TO THE BATPOLES podcast #81: Donna Loren takes us to School

[bat-rss]

An interview with Donna Loren, and an examination of the draft script of the #Batman66 arc she starred in, "The Joker Goes to School"! http://ow.ly/xSB930jdxFO

[Groovy Mike Decker]

Hey Guys I'm halfway through the latest episode and I want to clear up the "Dog George" mystery. Robin is undercover and is using the Military Phonetic Alphabet code. You know...Able, Baker, Charlie, DOG, Echo, Foxtrot, GEORGE, etc. Thus Dick Grayson...or D.G. is Dog George.

Elementary!

Hey, I'm surprised you didn't catch Batman referring to Susie as that little trick-ster. Oooo...saucy.


"Groovy" Mike

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Great show, guys.

Interesting observation about the all-white student body of the high school. While it might seem that Batman was painting an all-white world (at least with the school), I've noticed the series made a point about society being integrated by not making it a point. In other words, instead of the "special guest star" designed to make some social commentary, Batman often presented minorities--especially African Americans--cast as part of every part of society. For example, we see this in "He Meet's His Match, the Grisly Ghoul" (one of the policemen who discover the Dynamic Duo), a couple as guests at Bruce Wayne's party ("The Penguin's a Jinx"), the box office girl ("Death in Slow Motion")as well as one of the newspaper reporters (the movie) were all African American. Batman was very good at building a more balanced world without having to call attention to it.

I really appreciated Donna Loren's observations about Burt Ward, she's not the only person to make comments of that kind, but her first hand experience goes far in shattering some of the axe-grinding myths about Ward.

Dick Grayson nearly giving away his identity (during the student body meeting with Batman) felt like the series was trying to hammer home the idea that in or out of costume, Dick was in "Robin mode", ready to fight crime. I thought that was one of the more true-to-comic-books moments in the series, as it was not uncommon for comic book character true identities of the period to refer their costumed half (straight dialogue or thought balloons), or being engaged in something related to the villains.

Sooo...Adam made a habit of greeting Loren with kisses...I'll leave that to others to finally understand that he was not the kind of Boy Scout salute-waving, milk drinking character he played on TV.

[clavierankh]

Dick"s code name is simple. Dog George is D G in the phonetic alphabet. Dog George is Dick Grayson.

[bat-rss]

Hornet, good point about the integrated society of Batman. Yes, African-Americans have bit parts with some regularity. I seem to recall the guard faced by Zelda in the first scene of that story was black.

And of course, the point has been made elsewhere that Twitter would probably melt down over a Hispanic Joker and a black Catwoman, and yet, in 1967...

[Dan E Kool]

Great job, Tim! That interview was a real winner. Neither the questions nor the answers ever dragged and the whole thing felt natural and fluid.

Dick Grayson nearly giving away his identity (during the student body meeting with Batman) felt like the series was trying to hammer home the idea that in or out of costume, Dick was in "Robin mode", ready to fight crime. I thought that was one of the more true-to-comic-books moments in the series, as it was not uncommon for comic book character true identities of the period to refer their costumed half (straight dialogue or thought balloons), or being engaged in something related to the villains.

I agree. It feels like a very comic-inspired moment to me and always gets a chuckle for Dick's (and Batman's) naivety.

Beyond the comic inspiration, though, I wonder if it was done to keep a new audience in the loop. This was an early episode and seems to have been planned by Semple as being even earlier. Having Dick Grayson show some Robin-like mannerisms might help viewers who hadn't seen other episodes or weren't privy to the whole dual identities thing. Just a guess.

As far as comic inspiration goes, Semple's directions for up-close Bat Fights seems to me to come straight from the comics as well.



I don't think of those wide angle shots of later episodes when I think of comic book fight scenes, anyway. A closer view gives a better sense of action.

My only comment on the episode proper is about that weightlifting scene in the Woodrow Roosevelt High School gym. Tim and Paul mention that Semple had planned for Dick Grayson to do some "impressive exercises" and it was wondered if Burt Ward had been up to it. Judging by his audition tape, I think he could have done something more than what we got:

[YouTube]https://youtu.be/_Ukf9cYBzdg[/YouTube]

But as something of an amateur weightlifter myself, I find the way that Dick Grayson cleans that barbell to his shoulders, only to reverse his grip and start curling it, to be so hilarious I wouldn't change it at all. Ditto to Batman's final launch of the barbell towards the Joker in part two! Perhaps it was another attempt by this episode at being current. Beyond the power outages in New York and the teen angst, bodybuilding and weightlifting were starting to become more mainstream in this decade. The movie "Muscle Beach Party" from a couple years earlier comes to mind. As does a second place win in the Mr Universe contest by an Austrian immigrant named Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1966...

[High C]

I enjoyed the podcast as always. Again, it's so great to have you guys back on the airwaves.

The interview with Donna Loren was terrific! She still sounds as enthusiastic and personable at 70 as she did at 17. I too, was dismayed at Adam kissing her for no reason. I also was surprised that they made her read for the part. I know she didn't have a ton of acting credits on her resume at that juncture, but I'd be shocked if they made Lesley Gore read in season 2...

Plus, I'm surprised they had the time to have someone read, given the breakneck pace they already were going at to crank out these episodes.

I thought Tim made a great point about Batman saying 'Schoolfield.' That didn't sound like the Bright Knight. Again, it shows how even for Semple, the overall tone of the show still was a work in progress, at least in terms of some of the smaller touches.

Joker trying to poison Susie because her cover was blown again shows the higher stakes of the show before it became a sitcom, and how the season 1 Joker could be a lot more menacing than he was afterward. (I wish he had saved that poisoned perfume and given it to Venus as a gift as soon as he hired her.)

[Dr. Shimel]

Regarding Cesar's breathing problems, I found this online in reference to his death roughly 28 years later:

"Cesar died of complications of a blood clot stemming from bronchitis and pneumonia at the age of 86, on New Year's Day, 1994."

[High C]

I thought I should mention Donna Loren wasn't the only future Bat-moll to appear on Shindig:

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/ai ... HX4DhpFlE=