Quote of the Day (John Lithgow, on His Disastrous 'Batman' Audition)

“My worst audition was for [director] Tim Burton for Batman. I have never told anyone this story, but I tried to persuade him I was not right for the part [The Joker], and I succeeded. I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. About a week later I heard they were going after Robin Williams and Jack Nicholson…. How about that for stupid? Actors are not necessarily smart people.”—Tony-winning actor John Lithgow, quoted in Katie Van Syckle, “John Lithgow Still Regrets Passing on Playing the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman,” New York Magazine, June 13, 2017

In the new blockbuster version of the adventures of the Caped Crusader/Dark Knight, Barry Keoghan plays the vexing villain, The Joker. It would have been fascinating 33 years ago, though, to see how Lithgow would have put his stamp on a role that, in addition to Keoghan and Nicholson, has also been played by Cesar Romero, Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix.

(The accompanying image of John Lithgow was taken by David Shankbone on March 27, 2007.)

TV Quote of the Day (‘Batman,’ As The Penguin Waddles Playfully Into Politics)

The Penguin [played by Burgess Meredith]: “Politics is wonderful! I can use all my lowest, slurpiest tricks, but now they're legal! I should have been a politician years ago!”—Batman, Season 2, Episode 17, “Hizzonner the Penguin,” original air date Nov. 2, 1966, teleplay by Stanford Sherman, directed by Oscar Rudolph

Hmmm…this wouldn’t remind you of current events, would it?

TV Quote of the Day (‘The Good Place,’ on Affleck's 'Batman' and Turning Over a New Leaf)

“No one can ever truly turn over a new leaf. Sure, Ben Affleck told me he'd matured as an artist after he directed Argo, but then, right on schedule, it was, ‘Guess what, Tahani? I'm gonna be Batman!’"—Tahani (played by Jamella Jamil) to Michael (Ted Danson), on The Good Place, Season 2, Episode 8, “Leap to Faith,” Jan. 4, 2018, teleplay by Christopher Encell, directed by Linda Mendoza

TV Quote of the Day (‘Batman,’ With Robin Seduced by Lesley Gore???!!!!)

Pussycat [Catwoman’s protégé, played by Lesley Gore]: “I wanna be alone with you, Robin.”

Robin [played by Burt Ward]: “Alone with me? But why?”

Pussycat: “I can see a very important part of your education has been grossly neglected.”— Batman, “That Darn Catwoman,” Season 2, Episode 40, original air date Jan. 19, 1967, teleplay by Stanley Ralph Ross, directed by  Oscar Rudolph

That’s what you get when Robin sets out to deliver the commencement address at Gotham’s Aaron Burr High School—innocence threatened, and the world turned upside down!!!!

How purrr-fectly dreadful!

TV Quote of the Day (‘Batman,’ With Grammar Wedged Into Crimefighting)

[Catwoman's "getaway rocket" won't start]

Robin [played by Burt Ward]: “You can't get away from Batman that easy!”

Batman [played by Adam West]: “Easily.”

Robin: [nods] “Easily.”

Batman: “Good grammar is essential, Robin.”

Robin: “Thank you, Batman.”

Batman: “You're welcome. Now, let's get them!”— Batman, Season 2, Episode 4, “The Cat and the Fiddle,” Sept. 15, 1966, teleplay by Stanley Ralph Ross, directed by Don Weis

When I was a seven-year-old, watching Batman in its original run, lines like the above sailed straight over my head. (I was more interested in the periodic word-clouds of “POW!,” “ZOWIE!” and the other sounds of the Caped Crusader and Robin the Boy Wonder clashing with no-goodniks.) Now, lines such as these—really campy, delivered with a completely straight face—are what I look forward to the most any time I catch the episodes on a cable station that reruns vintage TV series.

I imagine that the teachers in my elementary school—especially the nuns—must have groaned at the mere idea that the youngsters they were trying to steer onto the straight and narrow could have been enthralled by Batman and its copycat ABC cousin that I also never missed, The Green Hornet. Little did they know the sneaky do-good lessons the show was imparting to us (albeit with tongue in cheek)!

They would certainly have smiled at the idea that Batman would have reinforced the grammar lessons they were teaching to his “young ward” (as the show put it) just before taking on a whole room of bad guys. 

And, taking a wider view of the proceedings, they would have been pleased that, by having impetuous young Robin listen to his older, wiser guardian, the show was surreptitiously suggesting, in the generation-gap Sixties, the importance of heeding the counsel of one’s elders—even if, in this case, the “elder” was—oh,  let’s stop being politically correct about this!—a weirdo who ran around in a bat costume more than half the time, and then invariably got himself and poor Robin into a life-threatening cliffhanger at the end of every other episode.

 

Photo of the Day: CatBat Meetup

Julie Newmar and Adam West, those long-in-the-tooth icons of my Sixties childhood, couldn’t make it. Nor could Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Keaton, nor Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale. So this young woman and fellow (plus another person, with his back turned, who decided to get into the act) converged, as Batman and Catwoman, on Times Square late in the afternoon the other day, just as I passed by with my camera, ready to record the immortal moment for posterity. As Catwoman might say: The timing was purrr-fect!