The Extras - Batman ’66 Collectors: Holy Memorabilia Batman!

Episode Date: September 19, 2021

Happy Birthday Adam West!Part two of a multi-part series with filmmaker and DC expert Alex Gray and former Warner Bros Vice President of Special Features Bonnie Spence remembering their work with Adam West on the “Batman: The Complete Television Series” box set release. In this episode, we discuss the extra “Holy Memorabilia Batman!,” which details the unique place Batman ’66 collectors have in the world of memorabilia.  We highlight Batman 66 collector Ralph Garman, who is a voice actor and radio personality in LA, as he shows Adam his collection for the very first time.  Then we discuss Kevin Silva, who has the Guinness Record for having the most Batman ’66 items in his collection, and his heartfelt tribute to the show.  Finally, we review the work of Batmobile replica maker Mark Racop and the quest for the ultimate Batman ’66 collector's item, the Batmobile.And we revisit the intimate “Inventing Batman,” where Adam West was given his original first two scripts of the Batman series containing his handwritten notes.   Adam then shared his memories of filming those episodes and what his notes referenced.   The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies, and animation, and their release on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and this is part of a multi-episode remembrance of Batman, Adam West, on his birthday, September 19th.

And to do that with me, I have two huge Batman fans, filmmaker Alex Gray and former Warner Brothers executive, Bonnie Spence. They share their stories and recollections of working with Adam West and his agent, Fred Westbrook, on the DVD and Blu-ray box set of Batman, the complete television series. In our previous episode 12, we discussed the extremely personal Adam West documentary, Hanging with Batman. If you haven't listened to that episode, I highly recommend you listen to it first, as it sets the stage on working with Adam and Fred to develop the extras that allowed Adam to tell his side of the story of what it meant to be Batman. In this episode, we go behind the scenes on the fan piece,

Holy Memorabilia Batman, which focuses on Batman 66 collectors. And we hear the very personal stories of working with Adam and Fred on the extra, Inventing Batman in the words of Adam West. Now let's, um, let's talk about another amazing featurette on this release. Holy memorabilia, Batman. This is such a fun featurette. Ralph Garman is an actor and radio personality in LA. I know him from his entertainment segments on K-Rock, but how did you find out about

Ralph being such a huge Batman 66 collector, Bonnie? Oh, well, if you listen to K-Rock. But how did you find out about Ralph being such a huge Batman 66 collector, Bonnie? Oh, well, if you listen to K-Rock at all, you know Ralph's history. He knows everything about Batman like everybody else does, right? And during those times, man, you could buy everything. It was an explosion within the culture and he went after it. He had met Adam and I'm family guy as well. He knew of Adam and worked with him and loved him. I mean, I listened to K-Rock a lot on my morning commutes. I knew he was a big Batman fan, but I didn't know the guy had a vault like room in his house. I did not know he was at that point.

How did you find out that that was the case? I mean, did somebody kind of point you to him? Fred. Fred did. Yeah. Fred told us that Adam and Ralph were very, very good friends. And so we knew we wanted to do a piece on memorabilia. We want, because the collector, I mean, oh my gosh, the whole collecting aspect of Batman 66 and Batman in general is just so popular in this culture. We also knew that Ralph was very meticulous about what he would collect per Fred. So we reached out to him. He was extremely generous of his time. He said, yes, we could come over to his house and we could work with him.

He was very, very generous with his time. And his wife, Carrie, said, absolutely. Come on over. Let's do a piece about this. Now, mind you, Adam never saw this before. So this was his first time coming over to Ralph's house as well. So we get over there, everything's set up, of course. And he walks him up the stairs and you get to this library. He's got shelves, right? And he says, where do you think the Batcave is? And Adam's like looking around and he pushes the bookcase a little bit. And Adam just lit up.

You would not believe. I mean, if you watch the piece, it's like, oh my gosh. He was like a kid in a candy store saying everything. It was really, really great to see. And then we just started shooting. And Alex, I'm sure you have a few more things to say about that too. Okay. So Fred leads you to Ralph.

And then Alex, did you go over there beforehand so you could kind of scout the situation? We did. We were able to figure things out with Ralph. He had reached out to us. We had reached out to him, that kind of a thing, going back and forth, getting logistics about the location. We want to take a look at some pictures and understand the layout of the room. We did. We stopped it over just to truly gain an understanding because he did say it's tight.

Right. And he wasn't kidding. Well, I mean, because let's think about it. You got Ralph leading Adam into the room. Yeah. And then you've got a camera and audio. Yes. Were you in there too?

I was. So how many, how many of you were in there? It's pretty tight. About five of us. We had to keep it pretty small. And then everybody else was pretty much on the outside looking through by way of monitor and hearing by way of, you know, headset and closed, you know, closed monitors on the, in that capacity. So, but yeah, it's, uh, the room was, was tough to navigate to say the least. Ralph is very particular and he wants to keep his collection

pristine, rightfully so. Rightfully. Yeah. So we had a crew wise, it was not easy. It was definitely challenging way to make certain equipment choices upfront. It's funny though, cause it's like, once you do get there, you start to lay everything out and you start to do your measurements and what have you. We were able to make those choices just by way of measuring and what have you and breaking down the crew day and how it was all going to go down was to, you know, both cause we, we shot inner in interview in there, of course, with both of them, with Ralph and with Adam separately. But we also wanted to shoot B-roll of his location. And we also had a subsequent shoot that we did

as well, which is of all the pieces. But it was very important to us to be able to understand that upfront because as Bonnie said, it's a delicate environment. It's his inner sanctum. It's where he works from. It's where he writes from. We really respected the location and truly around every bend uh our artifacts our pop culture artifacts and you respect that you want to make sure that your equipment doesn't bang into anything bless ralph's heart i mean he's awesome he even he's just like let us take our lay of the land and do whatever we need to do but boy i don't know if it was my collection i'd be pretty nervous yeah Yeah, for sure. But it was also a bedroom. You have to realize it's the size of a bedroom essentially, you know, it might be a

little bit bigger, but for all intents and purposes, that's what it is. And God bless his wife, Carrie, for allowing this, you know, as well. She was, she was a sweetheart, especially to let us all in there and for the day to get everything we needed. Well, I think if you're a collector, there is a part of you though, that does kind of want to showcase it and let other people know. So what was Ralph's response when he saw the piece and how you guys showcased it? Oh my gosh. He, he had to be happy. I mean, how could he not be? There was a couple moments where we were shooting where Ralph couldn't believe Adam was in his bat cave. I swear to God, it God, it's really, really true. And every one of these pieces, I noticed those moments that you're there with your idol.

The one was with Fred, even, in the piece we had spoken about earlier, where Fred was like, oh my God, this is amazing that Adam's talking about this. And with Ralph, when he looked at the cow, Adam looked at the cow in his glass case. He said, give me that. He put it on and Ralph, they put it on together and everything. And Ralph takes a beat back and he is like that three-year-old all over again. You could see it on his face. You were just, he was like, couldn't talk. Ralph could not talk at that moment. It was just so cool. And Alex and I looked at each other and we're like, okay, we got it. We got it. Yeah. That must've been so special for him because, you know, Ralph sets it up in,

in just how important to be a collector of this level of memorabilia and what it means to him. Um, in, in, no, in one of our interviews with, with Jordan Hembrough, who is a gentleman who runs a store and a service to go and find incredibly rare artifacts, rare artifacts in the pop culture world to those collectors that are out there that are willing to spend the time and money to be able to have these things, to be able to curate them and put them into their own glass cases. To get to that level, to collect on that level. You've really got to be interested in something. And he is so refined, Ralph, and to to to choose Batman 66. It's very fascinating to see this. It's also incredibly rare to be able to see this many items of that particular era because harken us back to 1966 through 68 and being Batman again, we're we're on this meteoric rise of the character of the show and everything. It's so popular kids wanting toys. Life was a little bit different though,

back then. Yes, you did have opportunity to buy toys that were like these ancillary items that were licensed items and what have you that people could purchase for their children. The reality is, is that they were throw away. They were not intended necessarily for the collector. There was a life cycle to them that they would deteriorate and fall apart and go away or mom or dad would throw them away or trade them out to somebody else. And there goes your collection. So for someone like Ralph to still have a key bits of memorabilia from his early days is so awesome. So it's, he's, he's very deservant of being able to have this next level collection. So as he had even told

us, he said, you know, when he was able to finally start to collect on a larger scale, uh, to find pieces that were show specific, the ones that were hero items in the show, like the gauntlets, the gloves that are in there, like the cowl, like Bonnie brought up, or even Mr. Freeze's helmet that he has as well in his collection, among a myriad of other things, those become very special and they do connect you with something that is so nostalgically important to you. And that is the crux of this piece. Nostalgia. Give me nostalgia. We all love nostalgia. It makes us feel so good. It's like you go back into that time and place and here's the best part. You can do it in your own mind and you go into there.

But if you really want to connect on a deeper level, you start to buy some of these things. Sure. You know, it's really very cool. You just mentioned Jordan. Is that a show or a shop that Toy Hunter? Yeah. Toy Hunter is a show that he has. He also has a shop where he works out of and then they go and find,

he and his crew go out and find these rarities that are out there, really intended for that refined collector that wants these level of toys that are, for the most part, unobtainium. So you go out and you charge him with the task and he charges you, I'm sure, some sort of a premium and you get these toys. him with the task and he charges you, I'm sure, some sort of a premium and you get these toys. So he says something there along the lines of Batman 66 collectors are special because they have credibility in the collector community as being purists because they were there from the beginning. And I just thought that was really interesting because the popularity of that show,

and I think probably also the collecting of just maybe the availability of merchandise and toys and things from collecting that this series kind of helped launch that into what now, you know, it's, you know, you go to McDonald's happy meal and you can get all these things. But back then there was a newer, it was a newer phenomenon. We didn't take collecting seriously until really this postmodern generation that we're in, probably really since the 80s, 90s. Do you really see us starting in the comic book side of things? Being a comic book fan, we start to bag and board our comics, meaning that we put them into little baggies that you get when you purchase a comic book and they put a nice cardstock, heavy stock board behind it. So it's able to preserve, to be preserved.

And it gets filed into this little box and what have you. Now take that into consideration and realize that our predecessors, our family that were our moms and dads that were buying some of these items at this time in the 60s, 50s, and maybe even earlier periods, they did not realize what these things were. These were truly just like toys and throwaway stuff, including the comic books. They were throwaway. That's why they're so incredibly rare. You didn't just go out and collect these things. You would have had something,

maybe had some bragging rights amongst your peers, you know, at school and whatever. Hey, look what I've got, this Bat 66 toy. But then, you know, a month later it's forgotten, it's discarded. It may even be thrown away. So to find some of this stuff like that again, is just so insanely rare. So I definitely understand why that is that upper echelon level of collector and that commands the level of clout. That's why it was important that we got Ralph on camera and captured his collection. That's terrific. You also filmed another gentleman by the name of Kevin Silva,

who I think has the Guinness record for having the most Batman 66 items in his collection. How did you find him? And tell us a little bit about that. I'm not so sure if I have the story right or not, but I could have sworn, Alex, when we were talking to Mark Rakop that he mentioned he knew a guy who had the world record and he led us on this path to Kevin, who was just wonderful. Do I have that right? You do. They know each other because they, I think they live maybe about three hours or so apart from one another, if I recall correctly. So yeah, they knew of one another and obviously the possibility to take collecting into another level, which of course Mark does.

Well, Mark now, he's the one who builds the Batmobile replicas. Yes, yes. How did you find him? We found Mark by way of doing research in terms of seeing, well, what could be the ultimate collectible in collecting? I don't care what you decide to collect, if it's art, if it's stamps, if it's, for example, like in the past, we talked about pinball machines. It doesn't matter what you collect. You always want to find out what is that ultimate prize? What is that level of, in the collecting world, what they call it is the Holy Grail. What is your Holy Grail item in the collecting world, right?

So you've got to figure out what that is as you get deeper into the hobby. In this case, it's the Batmobile. In this case, it's figuring out, can I at some point acquire one of these? Now, I'm not so sure George Barris would necessarily want to sell his original Batmobiles or you would necessarily have access to that type of thing. So what happened is, is that doing a little bit of research, chatting with the folks over at DC, we were able to ascertain the fact that there's this guy that's out there and he is a bit of a wizard of cars, someone that is truly on par with the greats. And truly he is,

he's an, he's an artisan. And he took the opportunity to create the ultimate Batman collectible, which is of course the Batmobile. You know, if you have a couple of bucks to your name and you want to get the ultimate collectible, that's the thing that you shoot for. Did you film Mark and then Kevin on the same trip? Did you, did you fly out there and do the filming? We did. We did. Um, that was a discussion that Bonnie and I had early on because of the logistics of it all and how to figure this out. Because again, that truncated schedule, um, I did not want to pursue it that way because the filmmaker in me and really the filmmaker in Bonnie as well on a lot of levels, uh, we'd like to take our time with these things.

We want to be able to, to again, have that gestation period to understand like, well, what does it mean to have, to your point, like you said, like the world's largest Batman collection certified by Guinness Book of World Records. Wow. What does that exactly mean? And what am I going to tackle when I get out there first? Because that sounds like a lot. And Batman 66 in and of itself has so many interesting objects to collect that when you realize you're a collector of everything Batman, okay, you know, you're trying to then at that point target correctly. We had to though, I mean, you remember that, Bonnie, the conversations we would have about that and trying to figure it out. And we said, we're gonna have to shoot all of this at the

same time and get out there and we'll hit each of them up, you know, independently. So we did. We shot Kevin's sequence separately. But on that same trip, of course, not in the same day. Thankfully, we have done company moves, as we call it in filmmaking, where the whole crew moves from one location in the same context of that, you know, 10, 12 hour day. But no, in this case, we thankfully had that second or third day to really pursue it. And it needed it, needed that level of treatment. And I was correct by the time I got down there into his basement.

Kevin comes across terrific. He really is passionate. His collection is fantastic. And I like the fact that you had all three of them in this piece because Adam could only be in the one with Ralph. So it was fun to see his reaction with Ralph and then Ralph's reaction of Adam's reaction. I mean, that's a terrific one. And then the other two, you just kind of focused a little bit more on what they had in their collection or the car. And I know Bonnie, you and I have talked about this on our extras. We like to always have some

kind of a fan piece or something that celebrates the fans, that brings the fans into the sets. And this piece, this feature does a terrific job of that. Thanks. Yeah. We would have loved to have had Adam go out to meet Kevin, but we just didn't have the time to do it. That would have been such a great surprise for Kevin too. Oh my gosh, it would have been wonderful. We can make it happen. Yeah. One of the cool things in terms of like this piece that we were able to achieve was part of collecting is this concept. It's very esoteric, but it comes down to what we call the hunt. And the hunt is what drives and motivates collectors because you'll find the said object that you're questing for and you go out and you

achieve it and then you bring it home. And here you are, you're with this item, you're able to put it onto your shelf and you're able to look at it. And your first thought is what's next? What am I going to go for next? Time to hit the computer, get on that internet, figure it out. What is it going to be? And you do, you quest after the next one. Why?

Because it satisfies something in us. The true hard collectors, hardcore collectors, you know who you are out there. And part of that is that thing. And you love that. You go for it and you keep going for it over and over again because you want to be able to collect that next thing. It satisfies you on some sort of a level like that. thing, it satisfies you on some sort of a level like that. And that's what guys like these, like Ralph and like Kevin are questing after. It's pretty cool. And then Mark, you know,

he doesn't go out and collect it. He just makes it right. So it was just so cool to get him as well. I mean, that is the ultimate machine on so many levels. The original Batman 66 car. Yeah. I mean, it just, it just has something special about it. I've seen all the cars. They've, they've been at the Warner Brothers lot. I don't know if you guys went over that day that they were all in the studio and they're all terrific, but something about that retro look, just the fins and everything just on the original is just absorbs you. And Mark's so cool because he listens to his clients about how to incorporate some of like modern tech into it. But the modern tech is actually hidden underneath the the analog world that you're talking about there. You know, it's pretty sweet. So, you know,

secretly you can lift something up and it's like, oh, cool. There's my there's my there's my satellite radio or my Bluetooth connective device or something like that, because you do have to take in consideration. Probably somebody wants to listen to something while they're driving. But you know what? The best part of that, you're reminding me to, I remember telling this to Bonnie when, when we shot that sequence, I said to her, you're not going to believe this. The flamethrower does actually work on this thing on the back of it.

And do you see that? I saw that. And the thing was, Tim, that thing was awesome, man. Seeing that in person and that heats you up big time real quick. Yeah, yeah. That was just so cool. I remember telling, I was so elated. I tell him, I'm like, yeah, this is going to be, this is going to be great.

We shot some footage of this thing and Mark's got it working. So it's very cool. So the banter between you and Jordan had to be absolutely hilarious because I wasn't there when you had to go for that interview either. But you want to tell us a little bit about that too, because I know the two of you going back and forth about collecting must've been really funny. Jordan's interview, we shot that actually out in New York city, um, actually at the DC comics office that was there. Uh, we shot actually a few of them had met us actually out there too, including I believe Michael Uslan on that trip also. And yes, Jordan is a man after my own heart

too. So we did, we spoke the same language. Absolutely. Because both as people that can appreciate the level of detail, the level of work to go after that hunt and to achieve what those things are. And then in this case, in the filmmaking side of it, to be able to capture that and to do it justice. I wanted to make Jordan proud on some level as well. And I think I wanted to make those fellow, those fellow collectors out there proud as well about, you know, I'm going to get your voice and I'm going to put it into this piece, you know? And so I think that those that have seen this have recognized it. I have received some comments over the years, including upfront. Ralph did actually say, he shot me an email at one point too, and he was pleased at the fact that I was able to do this

and capture this moment because much to your point too, Bonnie, is that it meant so much to him. It meant so much to have Adam West in there and to be able to do that. So talk about going full circle. It's like this stuff lives forever. These extras live forever. So, you know, he can always go back or as I was saying earlier, 50 years from now, somebody can go back and be like, Oh, Ralph Garman. Wow. He had this awesome collection. These are the things that were there. And on top of that, Adam West was there in his place. Well, he, Ralph better have this nice Blu-ray box set in his collection. Now I would, I would hope, because it really is kind of years later. It's a piece that belongs there.

Good question. Oh, yeah, he does. He has it for sure. And so does Kevin Silva. Also, Kevin was really forthcoming about a lot of his childhood and about how he grew up and everything. And now he's a musician. And this was really, really cool.

They were talking about music, Alex and Kevin were, and And now he's a musician. And this was really, really cool. They were talking about music, Alex and Kevin were, and he said he wrote a song. And you want to talk about a little about those details? Well, what happened is, is, is Kevin's background is music. And one thing with these interviews is that I do like to ask them a lot about who they are and what have you, because I think there's something to, to be unturned in terms of all these various stones. You get a little something and little tidbits of information to help build a person's biography. And so you can also ask them probably more intelligent questions as you're going through, you know, the interview process with Kevin. And I discovered at some point that he had, he worked repairing old amplifiers, very interesting, you know, career. And he's,

he's, he's incredibly acute and very interesting how he's able to do all this level of work and what have you. But he's also a musician. He wanted to create something that was his heartfelt love letter back to the series. I think all of us as creators, we want to do something like that. We want to do our best to share our passion for it. So Ralph's passion is collecting these items. Whereas somebody else might be drawing images of Batman or in this case of Kevin, he looked at it as his opportunity to use his talents as a musician and a very talented musician to write his own song, his song called I wore a cape as a kid and man, he, he started to email me and he said, you know, I've, I'm not only a collector of this stuff and that's when this biography started coming about. And he said, I'm going to send you a CD of my music. Um, this, I guess was at that moment still,

we're, you know, not totally digital quite yet. And he sent me the CD of it. and i remember popping this thing and going like wow man this is incredible it is truly a nice heartfelt journey his own little hero's journey with batman growing up as a child having batman in his life and what is how meaningful he is to him this character is to him to this day wow and you know what bonnie go ahead and you tell the story story. Tell us about what we said immediately. Of course, when we heard that piece of music, we knew something. Alex sends me this song that Kevin did because we knew it had heart. So I listened to it and I'm like, oh my God, I immediately called him and I said, is this clear? Did he really make this song? And you're like, yeah, this is him. And I go, it sounded like him and everything, but I didn't know that he wrote it. We wanted to make sure that he wrote it. We're like, we have the ending to our piece. This is what we

have to go out on. It says everything perfectly from, you know, your childhood all the way through your adulthood. I think when I watched the piece, it came as a surprise because you, you know, you start off the piece and you think this is just about collecting, but the music, the song, the way it ends, it's really about how Batman impacted Ralph and Kevin on a very personal level. And it just tells that story in the music. It was a really poignant and fun way for the piece to end. And it just really adds a lot. And it starts off so beautifully. It's so whimsical and small, but poignant. And all of a sudden it just gets bigger and you just really go with Kevin's, Kevin's vocals, man, that guy just did such an awesome job. It's very emotional

and very fitting for the end of our piece. It's, it's cool. It really elevated it a lot. So thank you, Kevin. Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Kevin. Now I wanted to ask you about another piece, Inventing Batman in the Words of Adam West. I thought this was a really creative take on getting not an audio commentary, but getting what you might get from an audio commentary, but with more. What was the inspiration for this style of extra? When we were over at Fox looking at the different pieces we wanted to include, we came across his scripts.

Adam had some scripts with a lot of script notes. And Alex and I were looking at this and we really didn't want to do a straight up commentary. We really wanted to see Adam because he adds so much to it too, right? So everything we did, we wanted to see him on camera. We were looking at this and we're like, do you think Adam remembers a lot of this stuff? So we reached out to Fred and said, Hey, let's do this piece this way. I mean, we had the idea, we knew we were going to do something, but we didn't know what it was going to look like. And so he said, yeah, let's just do it live. Well, we were in, this was another one where we were at Comic-Con and the piece that Alex was talking about, this is actually that piece.

We went over to Studio West Audio Sound and we scoped it out, got a great room and they were very, very happy for us to be there. They all wanted to meet Adam too, but that's basically how that came about. Do you want to add something to that too? Yeah, that was a cool day. I know. When asking Adam to take a look at some of his early notes and convey to us what he had meant by his material that he was adding to it. I think it's important to say that actors like to break down scripts and they study the material. They look at it in that capacity where they are really breaking down scene by scene, moment to moment, and they often jot down notes. The best actors, I've seen them do this. They

break it down, they add the notes, they start to really contemplate what is this about and what can they bring to the material or what is the director looking for? And in this case, they were creating that visual language because literally this was the first two stories in the Batman 66 universe. So here we get the first episode commonly known in our industry as a pilot. And we get the second one, which is of course in the world of Batman 66, it's, it's, it's a two-parter. And in particular, this was going to be our setup to that. And it was just an opportunity to look at it and see Adam once again, and play it up like Bonnie was saying. And he certainly did and gave us his recollections, thinking about the rarity

of that moment to be able to actually have in our physical hands and obviously Adam's hands, the script that he had with his notes on it. Talk about a rare collectible there. Yes. Pretty, pretty sweet actually. So I think that we were really bitten by that collector bug kind of a thing because we had just, you know, worked on our piece and the holy memorabilia of Batman piece. And we had, you know, obviously all these things that say we're actually in post-production really around the same time, but it was in our zeitgeist. It was in our, our, our dialogue and, Hey, here's this really particularly rare item. Let's take a look at it and show it on camera

and then show excerpts thereof with Adam commenting. So was that the actual script? Yes. Is he holding the actual script? Yes, the actual script. And did he look at it beforehand or did you start rolling camera? Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast. And I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. We handed it to him to take a look at so he could see it. But Adam is the kind of guy that he is so sharp. He was just so quick witted. And the recollection, the memory of that man is tremendous. I mean, absolutely tremendous that he doesn't require much prompting.

He was that kind of a guy. That's amazing because I watched it and he doesn't have that hesitancy that you would expect or, hey, I need a moment. I mean, you might have done some pauses and given him a chance, but for the most part, he's just rolling with it. And typically when we do an audio commentary, you know, that's kind of what you expect. But even with commentaries, people say, I want to prepare. I want to, you know, so on and so forth, review my notes. And his notes are really in the in the script so he couldn't necessarily review them and that's going back a lot of years yeah yeah yeah

he was he didn't have to rehearse he knew it ahead of time i think it's just he just accessed this memory bank in his head he was able to just call it forward and he just gave us what you see on screen if anything the parts that we re re shot or did other takes thereof is our little gag, our site gag, our bit that we did, which of course was very much interesting enough. You're actually reminding me about something here is that that was actually Adam's creation. He was the one who had suggested, well, why doesn't this guy come off screen and hand me the script instead? Like he's like the guy that's holding the script, the security guard, you know, whatever you want to call him,

the sentry who's there watching over this very rare item. I said, Adam, that is a clever idea. Let's do that. So we actually had Jeff, I've mentioned in the past, obviously he's a longtime collaborator as well. So Jeff Maynard happened to be there that day and he was shooting another angle for us

and we dubbed him as our as our tony no offense to the tonys out there but you know he was our guy that was going to be the sentry guarding the script handed him that script we did have to do that take a couple times just so we could land it properly like in adam's you know purview that kind of a thing but that was that was cool it was fun he was having a blast with it and plus adam was making up lines as he went anyway we have a bunch of we have a bunch of outtakes of that whole sequence too all good natured that's great i know that the extras are on a bonus disc so typically an audio commentary is linked to the episode there is no extras on that first episode this was a creative way to kind of get around that but make it really even more interesting

than if he was just watching it. Yeah, we thought it'd be much more fun. Yeah. And we do think it played well. Yeah, it really did. I have to mention another person on our team who was extremely important, Margarita Hernandez. She was the lead attorney on the project with us, and she worked very closely and a lot of long nights with Fred and I. us and she worked very closely and a lot of long nights with Fred and I. She was equally busy clearing every other aspect of the project, you know, the PR campaigns, the ad campaigns,

the various box sets, packaging, the Adam booklet, and the special features. And then once everything was approved by Fred and Adam and our team, she had to go and clear everything again with Fox Studio. So it was quite intense. And if something wasn't working quite well, she was also figuring out another creative way where all the parties would be happy. That's not a common thing, because other lawyers would rather remove a piece of footage that is difficult to clear instead of working with the producers and the creators to keep the vision of the work as is. And I think Margarita would disagree with this statement, but I actually think she is very creative in her own right. So my last question for you today is, what's your take on the place of Batman 66 in the history of the Batman universe? Alex? For this world,

I would say the postmodern world that is in terms of comic books and comic book storytelling, comic book writing, comic book films. This is the launch of everything that's pop culture related that was relevant for us then and now and still continues to inform us. It was unapologetic. It was something that got out there for a very quick flash, but it had legs and it's lasted and still to this day is talked about, is quoted. We cannot escape it on a lot of levels because it inspired those artists that went on to make the films that we have seen. And I don't care if you are a DC comic book reader or if you are a Marvel comic book reader. As long as you're a comic book reader, as long as you are a participant in buying your ticket to go to the movies, to watch these great films, buying those TV series that are comic book related, absorbing all of that, I believe comes from this world because we

have a fondness and Adam West and Burt Ward and William Dozier and all the others that were involved to be able to make this immediately happen for us. They were the pioneers. Now it sort of becomes us as the custodians, us being able to say, let me take you to the next level. Let me show you what can be done. And then we get out of that the next level. Let me show you what can be done. And then we get out of that, the greats. We do get some very interesting things that have happened. Just after that, we got Frank Miller. Just after that, we got Christopher Nolan. Just after that, we have received even on the other side of the comic book aisle, like I was saying, is that the Marvel films, all of this stuff is

inspired by that. They're not afraid to this stuff is inspired by that. They're not afraid to be a little bit jovial. They're not afraid to be a little bit courageous. Batman 66 inspired that. It also allowed us to say, hey, I appreciate your creativity. I appreciate what you're bringing to this art form called filmmaking, whether it's on the small box of a television or it's on a large screen in a movie theater. It's there for us. It's an accessible language. It captured that. They brought that as lightning in a bottle and they shared it with us.

And that's the best part. They didn't just keep it to themselves. And we are left with not only a lesson. We're's the best part. They didn't just keep it to themselves. And we are left with not only a lesson, we're left with the roadmap. We're left with an inspiration that you can go back and watch them over and over again. They are evergreen. They are part of us. And I hope that they always will be. And whoever gets to work on the hundredth year anniversary of the set and whatever digital format that will be in, in the future, I'm talking to you future. Do it justice. Give it your all.

Give it your heart because it deserves it because that's what they brought to it. Heart in every respect. Thanks, Alex, for summing up so well with the Batman 66 TV series means to all Batman fans. If you haven't had the chance to listen to our previous episode, we discussed the origins of the numerous extras and working with Adam West and his agent, Fred Westbrook. It's well worth a listen. That is episode 12 if you search through the episodes. For those of you interested in learning more about what was discussed in the show today, there will be detailed information on the website at www.theextras.tv. Also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at TheExtrasTV or Instagram at TheExtras.tv to stay up to date on the latest episodes and for exclusive images and behind the scenes information about the episodes and upcoming guests.

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