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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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  1. All Episodes
  2. 2025
  3. 10

BAT BITS #22 NOW LIVE on Patreon: Advice to Bat-writers in 1965, pt 3

Oct 30, 2025

Why Batman doesn’t carry a gun, and focuses on reforming crooks. How to write Bruce Wayne (square, not stupid!) Keeping the camp incidental to the show; he only goes to the disco because that’s where his crime investigation leads him. Our discussion of Lorenzo Semple’s 14-page “Batnotes” memo...

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BAT BITS #21 NOW LIVE on Patreon: Advice to Bat-writers in 1965, pt 2

Oct 16, 2025

Batman punch from opening animation

Lorenzo Semple’s 14-page “Batnotes” memo to prospective Bat-writers lays out the basic things he wanted a writer to understand before attempting a Batman script. In our second episode digging into this memo, we discuss how the villian’s real goal often isn’t revealed until the end, some surprising revelations...

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BAT BITS #20 NOW LIVE on Patreon: Advice to Bat-writers in 1965, pt 1

Oct 2, 2025

We had heard before that it existed, and we’ve finally found it: Lorenzo Semple’s 14-page “Batnotes” memo to prospective Bat-writers about “a few simple rules and concepts” about what should or should not happen in a Batman script. Tim and Paul want to dig through this carefully, so in this episode they...

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