Re: [TV orNotTV] from the Times of London (with apologies for the lack of formatting)

[Doug Fields]

If you're like me and were unable to access the text of the original article 
because of the formatting, here's what you missed.  I did a Copy-All and pasted 
into a text editor to strip out all of the formatting (and the accompanying 
pictures, unfortunately).

Doug Fields
Tampa, FL

Burt Ward: Batman was much more fun in the 1960s
The Caped Crusader wasn’t always so serious, says Burt Ward, who played Robin 
in the classic TV series. He tells Jonathan Dean about the sex (kapow!), Adam 
West (zap!) and his pet food business (woof?)

Jonathan Dean
Sunday March 13 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times


The new Batman — called, yes, The Batman — is not a funny film. Fans and 
critics alike are calling it dark, moody and really long. At no point in its 
three hours does the word “Kapow!” blaze across the screen. There is not even a 
“Sock!”. For fans of the superhero’s jolly TV show in the 1960s, is this 
emotionally distraught Batman really Batman at all? Who better to ask than Burt 
Ward, the Robin to Adam West’s Batman in the series that ran for 120 episodes 
from 1966 to 1968?

The 76-year-old’s Zoom backdrop shows him and West filming Batman (he lives 
outside Los Angeles). He last played Robin on screen when he was 23, and, 
although it led to a typecast career of bit parts and occasionally voicing 
Robin in a cartoon, he does not seem fed up with the role that defined him. “I 
love it!” he says. In fairness, though, before Robin he was a junior estate 
agent. Everything he says is exuberant. He has done 8,000 personal appearances 
and signed 9.5 million autographs.

West died in 2017, aged 88. Ward misses him greatly. “I loved Adam. A lot of 
co-stars don’t get along, but we were best friends. We partied together and 
played tennis. In three years of Batman not one director told me or him how to 
say a line. We had a chemistry.”


They were funny. The show was funny. It premiered to about 15 million viewers. 
“Holy human pressure cookers!” “Holy Romeo and Juliet!” “Holy schizophrenia!” 
said Robin in the various versions of his catchphrase.

Yet the films, especially since the director Christopher Nolan brought endless 
pomposity in his films starring Christian Bale, have become as funny as a 
funeral. Robert Pattinson, the latest Batman, also opts for glowering over 
gags, and it all brings to mind the late Heath Ledger as the Joker hissing, 
“Why so serious?” Why indeed?


“There’s a reason,” says Ward. “The studio knows how to sell the product, and 
they target a different audience now. Teenagers. Date nights. The new vision is 
tougher, darker, super-masculine and incredibly successful.” Has he found half 
a morning to take in the new film? “I haven’t, but I hear it’s fabulous.”

It should be pointed out that Ward has a contract with Warner, which owns the 
rights to Batman.


Still, even if Ward officially enjoys all the Batmen, there is a reason many 
think that Will Arnett’s take on Bruce Wayne’s alter ego in the animated The 
Lego Batman Movie is the best since West — Arnett, like West, treated the man 
with a bat fetish with exactly the seriousness he deserved. Also, the film had 
Robin, voiced by Michael Cera. It was the first big outing for the sidekick 
since Chris O’Donnell put on the mask in 1997 in the ghastly Batman & Robin, 
which rather killed poor Robin off.

“We had something for everyone,” says Ward of his show. “For adults, they had 
nostalgia for the comic books. But in 1966 you could not find a teenager who 
would sit down at a television set. They wanted to cruise around drive-in 
theatres. How did we get them to watch? We implied things that were totally 
taboo.”

Please go on.

“Batman and Robin bring Batgirl to the Batcave,” Ward explains. “But she can’t 
know where the Batcave is, so we spray her with Bat-Gas to knock her out.” (The 
#MeToo movement was a while off.) “In the Batmobile, I say, ‘Gosh, Batman, 
Batgirl is really pretty.’ Adam had the line, ‘That shows you are coming of 
age.’ But Adam messed it up for 14 takes. That’s expensive. Why mess it up? He 
knew the director was going to have to accept his last take — there was no more 
time. So I say my line and he says, ‘I’m glad you noticed, Robin — it shows the 
oncoming thrust of manhood!’ The censors descended on us when that show came 
out.”

Which brings us to Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, Ward’s memoir. “Did you read 
it?” I did.

“And you’re still talking to me!?”


Telling of the rampant sex lives of the clean-cut Batman and Robin, it is quite 
a ride. “It was a different world then, my friend!” says Ward. “Free love. I 
could drive on the Pacific Coast Highway and, every 50ft, girls lifted up their 
tops. It was love and peace and no disease. Maybe some had disease. But most of 
America was clean. I’ll tell you one thing that will open your eyes: the stuff 
I left out.” So stories of prostitutes and being seduced by women in Robin 
outfits were true? “I didn’t lie.”

These days Ward, who has been married 

[TV orNotTV] from the Times of London (with apologies for the lack of formatting)

[Jon Delfin]

 Burt Ward: Batman was much more fun in the 1960s
The Caped Crusader wasn’t always so serious, says Burt Ward, who played
Robin in the classic TV series. He tells Jonathan Dean about the sex
(kapow!), Adam West (zap!) and his pet food business (woof?)
Jonathan Dean 
Sunday March 13 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
Share




Save


The new Batman — called, yes, *The Batman
*
 — is not a funny film. Fans and critics alike are calling it dark, moody
and really long. At no point in its three hours does the word “Kapow!”
blaze across the screen. There is not even a “Sock!”. For fans of the
superhero’s jolly TV show in the 1960s, is this emotionally distraught
Batman really Batman at all? Who better to ask than Burt Ward, the Robin to
Adam West’s Batman in the series that ran for 120 episodes from 1966 to
1968?

The 76-year-old’s Zoom backdrop shows him and West filming Batman (he lives
outside Los Angeles). He last played Robin on screen when he was 23, and,
although it led to a typecast career of bit parts and occasionally voicing
Robin in a cartoon, he does not seem fed up with the role that defined him.
“I love it!” he says. In fairness, though, before Robin he was a junior
estate agent. Everything he says is exuberant. He has done 8,000 personal
appearances and signed 9.5 million autographs.

West died in 2017, aged 88. Ward misses him greatly. “I loved Adam. A lot
of co-stars don’t get along, but we were best friends. We partied together
and played tennis. In three years of Batman not one director told me or him
how to say a line. We had a chemistry.”
[image: Burt Ward, 76, had the time of his life as Robin in the 1960s TV
show]
Burt Ward, 76, had the time of his life as Robin in the 1960s TV show
TOMMASO BODDI/GETTY IMAGES

They were funny. The show was funny. It premiered to about 15 million
viewers. “Holy human pressure cookers!” “Holy Romeo and Juliet!” “Holy
schizophrenia!” said Robin in the various versions of his catchphrase.

Yet the films, especially since the director Christopher Nolan brought
endless pomposity in his films starring Christian Bale, have become as
funny as a funeral. Robert Pattinson, the latest Batman, also opts for
glowering over gags, and it all brings to mind the late Heath Ledger as the
Joker hissing, “Why so serious?” Why indeed?
ADVERTISEMENT

“There’s a reason,” says Ward. “The studio knows how to sell the product,
and they target a different audience now. Teenagers. Date nights. The new
vision is tougher, darker, super-masculine and incredibly successful.” Has
he found half a morning to take in the new film? “I haven’t, but I hear
it’s fabulous.”

It should be pointed out that Ward has a contract with Warner, which owns
the rights to Batman.
[image: Ward preferred the lighter hearted Batman played by Adam West]
Ward preferred the lighter hearted Batman played by Adam West
ALAMY

Still, even if Ward officially enjoys all the Batmen, there is a reason
many think that Will Arnett’s take on Bruce Wayne’s alter ego in the
animated *The Lego Batman Movie* is the best since West — Arnett, like
West, treated the man with a bat fetish with exactly the seriousness he
deserved. Also, the film had Robin, voiced by Michael Cera. It was the
first big outing for the sidekick since Chris O’Donnell put on the mask in
1997 in the ghastly *Batman & Robin*, which rather killed poor Robin off.

“We had something for everyone,” says Ward of his show. “For adults, they
had nostalgia for the comic books. But in 1966 you could not find a
teenager who would sit down at a television set. They wanted to cruise
around drive-in theatres. How did we get them to watch? We implied things
that were totally taboo.”

Please go on.

“Batman and Robin bring Batgirl to the Batcave,” Ward explains. “But she
can’t know where the Batcave is, so we spray her with Bat-Gas to knock her
out.” (The #MeToo movement was a while off.) “In the Batmobile, I say,
‘Gosh, Batman, Batgirl is really pretty.’ Adam had the line, ‘That shows
you are coming of age.’ But Adam messed it up for 14 takes. That’s
expensive. Why mess it up? He knew the director was going to have to accept
his last take — there was no more time. So I say my line and he says, ‘I’m
glad you noticed, Robin — it shows the oncoming thrust of manhood!’