Adam & Burt, worked to death?

[Progress Pigment]

I remember reading in the "Official Bat-Book" where Shelly Winters mentioned in an interview that West & Ward looked half dead from exhaustion during her episode. Having done the film & still filming episodes (this was an early 2nd season one) without a break would certainly be the culprit. I wouldn't take anything Shelly Winters said as 100% true, but check out this still from (I believe) the Egghead episode. They both look absolutely wiped!

[Gorshin Romero]

I don't know about being worked to death, and like you, I also would take anything Shelley Winters said with a few grains of salt. That said, I have no doubt that working on a weekly series can be rather grueling, even if the performers are enjoying themselves just the same. Barry Williams said that if it looked like they were having fun on "The Brady Bunch" well, they were, but make no mistake that it was hard work. I hear that Frances Bavier ("Aunt Bea") had difficulty on "The Andy Griffith Show" because she was a stage actress unaccustomed to television acting. Stage actors rehearse for several weeks and memorize their lines and blocking to create a character. Television actors are regularly given lines and blocking and then it's routinely changed on them the following day after they've already memorized their parts, so I can see how this would be stressful to any performers. Recently in "The Actors Studio" the cast of "Mad Men" pointed out that "there are no rehearsals." They get their lines over the weekend and come Monday morning they are expected to know their parts for the shooting episode, and yes their directions certainly can change within the course of the week even after they spent their weekends memorizing and learning their roles.

Such is the nature of the beast, I suppose.

[Bat-Tiger]

That's very possible, we only know by secondhand information what being on the set was really like.

They could have taped shows back to back as a cost cutting measure, cramming as much into one day as possible.

But every behind the scenes photo I've ever seen, they look like they're having a ball.

I guess only Adam & Burt could tell us for sure.

[eewdoc]

I can't speak for them being wore out, But that photo is from season 3. I can tell by batman's cowl. Robin's mask, with the oversized eye holes. Is also from season 3.

[Chuck Williams]

Being on set is exhausting . Film crews work 10-12 hours or more and day, 6 days a week.
It's boring, tedious and monotonous 90% of the time with splashes of fun and focus in between.

In my limited experience rolling from one production to the next to stay busy and employed , after a couple of months you get a little nutty and all you want to do is sleep.

Seeing that if they weren't filming, they were promoting or doing personal appearances.
I can't even image the level of exhaustion after months of it.

My two cents...

[Dr. Shimel]

The fact that they filmed 94 half-hour episodes AND did a feature film in the span of 18 months is reason enough to buy the theory, regardless of what Shelley had to say. Most half-hour shows now are lucky if they do one-third of that amount of shows in the same time span, and that doesn't even count any movie.

[Gernot]

So, in the Archer episode, Commissioner Gordon WAS right! Batman should have eaten all of his vegetables!

[Dr. Shimel]

So, in the Archer episode, Commissioner Gordon WAS right! Batman should have eaten all of his vegetables!

No, his veg-e-tables.