Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Like many who grew up in the '60s and '70s (and perhaps even '80s and later), Tim and Paul had the course of their lives changed by the 1966 Batman TV show, from the types of play they did growing up to their present-day interests.

In this series, they discuss the show's allure and its failures, the arc of the show from satire to sitcom, its influences (the '40s serials and the comic books themselves) and the things it, in turn, influenced.

SUPPORT "To the Batpoles!" and DeconstructingComics.com via Patreon!

May 10, 2018

pie in the face

In 1966, after being the writer and script editor who got the '66 series off the ground, Lorenzo Semple Jr. yielded his chair to Charles Hoffman. What would a look at the draft of a season two Semple script reveal about how Hoffman edited Semple?

That was the question Ben Bentley, a moderator of the '66 Batman Message Board (bow like Ewoks, everybody!), wondered, so when Tim was asking for suggestions of which Bat-scripts to scan in Laramie, Ben suggested The Penguin's Nest. In this episode, he joins Tim and Paul to discuss the draft, which reveals several Semple errors (most of which were caught) which reveal that Semple was (gasp) human, not a god walking among us! It also includes a surprising number of pies.

Also discussed: the great Batcave detective-work scenes on display here that are largely missing from season three; the problem of unkillable factual inaccuracies in fan discussion of the show; and Ben's attempts at research into Semple's papers.

PLUS: The Les Hou-Lops version of the theme, and your mail!

"The Penguin's Nest" PDF script

"The Penguin's Nest" thread on the '66 Batman message board

"Louie the Lilac" draft script (entitled "Please Omit Tomatoes") PDF script

"Please Omit Tomatoes" thread on the '66 Batman message board

Cast interviews at the '66 movie premiere