Rest in Peace Lorenzo Semple Jr

[Ricky]

Sad news indeed! An integral part of Batman history. Rest in peace!

[Ben Bentley]

Rest in peace, Lorenzo. You will be missed.

[Dynamic Duo]

He and William Dozier are directly responsible for us even having this forum.....he was a TV legend and pioneer, and I'm sure will be sorely missed by this community.

May his wonderful contribution to our lives be forever remembered, and may he rest in peace.

[Edward Nigma]

For me, he was the key behind-the-scenes person that made the first season so wonderful. Without him to set and maintain the delicate balance between seriousness and satire that made the first season what it was, the show quickly deteriorated to the point where the third season felt like a different show.

[Sol]

As many of you know, I'm sure, the late Mr. Semple was the screenwriter for the 1980 film "Flash Gordon". To those fans who live in the vicinity of Portland, Oregon you might want to consider seeing the stage musical FLASH AH-AHHH!, based on Mr. Semple's screenplay. I think most of the people in the audience have been fans of "Queen", as many of their songs have been cleverly worked into the plot. However, I am not a Queen fan (actually I'm not even much of a rock-n-roll fan), but as an appreciator of Lorenzo Semple's work and a lover of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, I still had a great time. In fact, I saw it twice during their original three weekend run. Due to its success, they are having an encore performance at the Star Theater at NW 6th & Burnside at 8 pm on April 25th.

If you'd like to watch it on-line, the Stageworks Ink website has a video posted of the show in its entirety. But it pales in comparison to actually being there.

[AHTrois]

Lorenzo's most crowning Bat-achievement: tendering the screenplay for the 1966 movie.

[/align]
Yup...virtually everything you saw on the Batman TV series and in the 1966 movie version---the onscreen comic blurbs in the fight sequences, the crooked camera angles during the villains' shots---Lorenzo was directly responsible for. When he departed the series after Season 2, a huge chunk of the show went with him.

Absent friends...

[John Mack]

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. He was so much a part of our life. The year "Never say never again" came out with Octopussy in competition, we saw "NSNA" as the much better better Bond flick. I can only say that his brand of genius will never be matched. Remember the good times. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-channel......

The Mack family
Tucson, AZ

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

I remember making the connection that he had penned both Batman and Flash Gordon, and thinking ahh, so that's why Flash Gordon was so much fun. Rest in Peace.

I see that Flash Gordon is listed for tonight at 8 pm Eastern on one of the free retro tv channels called Antenna TV.

Scott, that's so great that you were able to get that video with Mr Semple. Glad he knew that there were a lot of fans of his work out there.

[Sol]

Sadly, for time, I imagine, Antenna TV cut one of my favorite and most dramatic scenes: On the Hawkmen sky city, Ming meets with Flash and offers him the Earth as his own kingdom.

SPOILER!

Flash refuses. Endlessly noble, he'd rather be blasted to smithereens than make such a deal with the devil.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

Oh wow, they cut the movie? Bummer. I believe it, though. I've seen Antenna TV make other cuts.

Thank you for pointing out what was missing in the movie. Sounds like a good scene. I'm afraid I've been too busy trying to clear space on the DVR to sit down and watch Flash Gordon yet.

[Progress Pigment]

Flash Gordon(1980) bombed in the theater, but I noticed it picking up a cult following over the years, and now has a good reputation. I always thought it was great. 4 stars and 81% at Rotten Tomatoes is a bit of a coup. Consider Batman(1966) gets 4 stars & 79% while Batman(1989) gets 3 and a half stars 71%. Time often puts things in their proper perspective.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Others have observed that Semple's contribution is underrated, and that is true. If anyone could be considered the second half of the brain behind the '66 series, it was Semple. Without him, I cannot imagine the series taking off to be that phenomenon of TV and comic adaptations.

[Detective26]

A few years ago, I was in a room where the author Maria Semple was speaking .She wrote the hilarious books "Today Will Be Different" and "Where'd You Go Bernadette" - if you know Seattle, you know she skewers the place; she also wrote for "Mad About You" and "Arrested Development" and lives with George Meyer of Simpsons fame. So, you know, she was there because she is a Big Deal in her own right.

And she said something about "When my father was working on 'Parallax'..." and I interrupted her and said, "WAIT. Your FATHER was LORENZO SEMPLE JUNIOR?" and she looked at me like I was crazy, and said, "Um. Yeah?"

I said, "I hate to sound like a fanboy, but your father changed my life." I think she thought I was a little creepy.