Batman at the Boxoffice

[Bob Furmanek]

I suppose for the same reason Yvonne repeats the 4th season NBC myth: print the legend.

Incidentally, shortly before his contract was signed for Batman, Adam nearly had an accident on location.

"Adam West okay after narrow escape from serious injury while shooting double-less sequence lor "The Four Inexorable Ones" in Spain, heads back to Rome early in August after pic winds Hiberic location work."
Published Date: August 11th, 1965

[epaddon]

Based on his original contract, Adam was not making a lot of money on the show. As an inexperienced actor, I'm sure Burt got even less.

Not only much less than Adam but in S3 Burt was being paid less per episode than Yvonne Craig was!

At the rate this debunking is going maybe we should then ask if the producers of "The Graduate" *really* wanted Burt and thus "Batman" cost him his supposed chance for stardom beyond the series?

[High C]

Dozier did not cave in to Adam's demands. Adam got $100,000 for the feature film, but certainly no second film out of it.

Burt was paid $35,000.

[epaddon]

There's another reason why actors will likely repeat these stories that aren't really true. They need them for the convention/interview/banquet circuit to earn their keep. Former athletes are also notorious for this kind of thing where they will describe things from games that get great laughs from audiences because they're such wonderful stories but then thanks to things like Retrosheet that let us check the play by play accounts, we discover that these incidents could never have happened in the first place! (or at least not the way they are told if they have a partial basis in truth).

[Dr. Shimel]

At the rate this debunking is going maybe we should then ask if the producers of "The Graduate" *really* wanted Burt and thus "Batman" cost him his supposed chance for stardom beyond the series?

"Holy infidelity, Mrs. Robinson."

One myth the Eisner book did put to rest was the absurd notion that "Joan Crawford played the Devil" that was part of an arcade trivia game. Instead, JOHN Crawford played Printer's DEVIL in the Bookworm eps.

My guess on why Adam and Burt kept up the tale was out of bitterness, since I know at one point they sued over syndication money or other revenue that was still streaming in a decade later.

[Bob Furmanek]

From Variety:

Adam West, Ward Sue For 'Batman Merchandise Coin
Adam West and Burt Ward are suing Greenway Prods., 20th-Fox, and ABC network for $8,000,000.
Published Date: August 18th, 1971

I feel it's important to get the stories straight. I know the Eisner Batbook was revised within the last few years but I don't have the new edition. Does anyone know if the information has been updated?

[Bob Furmanek]

There is no mention whatsoever in the trades of Burt Ward testing for THE GRADUATE.

With all due respect, I don't think he had the experience needed at that time.

[epaddon]

There really wasn't a whole lot of updating in the main text which was the thing I found disappointing at the time. He used to post here and the item I remember most he contributed (which didn't even end up in the book!) was the presence of Carolyn Jones and John Astin had been tied to burning off commitments ABC supposedly owed them contractually following the cancellation of "Addams Family".

[High C]

Guest Villain $2500.00 per two part show (1250.00 per half hour)

Since we're into mythbusting on this thread, I should note this is incorrect, per this site:

http://www.batmantelevisionseries.com/#!Scan 776.jpeg/zoom/cl3g/image1kmt

I don't know where the $2,500 figure originally came from, but Dozier's budget sheets show the payment was $3,500 per two-parter, although there were occasional exceptions.

[Black Bird of Prey]

I don't know where the $2,500 figure originally came from, but Dozier's budget sheets show the payment was $3,500 per two-parter, although there were occasional exceptions.

I've been going through those papers lately and it was definitely $3500 for the first two years. The exceptions are interesting in that Burgess Meredith got $4000 for his first appearance; but I hope he hung on to the extra $500 because for some reason, he seems to have been the only one besides Rudy Vallee, Glynis Johns, Vincent Price, and Anne Baxter (who all did three-part shows) not to get paid $2000 per half hour in the third season. Meredith, according to those documents still got $1750 per half hour. I wonder why he didn't benefit from the new pay scale.

Incidentally, I have been following a lot of these recent threads with great interest, and am delighted with all the new research being brought to light!

[Tom1980]

There really wasn't a whole lot of updating in the main text which was the thing I found disappointing at the time.

I have to agree. The new book cost a lot of money over here, and from the size I expected four times the content. But a lot of text was the same, padded out with lots of empty spaces, and poor photos - although a lot of them were new.

Most interesting fact was the original ending of the Bookworm episode. Do we have scripts which bear this out?

Another story we heard a bit was at the end of the Puzzler episode the fat henchman climbed on the wing and the plane tipped over? Did this really happen?

[Scott Sebring]

I suppose for the same reason Yvonne repeats the 4th season NBC myth: print the legend.

I can't remember if she and I discussed this personally or if this came up in one of those QnA convention sessions I attended but I thought she said that she had "heard" about the NBC interest later on but was never approached personally. I think I'll bring it up the next time we can get together which she has said "is overdue." As a note, I try not to talk about the "fanboy" type stuff as if I'm having an interview with her rather than a couple friends having a "real" conversation. LOl.

I also think Adam mentioned in his book that the film didn't do as well in the box office because people weren't as aware that it was all new footage and not just previous episodes strung together like they did with the Man from U.N.C.L.E. films. I could be wrong. I really need to dig out that book again.

[Bob Furmanek]

Thanks, Scott. I spent some time with Yvonne back when I lived in LA and was doing some work with Adam. She's a VERY sweet lady and it was a pleasure being in her company.

With that said, a story that was related to her sometime after the show was canceled should not have been put in print as fact unless there was some primary source material documentation to support it. As a writer and historian, you owe that much to your reader and should do complete research in order to get the information correct.

When we did our Abbott and Costello book in 1990, there were MANY stories from family, friends and co-workers that were clouded after 40+ years. As I mentioned, memories can be very tricky.

In this instance, you have something that was told second hand to Ms. Craig after the fact. With all due respect to Mr. Eisner, that's not enough to accept it as a documented fact.

[Scott Sebring]

As with so many fan books (ie: The Beatles, Elvis), myth, memory, recollection and "I once heard" make up so much of what becomes legacy. These are not court cases and no one is on trial here but it would be nice if folks understood that much of this stuff is not etched in factual stone and not get almost religiously fanatical about such lore when a counter point is brought forth. Especially if there is more documented proof saying as much. But, I would hope that writers of such books would put a little more disclaimer to the unproven stories with some kind of aside or footnote.
Thanks for all the fact finding you've been pursuing, Bob. You have my understanding and sympathies.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

I don't have the full document but this internal memo from March 3, 1966 is quite interesting:

That memo is incredible. $150,000? A second, non-Batman film starring Adam?

While we might think the series leads were overstepping their actual value, it is not uncommon for stars (and their agents) to grab all they can while the "fire" still burns (even if the Bat-fire was already dying to a point). Having said that, there was no way Zanuck and his then-troubled studio was going to capitulate to the demands of actors tied to a product that was considered a fad, not a long-term investment.