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FULL REVIEWS & STORIESASSOCIATED
PRESS ASSOCIATED PRESS - Beth Harris Holy Flashback! West, Ward Reunite. Mar. 03, 2003 Holy reunion! Thirty-seven years after Adam West and Burt Ward put on skintight suits to keep Gotham City safe from the villainous Penguin, Joker and Riddler, the Dynamic Duo is back together for a peek at what really happened behind the scenes. There were on-set explosions that left Ward injured daily, encounters with lusty female fans, whispers of West and Ward being gay, and complaints from censors about the sexual innuendo in the ABC series that aired from 1966-68. "Our show was a lot different," Ward said. "We teased them, taunted them and played with their minds. For kids, it was kept clean. Teenagers saw all the double meanings and they appreciated it." West and Ward play off each other as well as they did during the swinging '60s in the CBS movie "Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt" airing Sunday at 9 p.m. EST. "It's dramatized to an extent, but most of it really did happen. All good comedy is based on truth," West said. "Now they're saying we're a wonderful comedy team. What were we before?" In the two-hour movie, West, 74, and a rotund Ward, 57, are forced to relive their past to find clues to recovering the Batmobile after it's stolen from a Hollywood charity event. When a bystander suggests calling the police, West in his best deadpan says, "This is a job for actors. We'll find the Batmobile." "Us?" Ward replies. "We wouldn't even know where to start." The movie was done by the same team behind the 2001 CBS hit movie "Surviving Gilligan's Island." Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann, is co-executive producer, Duane Poole wrote the script and Paul Kaufman is director and executive producer. "The network realized the value of the 'Batman' series and the way the public responded to West and Ward," Kaufman said. "There's something about those two. Watching the series as a child, it was very exciting to work with them." West saw the movie as a chance to reward fans who clamor for additions to the "Batman" franchise when they meet him at conventions. "They always greet me with warmth and humor," he said. "People do lines from the show, do entire scenes, they ask me to say lines. People are very funny about the show. I've got three generations who come up to me." The adventure reunites them with Frank Gorshin (Riddler), Julie Newmar (Catwoman) and Lee Meriwether (Catwoman). In one bar scene, Newmar plays a vivacious vixen who grooves with West to the old "Batman" theme. "That was a reference to Batman drinking the mickey in that first episode and him doing the Batusi," West said. "I'm always asked, `Do the Batusi?'" Viewers of the old show will appreciate the inside jokes, as well as familiar touches like a spinning Batmobile between scenes, cartoonish exclamations on screen during a fight, and voice-overs (by Lyle Waggoner) leading into commercials asking if the Caped Crusader and Robin the Boy Wonder can solve the mystery. West and Ward haven't kept up with each other over the years, but they picked up where they left off when filming began. "I had a fantastic time with Adam," said Ward, who lives outside Los Angeles and runs Boy Wonder Visual Effects, providing 3-D animation and special effects for movies and television. "You put the two of us together and we don't have to say anything and people start laughing. We were doing things on the first or second take." After the show was canceled in '68, both actors had the same reaction: Holy typecasting! West and Ward were virtually unemployable and got stuck making personal appearances for several years. "I was rushed into some not very good movies, and I just hit the beach and nursed my wounds for a while," said West, who eventually got work doing voice-overs and guest shots. "Part of it was the dinosaurs of Hollywood went away, people who didn't get it. I was certainly more welcome when the younger people came in." Whatever bitterness West felt is gone. He lives in Ketchum, Idaho, with his third wife. They've been married 31 years and have six grown children between them. "I have such a fondness for it. It's my signature role," he said. "I'm grateful I had a chance to create a classic character. I don't want to be a bitter, aging actor who thinks he's typecast. My God, what man wouldn't want to be Batman for a night?" Or maybe longer, since there's already talk of a sequel. "I may not pursue my plan to become a total recluse," West said. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - Cynthia Littleton 'Batman" misadventures taking flight as CBS Pic Mar. 03, 2003 Kapow! Bam! Thwap! CBS is looking to stir up some Bat-nostalgia on Sunday with a cheeky, so-stupid-it's-funny telefilm about the making of ABC's 1966-68 "Batman" series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward. "Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt" hails from producer-director Paul A. Kaufman and writer Duane Poole, the dynamic duo behind "Surviving Gilligan's Island," which was one of CBS' highest-rated telepics last season. "The idea with 'Batcave' was to do a contemporary adventure with Adam and Burt where the clues to the adventure are hidden in the past and we cut back and forth between the two stories," Kaufman says. So we find our erstwhile caped crusaders West and Ward playing themselves in the present day, while actors Jack Brewer and Jason Marsden do the hard work in tights as Batman and Robin in the swinging '60s. "Batcave" doesn't have a linear plot, but it's got the Batmobile, a tin-foil replica of the Batcave, Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether. Plus, they found a clever way to work screen-test footage of Lyle Waggoner in the Batman costume into the story. "You have to appreciate the silliness of the (1960s) show in a movie like this," Kaufman says. To get the movie made, Kaufman had to strike a deal with original series producer 20th Century Fox and then license the Bat-name from Warner Bros., which controls all things Batman today through its DC Comics unit. Fox opened its archives to Kaufman, giving him access to hundreds of production stills, the blueprint for the Batcave and one of the five original Batmobiles used in the series. He rented some of the Batcave's original computer props from a shop in Burbank. For all the work that went into assembling the sets and Bat-props, the heart of the movie is the relationship between West and Ward and how their memories of those halcyon days of TV stardom differ, Kaufman says. "Adam and Burt know each other so well, they're like an old married couple, and so they can politely disagree on how they remember things," he says. "They were both game for us putting that onscreen and having fun with it." HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Ann Hodges Batmobile caper prompts a drive down memory lane Holy batwings, how time flies. It's been 37 years since Batman burst upon the TV scene to Ka-POW! this dynamic duo, Adam (Batman) West and Burt (Robin) Ward, to instant TV superstars. A 55 percent share of the audience on opening night made Batman the biggest thing on television. And soon, fans of both sexes and all sizes were staying home Tuesdays and Thursdays to watch their show. "It never threw me, because I am Batman," Adam West straight-faced the crowd at a recent Television Critics' Association reunion. But seriously, folks, West and Ward were working so furiously turning out those two action-packed cliffhanging episodes each week that they hardly knew what was happening outside the Batcave. "Except," West added, "if we went somewhere and got out of the car -- and maybe I walk funny -- people instantly knew us and would congregate, and we'd get the rock-star treatment. So you'd have to be pretty thick not to realize something was happening in our pop culture." What was happening is what brought West and his Batman sidekick together again for Sunday's CBS movie, Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt. "Marvelous Misadventures" would have been more like it. This is such a clever twist on reunion shows that it even sold West, who always said he'd never do a reunion show. In this movie, West and Ward play themselves, and they meet again at a classic car show. Their beloved old Batmobile is the star exhibit. But suddenly, the lights go out, and when they go up again, the car is gone -- stolen! And that villain stole West's own souvenir key to rev up the engine. As the Batmobile goes thataway, West and Ward hightail after it -- "Oh, the thrill of the chase" -- in a script where camp grows as high as an elephant's eye. The elephant is the first of many throwdown clues left by that dastardly evil-doer to lure Ward and West to follow. And with each clue come the merry misadventure memories of how these two got their jobs as Batman and Robin, and what they went through to keep them. Along the way, they mix it up with a few old friends and enemies -- including The Riddler, Frank Gorshin, and a pair of Catwomen, Julie Newmar and Lee Meriweather. Don't blink, or you might miss Betty White in the old window scene trick. Back then, even superstars and politicos begged to do that. It was hot before such things became cool. Some of these guys' way-back-when adventures are so wild you may think scriptwriter Duane Poole made them up. But West and Ward assure that while some are embellished, most are true, including the uproar over Ward's Robin costume, and their famous feud over face time on camera. The young West of those "inside" flashbacks is played by Jack Brewer and the young Ward by Jason Marsden. They both perform splendidly as actor egos. Like Batman itself, this is two layers of entertainment -- the POW's and SMACK's for the young-uns, with plenty of double entendres for the rest. And this script is very skillful at letting West and Ward fill in their own "whatever happened to" resumes, as well as weaving their more serious personal affairs amid the comedy without overwhelming the funny business. If this makes you want to know more about their Batman days, both West and Ward have written books about it. Batman ran for three seasons on ABC, but it's still going strong in reruns and in Batman conventions. "Burt and I go out and it's like Star Trek -- it's amazing," West said. This Return to the Batcave is fun in a smart new package of old times. Top that, all you creaky old reunion movies. NEW YORK MAGAZINE - John Leonard Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt Adam West, who played Bruce Wayne and Batman twice a week for three seasons in the jokey sixties television series on ABC, insists in Return to the Batcave, an amusing reunion movie, that “we weren’t camp . . . It was more of a farce or lampoon. Like Oscar Wilde.” On the other hand, maybe not. But it was certainly more fun than anything in the subsequent gloomy Hollywood movie versions of the Caped Crusader (except Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman). In their comfortable retirement, West and Burt Ward, who played, of course, the Boy Wonder back when he was a lot younger and a lot thinner, receive fraudulent invitations to a charity event in which vintage automobiles are exhibited to benefit orphans. From this exhibit, the original Batmobile will be stolen. So the two actors, happy to have some derring to do again, go after it, which means returning to their program’s past for clues to the motives of the present. Frank Gorshin shows up, and so does Julie Newmar. There will be at least one egg-filled food fight, one remarkable Bat Rap (as in hip-hop), and one discussion about whether Batman and Robin are gay. I know the truth behind these masks, inside that underwear. I have read Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. But we all deserve a break, and affable Adam provides it. NEWARK STAR LEDGER - Bill Ervolino The "Batman" Cast Reunites Thirty-six years after "Batman" flew to the top of the ratings on another network (ABC), arch-rival CBS has decided to commemorate the event. So, what'll it be: A reunion special? Clips from the old series? A movie about the making of the TV show? "Return to the Batcave" manages to be all three of those things, which may well make it the wackiest TV movie ever made. Hokey at times, and hilarious at the others, the film -- produced and directed by Emmy winner Paul A. Kaufman -- reunites Adam West and Burt Ward playing, amusingly enough, Adam West and Burt Ward. Stocky, confused, and perpetually out of breath, Ward spends most of the film chasing after West, who is trying to find the Batmobile, which has been stolen from a charity event. One suspects that Ward would just as soon go home and forget about the whole thing. But West, in the tradition of his famed alter-ego, is determined to solve the case. Time has not been unkind to West. He remains handsome and svelte, though (at least for the comic purposes of this film) a bit addled. Does he think he really is Batman? Apparently. He has a butler named Jerry -- though West insists on calling him Alfred -- and keeps a Batpole in his closet that brings him down to his garage. On the TV show, Batman routinely solved crimes by somehow unraveling the wacky clues left behind by a rotating cast of wacky guest villains. In "Return to the Batcave," the clues are as absurd as ever, but, for all his good intentions, West lacks Batman's acumen. When a valet outside the charity event tells West that the man who stole the Batmobile asked him how to get to "the Highway to Arizona," West and Ward jump into West's sports car and drive to the Grand Canyon State -- unaware that there is a bar called Highway to Arizona, three blocks away. En route, West and Ward reminisce about the series that made them household names, as actors portraying their younger selves (Jack Brewer as West, and James Marsden as Ward) audition for the roles, cope with sudden fame, and interact with the dazzling array of Hollywood stars who dropped by each week, playing such memorable foes as Egghead (Vincent Price), Riddler (Frank Gorshin), and the Joker (Caesar Romero). The real Gorshin makes a special appearance in this film, playing himself, as does Julie Newmar who portrayed the Catwoman on the series. Lee Merriwether, who also played Catwoman in the feature-length film based on the series, makes a brief but very funny cameo. Fans of the TV show should find themselves amused by the behind-the-scenes goings-on, much of which was documented in both West's and Ward's autobiographies. West's then-determination to play the part straight gets a fair amount of yuks. But the real star of this film is Marsden, who, as the young Ward/Robin, is relentlessly injured in action scenes while his stunt double looks on from the sidelines. The film also broaches the embarrassing problem caused by Robin's tights. (Network censors though they were too tight -- and revealing.) Holy Underwear! Batmaniacs will want to tape and keep this film, which, in addition to the silliness and clips, includes footage from Lyle Waggoner's "Batman" screen test. (Wagonner, who lost the role to West, and eventually found fame on "The Carol Burnett Show," also makes a cameo.) Another great moment occurs when an actor playing Romero is made up for the first time as the Joker. Romero refused to shave off his mustache, so the show's makeup artist covered it with powder, and proceeded from there. The stop-action shots of Romero being transformed into the Joker are terrific. And speaking of makeup, this is one of the few movies about the 1960s in which the women actually LOOK as if they are from the 1960s. If you feel any sort of bond with the subject matter, "Return to the Batcave" should leave you howling. In the spirit of the series, it's campy, kooky, and a whole lot of fun. TV's campy Caped Crusader takes wing again in a CBS movie For "Batman" fans, nirvana is sitting with the Caped Crusader himself, Adam West, in a Hollywood hotel lobby, with the gleaming Batmobile right outside, saying in unison that immortal line, "You poor, deluded child." Even cooler is the sight of Batman and the Boy Wonder reunited as TV critics and others joined West and Burt Ward, who played Robin, for pictures with George Barris' original customized Lincoln Futura. The occasion is a January press tour event for "Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt," a new TV movie airing Sunday on CBS. The movie - every bit as campy and daffy as the 1966-68 ABC series that inspired it - finds West and Ward lured to a charity car show. When a lurking mystery man makes off with the Batmobile, leaving behind a trail of fire, the Dynamic Duo swings into action. While following clues to the location of the car, they reminisce about events during production of the series. The flashback scenes feature Jack Brewer as West and Jason Marsden as Ward. "Angel" star Amy Acker co-stars as Ward's first wife, with the movie's executive producer Paul A. Kaufman making an appearance as a network executive. Also on hand are three actors who played original "Batman" villains: Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), and Lee Meriwether and Julie Newmar (each of whom had a turn at Catwoman). "They've asked me for years to go away," says West, who now lives in Idaho. "I just hang on by my fingernails, and if that fails, my teeth. I've been very fortunate. I keep working." And he does, with projects including the 2001 Roger Corman series "Black Scorpion" and the upcoming feature film "BombShell," inspired by the Lightning Bolt Comics character. "We've had, my God, 35 years of this," says West of the "Batman" phenomenon. "We're assured of a place in pop culture. It won't go away. I've always shied away from 'Where are they now?' shows, because I've been lucky enough to keep working, and people know where I am. We do 'Batman' conventions. I did 'The Drew Carey Show.' I did a new movie. I'm writing. I paint." While not all actors strongly associated with a single character are eternally grateful, West has no complaints. "I've been fortunate in that I made a contribution and it was part of a classic in pop culture," he says. "I'm a lucky guy. How many actors get a chance to participate in things like that?" Indeed, Meriwether cemented her career with just one appearance as Catwoman in the 1966 feature-film spinoff of "Batman." She went on to spend eight seasons with Buddy Ebsen in the private- eye show "Barnaby Jones," but is still known for alternately battling and enticing millionaire Bruce Wayne's alter ego. "Those folks like us are just damn fortunate that they were part of something like we were, to have a signature role that's remembered," West says. "Wherever I go, people greet me with wonderful humor. Sometimes, I get a little tired of them playing 'Batman' scenes in front of me, but it's very gratifying." Top Pick - Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt Holy cheeseball, Batman! The caped crusaders are back in their very own TV movie, which pokes fun at the popular Batman series. Original stars Adam West and Burt Ward appear as themselves at the centre of a diabolical plot – gadzooks! – the Batmobile has been stolen! But which of the evil guest stars has made off with it? The sultry Cat Woman (Julie Newmar)? Or the "other" Cat Woman (Lee Meriweather)? Or perhaps it was the nefarious Riddler (Frank Gorshin). As the dynamic duo follow clues to locate the missing vehicle, they reflect on the history of Batman, which is shown through flashbacks with Jack Brewer and Jason Marsden hilariously playing the younger West and Ward. Over-the-top performances, sexual innuendo and ominous narration make for one batty movie. Holy Batman Reunion! Adam West and Burt Ward, TV's Batman and Robin, play themselves in the 2003 TV-movie, a salute to the 1966-68 series. The actors join forces to help find the original Batmobile after it's stolen, reliving the making of the classic show as they search for clues. Flashbacks (with Jack Brewer as West and Jason Marsden as Ward) recall how the stars won their roles, and show them interacting offscreen with the famous actors who played “special guest villains” and sharing tales of off-screen hanky-panky involving female fans. There's also nostalgic fun in cameos by Batman baddies Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether and Frank Gorshin and a clip of Lyle Waggoner in his screen test for the Caped Crusader role. TV GUIDE INSIDER (January 16) - Michael Ausiello KA-POW! Batman Wings it Back to TV Here's a twist on the increasingly popular TV reunion: Legendary dynamic duo Adam West and Burt Ward - who became pop culture icons via their respective roles as Batman and Robin in the classic '60s series Batman - are reteaming for an upcoming CBS special that is neither a clip-filled retrospective nor a cheesy sequel chronicling the superheroes' much-later years. No, Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt is a tongue-in-cheek comedy adventure in which West and Ward, playing themselves, stumbles upon a diabolical plot to steal the original Batmobile from a charity benefit. Talk about silly! "We decided to do something that was fresh, innovative," says West, "a modern-day caper with [me] and Burt and maybe with an occasional allusion or reference to some of the escapades in the past." (Jack Brewer and Jason Marsden play a young West and Ward.) "I've always been opposed to reunion shows," adds the erstwhile Bruce Wayne, whose 1994 memoir, Back to the Batcave, was one of the source materials scribe Duane Poole used when writing the script. I've never wanted to be perceived as a member of the over-the-hill gang. And I've always been very lucky in that I've been able to keep working, whether it's voice-overs, animation, whatever." So, what led this 74-year-old actor to change his mind? "Because it's the 35th anniversary [of the series]," he says, "and because - I know this sounds a little self-serving - Paul Kaufman, our producer, paid me so much money." Return to the Batcave, which also features cameos by Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) and Catwomen Lee Meriwether and Julie Newmar, is slated to air this spring on CBS. TV GUIDE INSIDER (March 8-14) - Robbie Fraser Holy deja vu! TV's favorite Dynamic Duo reunite for one more caped crusade. In one of the most surreal network programing gambits of an already surreal television season, CBS has brought together the original Dynamic Duo - Adam West and Burt Ward from ABC's campy 1996-68 Batman series - to play themselves in a new TV-movie, Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (March 9 P.M./ET). "I'm breathing new life into Batman, "says West. "It's a homage to the past, but its also about two guys who have come up with their own unique comedy team." Indeed, the two-hour adventure kicks off in fine bat tradition, when the now-decrepit duo witness the theft of the original Batmobile from a Hollywood charity event. "We have to call the police," says a bystander. "No," replies West. "This is a job for actors." The plucky pensioners then set off on an increasingly bizarre quest to retrieve their cherished chariot, meeting old friends along the way (including former Catwoman Julie Newmar, who performs a hallucinatory dance number, with West, in an Arizona roadhouse). To make things even stranger, the story is peppered with with flashbacks to the '60s, where we see a fictionalized version of the making of the original series. (Jack Brewer plays young West and Jason Marsden plays Ward.) None of this, according to Ward, is much of a stretch for the 72-year-old West: "Forget the costume, he is Batman," says former Boy Wonder, now 56. "He has erased the line between an actor portraying a part, and being a real superhero." But Batman-er, West, that is-seems a little more sanguine: "Lord, I've done five TV series, 50 movies; some of them fairly good, a lot of turkeys. But my feeling is, why be a bitter, aging actor? I had the opportunity, the good fortune, to have been able to create a classic character that people love. And I feel damn good about that." UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL - Cathy Seipp Holy nostalgia, Batman! LOS ANGELES, March 5 - One of the oldest ratings successes in recent years was the TV movie "Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Running Three-Hour in History," a surprise hit for CBS in the fall of 2001. Now the same team (executive producers Paul Kaufman and Dawn "Mary Ann" Wells and scriptwriter Duane Poole) has come up with another wallowing-in-nostalgia treat: the TV movie "Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt," which airs Sunday on CBS. "Return to the Batcave" uses the same mix-it-up technique as "Surviving Gilligan's." Dramatized scenes of the stars in their heyday - young actors playing Adam West and Burt Ward as they once were - are combined with the actual stars as they are today. The new twist here is that Batman's and Robin's alter egos are now involved in "a modern-day caper comedy adventure," as Adam West described it in his famously halting, kitschy "Batman" delivery, a good-naturedly ridiculous and entirely imaginary story involving the theft of the Batmobile from a charity event. So the Dynamic Duo - Adam West, now 74, and Burt Ward, 57 - take off in hot (if somewhat creaky) pursuit after the mysterious bad guys, just like in the old days. Old foils like the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Catwoman (Julie Newmar) come along for the ride. "Batman was one of the defining hits of the '60s TV, an overnight sensation when it debuted on ABC in 1966, though it got the worst test scores in television history. Just as "Get Smart" had every smart-aleck kid announcing "Sorry about that!" as he shoved in the cafeteria line, and "Laugh-In" inspired a million inane impressions of "Sock it to me" around office water coolers, "Batman" had countless adolescents humming (or pounding, two-fingered style on the piano) the first few measures of that buzzy, three-note theme song. That particular demographic was the key to the show's phenomenal success. "The hardest audience to reach at that time was teenagers and college kids," Adam West noted at the CBS news conference. "Older adults would watch television - it was convenient - and kids liked the hero worship. But it was almost impossible to get the segment we got, and we got it because we had double entendres." "We used to say that we put on the tights to put on the world," West added. But, as he emphasizes to a fan in the movie, "Batman" was not camp. "No, no," he insists. "It's a farce! Social satire! A lampoon!" The "Batman" craze was especially astonishing to Burt Ward, who was just 20 when he was cast as Robin and had to turn down the lead role in "The Graduate" because ABC wouldn't give him time off. "Adam and I would go out to make a personal appearance," he recalled, "and I would see people get into a fist fight to get our used paper cup." One time Ward was passing through a small town in Oklahoma. He put his clothes in the motel dryer, then came out to discover them in a big wet pile. "Someone said, 'Oh, there's a lady that knew you were here, so she took your underwear out of the dryer to take a picture of it,'" Ward said. "It was just ridiculous." People obsessed about the deeper meanings of "Batman". Ward noted that "you had psychiatrists analyzing these relationships" years before "Saturday Night Live" lampooned the conceit with its "Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoon. "I don't see what's so strange and unnatural about two guys who run around in tights and live together," West deadpanned. Even the Legion of Decency got into the act, complaining to ABC about the size of the Boy Wonder's crotch bulge. The network sent him to a doctor who gave him pills to make it smaller. To this day, Ward still doesn't know what was in those pills. "But I'll tell you something," he said. "It was pretty upsetting, because the concept was if this really works so well, maybe it's going to have a lasting effect." And by that time Ward had already suffered a lot for the show. For four of the first five days of shooting, his stunts sent him to the hospital. He got third-degree burns on his arms during an exploding Batmobile special effect. "I didn't think I was going to survive the first episode," he noted cheerfully. One of the pleasures of "Return to the Batcave" is seeing the gray-haired Adam West dance with a still sultry Julie Newmar. What was that reunion like? "Julie is a free spirit," West said carefully. "She has that ethereal quality that is hard to pin down, but she is so beautiful." I remember calling up Newmar, a 6-foot-tall former dancer, several years ago when Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as Catwoman opposite Michael Keaton in the gothic new version of "Batman." I'm happy to report that she hasn't lost her catty charm. "I think she's the most exciting presence on the screen," Newmar purred of Pfeiffer, "but I can't remember what her body looks like, and you need an Olympics-quality body to play that role. Her body didn't make an impression on me." Annette Bening, you may recall, was originally cast as the movie Catwoman but had to drop out when she became pregnant. "Absolutely adorable," Newmar said of Bening. "I think she's foolish to drop her talents for ... whatever his name is. Warren Beatty. He chased me all over Rome 30 years ago, but he didn't catch me. He's played the same role for 40 years, the Lothario! Think of how boring that would be, to play the same role for 40 years." Although Newmar is the Catwoman everyone remembers, other actresses did play the role towards the end of the TV "Batman" run. "I was busy," Newmar chuckled. "They had the bad taste to hire other people. Producers can be sleazy. We get no residuals from that, you know," she added of the old show. Producers can be so..." Cheap? "No, you've got to find a more cutting word than that," Newmar said. "Penurious." Ward explained at the news conference that when "Batman" was on the air, the Screen Actors Guild wasn't able to get actors paid for more than 10 reruns. So the effect "Batman" had on pop culture wasn't reflected in how much the two stars profited from it. "By 1971 our (income from) reruns had run out," Ward said. "And in those days they certainly didn't pay the salaries that they pay now." "I got six cents from Bolivia last week," West noted. Silly as "Return to the Batcave" is, there's a deeply gratifying shot at the end in which the aging West and portly Ward face the camera and run, Dynamic Duo-style, straight toward it -- just like they always did in the old series. If that doesn't make you smile, you're just too hardened and soulless for words. Either that, or you're under 40. Holy reunion, Adam and Burt! Return to the Batcaveoffers just what its title promises — no more, but also no less. The good news for those who loved the '60s camp classic, with its comically stiff hero and its crooked-camera crooks, is that Return adequately captures the tone and appeal of the series. There has been no attempt to turn ABC's cheery Caped Crusader into today's "Dark Knight," and no effort to darken our happy memories with tales of behind-the-scenes scandal, other than some mild examples of star squabbles. No, what Return offers is a congenial if slow-paced walk down memory lane: a few shots of the stars as they are, a few stories about the show as it was, all packaged in moderately clever fashion. On the Bat-scale, it's less entertaining and adroit than the show was in its first season, when it ranked with TV's best spoofs, but it's far better than the show was in its final Batgirl-induced death throes. Return stars Adam West and Burt Ward, the series' Batman and Robin, as fictional versions of themselves. When the Batmobile is stolen from a charity event, West and Ward decide to solve the crime. ("This is a job for actors!") While chasing clues, all of which tie into their old show, they reminisce about Batman's short run as a pop icon, from its explosive debut in 1966 to its fizzle-out in 1968. Odds are, the movie's neither-fact-nor-fiction structure is likely to strike some viewers as ungainly. Still, give producer Paul Kaufman and writer Duane Poole credit for at least attempting to do something a bit more ambitious than the average reunion/rehash film. As Ward and West dash around Los Angeles, they run into three of their former co-stars: Lee Meriwether, Frank Gorshin and Julie Newmar. ("The most sensuously seductive pussycat that ever prowled the airwaves.") They also bicker like old chums over who was signed first, who will pick up a check and whose memories are closer to the truth. At its best, Return works as a compendium of fun Bat-facts. We see clips of Lyle Waggoner's screen test for Bruce Wayne/Batman. We find out that Mickey Rooney was the first choice for the Penguin. We revisit the show's controversies, from concerns over Ward's tight tights to efforts to quash the rumors that Batman and Robin were gay. In the end, what we learn is that the show is still silly after all these years. For fans, that may be enough. |
