with Gilbert? We made him do it again. Poor guy. But, you know, there's a guy who, you know, in a long, long career, still seemed to be very pleased to, you know, sing a song that was from 50 or 60 years ago. Can you imagine how many times he put on the cape and the costume and posed with kids? That's the same. And how many autographs he signed and how many times he posed with a Batmobile?
Starting point is 00:19:39 He talked about in the episode when they would be climbing up a building. Right. I could picture it exactly. And they had, you mentioned they had nylon strings. That's right. So the building was sideways to hold the capes up, so it looked like gravity was pulling the capes up. You can actually see the nylon
Starting point is 00:19:55 strings. You think those effects are easy? They're not easy. No. You've given me the perfect segue. It's just like, well, Fred Gwynn. Sure, he got time cast. But he eventually, years later, proved himself as a character actor. Yeah, it's encouraging that if you stay around long enough.
Starting point is 00:20:17 I mean, you know, and Adam came full circle. I mean, he wasn't a star for a number of years, and then he kind of became a star again. And he finally got his star on the Walk of Fame, you know, thanks to the efforts of Ralph Garman and some of his other friends. And that was nice to see. And I was actually, earlier this year, I was in Palm Springs, and he has a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame. Indeed he does. I have seen that. I have been there, and I have seen that star.
Starting point is 00:20:41 And I did have a chance to ask Adam about Cesar Romero. That's right. Well, you know, we're going to figure out a way to put the episode up again. It's out there. You know, we'll release it again, but it's out there. You can find it. He may have been the first person you asked. Oh, yeah. About Cesar
Starting point is 00:20:59 Romero. Oh, that could have been. I'm going back. You mean I've mentioned it more than once? Well, you asked Julie Newmar. I think that was a show stopper. Oh, yes. You asked Lee Merriweather. I'm going back. You mean I've mentioned it more than once? Well, you asked Julie Newmar. I think that was a showstopper. Oh, yes. You asked Lee Merriweather. You certainly asked Burt. Unfortunately, Danny Thomas was never a villain on Batman.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Right. You would have had the... His Wikipedia page describes him as Adam West who played Batman and was the first person to be asked about Cesar Romero. Really? It will be now when some fan goes in there and monkeys with it. But you bring up the bat climb and I have to tell a quick story. The first time I got to meet him, and I said this on Facebook, you know, obviously it was a show that meant a lot to me. He meant a lot to me.
Starting point is 00:21:44 I got to meet him. I was working at FX in 1994. I was writing a show called Back Chat for Jeff Probst before Jeff Probst hit it big. Nobody will know this show. Anyway, Adam, we hadn't Batman on the network and Adam came to promote his book, Back to the Batcave. And I thought, let's do a promo. I said, let's do a bat climb. We'll just get a rope, and we'll film, we'll tape Adam, you know, doing a walk across the FX apartment, which is where we used to do the show. And he did it, and he was game, and he said, okay, fine. And he really was a sport,
Starting point is 00:22:18 and he really had a sense of humor about the whole thing. And the next day I saw the promo, and neglected to tilt. Oh my God. These are the early days of cable. So it looked like he had arthritis. It looked like an insane person. Yeah. Like a terrible mind. Oh, and I didn't have the heart to let him know about it, but it really was quite funny. In fact, I think I could dig that out. I think I have the whole thing on VHS, and I'll find a way to transfer and dig it out, and maybe I can get it online. But, you know, we talk a lot on the show about don't meet your heroes.
Starting point is 00:23:03 Yeah. I think we had Rupert Holmes in here last week saying how he went out of his way to not meet John Lennon. Yeah. Because he was afraid that he was going to be disillusioned or disappointed in some way. And I'm happy to say that meeting Adam West was in no way a disappointment. He was gracious and fun. And as I said on Facebook, I think he knew what he meant to a generation of people, including me. Yeah, well, the fans, you know, this business about actors hating roles they're tagged with or loving them, but the fans want them to like the roles. Well, yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:33 Because we like the characters and we want them to like the character, you know. Well, when I got old enough to realize he wasn't Batman, that he was Bill Anderson from Walla Walla, Washington. That meant less to me. But second quick story. He was signing autographs in a comic book store on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola, where I'm from. Do you remember a club called Chuckles? Oh, yeah. Out in Mineola. Did you play that club?
Starting point is 00:23:58 I don't know. I forget them right after I do the musical. Chuckles is gone now for the listeners who remember Chuckles. I had to have. You must have. You mustuckles is gone now for the listeners who remember Chuckles. I had to have. You must have. You must have because you wouldn't turn down a gig. No.
Starting point is 00:24:10 There was a comic book store. I don't remember the name of it. Maybe 10 doors down from Chuckles. They're both gone now. And I called a friend of mine. I said, Adam West is going to be the, you know, I got to go see him. And my friend, I didn't have a car at the time. My friend came, picked me up.
Starting point is 00:24:26 We went to see Adam. And you don't want to do that fanboy thing where you're lingering too long. Yeah. We said our piece. We talked. I knew obviously way too much about the show for his comfort. And as he was signing, his ride, everybody left the store. And his ride was late.
Starting point is 00:24:43 And it became that awkward thing of what is he going to do? Is he going to wait in the store? The guy that owned the store had to go. So he locked up the store. And then I thought, I can't leave him here. It's a true story. I'm standing on the street in Jericho Turnpike with Adam West after they closed the store. And I've basically used
Starting point is 00:24:59 all my A material in the store. And we're on the street and we're waiting for his ride, and I'm thinking, come on, that show meant the world to you. You've got to have anecdotes. Something, not anecdotes, but, you know, episode stuff, trivia, come up with anything to talk to him about.
Starting point is 00:25:16 And I hear a guy scream out on the street, I don't believe it. Holy shit. I don't believe it. And this guy comes running up to the two of us and as he gets closer and closer he yells, Frank Santopadre! There was some guy I went to junior high school with.
Starting point is 00:25:37 Was Adam suitably impressed? This is ridiculous. And embarrassing. Just when you thought the situation couldn't get any more uncomfortable. It got more uncomfortable. And he didn't even know who Adam was. He starts talking to me. I'm going to introduce Adam.
Starting point is 00:25:54 This is Ariel. I went to junior high school with him. But he was gracious. We talked about my last name. I think he spoke a little tiny bit of Italian, and he had some fun with my name. And those are my two meetings with him other than the podcast. But, you know, I felt, I felt I knew the guy a little bit, even in, even in those, just those little brief meetings, his personality came across. I didn't know him at all, but I felt a certain kind of, I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, no, I think it does.
Starting point is 00:26:19 You meet somebody and, and, and they're warm and, and you get, you get a little access to them. Anyway, those are my two Adam West stories. Can you top either one of those? Yes. One time he was having a heart attack and I took a pair of nail clippers. Really? And performed open heart surgery on him. You were up for the original Ann Harriot.
Starting point is 00:26:49 Oh, yes. Not a lot of people know that either. All right, Paul, you got some trivia or something for us? Those nail clippers are still in his, just the left side of his chest. Oh, yes. I'd also like to tell people to get his book because it's a lot of fun. Back to the Batcave. His memoir is a lot of fun and there's a lot of
Starting point is 00:27:10 good stories in there. Also, I will recommend Adam West Naked, which is a DVD you can buy on his website. It's not an actual... Sounds right up Gilbert's alley. Like I said, I didn't get to know him that well.
Starting point is 00:27:25 There's a really funny Funny or Die video called Batman's Garage Sale, which if you haven't seen, check it out. And talk about sending himself up. Yeah. You know, he not only sent up Batman, sent up playing the character, he sent himself up as an aging actor, as a sort of a half, you know what I'm saying? As a half-cracked aging actor who really thought he was Batman. He loved to play that joke. He actually did a movie along those lines.
Starting point is 00:27:53 That's what Lookwell was about. Is that the one where he's playing a version of the character that he's playing in the Yeah, that's what Lookwell was about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They had insight into him, and he did it so well. Did you have some last minute Adam trivia? I might have a little bit. Here's something nice.
Starting point is 00:28:11 Something that he said of his Batman experience that I kind of liked. He said, regardless of how rough the identity factor has made it to go on, looking at the balance sheet,
Starting point is 00:28:21 I'm grateful for the bat. It did more for me than against me. It gave me money, an international name, the kind of recognition that has allowed me to at least disprove what it caused. That may be tougher than starting from scratch. I don't know. Wow. That's nice. Isn't it?
Starting point is 00:28:37 That's nice. That's lovely. That's a nice thing. And then he says, to kind of follow that up and then we can wrap, he says, I think it evolved. I learned a long time ago that because people love Batman, I should too. I learned that I shouldn't resent it even though it prevented me from getting other roles. I really had to become fond of Batman in order to deal with it. I embraced it.
Starting point is 00:28:58 He embraced it and ran with it. This sounds like a psychologically healthy person. I think he became – yeah, I think, well, he was grounded. A lot of people that met him said there were no errors about him. Yeah. You know, just a good sort. And that show, and I said this in my Facebook post, you know, I didn't really, my mother, I used to call my mother into the room to help me read what was on the screen. And she'd run into the room, drop what she was doing and come in and yell.
Starting point is 00:29:28 She'd say, bam. And my mother is not turning 90 in July and she still talks about that. I went out to visit her and she said, I opened the door and she said, Adam West died. And I was, I was, I got choked up yeah and uh and i and i i have been all week and it's silly because you know they're they're actors they're not people that we're intimate with but i did i meant he he he meant something to me he meant something to my childhood i did print up the lyrics i thought maybe gilbert would sing the theme. So I printed up the lyrics. Oh, no. The lyrics are... Wait. It was composed by
Starting point is 00:30:09 Neil Hefti. You bet. And he also did The Odd Couple. And he did another Jack Lemmon comedy, How to Murder Your Wife. Which you have recommended on this show. I haven't seen that one. I love Neil Hefti. Anyway, the entire lyrics can be summed up
Starting point is 00:30:26 in one word. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Batman! Batman! Beautiful. That's why I printed them up. I didn't want Gilbert to get stuck. Now, was that the closing theme or the opening theme? Oh, God. Now you're getting tricky here. Because they're a little different.
Starting point is 00:30:57 I think that was the... That was beautiful. Well, we better come back and do them both in a future episode. I hope wherever Adam is, he didn't hear them. Alright, and also I want to recommend what was I going to say?
Starting point is 00:31:14 Oh, yes. Our mini episode about Batman was a lot of fun, too. You will get to hear how obsessed I was with the show and Gilbert less so. But just enough. And, of course, if it wasn't for that show, we wouldn't have the signature story that has made this podcast.
Starting point is 00:31:31 Exactly. That's what it is. Exactly. Now, what is that one again? It escapes me. We're also grateful for that. Thanks, Paul. Thanks for doing the research on that.
Starting point is 00:31:42 Sure. This has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. Thank you, Adam. Thanks, Paul. Thanks for doing the research on that. Sure. Thank you. This has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. Thank you, Adam. We love you. And you admit, you fully admit to throwing orange wedges at Cesar Romero's ass. Good God,
Starting point is 00:31:57 no. I'll never look at another orange. Okay. I'll never look at another orange you guys have you've been a lot of fun really fun you've been a ton of fun thanks for doing it I'll let you go
Starting point is 00:32:18 you've been such a great sport so much fun thank you Gilbert we've been listening to the greatest Batman of all time Such a great sport. Thank you. So much fun. Thank you, Gilbert. We've been listening to the greatest Batman of all time, Adam West.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.