TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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epaddon wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:01 pm The pilot episode "An Echo of Bugles" has a plot that would NEVER get by in today's world of uber-PC. Colton, the drifting ex-Union vet objects when a young punk harasses an old ex-Confederate soldier in a bar by desecrating the *Confederate* battle flag he still carries. Colton sees the Confederate soldier as someone who shared the same horrifying experience in war he did and that his battle flag is meant to honor his comrades, not the cause that he (Colton) fought against.
You're right--this kind of story would not be considered for production for today's TV environment.
6-I hope that if Oscar gets a chance to study the archives further, he might check out the material related to Dozier's big mega-flop "The Tammy Grimes Show" which I think is the key to why by the end of the 66-67 season, Dozier was really looking to get out of the whole business of producing with just one more season of "Batman" needed to guarantee a good syndication sale. In the fall of 66, Dozier was conceivably in position to become as big a TV producer as say, Quinn Martin with three shows on the air, and what followed was "Batman" in decline, "Green Hornet" a middling flop and "Tammy Grimes" a show with a lot of hype (there are even publicity pix of Tammy and Adam together with Adam in costume and Tammy wrapped inside his cape with him!) that became one of the first network shows ever to flop so bad it was yanked off after just several weeks.
I think Dozier did not have the creative vision to be as prolific as a Quinn Martin; we know about the rise and quick fall of Batman, and Dozier's unrealized developments for The Green Hornet probably leading to its early demise, but the rest of his ideas were not high concept at all.

In fact, they were out of step with the changing interests of TV audiences as the 1960s came to a close. Dick Tracy was just Batman barely warmed over, Wonder Woman would have been a farce that angered more than entertained audiences ("stupid" woman who--among other things, thinks she's beautiful when she's not--and that's one of the series jokes), and the Tammy Grimes Show was doomed to fail thanks to being yet another cookie-cutter sitcom starring someone not exactly shooting up fireworks of personality, and was even less liberated than the milquetoast Ann Marie from That Girl.

Producers such as Quinn Martin and even Irwin Allen (who had three of his four 60's sci-fi series all running during the 1966-67 season) tapped into new ideas, or took existing concepts in fairly new directions. That was not Dozier. He either bought into ideas that were long past their shelf life, or believed certain performers were irresistible to the public (again, Grimes), despite having no evidence to support that belief.

Describing Dozier as a one-trick pony might be harsh, or possibly inaccurate (since he did produce more than one series), but he has only one series that was "big" or in his catalog, and that's yet another reason he would never rise to the level of Martin, Allen or a Jack Webb.
8-Looking at the documents, I have to admit that Bennett asked a very good question in his memo on the pilot about why Riddler never thinks of taking Robin's mask off, and this of course was something that I thought stuck out like a sore thumb even *more* in "That Darn Catwoman" in S2 when Catwoman never once asks Robin to take his mask off. Dozier's response on this point frankly is weak where he says that Riddler couldn't care less who Robin is he would rather unmask Batman. But wouldn't unmasking Robin logically provide him with a pretty darn good idea who Batman is????? Dozier's response that "this is a dangerous can of peas to open" is pretty much a cop-out.
Yes, Dozier's response was weak--or he was being inexplicably dismissive of Robin as a character. If a villain removes Robin's mask, it exposes the entire Bat-operation. They are a team, not "Batman and Fill-in the Blank". No villain worth his reputation would pass on the opportunity of a lifetime to expose and/or end the threat of Batman and Robin forever.

Then again, we don't know if Riddler would even recognize Dick Grayson, since the series had been very inconsistent with just how well known Wayne and Grayson were (on sight) to the general public. Some villains recognized them instantly (Egghead, the second Mr. Freeze) while others had no clue who they were. In any case, Dozier was flat out wrong about Riddler not unmasking Robin; in addition to just being common sense, the risk of a masked man's identity revealed to his enemies is one of the long-lived (and interesting) plot devices from superhero fiction.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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I probably should have said that Dozier in his mind thought he could be as big a producer as Martin or Allen in 66 with all the projects he had at that point as opposed to whether he had a real shot at succeeding because I think you're right that he wasn't going to succeed with his general thinking on what were viable projects. The "Wonder Woman" concept project was simply dreadful.

I do think though there was a legitimate reason to see potential in a Grimes project because she did have a popular reputation at that point and had legitimate successes in the admittedly more narrow world of theater and specials and appearing on Paar and Carson (and she had been the first choice for "Bewitched" but turned it down). The problem was the vehicle they came up with her which was awful beyond belief.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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I've fallen so far behind with the show after not realizing that my Podcasts app had stopped auto-updating my various subscriptions. I can't wait to get caught up; with this episode in particular!
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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High C wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:52 pm
bat-rss wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:28 pm I'm going to mention this in a future podcast episode, but since it came up, thought I'd go ahead and share.
Thanks, Tim and Oscar! Although it is my understanding that LBJ rescinded the pardon after discovering that Dozier had written the words to the Batgirl theme...
Haha, yes, that was a jailable offense!
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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Ben Bentley wrote: Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:11 am I've fallen so far behind with the show after not realizing that my Podcasts app had stopped auto-updating my various subscriptions. I can't wait to get caught up; with this episode in particular!
I did wonder why we hadn't heard from you lately! Happy listening!
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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epaddon wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:57 am I probably should have said that Dozier in his mind thought he could be as big a producer as Martin or Allen in 66 with all the projects he had at that point as opposed to whether he had a real shot at succeeding because I think you're right that he wasn't going to succeed with his general thinking on what were viable projects. The "Wonder Woman" concept project was simply dreadful.
You are not kidding. Even the 1990s Fantastic Four film seems like a masterpiece compared to Dozier's Wonder Woman.
I do think though there was a legitimate reason to see potential in a Grimes project because she did have a popular reputation at that point and had legitimate successes in the admittedly more narrow world of theater and specials and appearing on Paar and Carson (and she had been the first choice for "Bewitched" but turned it down). The problem was the vehicle they came up with her which was awful beyond belief.
...and that kind of vehicle--typical sitcom template--was not going to carve Dozier's face on the Mount Rushmore of TV producers.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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BATWINGED HORNET wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:08 am
Producers such as Quinn Martin and even Irwin Allen (who had three of his four 60's sci-fi series all running during the 1966-67 season) tapped into new ideas, or took existing concepts in fairly new directions. That was not Dozier. He either bought into ideas that were long past their shelf life, or believed certain performers were irresistible to the public (again, Grimes), despite having no evidence to support that belief.

Describing Dozier as a one-trick pony might be harsh, or possibly inaccurate (since he did produce more than one series), but he has only one series that was "big" or in his catalog, and that's yet another reason he would never rise to the level of Martin, Allen or a Jack Webb.
I agree on the comparisons of Martin and Webb, but I think Allen, while prolific and successful, had good ideas but his shows tended to stagnate. And his misogyny rivaled that of Greenway's. Consider that after season 2 of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, he had only one female guest player in the last two years. Supposedly it bothered Allen when time would be lost in shooting because women needed more time for makeup and hair styling.

Granted, his other shows tended to have more female representation, but he gave June Lockhart short shrift in Lost In Space by making her character, originally a scientist, little more than a stay-in-the-spaceship mom.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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You mentioned The Catwoman episode being preempted. It was interrupted several times in the east and completely prempted in the west. Here is the text of an article from UPI describing peoples anger:

THE DAILY NEWS i 'BafmanV Viewers Ired By Gemini By United Press International i The stark report of the near At 7:15 p.m., EST Wednes day, America learned through the familiar "we interrupt this disaster brought 70. million or more Americans to their television sets. Most watched, anxiously and eaeerlv. for anv program to bring you spedanwordon-Jjowtheemergency announcement" that the Gemini landing in the Pacific was 8 astronauts were in trouble in ginI- Other viewers, a small .but agitated minority cn-ined Space. " : - . JvraiKi.; thpir favnrita nm. grams were interrupted or canceled. Hajlsville -Student-Council Picks New Officers For Year HALLSVILLE Officers to serve the 1966 - 67 Student Council have been elected by the HaUsville High School student body. Preceding the election, there was a tnree - aay campaigning period. During this time, many posters were placed in the junior and high school buildings. Candidates also passed out rib-1 Dons ana sucxers. Speeches were given Thursday and the election followed. Chos en to lead the 1966 - 67 Student Council were: Gayhr-Potter, president; Beth Kuykendall, vice president; and Pam Jones, secretary. These officers along with Sid Keasler and J. D. Mc-Ghee, will attend the state Stu dent Council meeting, held be in Hurst, Texas at the Bell High School on March 24, 25, and 26. Soviets Launch Cosmos Satellite MOSCOW (UP1) The Soviet Union today launched the 112th unmanned Cosmos satellite in its program of space study. Scientists were already study ing the effects of space on two space does sent aloft in an earlier Cosmos flight. Study of the effect of space and radiation on the two dogs is necessary before Russian scientists give the green light Soon after the first bulletin, the switchboard at a Pittsburgh television station was swamped with . complaints- because the regular program a series titled "Lost in Space" was preempted by the real life spatial mishap. The American Broadcasting Co. (ABCJLin New York said more than 1.000 angry "Bat-" fans" called to complain that the Batman television series was interrupted three times for bulletins on the progress of the space emergency. "What are you trying to do?" asked a Detroit father. "I've got seven kids and they're all howling and screaming." There were so many calls coming into the ABC switchboard at times that newsmen had trouble placing outgoing calls concerned with the network's coverage of the emergency. But most of the nation's millions of viewers were held to their television sets by the three-hour drama; held by the chatter of commentators; the terse progress reports from mission control, and, the blinking lights on plotting boards showing the course of the troubled astronauts, Neil Armstrong, 35, and David Scott, 33. President Johnson at the White House, patrons in taverns in every city in the nation and millions of persons in their homes kept eyes fixed on the screen where America's gravest space mishap was being described, anxious minute by minute until its happy conclusion.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES podcast #108: The William Dozier Fanboy

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clavierankh wrote: Thu May 02, 2019 4:50 pm You mentioned The Catwoman episode being preempted. It was interrupted several times in the east and completely prempted in the west. Here is the text of an article from UPI describing peoples anger:

Thanks. Wow, so the whole country missed at least some of it.
"I'm half-demented with whimsical outrage!"
-- The Joker, in a line cut from "The Joker's Epitaph"
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