Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Batman: The Movie (1966) - Leslie H. Martinson | Houselights #284: Wing of Batman
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Welcome back to House Lights, our director discussion show here
- 0:24Speaker 2: on the Nerd Party Network. This week, we're beginning the
- 0:28Speaker 2: wing of Batman a whole summer celebrating the Cape Crusader
- 0:32Speaker 2: and sometimes the Dynamic Duo. Each week will be covering
- 0:36Speaker 2: a different director and sometimes singular, sometimes multiple films that
- 0:40Speaker 2: they've added to the bat legend, starting with the nineteen
- 0:43Speaker 2: sixty six Batman The Movie, a direct movie tie in
- 0:47Speaker 2: for the on air Batman nineteen sixties television show Bam Pow.
- 0:52Speaker 3: It's the team up of the century, the Joker, the Riddler,
- 0:56Speaker 3: the Penguin and Catwoman. Can Batman and the Boy Wonder
- 0:59Speaker 3: Pot possibly stop for super villains At the same time?
- 1:04Speaker 3: Will the additional bat vehicles spur on toy sales and
- 1:07Speaker 3: the imaginations of American youth. I am Darren Moser, inventor
- 1:12Speaker 3: of the super molecular dust separator. Hey, I've only got
- 1:15Speaker 3: one client so far, but it's worth it. And picking
- 1:19Speaker 3: up the red batphone is Commissioner Tristan Riddell.
- 1:21Speaker 4: Holy smokes.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Is that the President on the other line and sending
- 1:25Speaker 2: us messages via Polaris Rocket.
- 1:28Speaker 5: It says who has the dough. When you don't know
- 1:32Speaker 5: his name, he lives for making flour just the same.
- 1:37Speaker 5: It's John Mills, ah.
- 1:39Speaker 2: Gentleman, atomic batteries, to power, turbines to speed, ready to
- 1:43Speaker 2: roll out.
- 1:44Speaker 3: It's Batman the movie.
- 1:48Speaker 6: Yes, it is the first full length feature film featuring
- 1:54Speaker 6: the Cape Crusader.
- 1:55Speaker 7: We had to start here. We had to have to
- 1:57Speaker 7: start here. That's absolutely to start this wing of Batman
- 2:00Speaker 7: and this summer House. If you will, you need to
- 2:04Speaker 7: start with Batman the Movie nineteen sixty.
- 2:06Speaker 6: Six, which is a complicated choice in and of itself,
- 2:10Speaker 6: because so much of Batman that started in the eighties
- 2:17Speaker 6: was a response to how much people like myself and
- 2:21Speaker 6: my brother hated the nineteen sixties Batman because I mean,
- 2:26Speaker 6: for me, it was because that show I didn't get
- 2:31Speaker 6: as a kid. I'm watching it on reruns. I didn't
- 2:33Speaker 6: get it. I didn't get the joke. And it was
- 2:36Speaker 6: on as this block of shows when it was too
- 2:39Speaker 6: absolutely god awful hot to go outside, and I would
- 2:43Speaker 6: sit there in the summers and it was like there
- 2:46Speaker 6: were shows I wanted to watch in shows I did not.
- 2:49Speaker 6: Going outside was no longer an option. Hiding in the
- 2:52Speaker 6: dark was and it was like Batman was what you
- 2:54Speaker 6: endured to get through it, and it became a thing
- 2:56Speaker 6: where my brother and I would make.
- 2:58Speaker 7: Fun of it.
- 2:59Speaker 6: We would hate watch it together. And then you know,
- 3:02Speaker 6: you get the dark and gritty Batman coming up in
- 3:06Speaker 6: the late eighties, the death wish response, yeah he was
- 3:10Speaker 6: a real and Frank Miller yeah, but you go back
- 3:15Speaker 6: to the nineteen sixties Batman and you suddenly realize it's
- 3:20Speaker 6: the only one. Well I mean, well maybe not necessarily
- 3:24Speaker 6: the only one, but it was for a time. It's
- 3:28Speaker 6: such an artifact of movie studio not trying to allow
- 3:34Speaker 6: adults to pretend like their childhood thing was mature, but
- 3:38Speaker 6: to be like, look, guys, let's be honest here. Okay,
- 3:42Speaker 6: this is just this is a comic book. Comic books
- 3:44Speaker 6: for kids, right, let's just do this, And you know
- 3:48Speaker 6: it's Batman and the era of Father Knows Best and
- 3:52Speaker 6: you know the Partridge fan Well, the Partridge Family was later,
- 3:55Speaker 6: but you get the monkeys and stuff like that. That's
- 3:57Speaker 6: the era of this Batman. And as a result, I
- 4:00Speaker 6: think it's just I've done such a one eighty on
- 4:03Speaker 6: the series and this movie over time that it's just
- 4:07Speaker 6: it spins my own head around.
- 4:10Speaker 4: Well, one of the things I.
- 4:11Speaker 2: Like about the Batman, you know, Batman the movie, is
- 4:15Speaker 2: you don't need to have seen the show. It is
- 4:17Speaker 2: fully self contained. If this is all you saw on
- 4:20Speaker 2: a rerun or someone had it on VHS, like, it
- 4:24Speaker 2: gives you every piece of information you need to know.
- 4:27Speaker 2: You need to know that Batman and Robin are fully
- 4:30Speaker 2: deputized members of the police community, and they're going to
- 4:33Speaker 2: tell you that. But it's yeah, it stands on its own.
- 4:38Speaker 2: It's not like, you know, greetings Marvel fans, hope you
- 4:41Speaker 2: watched episode three of season one, or you're not gonna
- 4:44Speaker 2: know who this is. It introduces all the characters. It's
- 4:49Speaker 2: got the most ridiculous setup, but it works because it's like,
- 4:53Speaker 2: what's bad about four super villains at the same time.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Must be trying to take over the world. Okay, I
- 4:59Speaker 2: could buy I buy that. I know the stakes, I
- 5:02Speaker 2: know what's going on, and yeah, it's but it is
- 5:05Speaker 2: a fun ride. It really is. I mean, I think
- 5:08Speaker 2: they made it in twenty eight days. It's obviously using
- 5:12Speaker 2: a vast amount of assets from the show.
- 5:14Speaker 6: So imagine, imagine, though you have a hit TV show,
- 5:18Speaker 6: it's a bigger hit than you anticipated. And your response is,
- 5:22Speaker 6: all right, we got a month. Everybody clear your schedules.
- 5:25Speaker 6: We're making a movie, and you make it and it's
- 5:28Speaker 6: released and it's for you know, for the goals that
- 5:32Speaker 6: you set for yourself.
- 5:33Speaker 4: It's successful.
- 5:35Speaker 6: Yeah, that world is gone for all time. It's never
- 5:39Speaker 6: coming back. And you look at this and you're like,
- 5:43Speaker 6: maybe we lost something here. Guys like, how do we
- 5:47Speaker 6: get this back?
- 5:48Speaker 7: And that's why they that's why Fox got Leslie H.
- 5:51Speaker 7: Martinson because it wasn't because he was a visionary auteur
- 5:55Speaker 7: and which is a not a shade to him whatsoever.
- 5:59Speaker 7: It was bec because he was so experienced with TV
- 6:03Speaker 7: directing that they're like, oh, you want to get a
- 6:06Speaker 7: guy who does it under time, under budget and efficient,
- 6:10Speaker 7: then you get Leslie H. Freaking Martinsen. The guy comes
- 6:14Speaker 7: from what he directed episodes of Twilight Zone, Mission Impossible,
- 6:19Speaker 7: Gun Smoke, and multiple episodes of Batman, and like, you know,
- 6:24Speaker 7: like you guys talked about like this film is made
- 6:25Speaker 7: on a way compressed schedule, standing sets, existing costumes, actors
- 6:31Speaker 7: already in character. So he very much inherited the style.
- 6:35Speaker 7: He didn't reinvent it, but he did it for under
- 6:39Speaker 7: one point three million, and it made almost four million
- 6:42Speaker 7: back right, which but it wasn't even they weren't even
- 6:45Speaker 7: doing it for the money. It was it was to
- 6:47Speaker 7: raise awareness for the show and get some more toys
- 6:50Speaker 7: out there.
- 6:50Speaker 6: Right, it's a it's a big commercial if it makes money, Hey,
- 6:54Speaker 6: that's that's a big plus.
- 6:55Speaker 4: Man.
- 6:56Speaker 6: But we also built some more things and got some
- 6:58Speaker 6: more footage that we can insert in the in the
- 7:00Speaker 6: next season if we need to. And but I mean
- 7:04Speaker 6: like that that is you know, to your point, Trists
- 7:07Speaker 6: and Martinsen's worked with the cast, he's worked.
- 7:10Speaker 7: With the crew.
- 7:11Speaker 6: He knows it, right, He's gonna walk in. He's like, hey, guys,
- 7:13Speaker 6: I do hey, Leslie, what's up. We're doing four A,
- 7:17Speaker 6: ten B and thirty two C and we're got we
- 7:20Speaker 6: got till four Okay. You guys taking lunch at what one,
- 7:23Speaker 6: one thirty one thirty Okay, cool, let's get going. And
- 7:26Speaker 6: he's just gonna walk in. He's just gonna do it.
- 7:27Speaker 6: He doesn't there's not like this labored, like what's my
- 7:31Speaker 6: motivation in this scene? Your motivation in this scene as
- 7:34Speaker 6: you're trying to rehydrate the u WO members.
- 7:37Speaker 4: Okay, that's it. That's your motivation.
- 7:39Speaker 7: The motivation is hit your mark, say your lines, get
- 7:42Speaker 7: out of my.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Face, right, trip when we need you to trip in
- 7:45Speaker 2: a plot based fashion. But and it's so, you know,
- 7:49Speaker 2: like you were saying, Tristan, you know, they don't make
- 7:51Speaker 2: him like this anymore. The fact as well that this
- 7:55Speaker 2: is just a big TV show, like this isn't a
- 7:59Speaker 2: oh we have more budget. Let's imagine, you know, let's
- 8:03Speaker 2: make a bigger bat cave. Let's make a like they
- 8:05Speaker 2: obviously did more. They had the bat vehicles. I mean,
- 8:09Speaker 2: that's where a lot of the money went.
- 8:10Speaker 7: And which was prepped by local airport stuff.
- 8:15Speaker 2: Hey hey, fully deputized police force.
- 8:20Speaker 6: Okay, this batman is not a vigilante so much as
- 8:24Speaker 6: anized you know, representative of law enforcement. And I think
- 8:32Speaker 6: that the the real beauty of it is that the
- 8:37Speaker 6: the gag of it for the parents that take their
- 8:41Speaker 6: kids to go see it is that they get to
- 8:44Speaker 6: sit there and a line like we're fully deputized, you know,
- 8:47Speaker 6: they're fully up deputized. Uh you know law enforcement officers
- 8:51Speaker 6: like the parents can sit there like yeah okay, and
- 8:54Speaker 6: the kids like yeah, they're the good guys and it's
- 8:56Speaker 6: like yeah, okay, sure, sure, like and Tristan like you're
- 8:59Speaker 6: saying fully staffed by the airport and it's like yeah that,
- 9:03Speaker 6: Like the parents get a chuckle out of that. Well,
- 9:05Speaker 6: they're you know, while they're smoking their chester Fields and
- 9:06Speaker 6: going in popcorn and stuff.
- 9:09Speaker 7: Speaking of smoking your Chesterfields. I lost it when they
- 9:13Speaker 7: said they're like, yes, Robin, they're drinkers, but they can
- 9:16Speaker 7: be saved.
- 9:17Speaker 4: Yes. I felt scene in that moment. I really did.
- 9:22Speaker 7: Like I could just imagine like Adam West like sipping
- 9:25Speaker 7: a martini while he's reading his script, yeah for that line.
- 9:30Speaker 2: Exactly, or the penguin when he's you know, dehydrated his
- 9:34Speaker 2: henchmen and they're like, be careful with the particles as
- 9:37Speaker 2: we get them ready to put in the vials, and
- 9:39Speaker 2: they're like you know that even they have mothers, And it's.
- 9:44Speaker 5: Like what what what are you talking about?
- 9:50Speaker 7: So this was This was written by Lorenzo Simple Junior,
- 9:54Speaker 7: who was the son of screenwriter Lorenzo Simple Senor, and
- 9:58Speaker 7: he came from a back of political speech writing before
- 10:02Speaker 7: he went into TV and film, and he actually wrote
- 10:05Speaker 7: the pilot for the show, and it was pretty much
- 10:10Speaker 7: his idea to kind of have this self aware tone
- 10:13Speaker 7: where it's not so much a wink at the audience,
- 10:16Speaker 7: it's more of a it's it's so it's not so
- 10:18Speaker 7: much that Batman is silly, it's that Batman takes nonsense
- 10:23Speaker 7: very seriously. Yes, Yes, And there's a key there's a
- 10:27Speaker 7: key difference there, and that was his that that was
- 10:31Speaker 7: his mostly his doing for the script for Batman the movie.
- 10:34Speaker 7: And I think that's what really sets this this movie apart,
- 10:38Speaker 7: and also the tone of the show apart, is that
- 10:40Speaker 7: it's it is whacky and goofy, but they're the people
- 10:44Speaker 7: aren't aware that it's whacky and goofy, and there's It
- 10:47Speaker 7: kind of reminds me of a Steve Carell quote I saw.
- 10:49Speaker 7: I saw him when he was promoting his version of
- 10:53Speaker 7: Get Smart. He was saying he was talking to the
- 10:56Speaker 7: audience like he was at some convention and he said
- 10:59Speaker 7: he's like, I wanted these characters to treat it like
- 11:03Speaker 7: they were in a Jason Bourne film. And they all
- 11:06Speaker 7: started everybody started laughing. He's like, no, I'm serious. The
- 11:09Speaker 7: reason why it's funny is because the characters don't know
- 11:12Speaker 7: it's a comedy. Yes, and that's it worn't work otherwise. Yeah,
- 11:16Speaker 7: and that's I think that's Batman's sixty six to a t.
- 11:20Speaker 4: I completely agree.
- 11:23Speaker 2: I mean, especially, gosh, there's there's so many lines between
- 11:26Speaker 2: Batman and Robin where it just it's beyond ridiculous. Like, oh,
- 11:31Speaker 2: out of the corner of my eye, I saw this
- 11:34Speaker 2: rubber Matt convention and and then they're like, yep, that's it.
- 11:39Speaker 2: And it's just because they'll say the ridiculous thing, the
- 11:43Speaker 2: other person will confirm it with absolute seriousness, and then
- 11:47Speaker 2: they move on and just repeat that one hundred times.
- 11:49Speaker 4: That is the movie.
- 11:51Speaker 2: But it but it works, and and it's fun it.
- 11:54Speaker 2: I love the four way periscope so all the villains
- 11:58Speaker 2: can look up the periscope at the same time, like
- 12:00Speaker 2: that's actually really funny. I love that the sub has
- 12:05Speaker 2: little penguin you know, fins at the back to propel it.
- 12:11Speaker 7: That was a perfect submarine. I fully believed that that
- 12:16Speaker 7: was a real working submarine where the fins would work.
- 12:19Speaker 7: I was like, if only they had that in Hunt
- 12:21Speaker 7: for Red October that you know, they wouldn't even need
- 12:23Speaker 7: the whisper.
- 12:24Speaker 4: Drive exactly right, exactly.
- 12:25Speaker 6: The caterpillar drive is a thing of the past because
- 12:28Speaker 6: you keep her drive flip it.
- 12:29Speaker 4: Yeah, it's I think that.
- 12:33Speaker 6: I think that what people sleep on over time as
- 12:37Speaker 6: well is that Adam West's talent for being that earnest
- 12:43Speaker 6: about it, for actually going with it is such a
- 12:47Speaker 6: skill Like there there's there is no small amount of
- 12:51Speaker 6: talent toward playing it in such a way that that
- 12:56Speaker 6: character doesn't come across as overly self aware and in
- 13:00Speaker 6: any sense like Adam West's Batman, like you're saying, Tristan,
- 13:04Speaker 6: he believes it, He's in it, and that's not easy
- 13:08Speaker 6: for an actor to sell, but West sells it flawlessly,
- 13:13Speaker 6: and I think that is really a credit to him.
- 13:17Speaker 6: And yes, this is all he's ever going to be
- 13:20Speaker 6: known for, aside from being Mayor Adam West of Cohog.
- 13:25Speaker 6: But it's really one of those things where what a
- 13:29Speaker 6: calling card sort of thing to be boxed into. And
- 13:32Speaker 6: it's so wild because he was such a gifted actor
- 13:38Speaker 6: that I would have loved to see him break out
- 13:41Speaker 6: of this in some way and be really known for
- 13:44Speaker 6: something else, like Bill Shatner manages, he gets TJ. Hooker,
- 13:48Speaker 6: he gets Denny Crane, he gets all of these other things.
- 13:52Speaker 6: Leonard Nieboy goes to in search of and all of
- 13:54Speaker 6: this other stuff. And Adam West is this guy from
- 13:58Speaker 6: with that absolutely land marks sixties role, and he's never
- 14:02Speaker 6: given the opportunity to do to that, to follow that trajectory,
- 14:08Speaker 6: and I think there's some timeline where he does. And
- 14:11Speaker 6: I wish I was in it, because the guy really
- 14:16Speaker 6: effortlessly doesn't break a sweat carrying this thing, like everything
- 14:20Speaker 6: revolves around his ability to sell that whole conceit, and
- 14:24Speaker 6: he does it and it doesn't look like he's struggling
- 14:27Speaker 6: or trying or anything.
- 14:28Speaker 4: It's just him up there. And you got to give
- 14:31Speaker 4: ridiculous credit for that.
- 14:33Speaker 2: No, I agree. I there's the scene isn't in the movie,
- 14:36Speaker 2: it's in the show. But there's one scene where I
- 14:40Speaker 2: remember Commissioner Gordon is talking on the phone with Batman
- 14:44Speaker 2: and he patches in Bruce Wayne on the other line,
- 14:49Speaker 2: who is Alfred handing another phone to Adam West. And
- 14:54Speaker 2: he goes back and forth between the two phones in
- 14:59Speaker 2: his different hands, changing his voice and mannerisms to be
- 15:03Speaker 2: Batman and Bruce Wayne seamlessly in a three way conversation,
- 15:07Speaker 2: partly with himself, and it is amazing and just right there,
- 15:12Speaker 2: I think that sums up just the amazingness of this character.
- 15:16Speaker 6: And I think that it's really it's really something, and
- 15:21Speaker 6: I think it's what everybody else can pin their stuff on.
- 15:23Speaker 6: But also you've got to give a lot of credit
- 15:26Speaker 6: to the talent behind the villains because they are just
- 15:31Speaker 6: having a blast. How can you watch this and not
- 15:35Speaker 6: have fun? When Caesar Romero starts laughing, or when the
- 15:39Speaker 6: penguin has you know, right right right, right right right,
- 15:42Speaker 6: and Frank go.
- 15:44Speaker 7: When he walks from like just just a few steps,
- 15:47Speaker 7: he does his penguin.
- 15:48Speaker 4: Walk, and Frank gorshan Man, that guy showed up.
- 15:52Speaker 6: He was the Riddler. There was no there was nothing
- 15:56Speaker 6: else going on there. But you know, you have those
- 15:59Speaker 6: three who were the series regulars, and then you have
- 16:02Speaker 6: Lee Merriweather stepping in for.
- 16:05Speaker 4: Julie Newmar.
- 16:06Speaker 6: So the question for me is, you know, obviously we're
- 16:10Speaker 6: you know, fans of the show to varying levels and everything.
- 16:15Speaker 6: Like when I was way younger, I couldn't I didn't
- 16:18Speaker 6: realize it wasn't Julie Newmar, right, And I don't know
- 16:22Speaker 6: if if it's that Lee Merriweather disappears into the role
- 16:26Speaker 6: or or what you know, Like she seems like she's
- 16:30Speaker 6: having fun, But did either of you have you know,
- 16:33Speaker 6: Julie Newmar like the kid hanging in the back of
- 16:36Speaker 6: your brain.
- 16:37Speaker 7: It's like the Husband and Bewitched, like they replaced the
- 16:40Speaker 7: actor and nobody knew, nobody noticed.
- 16:43Speaker 4: Is it Dick Sergeant? Is it Dick York? Who knows
- 16:46Speaker 4: it's one of them? Yeah?
- 16:49Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that occasionally happens. The one that comes
- 16:51Speaker 2: to mind for me is the mother Harriet and family
- 16:54Speaker 2: matters at the end, like they just completely changed the actress.
- 16:58Speaker 2: I think there was contract difficulty or something happened. It's
- 17:02Speaker 2: very obvious though, like they look nothing alike and it's
- 17:05Speaker 2: the nineties, so it's not as all the reruns.
- 17:09Speaker 4: But yeah, I don't know it it is.
- 17:12Speaker 2: I think it was due to health reasons, like her
- 17:15Speaker 2: back was hurt in or something. So I totally get
- 17:19Speaker 2: not being able to do the movie. Because Catwoman has
- 17:22Speaker 2: a pretty substantial role in this, Like she is not
- 17:25Speaker 2: just in the layer, she's kitcussed, She's in multiple scenes,
- 17:32Speaker 2: but she has it down like she is able to
- 17:34Speaker 2: transform into Catwoman. That, like you said, probably the majority
- 17:39Speaker 2: of audiences, if they didn't really know, they didn't even
- 17:43Speaker 2: cross their mind of Oh, they got all the other
- 17:46Speaker 2: villains together, the actors. Why wouldn't this be the same person.
- 17:50Speaker 6: Well, and it's easy to lose the context that here
- 17:52Speaker 6: we are in nineteen sixty six and Bruce Wayne Batman
- 17:56Speaker 6: is falling in love with a Russian reporter. Right, that's
- 18:00Speaker 6: at the time, Oh my gosh, what a big deal
- 18:03Speaker 6: sort of thing. And I think that in a honeypot
- 18:07Speaker 6: on top of that, right exactly. But I honestly, I
- 18:10Speaker 6: think those are the scenes where she comes alive, like
- 18:13Speaker 6: she's she's really having fun in those scenes where she's
- 18:17Speaker 6: putting on the fake Russian accent and seducing him and
- 18:20Speaker 6: everything like that. Like the movie really gets an energy
- 18:23Speaker 6: to it that's a lot of fun. And I think
- 18:25Speaker 6: it occurs at like a very key point because it's
- 18:29Speaker 6: easy for the energy to flag in a sort of
- 18:32Speaker 6: camp sort of environment like this. But when that gear switches,
- 18:36Speaker 6: it's like, oh, this is interesting and new, this is different,
- 18:40Speaker 6: and it keeps it going for a time and you know,
- 18:43Speaker 6: and propels it all to the next act and everything.
- 18:46Speaker 7: But it's I love, you.
- 18:48Speaker 6: Know, we talk about their deputized agents of law enforcement.
- 18:53Speaker 6: I love the fact that Alfred has a mask on
- 18:58Speaker 6: underneath his glasses while they're in the in the Batmobile,
- 19:02Speaker 6: as if you know, nobody's going to know the difference.
- 19:05Speaker 6: But then they're under orders to spy on Brightwayne the
- 19:10Speaker 6: entire time. But it's just not decent to watch them
- 19:13Speaker 6: kissing a girl, Alfred, So we got to turn this off.
- 19:16Speaker 6: And it's like, it's such a wildly wholesome, silly moment.
- 19:21Speaker 7: I lost it when they they turn on the feed
- 19:26Speaker 7: and they notice that like one chair is a skew.
- 19:30Speaker 7: It's not even that visibly noticeable that there was a
- 19:34Speaker 7: fight there. But yet, you know, Robin freaks out and
- 19:37Speaker 7: Alfred says, bless my dust pan.
- 19:40Speaker 6: Yes, yes, yes, yes, I you know I here we
- 19:45Speaker 6: are heaping praise on it, right, but like, what what
- 19:51Speaker 6: keeps this from being the midnight movie that goes around?
- 19:54Speaker 4: What keeps this from.
- 19:55Speaker 6: Being beloved outside of the bat circle as it were,
- 20:00Speaker 6: you know, like we're all Batman fans.
- 20:03Speaker 7: It's there's the movie itself, there's how do I put it?
- 20:09Speaker 7: Like because it's often described as campy, you know, like
- 20:13Speaker 7: there is you have a shelf there like you have.
- 20:17Speaker 7: It's not going to go beyond that, It's not going
- 20:20Speaker 7: to go beyond a certain level because it's camp. Things
- 20:23Speaker 7: that are camp usually have a very fervent fan base,
- 20:28Speaker 7: but it's not massive. It's usually pretty niche. And even
- 20:33Speaker 7: though Batman has been around for eighty years and Batman
- 20:38Speaker 7: is a huge money maker, it's the house that you
- 20:41Speaker 7: know built DC, or it's a property that built DC.
- 20:44Speaker 7: I wish i'd say, and it's you know, like Batman
- 20:48Speaker 7: is a huge seller with comic books, movies, merchandise, clothing,
- 20:52Speaker 7: everything that you can imagine. Batman sixty six is a
- 20:57Speaker 7: sub section of that huge pantheon. It's kind of like
- 21:01Speaker 7: if like, oh, are you a are you a Star
- 21:04Speaker 7: Wars fan? Like, yeah, but my favorite are the e
- 21:07Speaker 7: Walk movies that were made for TV fair Like, you know,
- 21:10Speaker 7: like those are awesome, but I mean not everybody's gonna
- 21:15Speaker 7: like those, even though it's a part of the Star
- 21:16Speaker 7: Wars pantheon.
- 21:18Speaker 6: I I completely track with what you're saying. I would
- 21:22Speaker 6: also offer, though, as we're sitting here discussing it, that
- 21:26Speaker 6: it's possible that usually the camp stuff that explodes that
- 21:30Speaker 6: becomes like super popular tends to be something like Rocky
- 21:34Speaker 6: Horror Picture Show.
- 21:35Speaker 4: It has a little bit more adult flavor to it
- 21:38Speaker 4: than this does.
- 21:39Speaker 7: I was actually even thinking that, Like, that's the example
- 21:41Speaker 7: that came to my head because whenever I think camp
- 21:44Speaker 7: or underground hit or subculture or anything like that, I
- 21:48Speaker 7: think about Rocky Horror Picture Show. I'm a gigantic fan
- 21:51Speaker 7: of Rocky Horror Picture Show. But the thing is is that, like,
- 21:54Speaker 7: and it's a huge fan base for what it is.
- 21:57Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 21:58Speaker 7: I think that's the thing is that, like, when you
- 21:59Speaker 7: have to say for what it is, it's never that
- 22:04Speaker 7: big fair point.
- 22:05Speaker 4: That's a fair point. Yeah.
- 22:07Speaker 6: And the thing is that the TV show of Batman
- 22:10Speaker 6: from the sixties is what really plays constantly throughout our
- 22:15Speaker 6: childhoods and up to a certain point. So if I say,
- 22:19Speaker 6: you know, Adam West, you're going to think of a
- 22:21Speaker 6: TV show. And I didn't even know this movie existed
- 22:24Speaker 6: until I was an adult. I was like, wait, they
- 22:26Speaker 6: did a movie.
- 22:27Speaker 7: I was like, but really, the thing that kills me though,
- 22:30Speaker 7: is that even though you know, if I if I
- 22:33Speaker 7: have to draw some I don't even I don't even
- 22:34Speaker 7: want to call them negatives, But if I want to
- 22:36Speaker 7: draw some attention to the limitations of it, with everything
- 22:38Speaker 7: that we said with the camp with the Shelf, you know,
- 22:41Speaker 7: with this, with the shub genre and everything like that.
- 22:43Speaker 7: The legacy of Batman's sixty six is probably bigger than
- 22:48Speaker 7: most other aspects of Batman, if I could be so bold,
- 22:52Speaker 7: because even beyond Batman fans understand what Batman sixty six is.
- 22:57Speaker 7: They understand the sliding on the bat pole. They understand uh,
- 23:03Speaker 7: the no abs on the suit. You know, like they
- 23:05Speaker 7: understand the bat two see that. It's all ingrain in
- 23:08Speaker 7: our culture. And I feel like, you know, like the
- 23:11Speaker 7: entire bat poo zoom, you know that phenomenon, Like, yeah,
- 23:17Speaker 7: you saw that in comics, but you did not see
- 23:20Speaker 7: that in a live action show. But you know, whenever
- 23:23Speaker 7: that happens, whenever you want to make a reference to
- 23:26Speaker 7: Batman in a fun way, it's usually going to reference
- 23:29Speaker 7: Batman sixty six. I just finished the brand new Batman
- 23:33Speaker 7: lego game, Batman Legacy of the Dark Night, And when
- 23:37Speaker 7: you when you get the platinum trophy, you get invited
- 23:42Speaker 7: to a section of the cave where everybody's partying. Adam
- 23:46Speaker 7: West literally calls you on the bat phone to congratulate
- 23:50Speaker 7: you on getting one hundred percent on the game. And
- 23:54Speaker 7: in that game, yeah, it was, it was amazing and
- 23:57Speaker 7: I just it just happened to me this morning. It
- 23:59Speaker 7: just happened to be on the day that I podcast
- 24:02Speaker 7: about his movie. And during the game, like when you
- 24:07Speaker 7: do a finishing move, you get a power or a
- 24:09Speaker 7: pop or a flack what like this was this was
- 24:12Speaker 7: sixty years ago. This was sixty years ago, and we're
- 24:15Speaker 7: still integrating it into other pieces of media.
- 24:17Speaker 4: That's a that's a great point.
- 24:19Speaker 6: That's a great point that, Yeah, you're right, like I
- 24:24Speaker 6: the eighty nine Batman is sort of approaching it, but
- 24:28Speaker 6: this is still beyond you know, because even you know,
- 24:32Speaker 6: when we get to the eighty nine Batman, like that,
- 24:35Speaker 6: this set the expert this is this is what sept
- 24:37Speaker 6: everybody on edge was like, was it going to be
- 24:39Speaker 6: this again? You know, because the sensibilities had changed and everything.
- 24:42Speaker 6: But even through all this changing sensibilities, I think it's
- 24:46Speaker 6: interesting because this is beloved in its time. It finds
- 24:51Speaker 6: a new life in you know, in just syndicated reruns
- 24:55Speaker 6: on UHF stations up through the eighties, and then you know,
- 24:59Speaker 6: everybody's no, that's not mature enough for me. But then
- 25:02Speaker 6: it winds up creeping back and so you're right, like
- 25:06Speaker 6: the legacy of this is inescapable. It's I would argue,
- 25:10Speaker 6: you know what, I'll make a controversial statement that it's
- 25:13Speaker 6: more inescapable than even the original series for Star Trek
- 25:17Speaker 6: in a sense that Star Trek keeps breaking orbit, as
- 25:21Speaker 6: it were, whereas this is a continual reference point for Batman.
- 25:27Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of similarities, for sure. I
- 25:30Speaker 2: was also thinking of Star Trek in the fact that
- 25:33Speaker 2: you know, it's the sixties, even the same years.
- 25:36Speaker 7: And they use the torpedo noise in the movie.
- 25:39Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 25:40Speaker 2: Well, but it also I mean, we can all say
- 25:43Speaker 2: the original series compared to everything else that came after it,
- 25:47Speaker 2: for Star Trek is the most camp. It's not on
- 25:50Speaker 2: a Batman level, but it's you know, there's some ridiculousness
- 25:54Speaker 2: to it and the level of budget and effects. But yeah,
- 25:58Speaker 2: then it had its real had its kind of second
- 26:01Speaker 2: wind in the seventies, late seventies, which kind of you know,
- 26:06Speaker 2: was a decade before Batman had its second wind. But yeah,
- 26:10Speaker 2: I think what it really comes down to is, like
- 26:13Speaker 2: you said, John, the you know, quotability, relatability. I mean
- 26:18Speaker 2: you can say saying bat Time saying that channel. We
- 26:21Speaker 2: all know what you're talking about, you know, you can
- 26:24Speaker 2: say you're you're mock punching someone. You say, bam paw,
- 26:27Speaker 2: we all know what you're talking about. It's not in
- 26:30Speaker 2: a vacuum. It's not it's it's permeated culture so much.
- 26:36Speaker 7: And and also I'm not I'm a big Batman reader.
- 26:41Speaker 7: I've read a lot of comic books, Batman comic books,
- 26:44Speaker 7: but I am admittedly very weak when it comes to
- 26:48Speaker 7: pre nineteen eighties Batman. Mh so, did he did that Batman? John?
- 26:54Speaker 7: Do you know, like, did that Batman in pre nineteen
- 26:57Speaker 7: eighties comics label everything bad something?
- 27:02Speaker 6: It's a little fuzzy for me because the eighties is
- 27:05Speaker 6: really where like that was my childhood, so like that's
- 27:08Speaker 6: really where I became familiar with Batman. So like my
- 27:11Speaker 6: firsch my first touchstones with Batman, as it had evolved
- 27:15Speaker 6: beyond any of that type of stuff, I always considered
- 27:18Speaker 6: it more like comic books have always leaned into the
- 27:22Speaker 6: pretty ridiculous sound effects that they'll spell out.
- 27:25Speaker 7: M M. So.
- 27:26Speaker 6: I always took the sixty six TV show as that
- 27:30Speaker 6: was one of the things where they had real permission
- 27:32Speaker 6: to lean into it and just get completely zany with it.
- 27:35Speaker 4: And it's like an on screen joke.
- 27:37Speaker 6: It's not somebody saying buff, it's saying it there in
- 27:42Speaker 6: the manner of the way they would draw it in
- 27:44Speaker 6: any comic at that time.
- 27:46Speaker 7: Well, the main reason why I ask and listeners please
- 27:49Speaker 7: please write us if you know the answer. But it's
- 27:55Speaker 7: became it became very much a joke later on in
- 27:58Speaker 7: the series that whenever Batman created something, he was so
- 28:03Speaker 7: good at branding, like he would always put his his
- 28:05Speaker 7: logo on everything. He was a great marketer. And but
- 28:09Speaker 7: he would also say bat whatever, bat cal that you know,
- 28:14Speaker 7: I'm blanking on example, bat shield, whatever the thing is.
- 28:18Speaker 7: And so it makes me so it makes me wonder
- 28:20Speaker 7: if that's was started because of the show or if
- 28:24Speaker 7: the show just made it explode, because it was something
- 28:27Speaker 7: that was referenced in the comics before the show. And
- 28:30Speaker 7: there's one example that I absolutely freaking love. It's when
- 28:34Speaker 7: bats is with Harley Quinn and he pulls out a
- 28:37Speaker 7: little a little charging device in its shaped like a
- 28:40Speaker 7: bat and he goes, it's a bat to ree and
- 28:43Speaker 7: Harley Quinn goes, shut up.
- 28:46Speaker 4: Yeah, I uh, the thing is.
- 28:48Speaker 6: I think it did, because like that that's also sort
- 28:50Speaker 6: of a hallmark of comics of the time, like even Superman.
- 28:54Speaker 6: The the s shield would be on everything and and
- 28:59Speaker 6: so Yeah, in terms of the branding again, I think, yeah,
- 29:03Speaker 6: that's just part and parcel of it.
- 29:05Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not the biggest lore comic person, but
- 29:10Speaker 2: from what little bits I researched, I think the sixties
- 29:14Speaker 2: Batman was heavily inspired by the forties Batman. So that's
- 29:18Speaker 2: like even more classic comics and such. So and I
- 29:23Speaker 2: can't say if they had the bam paws, but it
- 29:26Speaker 2: feels like the sixties was kind of that second wind
- 29:30Speaker 2: of the forties, and you had people who grew up
- 29:32Speaker 2: on that, but it definitely was its own own thing,
- 29:36Speaker 2: so much so that it kind of reculturally reset Batman
- 29:42Speaker 2: for everybody, which kind of again also happened in the
- 29:45Speaker 2: eighties to a to a point, not erasing what came before,
- 29:49Speaker 2: but was a new introduction point. Yeah.
- 29:57Speaker 6: The thing is, as we keep talking about it, like,
- 29:59Speaker 6: there's sort of a thing where I think another thing
- 30:01Speaker 6: that puts a shelf on it, as you would say, Tristan,
- 30:05Speaker 6: is that the ending of it isn't an ending, And
- 30:10Speaker 6: I think that there's there's almost like a sense of
- 30:14Speaker 6: commercial breaks through this thing where it you know, I
- 30:17Speaker 6: might have seen it on Uninterrupted, but I was expecting
- 30:22Speaker 6: commercial breaks because it was very much just structured.
- 30:25Speaker 2: Like there were bets along that episode could and it
- 30:29Speaker 2: was it felt yeah, oh yeah, that's true.
- 30:33Speaker 6: That might be another capp or for it too, because
- 30:36Speaker 6: like even the beginning isn't really a beginning, Like you
- 30:38Speaker 6: don't get the Batman theme and the you know, no
- 30:41Speaker 6: no no no no no, no no no no, like
- 30:43Speaker 6: you don't get that big thing. Instead it's the searchlight
- 30:45Speaker 6: going around where it's like, hey, oh, I'm not taking
- 30:49Speaker 6: anything away from it, you know what I'm saying, You're not.
- 30:52Speaker 4: Yeah, it just almost feels weird.
- 30:55Speaker 7: It felt different, It felt interesting. It was one of
- 30:58Speaker 7: those moments when you're just like, oh, yeah, this is
- 31:00Speaker 7: a movie.
- 31:01Speaker 4: Okay.
- 31:01Speaker 7: Like this one of those few times when I was
- 31:03Speaker 7: just like, Okay, this is a movie. It's like when
- 31:05Speaker 7: animated movies based off of TV shows just add more
- 31:09Speaker 7: shadow to the sides of the characters to indicate that
- 31:12Speaker 7: it's a movie. It was that intro was just like,
- 31:15Speaker 7: this is different from the show from season one.
- 31:17Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think I think that Another nice
- 31:20Speaker 6: thing about it is, you know, this is where the
- 31:23Speaker 6: old man grape always shows up you know modern movies now,
- 31:28Speaker 6: but like another nice artifact at the time is because
- 31:32Speaker 6: it was in the technicolor phase of the world where
- 31:36Speaker 6: they were like, if it's if anybody's gonna be watching
- 31:38Speaker 6: this in black and white, they still have to have
- 31:40Speaker 6: some really killer color separations so it doesn't all look
- 31:43Speaker 6: like a wash of gray.
- 31:45Speaker 4: So everything's so colorful in this movie that it's just beauty.
- 31:50Speaker 4: Like you can you can just see just this wash
- 31:54Speaker 4: like it.
- 31:55Speaker 6: It looks like a living comic book because of how
- 31:58Speaker 6: yellow Robin's Cape is, because of exactly how red the
- 32:03Speaker 6: reds are and all of that type of stuff, And
- 32:05Speaker 6: it's like it's I really hope things gravitate back toward
- 32:09Speaker 6: this sort of thing where it's like, you know what,
- 32:12Speaker 6: let's take the filter off of the lens, guys, let's
- 32:15Speaker 6: just really go crazy.
- 32:17Speaker 7: Let's just a you know, I'm just imagining Snyder with
- 32:20Speaker 7: his finger on the slide right there, saturation slider, and
- 32:24Speaker 7: just bring it all the way down to fifteen.
- 32:27Speaker 6: I was mentally doing that exact thing where I was
- 32:30Speaker 6: like Robin's Cape it was gonna look orangish and like
- 32:33Speaker 6: a burnt color on the edges by the time we're
- 32:36Speaker 6: done with this here. Yeah, well it's an artistic choice,
- 32:40Speaker 6: but you know, I don't know, I really like the
- 32:42Speaker 6: color of everything. I like how much it just absolutely
- 32:46Speaker 6: there's no you don't lose a single element in the background.
- 32:50Speaker 6: There's no like I would have to turn my TV
- 32:53Speaker 6: off to make it dark enough to lose the separations
- 32:56Speaker 6: on everything. And I think that's that's a beautiful thing,
- 32:59Speaker 6: especially for something like this.
- 33:01Speaker 2: Well, and that's also the nice thing as I'm pretty
- 33:04Speaker 2: sure they shot the sixties show on film, as most
- 33:08Speaker 2: shows were shot that way back then that weren't sitcoms
- 33:13Speaker 2: like where you had a standing set, and it was
- 33:15Speaker 2: much more contained. So yeah, the visual look, it just
- 33:21Speaker 2: goes right from the show into the movie, which except for,
- 33:25Speaker 2: like you said, it's a little bit wider, you know,
- 33:27Speaker 2: and a little bit bigger budget, but not so much
- 33:30Speaker 2: too distract from from what it is. And hey, they're like, oh,
- 33:34Speaker 2: we got some shots of the you know, the back copter,
- 33:37Speaker 2: so we can intercut that in future episodes, you know,
- 33:41Speaker 2: because why not, you know, we used the use the money.
- 33:44Speaker 6: You gotta think like a producer man, you know, can
- 33:46Speaker 6: I can I reuse something, although there is something slightly
- 33:49Speaker 6: controversial maybe that that I want to ask you, Tristan,
- 33:52Speaker 6: because back when we talked about Oliver Stones, absolutely classic JFK,
- 33:56Speaker 6: I pointed out, you know, some of his commentary about LBJ,
- 34:00Speaker 6: and we have a very LBJ like hand and dog
- 34:03Speaker 6: in this he's portrayed as something of a glory hound, right,
- 34:06Speaker 6: not the nicest, you know, most virtuous guy.
- 34:09Speaker 4: Did you have a problem with this portrayal of LBJ.
- 34:12Speaker 4: I'm just curious.
- 34:14Speaker 7: I did think of you when it popped up, because
- 34:16Speaker 7: I actually started thinking about how I kind of missed
- 34:20Speaker 7: the days where we would just see the back of
- 34:24Speaker 7: a president or the back of the head, or maybe
- 34:28Speaker 7: like a voice on the phone, and we all know
- 34:30Speaker 7: who it's supposed to be, right, Like we all know
- 34:32Speaker 7: they don't say, you know, President Johnson, they don't say LBJ.
- 34:36Speaker 7: They don't say they just say mister president. Like if
- 34:40Speaker 7: it's you know, like if this was in the early nineties,
- 34:43Speaker 7: we hear a voice like this, we know it's going
- 34:46Speaker 7: to be a bad impression of Bill Clinton, and it's
- 34:50Speaker 7: part of me misses those days. I feel like contact
- 34:53Speaker 7: ruined it.
- 34:55Speaker 4: I would say that Forrest Gump was the first one.
- 34:56Speaker 7: Yeah, you're right, you're right. Forrest, come to the first Forrest,
- 34:59Speaker 7: come to the first right, you know.
- 35:02Speaker 6: Like that that's sort of the That was where they
- 35:04Speaker 6: towed it right up to the line. But I think
- 35:06Speaker 6: you're right the contact was what was like what line
- 35:09Speaker 6: and just erased it.
- 35:11Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 35:14Speaker 7: I one thing about this is that's very different from
- 35:19Speaker 7: later films that we'll definitely discuss is Gotham is not
- 35:23Speaker 7: really a city. It's not.
- 35:27Speaker 2: Yeah, it's near well kind of near the coast, but
- 35:30Speaker 2: it doesn't feel like it. When you're flying over it.
- 35:32Speaker 2: It feels like it's in the Midwest.
- 35:35Speaker 7: But I mean, I mean it was clearly a coastal
- 35:37Speaker 7: because he could barely get rid of a get rid
- 35:39Speaker 7: of a bomb with all they just can't get rid
- 35:41Speaker 7: of a bomb. Yeah, that's it, you know, But what
- 35:43Speaker 7: did you guys think about that? I mean, it's so
- 35:45Speaker 7: hard to go back in time. I mean, back then,
- 35:48Speaker 7: they wouldn't even thought twice about it that there's like,
- 35:50Speaker 7: oh yeah, Batman and Robin are in Gotham City. Gotham
- 35:54Speaker 7: wasn't really a character then, at least not in the
- 35:57Speaker 7: nineteen sixty six show. And that's it from eighty nine forward.
- 36:02Speaker 7: In terms of in the cinematic history of Batman, Gotham
- 36:05Speaker 7: is its own character, has its own vitality and vibe,
- 36:10Speaker 7: and and it's living. It's it's it's its own entity.
- 36:13Speaker 7: Do you feel like it was lacking here or did
- 36:15Speaker 7: you just not notice it? Don't care.
- 36:19Speaker 6: I don't think that this Batman exists in the gritty
- 36:22Speaker 6: Gotham And so no, like this is this is any
- 36:26Speaker 6: city us a sort of thing. This isn't h This
- 36:29Speaker 6: isn't a Batman dealing with the you know, the ethical
- 36:32Speaker 6: problems of street crime. He's fighting supervillains. You know, the
- 36:36Speaker 6: problem that Gotham has is everybody's fine. It's the supervillains
- 36:40Speaker 6: that are the problem.
- 36:41Speaker 2: You know.
- 36:41Speaker 4: It's it's not.
- 36:44Speaker 2: Other things, not Batman.
- 36:46Speaker 4: And they're doing a fine job. It's fine. The streets
- 36:48Speaker 4: are clean, everything's fine. Zero corruption rights.
- 36:53Speaker 7: Worried about trust?
- 36:54Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I'm right, there's no Yeah, Commissioner Gordon
- 36:59Speaker 6: is not fighting institutional rot from the inside or anything
- 37:04Speaker 6: like that.
- 37:04Speaker 7: That's the thing is like this, this joker is not
- 37:06Speaker 7: going to be releasing smilex on the population population of Gotham.
- 37:11Speaker 4: Like possibly weed. But like you know there's smiles.
- 37:15Speaker 2: Well, and they were all all the villains were kind
- 37:17Speaker 2: of just against Batman. They just all wanted to get
- 37:21Speaker 2: and kill Batman. That was their only really thing.
- 37:24Speaker 7: No, they wanted a billion from each country.
- 37:27Speaker 6: Yeah good, Yes, when you adjust for inflation, was a
- 37:30Speaker 6: really that was a lot of money back.
- 37:32Speaker 2: That's that was an that's the amount of money that
- 37:34Speaker 2: makes you think the Austin Powers are. They just laugh
- 37:36Speaker 2: because that money just isn't even a thing in sixty six.
- 37:41Speaker 2: It's just like it's like, oh, we want eight trillion dollars.
- 37:44Speaker 2: It's like, okay, domestic product of a country. Sure, we'll
- 37:48Speaker 2: just put that in a truck for you. Like no, yeah,
- 37:52Speaker 2: I uh yeah.
- 37:54Speaker 6: They they want money, but like there and their their
- 37:57Speaker 6: motivations for what they are, they're super villa and their motivations.
- 38:01Speaker 6: They just want to be rich.
- 38:03Speaker 7: I was like, okay, I heard some I shouldn't say
- 38:06Speaker 7: I heard I read somebody kind of compare the villain
- 38:11Speaker 7: plot of this movie to a workplace comedy because I
- 38:16Speaker 7: know it's kind of it's I know it's kind of
- 38:18Speaker 7: loose and don't take it, you know, too literally, but
- 38:21Speaker 7: just in this movie, they're all working together they all
- 38:25Speaker 7: have their own jobs, like you have jokers kind of
- 38:28Speaker 7: a manager, you have Penguin, Whula's logistics, and Catwoman's the
- 38:32Speaker 7: only competent person trying to get stuff done. And you know,
- 38:37Speaker 7: Riddler's the idea guy who's a little kind of like
- 38:39Speaker 7: a wallflower but still unhinged, and they all are interacting together,
- 38:44Speaker 7: and like of course, like in the in the comics
- 38:47Speaker 7: they do this all the time, but in a kind
- 38:50Speaker 7: of a gritty realism way. All these people would be
- 38:53Speaker 7: at each other's throats and killing each other, but in
- 38:55Speaker 7: sixty six, it just they're all just laughing at each
- 38:57Speaker 7: other and insulting each other and just moving on and bickering.
- 39:01Speaker 4: Always like to take it out by.
- 39:05Speaker 2: How much the villains get along and actually work together.
- 39:09Speaker 2: In this it's kind of jarring because every other team
- 39:12Speaker 2: up we see it's usually undone because they just can't
- 39:16Speaker 2: not fight each other. But in this they can. There's
- 39:21Speaker 2: barely even any hedgeman, you know, yoho.
- 39:24Speaker 7: I think that's why the League of Doom was so
- 39:27Speaker 7: fun in the cartoon. We got to see this thank you,
- 39:31Speaker 7: thank you, Legion of Doom. We got to see them
- 39:33Speaker 7: the l O d We got to see them together
- 39:35Speaker 7: all the time.
- 39:37Speaker 6: You know, no, because I'm evil, but like even the
- 39:44Speaker 6: Legion of Doom, they're all like bickering around a conference table,
- 39:47Speaker 6: you know, and like and Solomon Grundy's there, like, you know,
- 39:51Speaker 6: like that guy would ever be.
- 39:54Speaker 7: Yeah, right, I remember there was a Robot Chicken episode
- 39:58Speaker 7: where Lex Luthor is giving like reading the minutes from
- 40:03Speaker 7: the previous meeting to the Legion of Doom, and then
- 40:06Speaker 7: he also has some announcements. He's like to the person
- 40:09Speaker 7: who is wiping their boogers above the urinal in the
- 40:13Speaker 7: men's bathroom.
- 40:15Speaker 4: Stop it.
- 40:19Speaker 7: Even has to deal with this nuts.
- 40:22Speaker 6: Yeah, even the villains are bureaucratically challenged, as he remember
- 40:27Speaker 6: to pay your dues for this month because the Legion
- 40:31Speaker 6: HQ is not going to fund itself.
- 40:35Speaker 7: Did you guys ever watch the cartoons that came out
- 40:38Speaker 7: a couple of years ago? Of course, Yeah. I still
- 40:40Speaker 7: haven't watched.
- 40:41Speaker 4: Him, William Shatner playing two Face. I was signed up immediately.
- 40:45Speaker 7: I have no idea why I haven't watched him yet.
- 40:47Speaker 4: I need to do that.
- 40:48Speaker 6: It's not as fulfilling as you would hope, but it's
- 40:52Speaker 6: still like Return of the Cape Crusaders. I loved, but
- 40:55Speaker 6: I remember that one, the two face one was it
- 40:58Speaker 6: was good. It wasn't great, it was good. But yeah,
- 41:02Speaker 6: you know, I think, uh, I think probably this this
- 41:08Speaker 6: movie will. I think this movie will fade in time though,
- 41:11Speaker 6: and it makes me sad, but I think it'll fade
- 41:14Speaker 6: in time because even trying to get my kid or
- 41:18Speaker 6: my kids along the way to watch this, it it's
- 41:22Speaker 6: just it doesn't work. There's there is too much that
- 41:26Speaker 6: sixty years is a long time and.
- 41:31Speaker 4: It I think this will. I don't think it'll disappear.
- 41:34Speaker 6: I think it'll become so niche at some point that
- 41:39Speaker 6: you know, it's gonna become like the uh, it's like
- 41:41Speaker 6: the final level. It's it's gonna hit that level of
- 41:44Speaker 6: like when you view this, it's like viewing the Star
- 41:47Speaker 6: Wars Holiday Special. You've finally seen everything. That moment isn't
- 41:51Speaker 6: necessarily right now, but there is a moment in the
- 41:54Speaker 6: future where viewing this is gonna be like, oh, did
- 41:56Speaker 6: you know that they made one from that TV show
- 41:58Speaker 6: they did? Yeah, let me show it to you, Like
- 42:02Speaker 6: this is sort of like the final achievement level.
- 42:05Speaker 7: Yeah. I tried showing this to my oldest when she
- 42:09Speaker 7: was a lot younger, and we only made it through
- 42:12Speaker 7: like maybe two and a half episodes before she lost
- 42:16Speaker 7: all interest. And she's nine now, and when she came
- 42:19Speaker 7: down the stairs, I had it on and I just
- 42:22Speaker 7: hear behind me, so it made an impression. But actually
- 42:28Speaker 7: what she absolutely loves is bat Wheels where it's a
- 42:34Speaker 7: kids show. It's a cgi kids show because all of
- 42:37Speaker 7: them are now and it's all about the vehicles of
- 42:42Speaker 7: the bat family. Like it's kind of like cars, so
- 42:45Speaker 7: they're like sentient. Yeah, it's like cars the the Pixar
- 42:50Speaker 7: movies with Batman, and there is one that is voiced
- 42:55Speaker 7: by Adam West and that's her touchstone to that Adam West.
- 43:00Speaker 7: Batman is the car that's voiced by Adam West, and
- 43:03Speaker 7: she that's her favorite car from the show because she's like,
- 43:06Speaker 7: he calls everybody chum. It's hilarious and and also, uh,
- 43:13Speaker 7: Ethan Hawk is Batman?
- 43:15Speaker 4: Really? Yes?
- 43:16Speaker 7: Okay, it does an amazing Batman and no disrespect, a
- 43:22Speaker 7: little disrespect, but a little disrespect to the show bat Wheels.
- 43:25Speaker 7: It is. He's waste. He's wasted on that show. Like
- 43:29Speaker 7: we need to get him in some sort of like
- 43:32Speaker 7: high profile voice role for Batman. He is a perfect
- 43:36Speaker 7: Batman voice.
- 43:37Speaker 4: And now I gotta go check out bat Wheels.
- 43:41Speaker 2: No, I really agree with you John about you know
- 43:45Speaker 2: it losing that kind of touchstone. And I have a
- 43:50Speaker 2: theory on it because I've started to notice this as
- 43:53Speaker 2: well with with other kids and my own kids, that
- 43:57Speaker 2: the upcoming generation it's it's not that it's sixty years old.
- 44:03Speaker 2: It's because the method of continuing the legacy, the channels
- 44:09Speaker 2: that we would watch things on are gone, or changing
- 44:14Speaker 2: the fact that there's no rerun TV where you couldn't
- 44:18Speaker 2: control what was shown. And you turn on the television
- 44:22Speaker 2: and oh, it's ten pm on Saturday and they're showing
- 44:26Speaker 2: Batman and you were, and everyone who was watching it
- 44:28Speaker 2: right now is exposed to that, and they're going to
- 44:31Speaker 2: talk about it in school or with their friends, and
- 44:34Speaker 2: it's going to naturally propagate now because everything is on
- 44:39Speaker 2: demand unless you choose or your parents show you there.
- 44:45Speaker 2: So and it's not just Batman like I'm feeling, and
- 44:48Speaker 2: I'm not saying this is negative, it's just what's happening
- 44:51Speaker 2: is there's this massive like gap in the old lore
- 44:57Speaker 2: of everything that a pair parents age population grew up
- 45:02Speaker 2: on and the next generation where if you don't become
- 45:06Speaker 2: the bridge like Star Trek or Star Wars or anything
- 45:10Speaker 2: to a degree, then it's it's just not propagating as
- 45:14Speaker 2: much because they're not going to just discover it now.
- 45:18Speaker 2: You know, we are the torch bearers to pass it
- 45:21Speaker 2: on to our kids. But that just becomes what are
- 45:25Speaker 2: your parents like and what then what are you exposed
- 45:28Speaker 2: to as a child. So it's it's just it's interesting times.
- 45:33Speaker 4: I mean, that's a fair point.
- 45:35Speaker 6: Like, you know, going back to my story of encountering it,
- 45:38Speaker 6: like I watched the show simply because I was trapped
- 45:42Speaker 6: and like what else was I going to watch? General Hospital?
- 45:45Speaker 6: You know, It's like three o'clock on a Thursday afternoon,
- 45:48Speaker 6: and I don't want to go outside.
- 45:49Speaker 4: I know that that G I.
- 45:51Speaker 6: Joe or Transformers or Robotech is on the other side
- 45:54Speaker 6: of this particular half hour, and it's like I turned on.
- 45:56Speaker 6: I'm like, fine, fine, I'll endure this. That's fine, And
- 46:01Speaker 6: it's over time, I guess, you know, just sort of
- 46:03Speaker 6: like inculcates in your brain, you know, as you're going along.
- 46:08Speaker 6: So that's a fair point though, like everything is so
- 46:11Speaker 6: fractured and you don't have the I guess the Stockholm
- 46:15Speaker 6: syndrome that developed in somebody like me of watching the
- 46:19Speaker 6: sixty six show so much that.
- 46:20Speaker 4: Eventually I'm like, no, actually I like this.
- 46:22Speaker 6: See previous things I've said about Star Trek five for
- 46:25Speaker 6: more of an illustration of this matter.
- 46:27Speaker 7: So yeah, yeah, no.
- 46:29Speaker 2: But then to Tristan's point, they, you know, the franchises
- 46:33Speaker 2: are continuing to try to make new content to hook
- 46:38Speaker 2: the next generation because they know if they don't, it's
- 46:41Speaker 2: just sliding away into obscurity. And so yeah, so for
- 46:46Speaker 2: for his kids, it's it's batwheels, and maybe that will
- 46:50Speaker 2: lead to sure watching you know, other Batman as age
- 46:54Speaker 2: appropriate and it grows. But it's it's just really interesting.
- 46:59Speaker 2: It's not as cut and dry or simple as it
- 47:03Speaker 2: was of like, well, you just show it on television
- 47:05Speaker 2: or you just show it on movies and people just
- 47:08Speaker 2: pick it.
- 47:09Speaker 7: Up back when you have four channels to choose from.
- 47:12Speaker 2: All right, well, let's circle through our ratings for Batman,
- 47:18Speaker 2: the movie from nineteen sixty six. Matt uh, Well, I
- 47:23Speaker 2: think i'll go first. Man Man. I'm going to god, gosh,
- 47:29Speaker 2: I'm going to give this a two. It is not
- 47:32Speaker 2: you know, I gotta give my monster room to grow.
- 47:35Speaker 3: It is.
- 47:37Speaker 2: It is enjoyable, but it is so cringe. It is
- 47:40Speaker 2: so cringe. Although I will laugh because as I was watching,
- 47:44Speaker 2: my wife came in and was like, oh, has the
- 47:47Speaker 2: kind porpoise sacrifice itself. I'm like, that's actually about to
- 47:50Speaker 2: happen in like thirty seconds they're on the buoy. So yeah,
- 47:54Speaker 2: it's relatable, it's a touchstone, it's quotable. But you got
- 48:00Speaker 2: to drag me, you know, in front of my screen
- 48:03Speaker 2: to get me to watch this again. It's it's I'm
- 48:06Speaker 2: not going to watch this for another couple of years
- 48:08Speaker 2: when it's an anniversary edition. I'm sorry. It's just my take.
- 48:12Speaker 2: And I'm also trying to leave a little bit of
- 48:14Speaker 2: room because we can't give every single Batman a five.
- 48:17Speaker 2: Like I know we're not going to, but we're gonna.
- 48:21Speaker 2: I'm setting the floor, okay, and the floor is a two, Tristan,
- 48:25Speaker 2: what is your bat rating?
- 48:28Speaker 7: I'm giving this three ducks that don't perish from the bomb.
- 48:35Speaker 7: That's what I'm giving this. Even though we're heaping this
- 48:38Speaker 7: movie with praise, even though we're have nothing but nice
- 48:43Speaker 7: things to say about it, I feel like we're talking
- 48:46Speaker 7: mainly about the show and its legacy itself more so
- 48:51Speaker 7: than just the movie. Like cause if we were if
- 48:54Speaker 7: this movie existed in a vacuum, which it doesn't, if
- 48:58Speaker 7: the movie existed in a vacuum, and this was the
- 49:00Speaker 7: only thing that you ever knew about at a West
- 49:02Speaker 7: Batman or Batman nineteen sixty six or that genre that era,
- 49:06Speaker 7: it would be like, oh wow, wow, this is crazy,
- 49:08Speaker 7: Like this is this is wacky, like it was funny,
- 49:11Speaker 7: but like, okay, you know, let's let's move on to
- 49:13Speaker 7: something else. But because you have three seasons and it
- 49:17Speaker 7: was perpetuated in pop culture, we look on it much
- 49:20Speaker 7: much more fondly. And so I'm giving this a loving
- 49:23Speaker 7: three stars for the fun that it has, but I'm
- 49:28Speaker 7: not giving it five stars because I'm not like jumping
- 49:32Speaker 7: up and down at every single scene.
- 49:35Speaker 2: All right, and you John, how many dehy rated rehydrated
- 49:38Speaker 2: vials do you give this?
- 49:40Speaker 4: One? Oh? Three?
- 49:42Speaker 6: Definitely a three, Like Tristan was saying, we're heaping praise,
- 49:46Speaker 6: but it's always with that qualifier for what it is.
- 49:49Speaker 6: And you know, you're absolutely right, Triustan, this doesn't exist
- 49:53Speaker 6: in a vacuum. This is not them doing anything besides
- 49:57Speaker 6: throwing it up there so that the kids who haven't
- 50:00Speaker 6: seen season one, Hey, this is a TV show, guys,
- 50:03Speaker 6: and so when it comes on the next season, they'll
- 50:06Speaker 6: tune in and hopefully boost the ratings and sell more toys.
- 50:09Speaker 4: So, yeah, this is a three. It's a very loving three,
- 50:13Speaker 4: you know.
- 50:13Speaker 6: I every time it comes on, I'm like, eh, you know,
- 50:16Speaker 6: I'll watch a couple of minutes of this, but it's
- 50:18Speaker 6: not something where I'm like, I gotta watch the whole thing.
- 50:20Speaker 4: Like I can watch pieces of this and be fine.
- 50:23Speaker 4: So it's a three, all right.
- 50:25Speaker 2: Well, as we continue the wing of Batman next week,
- 50:28Speaker 2: we'll be covering director Tim Burton covering Batman nineteen eighty
- 50:33Speaker 2: nine and Batman returns from nineteen ninety two. Next on
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