Batman And The Desilu Backlot

[epaddon]

While watching the False Face episode the other night as part of my tribute to Malachi Throne, I had a chance for the first time to see how the climactic chase at the end of Part 2 really gives us a fascinating view of the Desilu "40 Acres" backlot that played host to many TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s as well as having originally been the RKO lot where "Gone With The Wind" was filmed.

There is a fascinating site that allows you to see images of the backlot and take a "virtual tour" of the place and also get a better sense of the specific sets that Batman used.

http://www.retroweb.com/40acres.html

The nature of the chase taking place at an "abandoned movie studio" allowed us to see views we wouldn't usually see. For instance, here the Batmobile drives by the quonset hut sets of "Gomer Pyle USMC" complete with their false rears. ("Surprise, surprise! Batman and Robin, well goll-eee!")





The large building to the left is the railway station originally built for "Gone With The Wind".



The red building above Blaze is another "Gone With The Wind" structure, the Atlanta Examiner building.



An exterior and interior look at the "Arab Village" set that had at this point recently been used for partial filming of the Biblical epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told".





And finally the very familiar "central building" and church from the town of Mayberry, North Carolina which also saw double duty in the first season Star Trek episodes "Miri" and "City On The Edge Of Forever" (and which unconvincingly stand in for Gotham City itself in earlier parts of the episode).



Here's an overview shot of the lot from 1965 that helps put a lot of this layout in perspective!

[Riddler Fan]

Great research. I never noticed all the various sets that were in the background. I had noticed that both I Dream of Jeannie and Bewicthed were filmed on the same sets, but that was at a different studio.

[exm]

That's fascinating stuff, epaddon - must have taken quite some time to piece that together from the brief shots in the chase scene.
That "central" building is the same one that shoawed in numerous first season Batmobile chase scenes?
Also, can you tell what part of the map the trio is standing at where they have the long view of the Atlanta Examiner building?

[epaddon]

Thanks! The linked site to the 40 Acres Lot history basically furnished all the details so it didn't take too long once I had their maps for reference. On page 3 of their "Virtual Tour" (http://www.retroweb.com/40acres_tour_pt3.html) there's a similar image with the view of the Examiner Building, which puts them as "looking back at the western end of Main Street" which itself is just out of the aerial shot. I think a litle more south out of frame and a little more east would put them at that spot.

[High C]

Terrific stuff, epaddon! Very informative.

That site is quite fascinating. It was interesting to see the backlot also was used for the 'water tower' scene in the S2 Mad Hatter storyline. I'm sure there were other eps too in which it was used. Have to believe it was the 'Western town' in the first Shame ep.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Great research, epaddon. Just imagine a typical day when several shows were using different sections of that lot on the same day!

[Chuck Williams]

Great post epaddon!!
Thanks for the link...Love this kind of stuff!!

[John Mack]

Holy cats you did a great job mapping this out for us Batgeeks! I doff my cowl to you sir. Thank you.

JOhn

[epaddon]

My pleasure! Here's another aerial 1965 shot that gives us a view of the entire backlot. It's low resolution but the Andy Griffith Show main street referenced above is visible in the center.

[Jim Akin]

Excellent detective work!

[Bat Tom]

Thanks for sharing this.

[zapFREAK]

The level and depth of knowledge on this board constantly amazes me. Thanks to all the scholars out there!!

[epaddon]

The Wikipedia entry for "RKO Forty Acres" also provides some more background information on the set and other productions that used it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RKO_Forty_Acres

By the time of "Batman" some previous landmarks of the set like "Tara" from "Gone With The Wind" had been bulldozed. The original "King Kong" was also shot there and its giant wall set destroyed for the burning of Atlanta sequence of GWTW.

Although not seen during the False Face chase episode, by this point 40 Acres had also built the Stalag 13 set for "Hogan's Heroes" on the lot and this I think more than anything else explains the inexplicable window cameo of Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink in a S2 episode. Yes, "Hogan's Heroes" was on another network but they and "Batman" were sharing the same backlot which is why he would have been available to pop in!

[exm]

Good point about Klink! Andy Grffith seems to have held such a stranglehold on all those exteriors that I'm surprised we didn't get cameos from his troupe. When one thinks of the possible walk-ons due to the actor's proximity (Captain Kirk, Mr.Phelps...), I don't know why we wound up with some of the lame window cameos.

[Dr. Shimel]

So five of the 14 window cameos can be explained:

Van Williams/Bruce Lee (The Spell of Tut): Plugging the Green Hornet
Howard Duff (The Impractical Joker): Plugging Felony Squad
Werner Klemperer (It's How You Play the Game): Sharing the same backlot
Santa Claus--Andy Devine (The Duo is Slumming): The episode was shown three days before Christmas
Carpet King--Cyril Lord (Ice Spy): Giving Dozier a good deal

Presumably the others were simply giving celebs begging to be on a cameo.