Semple's Batman "bible": research problem

[bat-rss]

Lorenzo Semple Jr is supposed to have written a letter at some early stage of the show that was passed on to other writers as the "bible" for the series. I've looked through all the documents shared with us by various people (including some on this board) and I can't locate it. So I want to ask a proxy researcher at the University of Wyoming to scan it for me, but I can't identify which box it's in. The archive page lists names of people who wrote memos and their dates, but of course nothing about the contents. I'm really at a loss.

Is anyone familiar with this document? Does anyone have a copy? Or at least know the date of it so that I can help the researcher track it down in the archives?

[Scott Sebring]

It was dubbed "Bat Poop" and in nearly 20 years of myself looking into it, nobody seems to know (including Semple while he was still alive) whatever happened to it. I literally asked him at his home in 2010 but he didn't have much to say specifically about it other than it being a bit of a guide. I was there assisting on a Writers Guild magazine shoot so I didn't interrogate him much further. Hi did notice I was a fan. Lol.

[bat-rss]

Hunh. Interesting. A number of the obits of Semple mentioned it (likely all drawing from the same press release) and said one of the rules he mentioned was that Batman was never to break the law, including parking in a no-parking zone (but apparently the safe robbery in THE PENGUIN GOES STRAIGHT was OK??).

Thanks, Scott.

[bat-rss]

I wonder who wrote the press release of Semple's death. Apparently that person knew something about it.

Example (paragraph 7): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... or-675354/

I saw several other obits from the time that mentioned the exact same factoid about the memo.

[Jim Akin]

Somewhere around the house I have a copy of the February 2004 commemorative issue of Cinefantastique, which includes an episode guide, profiles of or interviews with many of the show's creators, and a reference to the Bat-Poop bible. I can't lay hand on the magazine just now, but I found the following online, in an Archive.org trove of text from what looks like every issue of Cinefantastique.

It's a profile of Lorenzo Semple Jr. that references the bible.

As I've emphasized in bold below, author Bob Garcia concluded some 20 years ago when working on the issue, that no copies of the bible survive. He does cite marginal notes from scripts as examples of the types of information the bible contained.

Note that the text below was evidently generated by optical character recognition, and it has a few glitches. I corrected some obvious ones (letter "I" replaced with numeral "1," e.g.), but there's one I can't figure out how to fix:

“I wrote most dangerous Tine in Bat-Poop when I reminded writers that we must appeal on two levels: to kids and grown-ups too,” wrote Semple. “I see now, appeal on sophisticated level must come from inherent juvenility of story-line.”

If anyone has access to the magazine and can decode this strange sentence, I'll correct it in the transcript.

A final note: This article mainly cites Semple's notes on Max Hodge's first Mr. Freeze script, but the episode guides and other sections of the magazine cite other notes from Semple (and Dozier) that might also be representative of the bible's contents.

Cinefantastique
February 2004

Commemorative Double Issue:
The Enduring Caped Crusader,
from Comics to Adam West,
Michel Keaton, and the Movie
Debut of Animated Adventures


LORENZO SEMPLE, GURU OF CAMP

The first season story editor who set
up the show's straight-is-funny style.

By Bob Garcia

Lorenzo Semple, Jr. was so
successful in camping up Bat¬
man, the producers felt he
would be the best one to main¬
tain creative control on future
scripts. In 1965, he was given
the job of executive script con¬
sultant, corresponding with the
producers while living in Spain.
His letters critiquing scripts
were compiled along with his
notes on the show (affectionate¬
ly referred to as Bat-Poop) into
an informal writer’s bible for
the show. There are no surviv¬
ing copies of the bible, but
Semple's letters spell out his
wisdom on Bat-writing.

Most of the comments that
follow are from Semple’s cri¬
tique of Max Hodge's first draft
of episodes #7 and #8, “Instant
Freeze” and “Bats Like Cheese.”

“Bruce Wayne does NOT
call Gordon, ‘Sir’!” wrote Sem¬
ple.” Batman’s whole attitude
toward Mr. Freeze strikes a
wrong note. If Mr. F’s predica¬
ment is the result of Batman
pouring a beaker of Secret
Sludge over him, wouldn't Bat¬
man feel some responsibility
and sympathy? ‘The poor devil.
His mind twisted by that perpet¬
ual cold. We must catch him for
his own sake, as well as
Gotham City’s, (or words to
that effect.)” The episode in¬
cluded Semple's suggested dia¬
logue almost verbatim, and in¬
stituted Batman’s tendency to
pity his criminal foes.

Wrote Semple of the Boy
Wonder, “I do not think that
Robin calls Batman ‘Sir’ either!
It’s utterly wrong for Robin to
be the straight man feeding Bat¬
man hambone questions. That’s
what O'Hara is for. Even Gor¬
don’s better than Robin at this
chore. My assumption: Batman
and Robin are fully briefed on
all their past adventures. Robin
cues Batman by statements in
brisk indicative mood, not
queries....They trigger each
other, set each other off.”

Semple drew a distinction
between the Batman of the
comics and his TV incarnation.
"I realize increasingly the gulf
between comic-book Batman
stories and our own. We see
Batman just sitting in front of
his TV set, moping around [in
this script). I realize this is very
common pattern in original
comic-books. I submit that it’s
quite unacceptable for our tight-
woven dramas. If a scene does
not end with the words, ‘Let’s
go!,* then that must at least be
implied. Indeed, were I [pro¬
ducer] Howie [Horowitz], I .
would make a rubber stamp .
with that pithy and unbeatable
phrase to stamp at end of scenes
where it’s lacking in drafts!”

One dictum Semple stressed
that was largely ignored by the
producers was the need for
budgeting restraint. “I am voice
in Spanish wilderness, constant¬
ly cry ing out for simplicity and
economy of effect! I have been
beating my brains out trying to
contrive scripts that are really
quite modest in production, us¬
ing fairly simple props and in¬
tercuts to give illusion of much
more action that there actually
is, and I think others should do
same. There is also a bonus in
this: quite aside from saving
dough, the extra brainwork re¬
quired in forcing a Bat-story in¬
to a formal and limited frame
will (I submit) always make it a
better Bat-Script.”

Semple railed against the use
of contrivance and coincidence.

“In Hodge’s first draft. Batman
merely stumbles upon Mr.
Freeze’s first heist at the Dia¬
mond Exchange. I know we
count a lot on amusing and in¬
sane coincidence in Batwriting (I
do!), but I’m not sure this quali¬
fies,” wrote Semple. “I mean
Batman racing to see the parade,
stumbling into the diamond
heist. Either Freeze wants Bat¬
man there, or else he wants him
not there. If former, something
much more startling should hap¬
pen to set Batman going.”

Semple sought to play for
comedy rather than drama, re¬
ferring to the Mr. Freeze script.
“This thawing-out nonsense is
pretty good, but should it take
place in a deathly still
room, down in the cellar
of City Hall? I think not.
Seems to me, the scene
would be (like, say) the
Super-Hyperbaric Ther¬
mal Chamber at Gotham
City General Hospital.
Could have wonderful
parody of doctor shows,
as fight made for Bat¬
man’s life. That is kind of
thing which is fast, shoot-
able, funny, and I think
should be exploited wherever it
comes up.”

Semple sought to keep Bat¬
man heroic and ingenious. “In
principle, I really don’t like an
ending where salvation comes
because Robin and Cops have
simply followed Batman,
dredge him from soup when the
the broth looks blackest,” he
wrote. “This would only be ac¬
ceptable if it resulted because
Batman inanaged to broadcast
some tricky clue to his where¬
abouts, right under the villain’s
nose. Which Robin would inter¬
pret to Cops.”

It was Semple who suggest¬
ed the means to foil Mr.
Freeze, which led to the show’s
penchant for far-out Bat-de-
vices. “There is another much
simpler and more Batmanesque
ending available. To wit: With
his full knowledge of how Mr. Freeze
works, isn’t it certain that Bat¬
man would have equipped him¬
self with some clever counter¬
gadget? Super-Thermal Under¬
wear? A micro-miniature heat¬
ing system built into his cape?
Thus he would only be pre¬
tending to be frozen (for what¬
ever reason), [and] would sud¬
denly pounce for the climax.”

Semple’s concept of “camp”
advised the producers to play it
deadly straight. “I wrote most
dangerous Tine in Bat-Poop
when I reminded writers that we
must appeal on two levels: to
kids and grown-ups too,” wrote
Semple. “I see now, appeal on
sophisticated level must come
from inherent juvenility of sto¬
ry-line.”

Semple was a driving force
in the early months of BAT¬
MAN’S production. After see¬
ing the actors in the roles, he
wrote specific Author’s Notes
for them on their charac¬
ters. He wrote his own
scripts for the show at the
same time he acted as ex¬
ecutive script consultant,
and when he came out to
California worked with
Dozier and Horowitz on
the show. He even looked
over various treatments
of THE GREEN HOR¬
NET series for Dozier.

Semple tired of the
show after the first season
and left, writing only a few
more episodes, instead concen¬
trating on film projects like
PAPILLION, and NEVER
SAY, NEVER AGAIN.

Using short, crisp dialogue,
having villains always antici¬
pating Batman's interference in
their nefarious plans, avoiding
comic book pacing, always hav¬
ing the villains foiled by some
outrageous foresight on Bat¬
man’s part, and most of all
playing it, straight, straight,
straight, was Semple’s formula
for success. When writers devi¬
ated from Semple’s plan, the
shows fell flat. □


Letters by Lorenzo Semple,
Jr. Copyright ©1965 Lorenzo
Semple, Jr. All Rights Reserved.
From the Dozier Collection in
the American Heritage
Collection of the University of
Wyoming.

[Lou Szabo]

Love it!

[Ben Bentley]

I spent a good chunk of 2016 researching any and all references to "Bat-Poop". Eventually I got in touch with Lorenzo's daughter and author Maria Semple. She subsequently told me that if anyone knew where/what happened to Bat-Poop it would be Lorenzo's personal assistant who she kindly looped me in with. He told me a few weeks later that B.P. no longer existed and had not been present in Lorenzo's collection within the 30 or so years that he and Lorenzo had worked together.

[bat-rss]

Somewhere around the house I have a copy of the February 2004 commemorative issue of Cinefantastique, which includes an episode guide, profiles of or interviews with many of the show's creators, and a reference to the Bat-Poop bible. I can't lay hand on the magazine just now, but I found the following online, in an Archive.org trove of text from what looks like every issue of Cinefantastique.

It's a profile of Lorenzo Semple Jr. that references the bible.

As I've emphasized in bold below, author Bob Garcia concluded some 20 years ago when working on the issue, that no copies of the bible survive. He does cite marginal notes from scripts as examples of the types of information the bible contained.

"Well," he admitted, sheepishly, "actually, I have a copy of that issue...

But, correction, the year of publication was 1994, rather than 2004.

So, there it is, nobody has a copy of "Bat-poop." Thanks for pointing this out, Jim.

“I wrote most dangerous Tine in Bat-Poop when I reminded writers that we must appeal on two levels: to kids and grown-ups too,” wrote Semple. “I see now, appeal on sophisticated level must come from inherent juvenility of story-line.”

Rather than "Tine", the word is "line." Everything else is correct.