DarleneIllyria
01-15-2003, 01:39 AM
I was just checking out the other Batman board and someone posted a link to this article. I want to copy and paste the actual article here because you know how some of those links die a few years from now. I'll also post the link to show where I got the article from.
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Real Bat story on the way
By BILL BRIOUX Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Holy flashback, Batman! The caped crusader himself, Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Adam West, breezed onto the TV critics press tour Sunday with his former TV Boy Wonder, Burt Ward, at his side.
Thirty-seven years to the day that their series first premiered on ABC, the two actors were here to promote Return To The Batcave: The Misadventures Of Adam And Burt, a nostalgic and loopy trip back to the campy '60s, airing on hard-to-find mini network UPN.
Will some Canadian network step forward and apprehend this nefarious TV movie? Stay tuned to this bat-column, citizens.
West, who looks 20 years younger than his 74 years (unlike Ward, a roly-poly Robin who looks more like The Penguin today), says he has avoided reunion shows in the past. "I've never wanted to be perceived as a member of the over-the-hill gang," he says.
'WONDERFUL THING'
And while West has never had a hit series since, he's been busy with guest shots and animation voice-overs, and makes a pile of Bat-dough working the conventions. Bottom line, he's not bitter about being typecast as Batman. "If you could make an agreement with a signature role and not become embittered or feel that you're painted into a corner, it could be a wonderful thing," he says.
The TV movie also features younger actors who play West and Ward back in their TV heyday. The story is largely autobiographical and at one point touches on a rather tricky censorship issue involving Robin and his, uh, tights.
It seems certain members of the Catholic Legion of Decency couldn't keep their eyes off Robin's, uh, Bat Pole. "Oh, God, the python pants," Ward recalled.
There's a scene in the movie when Ward is told to take a pill that would help, uh, shrink his screen presence.
"I almost lost my job over this," says Ward, an acting rookie who was only 20 when the series started. He later wrote a book called My Life In Tights, detailing his many real-life, sexual conquests as the Boy Wonder.
The pill was a kind of reverse Viagra. Ward was worried it might have a lasting effect, but apparently not.
"Burt will, if you ask him, stand up and show you," offered West.
The other thing that quickly shrank was all those Bat residuals. Ward explained that up until 1969, the Screen Actors Guild had a provision that actors were paid up to only a tenth rerun of their shows. It was only 5% of their salary, and even those cheques stopped coming as early as 1971.
Since then Ward has made a living doing the odd movie for TV. He also has his own visual-effects company, Boy Wonder Visual Effects. Then there are those conventions. The fans still flock to the Bat shows, and Ward and West make a killing signing photos.
Later in front of the hotel, West and Ward signed autographs and posed with the famous Batmobile along with car designer George Barris. One female fan got West's John Henry on a pack of cigarettes. In the old days, he was sometimes asked to sign women's breasts.
I asked Ward if his hand ever cramped. "It's not the only thing that cramps," he said.
Holy don't go there, Robin!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.canoe.ca/Television/jan14_batman-sun.html
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Real Bat story on the way
By BILL BRIOUX Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Holy flashback, Batman! The caped crusader himself, Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Adam West, breezed onto the TV critics press tour Sunday with his former TV Boy Wonder, Burt Ward, at his side.
Thirty-seven years to the day that their series first premiered on ABC, the two actors were here to promote Return To The Batcave: The Misadventures Of Adam And Burt, a nostalgic and loopy trip back to the campy '60s, airing on hard-to-find mini network UPN.
Will some Canadian network step forward and apprehend this nefarious TV movie? Stay tuned to this bat-column, citizens.
West, who looks 20 years younger than his 74 years (unlike Ward, a roly-poly Robin who looks more like The Penguin today), says he has avoided reunion shows in the past. "I've never wanted to be perceived as a member of the over-the-hill gang," he says.
'WONDERFUL THING'
And while West has never had a hit series since, he's been busy with guest shots and animation voice-overs, and makes a pile of Bat-dough working the conventions. Bottom line, he's not bitter about being typecast as Batman. "If you could make an agreement with a signature role and not become embittered or feel that you're painted into a corner, it could be a wonderful thing," he says.
The TV movie also features younger actors who play West and Ward back in their TV heyday. The story is largely autobiographical and at one point touches on a rather tricky censorship issue involving Robin and his, uh, tights.
It seems certain members of the Catholic Legion of Decency couldn't keep their eyes off Robin's, uh, Bat Pole. "Oh, God, the python pants," Ward recalled.
There's a scene in the movie when Ward is told to take a pill that would help, uh, shrink his screen presence.
"I almost lost my job over this," says Ward, an acting rookie who was only 20 when the series started. He later wrote a book called My Life In Tights, detailing his many real-life, sexual conquests as the Boy Wonder.
The pill was a kind of reverse Viagra. Ward was worried it might have a lasting effect, but apparently not.
"Burt will, if you ask him, stand up and show you," offered West.
The other thing that quickly shrank was all those Bat residuals. Ward explained that up until 1969, the Screen Actors Guild had a provision that actors were paid up to only a tenth rerun of their shows. It was only 5% of their salary, and even those cheques stopped coming as early as 1971.
Since then Ward has made a living doing the odd movie for TV. He also has his own visual-effects company, Boy Wonder Visual Effects. Then there are those conventions. The fans still flock to the Bat shows, and Ward and West make a killing signing photos.
Later in front of the hotel, West and Ward signed autographs and posed with the famous Batmobile along with car designer George Barris. One female fan got West's John Henry on a pack of cigarettes. In the old days, he was sometimes asked to sign women's breasts.
I asked Ward if his hand ever cramped. "It's not the only thing that cramps," he said.
Holy don't go there, Robin!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.canoe.ca/Television/jan14_batman-sun.html