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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.

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  2. #110 "The Impossible Crimes": Semple holds Stadd’s Feet to the Fire

#110 "The Impossible Crimes": Semple holds Stadd’s Feet to the Fire

May 16, 2019

feet to the fire

In 1965, as production of Batman was starting to get rolling, Lorenzo Semple was having some difficulties in getting across to writers his vision for the show. Leonard Stadd's "The Secret of the Impossible Crimes," a script that Semple rejected, shows Stadd's take on Semple's vision after reading the script for "Hi Diddle Riddle." The result is a funhouse-mirror version of Batman '66: it's recognizably the show, but bizarrely distorted in some ways. Once again, an unused script helps us understand what Batman '66 is, and what it isn't.

Also, David Miller's trumpet version of the Batman theme, and your response to the Archie/Batman team-up!

"The Secret of the Impossible Crimes," full script

Semple's two-page memo about the script

Discussion of the script on the all-seeing, all-knowing '66 Batman message board