TO THE BATPOLES #181: Who was Reuben Watt?

[bat-rss]

A lot of people work behind the scenes on a TV show, and some of them are never named in the credits. One is Assistant Director Reuben Watt, who nonetheless did get some credit in the form of coverage in magazines aimed at African-Americans. (The image shown here is from the cover of Sepia magazine.) The June 1966 issue of Ebony included a photo feature on Watt, which tells us some interesting things about Watt, the status of African-Americans in Hollywood in the ‘60s, and the Batman show itself. This time, we discuss the article.

Also, we’ve been presenting our listeners with “Bat-questions,” but what are our own answers to these questions? We answer the first three questions we presented to you.

PLUS: The Randy Waldman version of the Batman theme, Adam West talks about the famous “bomb” scene, and we read your mail on our “Batman and Bill” episode.

Listen here

[Ben Bentley]

I'm a long way behind again with my listening, (I try and stay chronological) but I think this episode just jumped to the front of the line.

Reuben is also in one of my all-time favourite candid BTS of Adam on set.

[Dan E Kool]

Thanks for putting a face to the name, Ben!

Really enjoyed Randy Waldman's take on the Batman theme and learning more about Reuben Watt. It's striking how little progress Hollywood has made over the years (now decades...) in including more Black American voices both in front of and behind the scenes in TV and movie productions.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Guys, thanks so much for the profile of Reuben Watt; he's a name next to no one has ever mentioned in the endless histories and assessments made about the series.

Since he was in the Dozierverse, I wonder if he worked on The Green Hornet (or the Tammy Grimes Show)…

While race may have played a role in Watt not being credited, on the other hand, a point I made some time ago was someone at Greenway cast African American actors in various, non-stereotypical roles on the show, such as a police officer, a security guard attacked by Zelda, and party-goers at Wayne Manor (the latter being a pretty big statement that a black couple were prominent and socialized with Commissioner Gordon and the richest guy in Gotham) and a reporter in the movie. So, while Watt's treatment (or mistreatment) did not help the cause for African Americans in production positions, for millions of viewers, they were presented with very positive images of African Americans during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

I’m not sure if you guys were aware of Charles Washburn, but he was another African American assistant director in the 1960s who worked on the classic Star Trek, and would go on to work on Gene Roddenberry’s Earth II pilot/TV movie and the 1st season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In between the final frontier, he worked on (among many productions) the original Bill Cosby Show, Vega$, uncredited A.D. work on Dirty Harry and Unit manager on a few episodes of McMillan and Wife and The Six Million Dollar Man.
Washburn was profiled in Starlog magazine’s celebration of Star Trek’s 20th anniversary (issue #112 from November of 1986). Here’s a few photos from the magazine and other sources--





About escapist TV during Vietnam: the idea that escapist TV series were created as a distraction to the war is only applicable to certain series; remember, a number of popular fantasy and/or sitcoms were already on the air before the point where Lyndon Johnson had his authorization to ramp up military presence in Vietnam (the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution from August, 1964), such as, (Thriller in 1960, Mister Ed in ‘61, The Outer Limits and My Favorite Martian in ’63, etc. Even at that point, a number of escapist series were already in production and set to air that fall (Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, The Munsters, the Addams Family, etc.).

[Larry A.]

Don't forget others, such as Don Marshall as the co-pilot of Flight 612 Spindrift in "Land of the Giants", one of my favorite IA shows. There was more than the Lovely, Wonderful,Loving Nichelle Nichols of Trek. There were quite a number of African Americans in differing positions in ALL the Treks! I'll bet that if we as a group checked the list of behind the camera type folk, I think that we will find a nice amount of Afro-Americans!
Oh, Heck, what do You all say we forget about this subject and go out and get a drink Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[High C]

Great stuff. In terms of Watt, I suspect he wasn't on imdb because he was not listed on the end credits themselves. Also, he usually was listed second behind the credited assistant director on the call sheets, e.g., 'STEVE BERNHARDT/REUBEN WATT' on Ring Around The Riddler.

His role was quite important, I think. My guess is he was the liaison between Dozier/Horwitz and the 1st assistant director du jour. As the constant, as you noted, he knew how Dozier & Co. wanted stuff done and communicated that.

As for your question, here's how I see it. Beyond the horrible sexism of the script, a huge problem with Nora Clavicle is she was a poorly-conceived character. OK, it is established that she is a crusading feminist. fine. Yet her entire plan hinges on women being COMPLETELY incompetent. It doesn't match up.

Also, it would have been nice if Stanford Sherman had a handle on what her character's motivation was for being a villain. Granted, we usually don't care, but with a newbie with such a unique backstory, it would've been nice to know. Was she: 1--A grifter who had been setting up this caper? 2--A true believer frustrated with her financial situation and looking to make a score? 3--A true believer who became unhinged? Certainly, Rush plays her that way. How about just one line of dialogue such as this: 'I'm destroying Gotham City because it was built by MEN!!!'

I realize I am merely polishing a you-know-what, but the caper at least could've been better. Anything besides endless shots of toy mice. But, they paid for them, so 'put the money on the screen...'

[High C]

To Sherman's credit, his original script had Batgirl going undercover and infiltrating Nora's operation.

I wish that plot point had stayed. It gave BG more agency.