Ep. 4. Burt Ward- "Robin" on 1960s TV series Batman. From Caped Crusader to Canine Crusader!

American treasure Burt Ward, "Robin", from the original 1960s Batman TV series is my guest today, talking about his non-profit, Gentle Giants Pet Products, and of course his adventures on the set of Batman!  Please head over to the following website for more information on Gentle Giants dog food and cat food, and purchasing details:

Gentle Giants Pet Products

We discuss the science and technology behind Gentle Giants Pet products and their importance in the health and wellbeing of our pets.

Next, we discuss in great detail several behind the scenes elements on the set on Batman, his relationship with martial arts icon Bruce Lee, and his friendship with Adam West, "Batman". Thank you for listening to this amazing conversation with the iconic Burt Ward. I learned many things from this legend, and I hope that you will too. Enjoy the show! Please follow me on Twitter @ (20) Greg Randolph (@HeroesIconsPod) / Twitter Thank you!! 

Transcript

Burt Ward transcript

 
 Greg Randolph:
 Welcome and thank you for joining us today on the Heroes and Icons podcast. I'm your host, Greg Randolph. Please find us on Instagram at Heroes and Icons Podcast and on Twitter at Heroes Icons Pod, and you can also find us on the YouTube channel at Heroes Icons Podcast. If you're so inclined  please give a five star review and subscribe to the show for shows like this and others. We have an incredibly special treat today. If you are a fan of the Batman franchise, my guest needs no introduction whatsoever. As the character Robin, the Boy Wonder, this  gentleman starred alongside the late great. Adam West who played Batman of course. And together they formed the Dynamic Duo in the original Batman TV series, which aired on ABC.

From 1966 to 1968, he has 139 acting credits to his name. In 2004, he won the TV Land Award for a favorite crime stopper duo. And in 2005, he won the TV Land Award for favorite crime stopper. In 2015, he was in inducted into the International Kickboxing and Karate Hall of Fame. In 2016 Batman, the return of the Caped Crusader movie was voted best animated superhero movie of the year for that year.

On January 9th, 2020, he received a much deserved star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And today with his wife, Tracy runs Gentle Giants pet products.com. Their website and pet food company for all dog breeds and cats. And the link to that website can be found in the show notes for this podcast. And without any further ado, my guest today is the one and only the iconic Burt Ward.

It is a tremendous honor to have you on with me today. It's great to see you, sir. How are you? And how's your family doing? 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Hello, citizen. We're all great. Thank you. We're very excited about 2023. We hope it's gonna be a fantastic year for everyone. 

 Greg Randolph:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Please tell us about General Giants pet products in your nonprofit for the dogs and cats and that gives extended life to, to all, to dogs of all sizes and cats where they can live as potentially as long as 27 years. 

Burt Ward:

Yes. We have dogs living up to 27 and a half years and Wow. Pat's living up to 32 years . Oh my goodness. But this is didn't happen overnight. My wife and I started in 1994 rescuing Great Danes.

The we wanted to get a great Dane for our daughter and we heard about great Danes that were being put to sleep in shelters because there was no one to rescue them. And we thought how about just temporarily for a couple of weeks, we'll take in some great Danes. We'll save the, save them from being euthanized, and then we'll find a home.

We'll find somebody to take this over from us. It's only been 29 years. We're still looking for someone. Take it over. I'm a patient person, but 29 years is a long time. But we started rescuing Great Danes and one thing led to another, and then we were rescuing other giant breeds. And now we actually rescue 45 different breeds.

There's only 164 breeds of dogs and we rescue 45 of them from tiny two pound dogs, all the way up to dogs that are almost 300 pounds giants from the littlest to the biggest, and from the youngest puppies to the oldest senior.  and in the course of rescuing these animals, we found that in the case, particularly of the giant breeds, that they have very short lifespans, masts and Irish wolfhounds traditionally live only six to eight years.

Great Danes traditionally only live seven to nine years and all dogs actually live pretty short lives. I read where the average lifespan in the United States of a dog is only seven years. It, it just seems like what a terrible loss when you ha can have such a loving, kind companion that that you could only have it for such a short period of time.

So when we would lose one that we weren't able to adopt and it passed away, my wife and I were so devastated, so incredibly devastated that we vowed if we could find a way that we would find a way to help all breeds of dogs live longer, healthier, and happier lives. The first thing we discovered was a, what we call our special feeding and care program.

And all of this evolved from living 24 hours a day, seven days a week with at least 50 dogs in my house. That's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now for 29 years, but even after a couple of years, just imagine if you had 50 dogs in your house every single day. There's nobody that lives anywhere else.

They live in the house, of course, they go out, they go to the bathroom. They also go outside to eat and play. But nevertheless, there's 50 dogs in your house. You learn a lot. You learn quick. We were very fortunate to discover how to properly feed these dogs. It actually in the case of our special feeding and care program, which your viewers or listeners can find on gentle giants dog food.com.

The sections called Special Feeding and care program. You can see how we feed and care for dogs. We feed them, for example, a minimum of five or more times a day, smaller, more frequent meals, and we elevate their food and water dishes, right? All of the things I'm describing here add years to your dog's life.

And actually help them avoid illnesses that can be caused by eating too much at one time and getting a condition called bloat and torsion that kills up to 10% of the dogs in America every year. All kinds of things in pitfalls that we've avoided by the way we feed and care for dogs. Then we decided, one, once we got the, like for example, the Great Danes up from, instead of seven to nine years, but living 10 to 12 years, that's three years on average.

It's still pretty spectacular. Sure. That we said maybe there's something else we could do. Maybe if we change their food. Now, please understand, we were rescuing these dogs. We, this was not a business. This is saving lives, trying to find them homes because we were limited. You can't just keep taking them in without adopting some out.

Sure. And then we finally got a formal special permit here in our city where we can have more than 50 dogs, but we keep it at 50. And So the, what we discovered was that if we made the finest food we could make, we thought maybe we could add another year or two to the dog's life.

We didn't know Going into this, what we ultimately found out and what we found out is that by doing things the right way, meaning don't add a bunch of extra fat into the food, don't coat the dog's kibbles with greasy animal fat. Don't add excessive protein to, as a marketing tool. Just some basic common things and use healthy ingredients.

And in our case, we use all non G M O ingredients, which I'll explain in a minute. But the point of it is that we got amazing results. Our great Danes that were only living we first, they started at seven to nine years, and then with our feeding program went 10 to 12, we had great Danes that were 16 years old., 18 years old.  and still, they were older, but they could walk and they could still run. They had a very good quality of life. And so when we would adopt these dogs and people would come and see an 18 year old Great Dane, and they'd say, oh my gosh, my vet's never gonna believe what I've just seen.

I can tell he is old, but my gosh, how do you keep him alive? And he's just so affectionate. He just, he goes and plays with the other dogs. How do you do that? We explained that we have a special way of feeding, a special way of caring and a special food. And of course then once they heard a special food we couldn't find anybody that would adopt a dog from us unless we would furnish the food to them

Now, we never intended to sell dog food. We only made it because we couldn't stand to see our dogs dying so young. So we were getting our food made custom for us, finest ingredients. We paid a fortune for it to get the best of the best. , but it came to us in plain white bags. And now we checked with a lawyer and said, oh no, you can't sell that food unless it has labeling, proper labeling.

It complies with every, state that you're selling the food in. And so we went through all of that fast because we were not gonna be able to adopt a dog cuz people would say, I'm not taking that dog. If I don't have that food, I want my dog to live 18 to 20 years. We did that and of course now, and that, that was back in 2005, which is 17 years ago.

And since then, our food now is distributed all across the United States. We are in Target, Walmarts we are in, oh and in Texas we just started at HEB. Yes. We're in 160 select stores of HEB stores in Texas. And I can't tell you how many people there have called to say, I couldn't believe it.

I went to grocery shop and my HEB and there's Gentle Giants. I don't have to order it online. And people appreciate that. And we have our, not only our dog food there, we have our cat food there, we have all our different recipes. A really good selection. But the key thing of what we're trying to do here is help animals live longer.

In the case of most people, they'll get a dog to grow up with their child. I think it's a wonderful thing for a child to grow up with a dog. Yeah. The problem has been with traditional food for animals and not knowing the best care techniques Very often by the time the child is started out maybe at three or four or five, and now it's, they're 10 or 11 or 12, the dog passes.

And now you're trying to explain to your child death, which sure. We didn't have that problem with our daughter. We got our daughter a, an American Eskimo what, a 25 pound dog as an adult when she was a year and a half. And the dog was six months of age. And that dog has been with her for more than 20 years.

The same dog. We also got her two great, she wanted great Danes too. And that of course, traditionally because they have such a much shorter lifespan. But we got her two sisters from a litter that we had rescued. And she's and she was four. Our daughter was four. The time, they were six months of old of age.

And now, 17 years later, the dogs are still alive. That's almost triple the lifespan of a Great Dane, 17, 18 years it's been, and all of this we attribute to three things, how you care for your dog.  how you feed your dog.  And what you feed your dog. And again, we first really got a shot of this when the, when we got the food back from these top nutritionists that we'd hired and within a month we saw major changes in our dogs.

A month of starting to feed them. Their coats were so much better, right? Their eyes, they were more alert, they were calmer, they weren't hungry all the time. And we started doing research and we found out some pretty serious things. For example, to my knowledge, every dog food that I've seen has had fat added to it, right?

It's filled with fat, okay? With anywhere from 12 to 22% fat, which by the way, on a bag under the guaranteed analysis they make you use the word crude fat. It doesn't say healthy fat doesn't even just say fat. It says crude fat, and that includes saturated fats. That's not good stuff.

Our fat content is 9% because that's basically what's in the food naturally. But when I see these other foods anywhere from 12 to 22% pure crude fat, is it a wonder that dogs don't live very long? We, so our food, and that's another thing I tell people all the time, if you wanna understand, we didn't discover the Fountain of Youth.

Believe me , if we had discovered the Fountain of Youth, I would be drinking from it. . We're just not prematurely killing dogs. And if, and I tell people, you wanna know the difference between general giants, how it could be so different than your food. Go pick up three or four kibbles, rub them in your fingers, and then put 'em down and rub your fingers together.

You're gonna feel that slightly greasy feeling. , what is that? It's animal fat. It was sprayed onto the outside of the food, and by the way, added to the inside of the food. Okay. Okay. To make your dog eat more, to make you feed your dog more, to make you ultimately buy more dog food. Oh, isn't that wonderful?

You sacrifice their health to make more money. I, that doesn't sit well with me, so we don't do that. We don't add a lot of fat on the inside of the food. We don't add greasy coating on the outside of the food. We're not trying to make more money. Our object is to help dogs live longer and healthier.

And I can gladly tell you that here at our rescue with 50 dogs at all times, our animals here, we are so healthy. The only time they go to a vet is every three years for a 10 or $15 rabies update. We don't have illness. Okay. I think in the, and cancer now is a major killer of dogs. Yes. In fact, on our website, general giants dog food.com, and even on our store site general Giants pet products.com, we have a video that we took from another website that does research on GMOs in the human food supply and in the animal food supply.

And we were so impressed by this video, which we put on our website. It's eight minutes long, but what's so impressive is that everyone interviewed is a veterinarian, an experienced ex, well-respected veterinarian. And let me tell you, they all basically say the same thing, which is 10, 15, 20 years ago, they would see one patient, dog or cat a month that had cancer.

Now with the GMOs in the food supply, every single day, one out of every two patients they see, every one of 'em said, has cancer, right? Has cancer. Gosh, what a horrible thing. And for those of your listeners that don't know exactly what GMOs are, genetically modified organisms in the food supply.

Basically when a farmer would grow a plant like rice or to a fruits or vegetables or whatever the pests would attack it. It's being grown. They would sometimes spray pesticide to kill the pests, and often it would kill a plant. So when these giant companies came out by mixing glycosate, which is in Roundup, that one that's causing all those humans to die, they mix it into the DNA of the plant so that when a pest would attack a plant, the farmer could spray that plant with a pesticide and not kill the plant.

It still produced the vegetable or the fruit, or as an example, rice. That rice, even though it's produced and sold, Has absorbed the pesticide. And I can tell you for a fact that animals have much, much worse  immune systems than humans. Aren't immune systems as far superior than that of an animal.

And so as a result, and these vol, all these vets are saying the same thing, that whereas these GMOs in the food supply are probable carcinogens could cause cancer in humans, they are definite carcinogens causing cancer in animals, dogs, cats, any animal that eats of food that has been treated with this pesticide and with the glyph fate from Roundup in it.

Long story short, we don't have any GMOs in their food. It took us a year and a half to find suppliers who could certify in writing that their ingredients. Had no GMOs in it. And with all the things that are in dog food, when you have prebiotics, probiotics, all these healthy things, and you have to have every single one have a sign off that it, that you can see what a daunting task it was to get truly non  GMO food and combining the non GMO food with a non-greasy coating on the outside of the food and no added excessively added fat on the inside of the food.

You combine those together. Those are two really big things as to why animals can live longer. And then of course as we feed our dogs. Now we found out that the greatest stress on a dog's body to that makes them age so fast is digestion. And, here in, in America and elsewhere, people, I don't know where they picked it up, but people have this idea that, oh, the only way to feed a dog is feed it twice a day.

A big meal in the morning, a big meal in late afternoon. Guess what? That shortens dogs' lives because it puts a stress on digestion too much trying to digest too much food at a single time. So we feed our dogs a minimum of five or more times a day. It's we're not feeding more food. We're feeding smaller, more frequent meals, at least an hour apart, and we're also raising their food and water bowls.

And people say why do you do that? I say think of it this.. Your dog's only got so much energy in its lifetime. And if every single day your dog has to lean down to get the food off the floor, then they chew and they come up and lean down to get the water up and down and up and down every day you are prematurely wearing your dog's body out.

And one of the great questions that we get from people that call in or write to us is that they'll say, I don't understand. I go on your website and I see dogs running around like puppies in their twenties, and my dog is seven years old and he's already having a problem getting up and he's having a problem walking.

And that doesn't seem fair. It isn't fair, but it could have been avoided. And even for those people now that have dogs that are 10 and 12 years old, you need to switch the. Yeah, you need to get 'em on food that is not have extra fat in it, that doesn't have G M O ingredients in it. And we didn't even get into protein.

Protein is become a marketing tool. So you go to a pet store, you look up on the shelf, maybe on the left is a protein dog food that is 26%, one in the right 28 and in the center 32%. Oh, that's gotta be wonderful. No it isn't. We found out in our experience that you never wanna feed a dog more than 22% protein or you can prematurely burn its kidneys out.

Burn its kidneys out. And I like to use the example of the very famous Atkins diets, not so famous anymore after Doc Dr. Atkins, who was on his own diet of kidney disease. And after many of his patients and customers who were on that diet started coming down with kidney disease from having too much protein.

Whether you are a human animal or a dog, or a cat or anything else our cells are affected similarly by too much fat, too much protein. We need moderation in our diets. We need the healthy foods. And just think with all that grease that you would never pour down your garbage disposal.

What do you think is happening to your dog's arteries and intestines? When Every single day, every single meal, every single bite, every kibble is encapsulated in animal fat. Is it a wonder the dogs even live as long as they live? Sure. So we fight that by trying to help people understand. And now with our partnership of teaming up with h e b to bring Gentle Giants into their stores everyone there in Texas can have an opportunity to have their dog add many more healthy, active years with a wonderful quality of life.

And then of course we got into doing it for cats since we've rescued 500 cats in 28 years. That certainly doesn't compete with the 15,500 dogs, but 500 cats is still 500 cats. And our cats the oldest ones, we've had one that we lost two years ago. One was 31, 1 was 32. It's pretty spectacular to live that long.

So we're really pleased with what we're doing. And again, this is our charity. It's become our life's work  and now my wife and I are even with the  fact that we are now in so many stores and things like that, where it's already there and the stores are helping us where I'm not having to sell somebody back at dog food, that my wife and I now are looking at creating our own programming, our own television shows, our own movies, things like that.

Using state-of-the-art technology and doing it for the betterment of mankind. All every day my wife and I get up with the idea. We would like to leave this planet better off than we founded. We would like to do something to, to whatever we can to contribute. We've now got a new company called Superheroes to the Rescue.

That's pretty, that's so we can all be superheroes when we do what we can to help each other and to help animals. So that's basically what we've done. And I'm sure you've got questions about my Batman TV series, which I'm happy to answer any of those, but that's what we're doing right now.

We're having a great time. In fact Warner Brothers told me they liked the comment that I said I was the caped crusader. And now I'm the canine crusader. 

Greg Randolph:

Absolutely. And you should both be commended for that. That's great work. That's really great. Absolutely. That's great stuff.

Where can the customers go to get more information and then where can they purchase these amazing products? 
 
 
 

Burt Ward:

Okay, they can certainly come to our website if they have a dog, GentleGiantsDog food.com or if they have a cat, GentleGiantsCatfood.com or if they want to go to our store both of those websites have access to our store, but they can go directly to our store, GentleGiantspetproducts.com.

But if they wanna buy our food for their dog or cat first of all, if you're in Texas, go right to HEB, you couldn't find a greater, more wonderful grocery chain. That covers quite a bit of Texas which is a pretty big state , I have to admit. And so HEB is terrific and they have our food and they have, we have different recipes.

We have a farm chicken, we have real beef with real bacon. We have wild caught salmon. And then we have, for our cats, we have a whole line of cat food. Plus we have canned food that we are very proud of because in our particular case, our canned food is made with all fresh ingredients, not frozen, not powdered.

Fresh ingredients cooked in the can. This is superb quality. And dogs and cats love this. But, so they can go to h HEB and get it. We're also in Target stores and we are online with target.com, petco.com, petsmart.com, tractorsupply.com, chewy.com and heb.com.

Greg Randolph:
 Yes, absolutely. That's fantastic. And I'm gonna drop I'll drop the links for those places into for all those websites into my show notes for the podcast, so the viewers and listeners can find more information and go there and shop and purchase these amazing products.

Burt Ward:
 Great. Thank you very much. We love animals. And I tell people, the greatest thing that I could do for someone is to help s something or someone they love. Live longer and be with them longer. The, it's funny, the only complaint I ever got from someone said to me, you and your wife, that's all you seem to care about are the dogs and cats.

Why don't you do something for humans? And I said no, wait a minute here. If I help you keep your dog or cat an extra five or 10 years longer, don't you think I've done something for you as well? They, oh, I guess if you put it that way, . Yeah. I think so , that's exactly the case. And I think that betters, that helps everyone be better because it's been proven that people who do in fact own pets, live longer, happier lives. So that's fantastic. Animals are very comforting that, why do you think that they use they'll take dogs and sometimes cats, but mainly dogs into hospitals where there's children or even adults or seniors. It's a very calming effect because the animals have they're have an innocence about 'em. They're not trying to do anything other than just give love and receive love. 

Greg Randolph:

Absolutely. Just a gift from above. And they're just amazing really amazing creatures. And let me go, let me move to something else here. And it's still in relation to the pets, but you've, you and Tracy have also worked with the Artist Guild in Charlotte, North Carolina to create some school programs, for children to properly care for their pets. And I think that's very important for kids to learn at an early age, not to pull ears or tails and how to feed them and everything else. So is there somewhere where listeners can go to find out more about that? 

Burt Ward:

We had a program before we had our dog rescue. We had a program called the Early Bird Program. It was designed for kids in preschools to teach value values like honesty and integrity there, right? No, no political things or anything like that. Just basic, good citizenship, kindness and with the idea that if you teach really good values to children when they're young, that you've got a better chance that as they grow older, that they will espouse those values and make a better world for all of us because we're all on the same planet right now.

 And nobody's colonized anywhere else that I'm aware of. So we gotta try to find a way to ive together and with kindness and to try to help everyone. I tell people we're all on this planet such a short period of time. We, you need to make every day an effort to be your best day to accomplish something.

 And that's the way we look at it, that we're very lucky to be here. And it almost gives us an obligation to try to help others have a good life too. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Mission accomplished. Let me let me go, let me rewind all the way back to the very beginning and start with your early days if I might.

 And so you were born and raised in Los Angeles, and your father, Bert Sr. Was the owner of a traveling ice show called Rhapsody on Ice. at each two you were listed in the magazine, strange, as it seems, as the world's youngest professional ice skater. Yes. Do you have any memories of those early days?

 
 Burt Ward: 
 I have a one or two memories of that and I'll let me share them with you. My father owned this traveling ice show called rap. It was the predecessor of Ice Capades. Ah, okay. And  it was very successful. He'd traveled all around the country and with it. And that in the show they had oh, these incredible skaters.

But at one part of the show I was two years old and my skates are like, I would say about six inches long. Okay. And that's the blade  the shoe is probably four inches long. And they would bring me out and they would announce here's a two year old that is skating.

And they would have a professional skater holding each of my hands. And they, just skate around the ring and the rink. And, people would clap. Oh, that's very nice. And then, , they would let go of me and I would skate by myself around there,  and a two year old doing, and people are going nuts.

They're like, how can this be? And all I can tell you is because the ice, is so white, and the bright lights from the arenas were so bright, I could never see anybody up there, and yet it usually, these were all like theater in the round where people are around you. But I could hear them and I remember the, just like the clamoring that, it was just so loud and yet I couldn't see anybody. And all these years that never left me. That's the one thing I remembered, being on the ice and being so impressed with the, it's just this like a gigantic, audience. And so it was a great honor. 
 
 Then from there my father came back into Los Angeles and ultimately decided that he wanted to get into real estate. Became a very prominent real estate broker in Beverly Hills, California, where I went to school. And I always thought of myself. like to read comic books when I was a kid, right?

But where I lived, they only had the Superman comic books. I had never heard of Batman, never saw a Batman comic book until after I got the TV series . But I do remember reading, Superman and I remember reading about Super boy, right? And let me tell you something, I, at, even at three years of age, I had a tricycle and my mom put a bath towel around my neck held together.

And let me tell you, as I grew up, I was a quiet child growing up. And when I in school, I'd come home every day. I didn't really have too many friends and just a quiet person, but I would take this ball and I would kick it against the wall for hours and hours, kick the ball and you're running kick it and daydreaming about being a superhero.

And I honestly believe that thoughts can be things, and so here later in life, I had an opportunity to try out for the show. Let me tell you something. I didn't know this at first, but there were 1100 young actors that were interviewed for this role, right? Of Robin, 1100 National, all across the and I I was very fortunate that I had a chance to try out for it. And then when I got it I remember the executive producer came to me and said, Bert, would you like to know why out of 1100 young actors that we picked you to play this role? I said, yes, sir. I'd like to, I'd be very interested to know.

And he said in our minds, forgetting television, if there really was a Batman and Robin, real for the real thing. We think in terms of Robin, you personally, Burt would be it. So we don't want you to put on any big acting thing. We really want you to just do two things. One, be yourself and two, be enthusiastic.

That's nothing, right? Sure. I am, myself and my whole life have been very enthusiastic. My nickname as a child growing up was Sparky, cuz I was like a, firecracker type of thing. So for me this was very easy to do and that's exactly what I did for 120 episodes. And I am, as I found out later, I was very impressed to find out that during the filming of 120 episodes with probably 30 to 40 different directors, not once did any director ever tell me how to say a line.

And the same with Adam. , they never told us. We, Adam West, who we just instantly became best friends. I don't know how it was, some people can just get along and click in five minutes and I met him on my screen test and I was introduced to him and we sat down to read these character lines and in five minutes, the two of us were laughing.

We just got along so well. And something, I really believe that chemistry that he and I had, Personally carried over on the screen because, as big and grand and slow talking, Adam could be, I would be quick and fast,  would and in, in my opinion, all the great comic duos of the past, you're Laurel Hardy, avid Costello ed McMahon and Johnny Carson all of the great comic duos, there was great contrast.

So the more that Adam was stoic, the less stoic I would be. And it worked out great. It just people just, they just caught on. And we also did something that I'm really proud of that that no one at that point, I, that I was aware of had ever done, . remember in those days if you were watching television, people that watch television were like almost a third party distant having nothing to do with the show they were watching.

They basically were looking at either good guys or bad guys. And the good guys are after the bad guys, and the bad guys are trying to avoid the good guy. And that's what a television show was. You're not part of it. But Adam and I, we tried to do something different. We tried to reach through our television sets and grab those kids on the couch and grab the adults and just bring them right into the whole Batman campy style.

And, honestly, I think it worked terrific. And one of the things that Adam and I did, I, that I'm actually quite proud of that most people are not aware of that is used in just about every movie. You see something that he and I created and that is that.  on Batman, we created a situation that during the most dangerous, potentially life-threatening thing, there would be some comic line between the two of us.

As an example, we were in a warehouse looking for The Joker. And as we're going through and it's tense and the music is tense, all of a sudden these, seven giant guys drop into the thing and they're all ready for a fight, and all these ominous guys and I have aligned Batman said, gosh, Batman, there's seven of them against the two of us.

Odds in our favor, cuz there was only seven of them. Okay. . Sure. Yeah. And in today's world, you look at these movies, oh my gosh, you look at the Marvel movies, lots of comics statements, right in the middle of the drama and the action, . And it's and not just superhero movies.

And I've seen in the Bad Boy movies where they're, where they're fighting these bad guys and, they'll have one line to another saying, if we get out of this alive, I'm not coming over to your house again. The point of it is there's a comic relief that plays very well in action scenes, and that was something that was created on Batman.

And the other thing I say to people is, you really think that you'd have all these superhero movies if Batman hadn't been such a big success that, paved the way for all these movies to come out. So we really, I think, made a great contribution that I'm very proud of. My small part in making that.

Greg Randolph:
 Absolutely. Absolutely. And let me stay on the theme of the fighting here for a second. So once you, or actually before you had even gotten the role for Batman, your, one of your neighbors, and I don't think a lot of people might know this, one of your neighbors and friends was actually Bruce Lee.

Burt Ward:

That's right. 

Greg Randolph:

Can you talk about, can you talk about your relationship with him and how and some of the techniques and things that maybe you learned from him that have all stuck with. 
 
 
 

Burt Ward:
 We lived in the same condominium complex and we got to be friends. And a piece of, and we used to spar together.

That's where you fight, right? But you don't have full contact. Still can be very painful. You get hurt . But we, and we got along great. And in fact, I remember one time I joined him and his wife Linda. And at that time, Brandon, his son was only six months of age. And we went down to Chinatown to have dinner together.

Bruce had lived in Hong Kong for 10 years, so he knew all the most authentic foods that weren't even on the menu to order, and we had a great time.  he also had an opportunity to join a television series produced by the same executive producer as I, as I had, which was William Dozier. 
 
 
 Mr. Dozier, besides producing Batman and a lot, lots of. Movies of the week for c b s. He also made a series called a Green Hornet, and Bruce was cast as the character Cato, then Williams was cast as a Green Hornet. And what happened is that because our show was the number one in the entire world, we you couldn't believe it.

Number one in the world, no, actually, number one and number two, cuz we were on twice a week . But what  happened was, is because he Mr. Dozier was gonna launch the Green Hornet after our series in the fall after we had premiered, and then the next fall it was gonna Green Hornet.

He thought what a great way to promote his, the Green Hornet to people than to bring it on to the most popular television show in history at the time. And which brings me to a point of a interesting piece of trivia. As Bruce Lee. I believe is the greatest cinematic martial artist there will ever be.

I can't imagine anybody ever being a greater cinematic martial artist than Bruce Lee. But a piece of trivia is that Bruce's first filmed fight scene of his career was fighting me on Batman. Yes. That was the first time he'd ever fought in front of a camera. And of course they, we were given very specific instructions.

Don't come at it that hard. This is still a family show. On Batman, you could have chairs, knocked on somebody's head and they fall down and two seconds later they're up. There was never any blood, there was never any real injury, it was kinda bigger than life superhero kind of combat.

And so they wanted it to be even, they wanted it to be, not too realistic. Okay. Although we did it pretty realistic and they made us trim it down a little bit . But it was fun. And he was a really nice guy. He had an amazing sense of humor. You might think, oh, he is just, just this tough guy. No, actually Bruce was a. very kind and gentle person. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 And then so can you tell us about, there was a I guess a lighthearted moment when you were filming the fight scene with Bruce in that green horned episode where he apparently gives you a dirty look and then he comes charging right at you. But he had been put he had been put of this yeah.
 
 
 Burt Ward:
  No, there's some comment that, that I was supposedly afraid of Bruce Lee. I'd already been fighting with him for months before we got on the set. No, not at all. Not at all. That was, that's just somebody made that up. I don't know where they had it.

Maybe they had it indigestion after their dinner, but that was nothing but a completely fabricated thing. But we did train together and I'll tell you something. Bruce trained eight hours a. Every single day, even on Christmas Day, man trained. And one of the things that, that he and I discussed quite a bit together is efficiency of effort.

In other words Bruce believed that when you learn something, okay you go through an effort to learn something, okay? And any of us, whether you're martial arts or playing the piano or whatever, you go through a learning period, that's an awkward period, right? Because none of us starts as an expert with anything.

And, but what Bruce's whole theory was, is that as you learn and as you educate and as you absorb more information, that you refine that information, that you simplify the information. So his whole thing was how can you get the greatest result with the least amount of effort? Nothing to do with being lazy, just efficiency, right?

And that he was, oh man. He was totally into that. And so we had we had a good time. We were friends, and I, later on after the series at some of these martial arts events, he would put on demonstrations and I would go to sometimes watch some of the competitions and stuff like that, and we'd have a chance to talk.

And, he was just a really, he was a nice man and, but he was a very smart, let me tell you something, he would say with all his martial arts experience and training and stuff like that, he said, the best tool you have is your brain point to his head like that.

Greg Randolph:
 He was, he's absolutely right. And you yourself have a black belt in TaeKwonDo as well. And so how did that, the mental and physical training with that and what you did with Bruce and the and the gentleman that you trained with, how did all of that combined with your high school athleticism, all the sports you played, how did that come in handy with you, with not only your audition, but with every, with all the scenes that were filmed throughout Batman.

I, when I was a brown belt when I came and screen tested for Batman. And I, as part of my screen test, now this is 1965. The Marshall Arts of Karate had only come to the United States in 1959. You're talking about six years before, was the first time and is introduced here in Los Angeles by a gentleman named Ed Parker, who became very famous Ed Parker.

And I am trained with Ed Parker. I trained with him. I trained with his right hand man. I trained with many people, not just a trainer, but a bunch and different techniques. Aikido. There's other, there's many kinds of karate, Keo karate. There's different styles, sure.

Of that. But the point of it was, is that I thought it was I thought it was great. Great athletic, good for your body, just, to keep in shape and stuff like that. And also to be able to protect yourself. My gosh, in today's world, who would've known how much more dangerous today's world is?

But back then, it wasn't a terribly dangerous world. You could have some danger, but it was very far and few between people had expressed integrity about was good. It was, you were proud to be honorable. Something that that you could be proud of where there's a lot of youngsters that have now grown up on the wrong side of things that that have no qualm about harming or hurting somebody. We would never think of that. Martial arts was never designed to be an aggressive thing, but a defensive thing. To be able to, and they, and it goes back to China and all the different Okinawa, Japan and all, you go back into the history, it was always the poor person the peasant who was trying to defend themselves against some, oppressive behavior by their local government or something.

Greg Randolph:
 Interesting. Very interesting. So you were inducted into the International Kickboxing and Karate Hall of Fame in October of 2015. What does that honor mean to you? 
 
 Burt Ward:
 It means a lot. One of my dearest friends his name was Bob Cheney. He in 1973, he won the World Karate Championship.

He was considered pound for pound, one of the finest fighters ever. In history. Yeah. He was like a Bruce Lee, but his specialty and just incredible guy. And he and I became like best friends. And through the years yeah, he would come out and he was single and, he'd come out and stay with my wife and I, and when I was writing my book, boy Wonder, my wife in Tights, he was right there.

We'd have dinners together and oh my, he was eighth degree black belt. He was just amazing, and he became a very famous teacher of martial arts. He was like very close with Chuck Norris. And there was like a group of them. They were all that had all been with each other from so many years of training and fighting and stuff like that.

But it was, he was just a great friend and we found a lot to talk about, and. I was very fortunate to have him. Unfortunately, Bob passed, but and a lot of my dear friends unfortunately have passed. I'm sad to say that other than Julie Newmar and Leanne Merriweather who played Catwoman in the Batman movie that we did. Other than them I can't recall. I don't know that there's any of the, stars of our show or guest stars that are still around, which is, and it's sad because I liked all of them. And when I was shooting Batman, you come on the set and every week I am working with somebody that I either watched on television as I was growing up sure, or watched in the movie theaters as I was growing up. For example, Cesar Romero, the great actor, his presence on the set, you could just feel this just guy, just incredibly, and he knew, always knew his lines. He never made a mistake. It was the old time movie actors that you imagined from the days of Clark Gable and the great stars of the past.

And just, for me, I was like a kid in a candy store. And then Vincent Price came on and played Egghead . And lemme tell you, I had seen his movie The Raven, when I was a child, and it really had scared me. Really scared me. Yep. So when he first came on the set and I saw him, there's like this flutter in my stomach that, because. For a moment, frightened. But he was an incredibly nice, great actor. And how, like I said, I was a kid in the candy store, right? Every week I am working with somebody that was famous, that already had been a star. They wouldn't have been a guest villain on our show. They already were very established and, cliff Robertson and Frank Gorshin, and Burgess Meredith, Maurice Evans, great Shakespearean actors.

And George Saunders Joan Collins it could just go on and on, just. Unbelievable. And I was, I honestly, I loved it. I, and I was very appreciative to have that. And I, and sometimes we'd have a chance to talk to them cuz you know, huh? It's not all the glamor.

We're shooting a show, basically you get on this cold sound stage, you get makeup, put all over your face, sometimes on part of your body, then you get into the most uncomfortable costume. That was not designed for man . No. Oh my gosh. I can go on and on about that Robin costume. But and there you are sitting on the set.

And in those days they didn't have the cool lights like they have now. They have lights that can be very bright, but they're cool. They had these giant arc lamps that, you could fry toast or something. They're so hot. And you'd be get under those lights for hours and you're just like delirious by the end of the day.

And then the other problem is they light a scene, Greg, for 45 minutes.  for 45 to 50 minutes, right? And then you work for 30 seconds, and then you go sit down for 40, another 45 minutes. And people say Bert, that's no big deal. Just bring a book and you'll be fine. Let me tell you, I brought a bunch of books, never got to read 'em.

You know why not? Because I was due on set, but because one of the assistant directors, oh, Burt, we need to check your makeup. Go over there, the makeup trailer, 300 feet away, , right? And oh, then you come back, oh, war wants you down there to go get check on your mask to see if it's proper or not.

Oh my, you never have a moment's piece. And then of course, when you're dressing room , I can't tell you how many times when, I'm taking off my clothes. I'm in my underwear and I'm starting to pull up my tights, and there's a knock on the door. . And instead of giving me a chance to say, Hey, wait a minute, I'm still getting dressed.

It'll be a knock on the door. And they open the door. Hi, Burt. Oh, did I disturb you? Oh, you're getting dressed now. Oh. I have the reporter here from the Hollywood Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter. Oh, guys. No, don't look. Oh, you are taking pictures over. No, you shouldn't do that. We, I shouldn't have opened the door.

Oh my gosh. , I can't tell you. There is no privacy. No, no peace. And by the end of the day I'd get my makeup on, and by the way, in front of every shot, they put more makeup on and more hairspray on. People used to say to me, You, I thought your hair was jet black. And I said, no, it's because of all that hairspray,

And I I'm telling you, I could put a heavy roast on my hair and it wouldn't even press my hair down by the end of the day. There was so much hairspray and so much makeup and taking off all that makeup. And then you drive home and you're so tired, you get in, I got into my apartment and it's I'd sit down and start to fall asleep and then I know I gotta be up early the next morning and be in there and, you gotta be right on time.

And sure, it was a challenge. I loved it. The, but the costume was a challenge. And just the pace, there's always a lot of pressure. Because time is money. There is a reason they call it show business, because it is a business and delays are incredibly costly.

And our show with all the special effects and the explosions and the giant birthday cakes that are quicksand and oh my gosh, everything you can imagine, they had extra crew members that instead of a crew of about 30, we had a crew of about 80 people. Wow. And therefore the budget went nuts.

And Right. The studio was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every single week on every single show. And eventually, when they had made enough 120 episodes to sell into reruns, that's when they decided from a financial standpoint, we need to recoup our money on Batman. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 And that was a big question that I had for you is I didn't understand how, with how someone didn't maybe see that Hey, we're losing two to $300,000 a month. 
 
 Burt Ward:
 And this is in a week. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 A week, I'm sorry, a week, I'm sorry I said that wrong. Two to $300,000 a week, which if we extrapolate that obviously in today's money, that's $3 million a week in today's money, right? And so what I don't, however many millions that, that is monthly. 

So I guess my question was, is how did someone not see that these expenses were so astronomical and yet the revenue, somehow the ad revenue from TVs or affiliates just didn't, it didn't match. 
 
 Burt Ward:
 And so they, they couldn't do it. They couldn't sell it. Mo at that time, sponsors were only paying so much money they couldn't recoup.

And finally, when they got enough shows in the can is what they call it, that they could rerun it forever. , but, and now with reruns, they get paid a lot less money, but there's no expenses against it. You know what I mean? They can distribute it electronically, to stations all around the country, collect a fee without spending a dime.

And that's how finally the studio recouped all of its money and became very profitable to show. But it had to be after it was ended. 

Greg Randolph: 

Okay. I guess that I guess that makes sense. And I I didn't quite understand it and from doing my research I knew there had to be another element to that.

Greg Randolph:
 So let me ask you like, when your, with your interactions with other young people in your apartment complex, in the condominium everyone's trying to make their dream happen, get started, all that good stuff. So did you hear about some other people there talking about the Batman audition to and that prompted you to go and try out, or was that your only interest in acting? 
 
 Burt Ward:
 No. I was I was going to UCLA l I was studying acting with a top professional Hollywood coach and studying at UCLA, an acting class there. So I was, Two complete courses there every semester. And I was helping my father because on weekends my, since my father was one of the prominent real estate brokers in Beverly Hills, he would ask me to stay at a house like on the weekend for certain number of hours.

And, people come in hand them brochures or answer questions. And one of the people that came in, one of the houses that I was, they call it sitting on a house where you're sitting there was a famous Hollywood producer who I don't know, I just got the nerve. I said, Hey, would you be willing to watch me do a scene?

And he said, okay. I guess so. And I did a scene. He said, yeah, that's pretty good. Let me send you to an agent. He sent me to an agent. The agent said, I can't get work for the actors I've got. I would never take anybody new. The only reason I'm gonna take you is because this prominent producer asked me to, and I have to do it.

Okay, so he said, don't expect to work for a year, and if you get something, maybe you'll get one line or one sentence to say on camera. Wow. I left there with my tail between my legs, so to speak, and went back to my small apartment and it was probably a couple weeks later that I got a call from someone in that office that, that, that agent's office that said, there's something going over at 20th Century Fox tomorrow we have you an appointment show up at 4:30, that it's in your name and they'll have a parking place for you.

You'll be able to park on the lot and they'll tell you directly where to go to meet for an interview for this role. I said what's the role? I said, I have no idea. All they're knowing is they're seeing lots of young guys over there. So that's the next day. I went there and went over and I was parked and I was sent over to a bungalow.

They, that's instead of an office building, they had a bunch of bungalows. And I met the casting director and he just asked me one or two questions and said, would you like to meet the executive producer? I said, sure. I figured everybody got to meet the executive producer. That's not true.

But I didn't know that. So I said, sure. So he sent me to another bungalow and I went in and they the secretary said, hold on a minute. Okay. Mr. Dozier will see you now. And I walked in and maybe because I had never been on an interview, Greg, that I wasn't intimidated. I wasn't, I hadn't been rejected.

So I wouldn't be going in there like damaged goods. I just walked in and said, hello, sir. And he's oh my gosh, this guy is very forward here, I wouldn't say aggressive, but very forward. Sure. And, he was definitely caught off guard. And he looked at me, he says you're big for this part.

I said, oh, but sir, I promise you I won't grow. And he laughed. How could you promise somebody you're not gonna grow anymore? He said, would you like to do a screen test? I said, sure. Doesn't everybody get to do a screen test? No. No, they don't. But Burt Ward didn't know that.

And so I said, sure. And that's when, then I ultimately showed up for the screen test of that in the beginning, which you can actually see my screen test online. Yes. And in that, on that screen test, you see me do some martial arts stuff. Actually it was some judo stuff with a friend of mine and breaking a board with my hand.

And then they said, okay, now we want you to do a scene with this other actor, and here's a sheet of paper. And on this sheet of paper, didn't say about any show name, just a sheet of paper. And on the sheet of paper, it had paragraphs. And then it was like heading Bruce, Dick, and each one had some dialogue.

Not Bruce Wayne. Not Dick Grayson. I wouldn't have known it at the time anyway, because I had never read a Batman comic book. Never even knew it they existed. But it was just Bruce and Dick and they said, let us introduce you to the actor you're gonna read with. And that's when they introduced me to Adam.

I said and I sat down next to him. I said, would you wanna run lines? He said, sure. Within five minutes, the two of us were laughing. He and I got along so well. So we got up, we did our dialogue. Okay, this is as Bruce and Dick, right? And thought that was all there was. I didn't know that there was anything else.

I, nobody superheroes all I knew was I was just reading for this part. And then I said thank you all very much. And I started, wait a minute, where are you going? Aren't I done? No. We've got one more thing for you. Oh, okay. What do you want me to do? Over on the other side of that sound stage here, way over there, we want you to go over there and there's a trailer.

A wardrobe trailer and there's two wardrobe gentlemen there that are gonna help you get dressed. And I stopped for a second. I said no disrespect, but I'm perfectly capable of dressing myself, . They said, oh no. You don't understand. You go over there, you'll see. I said all so I went way, it's like walking three blocks.

go over there and sure enough, there's this dressing trailer. I go in it, and it's quite long actually, and it must have had a 10 or 12 foot cushion mattress, bed, couch, whatever it was, and on it was all this stuff. And I saw these two guys. I said, am I gonna put some of this on? They said, no, you're gonna put all of it on.

I'm like, , what? They helped me get dressed. Never in my life, Greg has anything pinched, pulled, itched. Every possible uncomfortable thing you could imagine. Occurred. Plus, because of the way the mask was, I couldn't see. And when I finally got dressed, I started to come out. I almost broke my neck cuz I couldn't see the step coming out of the room, because you have to turn your look straight down.

It's just tunnel vision. And as I was leaving, and I'm telling you, I'm like, this, I'm so uncomfortable i's like walking in a big U frame. It was just horrible. I hadn't gotten used to it. And I'd been a positive person. I turned to these wardrobe guys and I said the good news here is after another 15 or 20 minutes, I'll never have to wear this costume again. Famous last words. Oh boy, did I ever wear it again and again. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 I know I speak for the audience when I say that. We all greatly appreciate the sacrifices you made to do that and to get into the, in, into the role. 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Yeah. But getting into the role was great, but getting into the costume was another matter.

Greg Randolph:
 Absolutely. So what was that time like with in regards to the set and the filming and we talked about the cost a little bit, about, about having to get, be sure that you that you got a shot. So you so I, maybe this was one of the, one of the first scenes or first shoots there, but, so you're coming out of the back cave and you round that curve and you go flying out of that door and you and you almost take out that Gotham City sign.

 
 Burt Ward:
 Lemme explain. That was my first day of filming. Okay. The first day of filming. And it's the first shot of the first day of filming. And I'm on set in the Hollywood Hills up in, it's called Bronson Canyon, where they have an actual cave there. It's not a real big cave, but it's big enough that Batmobile can fit in and Here, I'm at there at 6:00 AM and in makeup by 6:30 in wardrobe by 7:00.

And they said, Burt our first shot, we're gonna have you go in the cave. You're gonna get in the Batmobile, and you're gonna drive out, and you're gonna come at the camera, and then the, it's, they're gonna make a sharp left turn and drive off down towards Gotham City. I said, okay. So I go up there and, when you first go in the dark, it takes a few moments for your eyes to adjust.

I couldn't see very well, I couldn't even find the Batmobile, but finally I fell and I got in and I sat down and I looked over and, and I thought, I saw Adam and I said, Adam, they said, no, it's Hubie. I said, oh, Hubie, who are you? He says, I'm a stuntman. I said, oh why are you here?

Because this is a very dangerous stunt and the studio doesn't wanna take a chance of Adam West getting hurt. I said that's a good thing, but, if this is really dangerous, is oh, absolutely. We gotta come out at 55 miles an hour on the dirt. We gotta go straight for the camera at the last minute.

I have to slam on the brakes and spin the back into the car around to the right, and then let go of the brakes and rib up and, go down towards Gotham City over the sign. I said, oh, wow. I said, that does sound challenging. He says, yes, absolutely. He says, and I said, do you like being a stuntman?

Oh, it's great. He says, the more broken bones I get, the more money I get paid. I said I, I guess that's one way to look at it , and then I'm sitting there and I'm saying to myself now wait a minute. If this is so dangerous that they don't wanna take a chance of Adam West getting hurt, what about me?

And I said I, didn't on my first day of shooting, I didn't wanna be too, asking too much. But I said, sure. Do you know if I have a stunt man? He says, oh yeah, you've got a stunt man. I said great. Where is he? Oh, he's having coffee with Adam West. I said maybe there's Marty.

And then all of a sudden I hear, close it up, get ready to film. And I said, whoa wait. There's a terrible mistake. Yeah, quick. Come over here quick. And the second unit director says, Burt, what's the matter? He said, this man's a stunt man. He said, yeah, we know that Burt. I said, yeah, but he's telling me this is a dangerous shot.

Yes, we know that. And he's telling me, I have a stunt man that's having coffee with Adam West. Burt, we all know that. Wait a minute, why isn't he here? And me having coffee with Adam West if it's so dangerous that you don't want Adam West to get hurt? Don't you want me to be safe too? Oh, we can't use him.

Oh, you can't use my stunt man? No, can't use him. I say, okay, why is that? He doesn't look like you. Whoa. Then why did you hire him? Why would you hire somebody that you can't use? Couldn't find anybody else. Oh my gosh. So you gotta do it Burt. Plus, when you come right up to the camera and he makes that sharp turn, your face is gonna be full screen right at that camera, and we know it's gonna be you because your stuntman has a giant nose.

I said, oh my gosh. Oh, alright, get ready to shoot. So the stuntman says, okay, Burt, hold on. I said, okay first I go to buckle my safety. You know my seatbelt, but there's no seatbelt, Greg. No seatbelt. Oh, no seatbelt. What am I gonna do? So then I'm gonna hold onto the handle, but wait.

There's no handle on the inside of the door because all the camera equipment and the lighting to get the light in my face and all of that, and I have to stay in a certain position because otherwise I'm gonna move the light and it's gonna cause the camera to see a motion in the light that shouldn't be there.

And, oh my gosh. What am I gonna hold onto? Oh, I see this quarter of an inch flexible plastic, fake windshield. That's what I'm gonna hold onto. Coming out at 55 miles an hour, lemme tell you, , that could just bend that like this. Oh my gosh. So here I'm trying to, I don't even know what I'm doing. And hey guys says, hold on.

I go, oh, what am I gonna hold? I have nothing to hold onto that's secured. And we zoom out we go and go right at the camera. And he makes that perfect. He did it perfectly, but unfortunately unexpectedly, my door flew open. And when my door flew open the cameraman sitting on what they call a camera truck, it's not really a truck, so it's a little steel, a little stand with wheels on it. But he's sitting up on that door, hit him and knocked him off the camera truck, knocked the camera over, knocked an arc lamp over giant. That's what they used to light up these things when they were selling cars and, opening nights and these big things.

Do you see all the lights in the sky? That's what a huge bright light. If that had landed on somebody, Greg, they'd be killed. No question. They'd be dead. Sure. And I was thrown towards the door, but I don't know how, I just threw my hand behind me, my arm behind me, and somehow this little finger locked around the gear shift and it kept me from falling out. I'm sure if I tried it a hundred times after that, it, it would not have, I would've fallen out. But I didn't, this one time it caught, but when it, what it did is it pulled my finger on a joint, which is incredibly painful. So when the car hit the door, hit the cameramen and it knocked things over and everything came down, the car came to a screeching stop.

Dust is billowing up, you could hardly see. And they run over and they say, Burt, are you okay? And I said, yeah, I'm okay, but my hand is killing me. And they looked down at my glove cuz I was wearing my green glove. And my finger inside the glove had already doubled in size. And they said, Burt, we gotta get you, I mean we gotta get you to a doctor.

That's obviously that finger's been pulled outta joint, which is incredibly painful. Okay. And I said okay. They help me get up and I got out of the car. I said where's the car to take me to the doctor? Oh. . We can't go now. Burt , what do you mean? Oh, we can't go. We didn't get the shot.

It costs us like $30,000 every 10 minutes. We gotta get the shot. Oh, so I don't go to the doctor? No, you gotta stay right here. In fact, you gotta do it again. Once we get it all lit, clean up the Batmobile, all of this stuff. I ended up shooting it like three more times and finally at noon, I left for the doctor, looked, oh, reset it. It was horrible. I don't even think about it. And, but, and that was the first day of four days in a row that I ended up going to the emergency hospital. Things like broken nose from a two by four landing on me while my arms are tied to my side. Explosion of a car that blew up next to me, that burned second degree burns in the back of my neck, in the back of my arm. Oh man. This was a dangerous show, 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Indeed it was. But it Did the, so there were all kinds of incidents like that and you, and that was the scene with Frank Gorshin where he's above you?

Burt Ward:
 That's when I'm in the burning car. 

Greg Randolph:

Yes. 

Burt Ward:

Just imagine. Can you imagine getting into a car that's on its side? You're in a car, a real car that's on its side and they've got a burning on the out outside real fire. This is not fake. This is not digital fire. This is real fire. Okay. And I'm down in the hold in the very bottom and above me, and the only way to get out is Frank Gorshin.

Okay. There is, you talk about the ultimate claustrophobia. You're in there and there's a fire going on, or all around you. Everything is on fire. He's above you. And of course they're saying, okay, let's get ready to do this. He's there. It takes time, he's not just get in and get right out.

You're stuck in there for probably 10 minutes, 12 minutes. And finally they said, action. And he goes up and he jumps off. And my thing, same thing. I'm supposed to climb up through the open window, stand up, and then jump off. But what happened was unexpectedly again, that car that was on fire blew up; it was not supposed to blow up.

And as I'm there getting ready to launch, all of a sudden they explosion. And all I can tell you Greg, was I saw the ground coming at my face like incredibly fast. It was actually me being thrown to the ground, but my eyes saw the ground coming right at my eyes and second degree burns the back of my neck, my arms.

Cuz like I, I wore a t-shirt. And and gloves. But so that this part, my arm on both sides got burned and there I am back the same doctor and you say, maybe you should think of another kind of business. You seem to be accident prone. I said, I've never been in an emergency hospital and I lied till yesterday when I came in, Finger that was outta joint.

Now I got burns in the back of my neck, two more days of this stuff. I went into him and let me tell you something. The studio, though, they were very smart when they realized how dangerous the show was, they took out a huge multi-million dollar life insurance policy on me. And I could swear by the end of the third season I thought they were trying to collect on it.

 
 Greg Randolph:
 I can imagine. But that said, let me kind of segue into something else here. So with the we're, this is the PG-13 section of our show folks. So did the perks of being the star of a hit show help, maybe help offset the dangers of filming meaning a rather how shall we say, a gratuitous set of excursions with a wealth of other female fans and other women maybe who worked with you on the show?

Burt Ward:
 I tell you, I got lots of free medical care. That was nice. I got lots of ointment, bandages, things like that, broken nose set. I mean that they were very gracious about that. In terms of when you're working on a show, believe it or not, You are, you never have a moment's peace. And yes, I worked with a lot of great people, a lot of beautiful ladies, but it was you just I don't know, by the end of the day, and then you gotta be up early the next morning.

You gotta memorize your lines. You got all this dialogue to do. They were doing six pages a day and you say six pages, that doesn't sound like much. It could be a lot of dialogue and, it, yes. Did I meet people? Yes, they will occasionally go out. Yes. Okay. But this was not the glamorous Hollywood that you think of.

Sure. This was not the, there's no party. I guarantee you I did not party one day after work for that entire series. There was none of that. It was just, it was, this was really it. And you'll just one more thing. , even though I wore the costume for the filming , I didn't get a chance to take the whole costume off between the shots.

I always had the tights on. I always had the tight boots on. I always had, the vest on. It's and it just wears you down by the end of the day when everything either itches or pulls or pinches, . It's not what you think it is, and then you get distracted with this or that and, or you get a great scene that you just finished, oh, we gotta shoot it again.

Why? Oh, we had a flickering light. Cuz the guys that filmed this, these were the pros of the pros. They were every one of Right. Fantastic crew members. And they're, they, and here, and by the way, I was the youngest person on the set, I was 21 years old, 21, 22, 23 when filming.

And the next person in age to me was Adam.  who was 37 when I was 20. He's 17 years older than me. So who did I talk to when I wasn't working? First of all, you couldn't be talking to all the crew guys cuz they had their jobs to do. And they're all in their fifties and sixties, and I'm a 20 year old.

And some of 'em looked at me like, how did this guy get so lucky at 20? And I'd been sweating my whole life just to, pull cables for camera. It just, it wasn't what you thought it was. So I was really, had grown up pretty much a loner and I was still a loner, sure. Adam had his press agents and these people fawning around him and this and that and I was just by myself and I was fine. I did well with it, and but it was certainly different and, it took up some of my childhood, my older I would call it my senior childhood.

Greg Randolph:
 Sure. When you're around your late teens and early twenties, sure. But you would've normally been in, in college at UCLA at that time continuing with studies and a normal college life otherwise. Sure. This was not, this was not obviously a typical college life.

 Burt Ward:
 No. But it also had all kinds of pressures and it was all very serious. And not a lot of, as much as our show was funny, and some of the lines we did were funny. It wasn't funny to the people making the show very serious about stuff. And what took you so long to get this, your shoes on?

Or what did Oh my gosh. It was just like, it was constant. Even if they, you weren't specifically pressured to do something, you felt that tension that, we gotta get this done, we gotta get this shot. We got all these crew gotta do this, gotta do this, gotta do this. You know what I mean? And the most famous line in one of the most famous lines in show businesses, hurry up and wait.

Yes. Yes. We gotta get you, we gotta get you into Burt. Oh. And then I go to make, oh, Burt, we gotta get you over to the wardrobe. They gotta fit this. Okay. All right. I'm ready to go. Oh, we're not ready yet, Burt. Oh, alright. Go ahead, go have a seat. Burt, we'll call you. And then I, 20 minutes later, are you ready now?

Nope. Nope. We're still got some lighting issues. All right. I said, then I think I'm gonna lay back in my dressing room and I get a pillow and just start, my head hits that pillow. Bert, we need you right now, . It's oh my gosh. Not a minute's piece. But it was still a fun show to do.

And then  and Adam and I had a great time. He was such an entertaining friend and we laughed and that sure made some of those days that were so uncomfortable and oh, some of the things that we were in were hurt, hurtful. And some of these explosions were one of 'em where I thank God, I just felt like I had to close my eyes.

They told me the special effects, oh, that explosion's gonna go down and up. Not gonna come out. You don't have to worry. Something told me, I, you know that to be careful. And then when I knew it was going to explode, cuz I knew the exact line just then I closed my eyes because now remember I got a mask on.

So it's unlike, and it's a wide scene you're very unlikely you're gonna see my eyes closed. You understand? Sure. But it's a good thing I did because untruthful, although they may not have meant it, that explosion came right out. And my eyelid had second degree burns on them. If I had not closed my eyes, I would be blind today. Wow. Wow. Can you imagine that? That'd be blunt. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 No. I can't. I can't. And that was a, there was a lot of, an awful lot of  danger on that show and a lot of, there, there's so many, there are always so many things by behind the scenes with the way the sets are doing. It's like in the, trust me when I understand it's a different discussion, but in, in past job experiences I, trust me when I say that I understand.

 You feel like you have to hurry up and there's that pressure. I do truly understand that. And it's not nearly the glamorous thing that people think it is. No. Let's take one more example. The bat poles, right? Yeah. People ask I see you press the lift Shakespeare head, you turn, press the button or turn the knob and the door opened, you slide down. How deep was it? 
 
 
 

Burt Ward:
 Actually, it was about eight feet deep.  That you could, went down. But that wasn't the real bat. Ca a bat hole. We had a real bat pole that we filmed one time, Greg and I would, if I thought about it again, I never would've filmed it. It was so dangerous. We had to go up inside the sound stage up these rickety, wood steps and you can see through as you're going up and you're gonna higher and higher.

Oh, this one's got a little curved, little give in it. As you step on it, you get higher and higher. .And then they, you get out on a catwalk that is probably only about two feet wide. . Okay. And one little wire across the top. There's no safety. And then and we walk out in the middle.

They have two bat poles all the way to the ground. 65 feet down. There's no net, nothing. There's nothing. They said we, want you to jump on this pole, but you gotta really be careful. You gotta make sure you don't miss you. You're gonna, and when, and the stunt guys were telling me you, the way you gotta do this cuz it'll burn right through your gloves.

The weight going down that height. Okay. And that fast. So what you do is you do you're gripping and letting go and gripping and letting go and gripping and letting go. You see me just to break your speed, right? And you're doing the same thing with the inside of your rubber soles, of your boots.

You're clamping down and letting go. Cause if you just held on it would just you up just burn right through 'em. Okay.  and what if we missed the polls, we'd be dead. Yep. This, there was no net. And I think about it now and we only did it once, but it was real. And I'm saying, how could they ever get away with that?

And then there was another scene where they say, Burt, now this is gonna be a little scary for you, but don't worry, we got it covered. Oh yeah, you got it covered, what is it I gotta do? There's a scene when the bad guys are hanging you off the side of a building. We're gonna film this, it's real.

We're gonna get you on top of the sound stage, which is about 85 feet tall, and we've got two of our strongest stuntmen that are gonna hold you by the leg. And we are gonna hang you over the side of the building for this shot. And I said, wait a minute here. And when I saw it, okay. I, first of all, I insisted I'm gonna, and I did my own.

I got a big, I insisted on a big thick rope like you, a boat moors to the ship moors when they come in big, thick rope and I tied it to my leg. I tied, I wouldn't let them tie it. I tied it to my leg and then I tied it around a pole so that, when they're hanging me, they're holding me, you wouldn't see that that I had a rope tied and I wasn't trusting. And they said, why are you doing this Burt? The guys are not gonna let go. I said, as I recall, we just finished lunch and they served fried chicken. What if these guys didn't dry their hands and they got greasy hands trying to hold onto me? 

 I'm 85 feet up there. You don't, I don't recall you having a net down there. Do you have a net? No, No we didn't have time. Oh, okay. I'm gonna have this tight on my leg if you want me to do this. Oh, you're difficult to work with. No, I wanna stay alive,

So that's the kind of stuff that, and it was like every day, and then when I'd hear that there's gonna be explosions, because I'd had so many burns in the face from explosions, they'd say, oh, he's a little touchy with explosions. Oh why do you think he might be? He was in the hospital half a dozen times, at least from burns, from explosions.

Greg Randolph:
 Gosh, it doesn't necessarily seem like the studio was all that concerned about your safety as, as much as they were with getting the shots in.
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 And then of course, I think so. I think so. Nobody wanted me to get hurt, sure. I'm sure that but they just weren't as careful and I have one, one last example for you.

Okay. So here it is, the fourth day of filming the Riddler. Frank Gorshin has me on a table. I'm tied down with my arms at my side. I, I, all I could do is move my head a little bit, can't do anything else. Move my head. And they're supposed to have Batman figures out where I am and he breaks through the subway wall with an explosion.

Okay, here's another explosion. So what they have is they said, we got it all set up. We have a breakaway wall breakaway. It's made out of balsa wood, it's very flimsy. And they use a magnesium charge, which is a, gosh, it sound is so loud, you just to hold your ears for an hour.

And, but and it's explosion, but it's not an explosion that blows way out. It's an ex, it's just a bang. Just super loud and super hot in a short area, maybe five feet away. I knew when it was gonna happen and when it happened, I'm on the table, I'm bracing myself. All you had was a boom.

The wall didn't break. Now why didn't the wall break? Oh, because there was some confusion in the making of the set and the builders forgot to make a breakaway wall . So now there's no time to spend three weeks making another breakaway wall. What do you do when Batman has to blow a real hole through that wall?

The special effects guys here, they come with two half sticks of dynamite and they nearly blew the entire sound stage down. Yep. And when they did, they blew some of the two by fours that were in the wall flipped up. I'm tied down here, comes a two by four down and breaks, hits my nose on the bridge of my nose. That was painful.

Greg Randolph:

 It's, that sounds very painful. And that's just a crazy, unfortunate thing and yeah. An unfortunate deal for filming. 

Burt Ward:

Yeah. So it's a, so anyway, it was, look, those were the bad things, but there were great things too. There were fun scenes. There were, and the, and my gosh, when you saw people, how they reacted to our show.

Oh, and Adam and I would go out and sign autographs and people would stand at a line for five hours to get an autograph. And sometimes the parents would be coming up and they're holding their little child's now falling asleep cuz he'd waited so long to meet Batman and Robin. It was some very touching things and we had a great time.

There's times that Adam and I, we laughed on the set one time, the two of us, we, it was so hot under those hot lights and we had these cats and we were supposed to put them in a position to make a map and one was upside down and the other. And we put 'em together and he and I started laughing and laughing and then they cut. We gotta do this again. Burt, Adam, stop laughing. No more laughing. Here you are. You say, okay I'm gonna try not to laugh in the sweat. It's coming down the inside of your legs of the tights and sweating your back of your neck and, you're so hot in those lights. And Adam looked cross eyed in his mask, which made me laugh.

I look like a raccoon in my mask, he said . And we would laugh. And I remember this one director came up, he said, this is the 10th take. You two guys are gonna laugh me out of the business. I mean he's gonna lose his career as a director. Oh, so we did the best we could. We had crazy things happened, life is imperfect.

No, but we made the shows. They turned out great. People loved them. And overall we had a great. time. 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Absolutely. And you guys, you and Adam were good friends off the set as well. And so it wasn't uncommon necessarily for just regular people to, or fans to come up on you up to a public tennis court.

Burt Ward:
 And you guys are yeah, we played tennis sometimes on the weekends and it is really funny because most of the time we were not recognized. However, when you put us together, that's what, somehow, without saying a word, people were, and I remember on the, we were playing tennis one time and some in a public court, and you have to understand, nobody knows that we were gonna be playing there.

I didn't even know the day before. So we go out in the public court and  we're playing tennis and some people come the next thing and I notice these two ladies are looking like this. They're like this. They go, oh, my Batman and Robin playing tennis. And everybody stops. And now you know, it's oh gosh. all right. That was fun playing tennis. Let's quit now. Cuz every nobody's gonna play tennis. They're all gonna just stare and look. Ask for autographs , right? No so Adam, I say, hi, y'all, nice to meet you. Have a good day. We're out of there.
 
 Greg Randolph:
  I'm sure that popularity maybe created some problems as, as well, maybe you couldn't go out to dinner and eat as you used to?
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Oh no. That isn't that interesting. Yes, that was cause we were together When Okay. When I was alone, nobody ever recognized me. Ever. Ah, only time is if they said, oh Burt Ward is here in the restaurant. Then people would look and yeah, they'd figure it out. But, people are at least in that period of time, Uhhuh , they're so involved with their lives and their own problems and concerns and hopes and wishes. They're not looking for it. And if they're not looking for it, they do not notice it. I tell you, they do not notice it. So I had the best of both worlds where I could have all the notoriety I wanted if I put on that costume, and I could have all the peace and quiet I wanted without the costume. . 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Very good. Let me ask you some things about the show as well. About as, as far as the as the special effects and the bat cave and the bat mobile and the bat computer and the map on the, on that clear grid and everything was there a particular element of the show that you, that, that fascinated you or that you enjoyed working with more than maybe one of the others?
 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 But I think the thing that I liked the most was working with Adam, cuz he and I got along so well. But also working with the guest villains. Yes. Every one of these was a major star. It's and then so many actors wanted to be on our show. It's like when something is a hit, everybody wants to be part of it because they want to somehow enjoy and get a bit of that success.

 So there was never gonna be enough roles for all the actors and actresses that wanted to be a Batman. So that's when they created the scene of going up the wall while Batman and Robin walking up the wall. And then some famous person would open the window. We had, yes, Sammy Davis, Jr. Don Ho. We had Lurch, we had Betty White, we had just so many different people that would open up that window and have dialogue with us.

That was how they would get, cuz the kids of some of the biggest Hollywood stars were pressuring their parents. Oh, you gotta be on Batman. You got, that's the coolest show of all . 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 That's great. That's great. So let me go back to the costume here for just a minute. And can you, this is just a, I guess a strange thing for the times, but the, there was an organization that, that, that didn't care for the way your costumes were portrayed or seen on TV coming through their TV sets.

 And they took exception and they had the network make some changes. What was that? That whole thing. And then, it was a weird deal. And so you they wanted you to take these pills that would change things if everyone will. And then there were some you started to feel strange about taking them in and then you go into the studio and you say, Hey, look, I'm not doing this anymore. Is that how that went? 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Pretty much. Yeah, it is basically man was not built for tights, Greg. Okay. No. And so the Catholic Legion of Decency, Batman was so popular. Everybody wanted to get involved with, we had psychiatrists saying, oh, that is the wish dream of two homosexuals.

They, everybody had some theory or this or that. And Adam and I were just having a good time, just two normal guys having a good time. Show me the show, getting along great, right? And, but everybody wanted their 2 cents in it. And there were people this legion of decency was very upset the way I bulged my tights.

What do you expect, not a female, a male They complained to the network. And the network got in touch with 20th Century Fox, 20th Century, got in touch with the production company. Okay. And the production company came to me and is telling me about it. And I'm saying what, what's going on?

Oh no, they're very serious. I said, oh, come on. Oh, no, no Burton. No. They're very serious about it. And then you have these wardrobe guys that are trying to get me to wear all these contraptions under my tights and oh, none of that worked. And then it became more knowledgeable, cuz people would talk and, They'd talk about this or that.

And Adam would tease me a little bit about it. You know what I mean? And I, I would tease him back. I said I said, listen, Adam, I, I may get complaints like that, but you're the only one I know that has to stuff Turkish towels in their undershorts so that you look normal.

The Turkish towels, it's like a blanket. We had some funny dialogue, but he and I, we got along, we were like incredibly good friends. I loved Adam, and I think he loved me too. We were just really, were good friends, but in any event, so yeah, they finally found some doctor that would give me these pills that would technically shrink you up, for a few hours or whatever that, but after three days of taking 'em, I got worried that maybe I'd never have be able to have children or something. So I didn't wanna take 'em anymore.

So I ended up using my cape to cover when there were certain things or certain angles. But then there were those, we were shooting this Lundin Larceny, if you want a little bit of a spicy into this thing. We were shooting this show a three parter called Lundin Larceny, and the Lord p and anyway, the long and short of it is they the, instead of having hench men, they had young ladies. Okay. Yes. And they were all in there, they looked like they were all teenagers or college kids, young, . And they all knew about that. So they would purposely, when they're grabbing onto me, they're like, they're holding me back, or this, they're purposely bumping into me or grabbing a little too close, right?

Or, whatever. And they're all giggling and let's see if we can get a rise out of Burt, and stuff like that. And I laughed too, but what could you do? You did the best you could do. Sure. And it was fun. And it was a little challenging.

And of course the crew on the set always knew, and they're all laughing at me. And, I, what I had, there was no win. There was no win, whenever I could get my hands on that cape and covered and of course with them holding my arms out, how am I gonna do that and it was it, that was a few days of challenge, but then it was over, and then they're onto another crew and another, another cast and all that kind of stuff. And somehow we always got past it and moved on to the next. 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 And then Adam had some fun with that too. And he apparently stuffed something down the front of his costume and then made it in almost to the final edits. Is that right? 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 No. He had to put something in because he was too flat.

Greg Randolph:
 Okay. It didn't look, it didn't look right. That's funny. 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 So I would, and then, and he's laughing about my problem. I'm telling him he's got a worse problem . And it, that all kind of boiled over after a week or two. And then, there's something else. Who knows, but we had a great time.

We made a great show. Kids loved it, adults loved it for the nostalgia of the comic book, the college kids and the teenagers who you couldn't get to watch television in those days. They wanted to cruise around the drive-ins on a Friday night kind of thing, that's what they wanted to do.

And so how do you get 'em to watch television? That's where our campy style with the suggestive statements that, that Adam and I made and the double meanings and the insinuations all came about it, it caused them to watch the show for that second level of comedy. 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Excellent. So in the show you used phrases beginning with the word “Holy” 352 times through the entire 120 episodes of the series.

Burt Ward:
 No more than that. More than when you count the Batman movies of over 400. And I I didn't write them. There were some that I did get to change. It didn't make sense, not every writer that wrote for Batman had a feel for what we were doing with, especially with the double meanings and the suggestive implications and the innuendo.

They didn't all get it. So we were allowed to make changes that we thought were appropriate to maintain the same style, which we did. Sure. 
 
 
 Greg Randolph
 And that that makes sense. That makes sense. This is, this has been an amazing and incredible conversation. It l could let me ask you just a couple more things here and we'll land the proverbial plane, so to speak.

 
 Greg Randolph
 So this was and, according to Adam West, I believe, if I have this right, the Batman TV series was mentioned with two other iconic symbols of the sixties being that being Bond, James Bond and the Beatles. So we have Bond and The Beatles and Batman. 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Yeah. That's when Adam came on the set one day and said to me, Burt I had this realization, there's the “three b’s” in today's world. I said, what's the “three b’s”? Batman, Bond, and the Beatles. And I said, oh, okay, Adam, and then, but then he had another one that I want to tell you about Greg. He had a funny situation where he said to me, Burt, I really think I understand now what it's like to play Batman.

So what do you mean, Adam? You understand what it's like? You do it every day. No. I really now really understand in a deeper way. Yeah. I'm like, okay, I know he is gonna come out with something. He says, last night he said, I watched the Ten Commandments. Okay. And I saw Moses coming down with the Sermon of the Mount from the Mount. Okay. Charlton Heston, is Moses. And once I saw Moses bringing down the tablets with the Sermon on the Mount from direct, from the word of God, I really understood what it was like to play Batman. I said, oh my God, Adam, he's he was so into bigger than life celebrity. He thought of himself like Winston Churchill or somebody like, and yet the sweetest guy in the world, and such a funny guy.

But at the same time, oh, is he occupied with himself? And I would tease him unmercifully. I would do things, we would go out on events and I would throw, at the time he was in his forties, and I would throw a 50th birthday party for him and announce it on the airplane. Have the pilot announce we have Batman, Adam West on the plane and his, today's his 50th birthday.

Let's all wish him a happy fiftieth. He, Adam, I know, 50 years old, better than and we would, we, he would put he'd put one time my, my boots because we would get changed and go to lunch and come back at these appearances and he'd put my boots in the freezer. Okay. And you can imagine you're, you've got, but the leotard on, you're putting your foot in a truly Ice-cold boot, talk about getting cold feet, right? Yes. But I got back, I put itching powder in his tights, and he's pulling his tights over and he's going like this and everything is itching him, right? I said, Adam, now you can't do that. He said, I'm itching all over. I said oh. He said, what did you do?

I guess I've dropped some itching powder in your tights. I have no time. I, we gotta go out on stage in five minutes. What am I gonna do? I'm itching to death. These kinds of things. And yet we loved each other. He and I we had such a good time together. I miss him terribly. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 I know you do. I can imagine. Is that, do you feel, is that the legacy that you feel that the show has for that time period with being associated with Bond and the Beatles? ? 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 I don't think so. It was true. Yes. Bond. It was Bond. It was very tremendously successful. Beatles. Tremendously successful. But, we hold held Arena records in some of those big arenas that more than the Beatles. In Cobo Hall in Detroit, there was 189,000 paid attendance to see us. In one weekend, 189,000 paid attendance. Wow. And McCulley Place in Chicago, it was like I think 160 some odd thousand paid attendance to see us in just over one weekend, which exceeded the rock groups.

Greg Randolph:
 That's crazy. That's crazy though. Those are fantastic numbers. And I know those people enjoyed seeing you guys. So there we go. In 2019, you and your wife Tracy helped create and collaborated on the history making Batman 66 exhibit at the Hollywood Museum to honor not only Adam West, but all of the heroes and villains of Batman 66.

Burt Ward:
 Oh yeah. With all the scripts there, with the original, it was really cool. They had original costumes there, which of course have aged. but then they had replicas of what they looked like at the time we used them. You see what I'm saying? Yes. So you can see the real costume there and yes, it's definitely age of fabrics and they're losing their color and some of their color and stuff like that.

But then you can see exactly what it looked like at the time of filming, and people love to see that comparison. They really liked it, not just my costume, Adams costume, villains, costumes with both the original and then the duplicate to, to show what it looked like. The, various vi the, all the scripts were there, some of the funny signs were there.

You know what I mean? For example, villains hide out . Why would you have a sign, villains hide out, right? And then, there's one thing that a lot of people couldn't figure out is that every time they filmed the villains, they were always at an angle. Even I didn't understand.

I said, what's what with you guys? You can't get your camera straight. No. We do that on purpose. And I say to the camera what do you mean you do that on purpose? We do it on purpose. Why would you film them at, at an angle? He says, because they're villains. I said, what's the, what's that got to do with it?

Because they're crooked. And that was part of that Batman Campy style. Even the cameramen may had their 2 cents in there by filming at angle.
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Well played. Very well done. That's an, that's an interesting element that I'm not sure a whole lot of people knew as well. So also in January of 2020, you received your very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What does that honor mean to you? 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Oh, it means a lot. I had been hoping to be on there for over than 50 years, and I tell people I'm a very patient person, but 50 years Greg is a long time. Yes. 50 years. Okay. But I was thrilled. And actually what makes it so great, it's not, it's on Hollywood Boulevard right in front of the Ripley's Museum, the and it just and they had it where my star is facing Adam Star, the way they do it on Hollywood Boulevard is that every other star is facing one direction. And then conversely, if you were walking the other way, every other star is facing the other direction. So no matter which way you walk on Hollywood Boulevard, the every other star you're seeing, facing you perfectly, and then the next star is facing the other direction, but then the next one is facing you.
 And they had it where Adam and I were facing each other at just about the exact distance that we did our lines apart. So it was like making in perpetuity, yes, 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Absolutely. That's perfect. And that's a, that's just a tremendous honor and long overdue, and very well, very much deserved.

Burt Ward:
 Thank you. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 You're welcome. Thank you. And so what do you feel like your legacy is not only for the TV show, but the Batman franchise itself? 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 I've been very honored. I've done a lot of stuff for Warner Brothers besides the series. When they came out with their channel the special pay channel.

I did all the introductions of the shows. I was spent an entire day there reading pages after pages on camera of introducing these various shows that, was the basis for their comic books and the basis for the TV shows and things like that. And also, I've had a warm relationship with them.

They came out with a wonderful, beautiful coffee table book called the Robin, the first the 80 years that it's been around the comic book the Robin Comic book. And they, I wrote the introduction for that, which was quite an honor. And there's been eight, there was eight Batman, in terms of the movies made.

But it was only really my Robin. And then there was a very brief.  Robin that was used in one of the other films, but mine by far, I've played Robin more than anyone in the whole world. So many more times than anybody else. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 And you were actually nominated for a Guinness Book of World Records for that?

Burt Ward:
 For, yeah, for the, yeah. As well. Yeah. Yeah. And the Guinness Book of World. And in fact, they it was I could have gotten it. I could have got it. But in today's world, actually, if you want if you want to be in the world records, they charge you, and I actually qualified for nine different things, and they're $9,000 each if you want to be on.

 Greg Randolph:
  Wow. 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Not that I didn't wanna pay for it, it just didn't seem I, that was, it was great to, to be honored. I know what I've been able to do and I'm satisfied with that. 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Absolutely. And you were, you and Adam were nominated for the Guinness Book also? 

Burt Ward:

Yes. 

Greg Randolph

By being the two who play, who most played. the characters?
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 That's right. Oh, that's right. Also I could have been as the world's youngest professional ice skater. Yes. The world's fastest reader. I, the average reader reads 240 words a minute with 40% comprehension. Yes. When I was at Beverly High, then UCLA , I studied for years, I became the world's fastest reader.

I read 30,000 words a minute with 90% comprehension, when I was in UCLA , I read War And Peace, 1,442 pages in 45 minutes, got an a essay final on it. And so I've had a lot of accomplishments that I'm really thrilled about. But, overall I've just tried to do the best I could in my life.

And I, my wife and I are very health conscious. We don't smoke, we don't drink, we've never taken drugs, never will. We wanna be aware of what's going on around us and we wanna each day go out and try to make it the best day we can. 
 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 Mission accomplished. My good man. Thank you. Thank you, Burt, very much for speaking with me today, and I appreciate you very much and your contribution.
 I personally just have always been a Batman fan and I, the fir, one of the first TV episodes that I can ever remember watching was Batman Inc. In syndication. And this was in the early to mid-seventies and 
 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Right. 
 
 Greg Randolph:
 And so much to the point that my friend growing up and I, that we both went, we were both we both dressed as Batman for Halloween one year. So just really great. But again, this was just an absolute blast and the pleasure was really all mine. I can't thank you enough for being my guest today. 
 
 Burt Ward:
 Thank you Greg. I've enjoyed being on your show and as we said on Batman, “to the Batmobile citizen!!”