0:00

George Clooney and Brad Pitt's new movie, Wolves, is on

0:02

Apple TV Plus September 27. That's where I want you

0:04

to be now. So

0:06

if you want to see George Clooney and Brad Pitt go to

0:08

Apple TV Plus. You got to start the story there. Or

0:12

if you want to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney

0:14

go to Apple TV Plus. I am enjoying the show.

0:16

And if you want to see their new movie, Wolves. You can't do it.

0:18

We're going to help you out. I can do it. Do

0:20

it. Definitely go to Apple TV

0:23

Plus. Admit it. It's cool. Okay, fine. It

0:25

was very cool. Wolves. Upstream September

0:27

27 on Apple TV Plus. Rated

0:29

R. This

0:57

is Gilbert. God

1:16

free. I'm here with Frank Santo

1:18

Padre. And this is Gilbert

1:20

and Frank's amazing colossal obsessions.

1:22

Very good. And we've got

1:25

someone in the room who's

1:27

helped by Don Lee. I'll

1:31

try to track him down for you. What

1:33

about Gene Rayburn? Would you prefer that? That

1:36

would be good. I have to get

1:39

a shovel. Yes. You

1:43

know, I'm kicking myself. We just had Peter Asher in

1:45

here. You sang Lady Godiva. Yeah.

1:47

And as you were singing it, I thought he

1:50

should be breaking into a little Jerry when you

1:52

get to the lady part. I know. Believe me.

1:54

Did it occur to you? When I started going

1:56

lady. The

2:02

producer in me was saying, why didn't I tell him to

2:04

do that ahead of time? All

2:07

right, so Paul's here, Gilbert's

2:09

here, and we're going to

2:11

talk about someone we just lost. Another

2:14

one of our podcast guests has left us.

2:17

And this was a particularly sad one. And

2:20

they're all sad. That's Adam Weiss.

2:22

Adam Weiss, the all-time greatest Batman.

2:24

No, it's sad. I remember

2:27

that I think was at my apartment.

2:29

No, I'll tell you where we did

2:31

that one. We did that one at...

2:34

Dara, who is your friend? She lent

2:36

us her photo studio. Dara's

2:39

going to come in and join this so we can

2:41

get this right. You know, I listened to it today

2:43

in the audio. I was cringing at the audio at

2:45

how far we've come since Frank has come to our

2:47

lives. Frank has set us a new standard for us.

2:49

What is your friend's name? Adrian. Adrian.

2:52

Right, we did it at Adrian's studio.

2:55

That's where we did that one. On the telephone. I

2:57

know. Well, I was like in

3:00

those earlier ones where people would

3:02

send us emails going,

3:04

was that done in Lincoln

3:06

Tunnel? Yeah. Listening

3:10

to it today. You know what's funny is

3:12

Adam sounds better than we do. Oh, much

3:14

better. We're in this echoey room. The

3:17

great Frank Vertorosa was not in our

3:19

lives then. I'm looking right at you,

3:21

Frankie. If he was, we'd have no

3:23

copy of it. There

3:27

is no compliment that Gilbert can't turn into an

3:29

insult. I'm

3:32

FaceTiming my daughter goodnight while you're complimenting me.

3:34

Okay, fine. You do some important things to

3:36

do. But he

3:38

was great. He really delivered. And

3:40

he was, I listened to it today. I went back and listened

3:42

to it today. And you know, you're

3:45

breaking his balls about things like zombie

3:47

nightmare. Oh, yes. And

3:49

he's going with it. And he's just, he's funny.

3:51

He's, you know, of course, as I said on

3:54

Facebook, he made self-deprecation into an art form. And

3:56

the funny thing is, is like, this

3:59

may come as a. surprised to you, but

4:01

sometimes I can be a smart head. Really?

4:04

No. No one would

4:06

say that about you. It's like with Adam

4:08

West, it was just like

4:10

there was nothing you could say about him that

4:12

he couldn't beat you to it about

4:15

himself. Oh yeah, yeah, he's making jokes like

4:17

send me the check. Yeah, yes. You're asking

4:19

about working with the Three Stooges and he's

4:22

going, oh, just send me the check. Ha

4:24

ha ha ha ha. So I was, look,

4:26

I went back and listened to the episode

4:29

and I did a little bit of research and nothing

4:31

compared to what you guys do, but I did come

4:33

up with, we know that already. I have, ha ha

4:35

ha ha. Sorry. I

4:38

have some breaking news. Let's hear it. Uh oh. For

4:40

the podcast, breaking news. Uh oh. It was drugs. Yeah.

4:43

Ha ha ha ha. Not that news.

4:45

This is, so I know

4:48

you're tired of hearing me talk about La La Land

4:50

on the podcast. So forget I ever mentioned it, but

4:53

I went back and saw the Batusi

4:56

episode or the Batusi episode. Oh, well

4:58

it's on the pilot. It's

5:00

in the first one with the riddler. Right, so you

5:02

can find it on YouTube. And then I thought immediately

5:04

of Emma Stone in the pool scene

5:06

in La La Land, one of the pool scenes,

5:09

while Ryan Gosling is in the Hokey band and

5:13

she does this ridiculous dance by the

5:15

pool that is very reminiscent of the

5:17

Batusi. And I feel like some legal

5:19

action may be necessary there.

5:21

Doesn't Uma Thurman break into it in Pulp

5:24

Ficher? She does, it's the I thing, right?

5:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he claims, Adam claims

5:28

that he made that up in the car

5:30

on the way to work. Ha ha ha.

5:32

But he just kind of improvised it. See,

5:34

he mentioned in the episode, which

5:36

is in that clip too, and he walks into the bar

5:38

and he walks quietly and he says, try not to attract

5:41

too much attention. Yes, I should wish

5:43

to attract too much attention. And

5:45

also a lot of people

5:47

have been emailing and

5:50

tweeting about that. He

5:53

did go into detail about being kicked

5:55

out of an orgy with Frank Cauchy.

5:57

Right, well, it was the least. in

6:00

the New York Post's article about our podcast. Oh,

6:02

yes. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

6:04

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

6:06

It's another article in the Post today about his sex life that

6:08

he's supposed to make. It's just all this crazy stuff coming out.

6:10

I think they took a lot of that from Burt's book. Oh,

6:12

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because he said Burt likes

6:14

to embellish things, but I'm okay with it because he made

6:17

me sound like King Kong. Ha ha ha ha ha ha

6:19

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

6:21

But it's a sweet episode. I mean, I cringed a little

6:23

at the, like I said, at the Subpar Audio, because

6:26

it's in the pre-Verterosa era. But

6:29

I couldn't believe how sweet he was

6:31

with us and how generous he was

6:33

and how, again, how much of a

6:35

sense of humor he has about his

6:37

career. And so willing to put himself

6:39

and his career down in

6:41

a funny way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And why,

6:44

oh, why did he turn down Bond when

6:46

Cubby Broccoli came falling to ask

6:49

him to do Diamonds Are Forever?

6:51

That was a major mystery. Yeah.

6:53

Yeah. Well, he sort of

6:55

said it just wouldn't be right. It should

6:57

be a British actor. Bond should be a

6:59

red. He stood on principle, right? Yeah, yeah,

7:01

yeah. William West Anderson of Walla Walla, Washington,

7:05

was his real name, born in 1928, September 19th. We

7:08

asked him too about his name, about where

7:10

Adam came from, and he just liked the

7:12

way Adam looked with West, which was obviously

7:14

his real middle name. And

7:18

I had the pleasure of meeting him twice too. And

7:20

before we sign off, I'll tell him. I'll

7:22

tell two quick stories about him, but he was good

7:25

with you. And he paid you a great compliment.

7:27

Oh my God. One that you'll take to your

7:29

grave. Yes, Adam

7:32

West, the original and

7:34

greatest Batman, said

7:37

to me, he said,

7:39

you know, Gilbert, you would make

7:41

a good penguin. Isn't that nice?

7:43

That was amazing. My

7:46

whole body was in chills when he

7:48

said that. Of all the compliments you've

7:51

gotten. Yeah. You've had Carl Reiner tell you

7:53

he's a fan. Dick Van Dyke,

7:55

when he was on, told me I would

7:57

have made a great Buddy Sorrell. And Buddy

7:59

Sorrell. as the Penguin.

8:02

Yeah. Hahahaha. And

8:04

Dick Van Dyke knew from Penguins. Orson

8:07

Welles told me I would have done

8:09

a better directing job in Citizen Kane.

8:11

Really? He

8:14

said it would have been a much

8:16

better film. You would have been better

8:18

than Agnes Morehead in the next Citizen

8:20

Anderson. Hahahaha. Ah,

8:23

I'm just glad that Adam's compliment meant so

8:25

much to you. Oh yeah. What

8:27

else did you come away with Paul? Well, we

8:30

also talked about, or

8:33

you guys talked about, he was in

8:35

a pilot with Bill

8:37

Shatner. Oh yeah, they did Alexander the Great. Which

8:39

is interesting because they both have what I think

8:41

of as the constipated delivery, you know, like just

8:43

a moment. Yes, the constipated delivery. You know who

8:45

does a great Adam West who did it for

8:48

us? Yeah. Dana Gould. Oh yeah. Do you remember

8:50

him doing Adam West? Yes. He

8:52

does a, he does just a dynamite Adam

8:54

West. I mean his career, you know, he

8:57

had a resurgence. I mean in- Well

9:00

with Family Guy. Absolutely. He was hysterical.

9:02

Very funny as Mayor West on Family

9:04

Guy. But even in the 90s, his

9:07

career took that, he started kidding himself.

9:09

It became like Adam West as punchline

9:11

that he embraced. There's that Simpsons episode

9:13

where he's at the car show. You

9:15

know what I'm talking about? Oh yeah.

9:18

The Mr. Plow episode. And-

9:20

Mr. Plow. And Homer's very excited to meet him.

9:22

Adam West! And then they get up to meet

9:25

him and he's just rambling. And

9:27

coherently about how he didn't need a

9:29

muscle suit to play Batman. And

9:31

finally Homer says, just walk away slowly. Just

9:33

in the end. Don't look him in the

9:35

eye. And he was just great

9:38

about it. I mean he was wonderful about

9:40

sending himself up. And then

9:42

there was one in Family Guy and

9:44

he sings it to us when- Oh,

9:46

Edelweiss. Edelweiss. Yes.

9:49

Yeah. Adam West.

9:51

Did we make him sing that? I can't remember. I

9:53

don't remember. He did sing it. Yeah.

9:57

Yeah. Yeah. Did you break his balls

9:59

too? Did we did we

10:01

ask him about Legend of the Superheroes because

10:03

we really should have oh, I think we

10:05

had to have I only Listen to portions

10:07

that was boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Was

10:09

that a scary TV? And that was the

10:11

point in his career After Batman had gone

10:13

off the air and he was a victim

10:15

of typecasting which he's been very public about

10:17

and he was trying to you Know he

10:19

was taking well jobs that he could get

10:22

you think of people like I did recently

10:24

I saw something at Daniel Craig Said

10:26

he would kill himself if he had to do another

10:28

Bond movie or something and we know like hundreds of

10:30

people like that who get Famous in

10:33

some role and couldn't escape it and most

10:35

of them get bitter about it and angry

10:37

sometimes But he just he may

10:39

have gone through a phase there. He sort of hinted

10:41

that I think he did transition I think but then

10:43

he just embraced it and he did you know He

10:45

did the personal appearances as Batman and

10:48

all these there were some rough years where he

10:50

was being shot out of cannons at state fairs

10:54

And you know showing up at wrestling matches, but

10:56

he did if you look at IMDb

11:00

or Wikipedia to list it he's been in

11:02

like 70 or 80 films. I

11:04

know even more TV shows I mean he

11:06

it I can't believe how much somebody on

11:08

here once who talked about in the answering

11:10

machine saying whatever it is You're asking the

11:12

answer is yes, I don't know.

11:14

But anyway, that's kind of what he was like. Yes Yeah

11:20

Yes, I mean we talked to him about I mean

11:22

he did some interesting things he had he did a

11:24

show called Elkini Popo He

11:28

was the sidekick of a monkey Oh She

11:31

teaches the monkey which I believe we

11:33

we talked in voodoo island with Karloff

11:37

Utah we talked about zombie nightmares. He did

11:39

the outlaws is coming with the stujos. Oh,

11:41

yeah That's at the point in

11:43

the in the episode where he says I don't care

11:45

Gilbert. Just send me the chick I

11:49

Adam West Did

11:52

he did a like cuz he'd signed to

11:54

a contract a services contract with Warner's Interestingly

11:57

two of the other people they signed When

12:00

he signed were Roger Moore and Roger

12:03

Smith. Oh my god

12:05

just passed as well They all

12:07

passed within the month. Yeah, which

12:09

is which is strange and interesting

12:12

We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's

12:14

amazing colossal podcast after this and

12:17

now back to the show He

12:20

was in the Paul Newman movie called the young

12:22

Philadelphians, which is actually a pretty good movie He

12:26

did a lot of TV did a lot of

12:28

TV did Maverick bewitched Outer Limits 77 Sunset Strip

12:32

You know, he was a working actor. Yeah, and then

12:34

Batman came along at the right time You know, it's

12:36

it's hard to it's hard to believe

12:38

that it was only two and a half seasons

12:40

when we because I know important such a huge

12:42

thing I found one interesting thing ABC canceled a

12:44

series and NBC

12:47

was asked if it would run the show and it

12:49

said yes, but the set had

12:51

already been dismantled destroyed they destroy the Believe

12:54

it and build another set. It's caused me much

12:56

grief in my life The

12:58

fact that that the show did not come

13:00

back and what did he say about Julie

13:02

Newmar? Yet somebody said a lot

13:04

of things he used to say she caused

13:06

curious stirrings beneath his utility He

13:15

was fond of that Well,

13:17

he always let a little of that slip

13:20

slip through a little a little of that

13:22

stuff, you know He was a bit

13:24

of a rake but I'll

13:26

tell you, you know His career

13:29

is the career of a working actor That's

13:31

right a guy who had highs who had

13:33

lows who had low lows Yeah, and and

13:35

high highs and a lot of middles and

13:38

when you look at that IMDB page or

13:40

Wikipedia, you know You look at that that

13:42

journey. I mean and he said to

13:44

us on the show look you've got a family I

13:46

was gonna say be discriminating several times. He mentioned supporting

13:49

the family, you know, which The

13:51

rest of us try to do it all Yeah,

13:54

yeah, I remember him in marriage of

13:56

a young stockbroker with our pal Richard

13:58

Benjamin who We just had

14:01

on the show he's in Hooper with

14:03

Burt Reynolds gee playing Adam West he

14:05

played himself a lot hmm And

14:08

of course the happy hooker goes

14:10

Hollywood Dick Miller's

14:12

in that another podcast. Oh my god

14:15

And oh and what oh god

14:17

I forget her name the name of the

14:19

happy hooker Oh, Xavier

14:21

Xavier. Yes. Yes You

14:24

know they also said Xavier said we did our

14:27

bit and then they went off and did the naughty

14:29

bits yes Props

14:34

for this skill he was in poor devil

14:36

with Sammy Davis jr. And Christopher Lee 1973

14:42

Wow yeah, and also I want to

14:44

recommend to our listeners And I know people know this

14:46

because I've seen it posted around the web Conan

14:48

and and our buddy Robert smiegel wrote

14:51

a wonderful pilot called look well Have

14:54

you seen it? No, you must see it. You

14:56

must see it and both of you have you

14:59

seen look well No, I haven't he plays a

15:01

an actor a TV actor named Ty look well.

15:03

Yeah who plays a cop and Basically,

15:07

he's starting to lose it and he thinks

15:09

he's the cop At

15:12

crime scenes flashing a badge

15:14

and Didn't

15:19

you used to play It's

15:22

really a wonderful kind of You

15:26

know, I can't imagine anybody being better in that role than

15:28

him. Oh, well, I'll have to I'll have to show you

15:30

guys Look well There was another one

15:32

there you dig into these films and all these

15:34

things he did and there's endless interesting things the

15:37

January 6th 1971

15:39

issue of variety. Yeah had a

15:41

section called Italian films in production

15:45

Listed there was a movie

15:47

starring Adam West Claudine auger

15:50

Giancarlo Gianini word

15:53

mother And

15:55

Philly person it was called cold fury

15:58

to be directed by Bruno Gaboro

16:01

produced by Franco. These are your people for

16:03

no Gilbert loves these movies Dr.

16:06

Butcher it was supposed to be And

16:08

here's the end of the item no

16:10

evidence exists that the film was completed

16:12

or released Yeah

16:17

There were rough times yeah, but but but you know

16:20

I was looking at the IMDb page and I'm saying

16:22

well He had rough times, but he kept working Really

16:25

aren't gaps. Yeah, you know he's he's turns

16:27

up on the love boat or fantasy iron

16:29

whatever it was there He was

16:31

constantly Finding it out out on the

16:33

street at any point no he made a

16:36

good living well He presumably told

16:38

his agent look find what you

16:40

can get you know yeah, they even agree to

16:42

do our show Yeah And

16:51

he was you remember a show called the

16:53

detectives with Robert Taylor and Mark Goddard from

16:55

lost in space He

16:57

was on that show Yeah, does

16:59

that ring a bell not that one yeah? That's

17:01

a picture on his Wikipedia page and

17:03

and as the story goes William

17:06

Dozier the the Batman creator producer

17:09

Saw him in a Nestle's quick commercial which is

17:12

on the web captain Q right Is

17:16

the key to his success that's how he got

17:18

started with that commercial right as that was noticed

17:20

right it's it's it's a little bit Of a

17:22

bond thing right you know and when you're a

17:24

kid And I you know and when the show

17:26

aired I was five you know you don't know

17:28

what camp is no Yeah, that

17:31

I don't know you're older than me, so I

17:33

did you watch Batman yeah, and I in first

17:35

row Yeah, yeah, and

17:37

I too was kind of like I

17:39

wasn't sure right and it was

17:42

slow for your age yes, yes When

17:45

I was watching and I was 45 And

17:53

but I always remember There's

17:56

one part where they rush into a battle

17:59

Yeah, you said that to him on the

18:01

episode. Yes! And... Ha

18:04

ha! And

18:06

one of the tellers goes, Oh,

18:09

Batman, you don't have to wait

18:11

online. Come right up ahead. And

18:14

he goes, no, I'll just wait here with

18:16

the rest of these citizens. Ha ha ha!

18:22

You know, it's a credit to him that

18:24

he carried that stuff off as well as he did.

18:26

It's not as easy as it looks. It's also not

18:28

easy to play that kind of comedy. Right. Let

18:32

her straight. I mean, he became a master of it. And

18:34

of course he beat out Lyle Waggoner. Oh, yes.

18:37

For the part. And I think you can

18:39

see his... I think his screen test is

18:41

still on YouTube as well. And

18:44

he said he saw Burt and he

18:47

knew right away that Burt Ward

18:49

was right for the part. And I think

18:51

they had a tumultuous relationship at times too.

18:54

But a real friendship forged over

18:58

five decades. And

19:00

I think what probably formed the

19:02

friendship was not as much Batman

19:06

as when they were both showing up at

19:08

county fairs. Well,

19:10

yeah. I think there were lean times for

19:12

both of them. But, you

19:14

know, he talks about how he

19:16

finally embraced the Batman thing after

19:18

resenting it for so long

19:21

and making peace with it. And I hope

19:23

that... I hope he really did make peace with it. I

19:26

hope he was happy. You know,

19:28

I know a lot of people would come up to

19:31

him and say, You're my Batman. You're the only Batman.

19:33

You're my generation's Batman. I

19:36

hope that meant something to him. You

19:39

mentioned we just had Peter Asher in here. And

19:41

how many times has he done World Without Love?

19:44

Right. How many times has he done it with Gilbert?

19:46

We made him do it again. What a guy. But,

19:49

you know, there's a guy who, you know,

19:52

in a long, long career still seem to

19:54

be very pleased to, you

19:56

know, sing a song that was from 50 or 60

19:58

years ago. Can you

20:00

imagine how many bat and how many times he put

20:02

on the cape and the costume and pose? How

20:05

many autographs he signed and how many times

20:08

he poses a automobile? He

20:10

talked about in the episode the when they

20:12

would be climbing up a building, right? You

20:14

know, I could picture it exactly, you know,

20:16

and they had he mentioned they had nylon

20:18

strings Sideways

20:21

to hold the case up you look like

20:23

gravity was pulling Effects

20:27

are easy. They're not easy. No Giving

20:30

me the perfect segue. It's just

20:32

like um, I well Fred

20:36

Gwynne sure he got through that but

20:38

he eventually years later, right? I start

20:40

proved himself as a character. Yeah, it's

20:43

encouraging that if you stay around long

20:45

enough Yeah, I mean, you know an

20:47

Adam came full circle I mean he

20:50

wasn't a star for a number of

20:52

years and then he kind of became a star again And he finally got

20:54

his star on the walk of fame You

20:56

know thanks to the efforts of Ralph Garman and some

20:58

of his other friends and that was that was nice

21:00

to see and the and I was actually Earlier

21:03

this year. I was in Palm Springs and he has a star on

21:05

the Palm Springs And

21:11

I did have a chance to

21:14

ask Adam about Caesar Romero We're

21:18

gonna figure out a way to put the episode up again,

21:21

it's out there, you know, we'll release it again But it's

21:23

out there. You can find it He

21:26

may have been the first person you asked.

21:28

Oh, yeah I'm

21:31

going back. You mean I've mentioned it more

21:33

than well you asked Julie new more I

21:35

think that was a showstopper. Yes, you asked

21:37

Lee Merryweather. You certainly asked Bert Unfortunately,

21:41

Danny Thomas was never a

21:43

villain on Batman His

21:49

wicked Wikipedia page describes him as Adam

21:52

West who played Batman and was the first

21:54

person to be asked about Caesar Romero and

22:00

there are monkeys with it. But you bring up the bat

22:02

climb, and I have to tell a quick story. The first

22:04

time I got to meet him, and

22:07

I said this on Facebook, obviously

22:09

it was a show that meant a lot to me. He

22:13

meant a lot to me. I got

22:15

to meet him, I was working at FX in

22:17

1994. I was writing a show called

22:20

Back Chat for Jeff Probst, before Jeff Probst hit it

22:22

big. Nobody will know this show. Anyway,

22:25

Adam, we had Batman on the network, and Adam

22:27

came to promote his book, Back to the Batcave.

22:30

And I thought, let's do a promo. I said, let's

22:32

do a bat climb. We'll

22:35

get a rope, and we'll film, we'll

22:37

tape Adam, doing a walk

22:40

across the FX apartment, which is where

22:42

we used to do the show. And

22:44

he did it, and he was game, and he said, okay,

22:46

fine. And he really was a sport, and he really had

22:48

a sense of humor about the whole thing. The

22:52

next day I saw the promo, and

22:54

they neglected to tilt. Oh

22:56

my God. These are the early

22:58

days of people telling me. So

23:01

it looked like he had arthritis,

23:03

basically. It looked like an insane

23:05

person. Pulling himself across the floor.

23:08

Like a terrible mind. With a

23:10

rope, indeed. Oh,

23:13

and I didn't have the heart to

23:16

let him know about it. But

23:18

it really was quite funny. In

23:21

fact, I think I could dig that out. I think I have

23:23

the whole thing on VHS, and I'll find a way to transfer

23:25

and dig it out, and maybe

23:27

I can get it online. But we talk

23:30

a lot on the show about don't meet your

23:32

heroes. I think we had Rupert Holmes

23:34

in here last week saying how he went out of his way

23:36

to not meet John Lennon. Because he

23:38

was afraid that he was

23:40

gonna be disillusioned or disappointed in some way.

23:42

And I'm happy to say that meeting Adam

23:44

West was in no way a disappointment. He

23:47

was gracious and fun. And as I said

23:49

on Facebook, I think he knew what he

23:51

meant to a generation of

23:53

people. And I think he was

23:55

a good person, including me. Yeah, well, the fans, you know, this

23:58

business about actors hating roles, loving

24:01

them but the fans want them to like the

24:03

roles. Well, we like the characters and we want

24:05

them to like the character. Well, when

24:07

I got old enough to realize he wasn't Batman, that

24:09

he was Bill

24:12

Anderson from Walla Walla Washington, that

24:14

meant less to me. But

24:18

second quick story, he was

24:20

signing autographs in a comic book store on

24:22

Jericho Turnpike and Miniola Rumfrem. Do you remember

24:24

a club called Chuckles? Oh yeah. Out

24:26

in Miniola, did you play that club? I

24:28

don't know if I forget them right after

24:30

I do the minuscule. Chuckles is gone now

24:33

for the listeners to remember Chuckles. I had

24:35

to have. You must have. You

24:37

must have because you wouldn't turn down a gig. No.

24:40

There was a comic book store, I don't remember

24:42

the name of it, maybe 10 doors down from

24:44

Chuckles. They're both gone now and

24:46

I called a friend of mine, I said,

24:48

Adam West is going to be the, you know,

24:51

I got to go see him. And

24:53

my friend, I didn't have a car at the time, my friend

24:55

came, picked me up, we went to see Adam. And

24:58

you don't want to do that fanboy thing where you're

25:00

lingering too long. We said our

25:02

piece, we talked, I knew obviously way too much

25:04

about the show for his comfort. And

25:07

as he was signing, his ride, everybody

25:09

left the store, and his ride was late.

25:13

And it became that awkward thing of what is he going to do, is he

25:15

going to wait in the store? The guy that owned

25:17

the store had to go. So he locked

25:20

up the store and then I thought, I can't leave him

25:22

here. That's a true story. I'm

25:24

standing on the street in Jericho Turnpike with

25:26

Adam West after they closed the

25:28

store. And I've basically used all my A

25:30

material in the store. And

25:32

we're on the street and we're waiting for his

25:35

ride and I'm thinking, come on, that show

25:38

meant the world to you. You've got to have

25:40

anecdotes, something, not anecdotes, but, you know, episode

25:42

stuff, trivia, come up with anything to talk

25:44

to him about. And

25:46

I hear a guy scream out on the street, I

25:49

don't believe it. Holy

25:51

shit. I don't believe it.

25:53

And this guy comes running up to the two of us.

25:56

And as he gets closer and closer, he

25:59

yells, Frank, Sam. topadre Was

26:08

Adam suitably impressed Embarrassing

26:12

just when you thought the situation

26:14

couldn't get anymore This

26:24

is Ariel I went to junior high school with him,

26:26

but he was gracious we talked about my last name

26:28

I think he spoke a little tiny bit of Italian

26:31

and he had some fun with my name And those

26:33

are my two meetings with him other than the podcast

26:36

But you know I felt I felt

26:38

I knew the guy a little bit even in

26:40

even in It was

26:42

just those little brief meetings his personality came

26:44

across I didn't know him at all,

26:47

but I felt a certain kind of I don't know if

26:49

that makes sense Yeah, no, I think it does you meet

26:51

somebody and and and they're warm and and you get you

26:53

get a little access to them Anyway,

26:55

those are my two Adam West stories, and

26:58

you top either one of those yes One

27:04

time he was having a heart attack,

27:07

and I took a pair of nail clippers You

27:17

were up for the original Ann Harriot Alright

27:24

Paul you got some trivia or something for us

27:27

those those nail clippers are still in his just

27:29

the left side of his chest I'd

27:32

also like to tell people to get his book because it's a

27:34

lot of fun back to the Batcave his

27:37

memoir Is a lot of fun

27:39

and there's a lot of there's a lot

27:41

of good stories in there Also,

27:43

I will recommend Adam West naked which is

27:45

a DVD you can buy on his website.

27:47

It's not an actual Sounds

27:50

right up Gilbert's Ellie I

27:53

didn't get to know him that well and There's

27:56

a really funny funny or

27:59

die video called Batman garage sale which

28:01

if you haven't seen check it out.

28:03

He was and talk about sending himself

28:05

up. Yeah. You know he not only

28:07

sent up Batman set up set up

28:09

playing the character he sent himself up

28:12

as an aging actor as a

28:14

sort of a half-crapped aging

28:18

actor who really thought he was Batman. He

28:20

loved to play that joke. He actually did

28:23

a movie along those lines. Is that the

28:25

one where he's playing

28:28

a version of himself the character that he's playing.

28:31

Yeah that's what Lookwell was about. Yeah yeah yeah

28:33

they had they had insight into him and he

28:35

did he did it so well. Did you have

28:37

some some last-minute Adam trivia? I might have a

28:39

little bit. Here's something nice. Something

28:42

that he said of his Batman experience that I kind of

28:44

liked. He said regardless of how rough

28:46

the identity factor has made it to go

28:48

on looking at the

28:51

balance sheet I'm grateful for the bat.

28:54

It did more for me than against me. It

28:56

gave me money an international name the

28:58

kind of recognition that has allowed me

29:00

to at least disprove what it caused.

29:02

That may be tougher than starting from

29:04

scratch. I don't know. Wow. That's nice.

29:06

Isn't it? That's lovely. That's a nice

29:08

thing and then he says to kind

29:11

of follow follow that up and then we can wrap. He

29:14

says I think it evolved. I learned a

29:16

long time ago that because people love Batman

29:18

I should too. I learned that

29:20

I shouldn't resent it even though it prevented me from

29:23

getting other roles. I really had to

29:25

become fond of Batman in order to deal with

29:27

it. I embraced it. He embraced

29:29

it and ran with it. This sounds like a

29:31

psychologically healthy person. I think he can. Well

29:35

he was grounded. A lot of people that met

29:37

him said there were no errors about him and

29:39

you know just just a

29:41

good a good sort. And that

29:44

show and I said this in my Facebook post

29:46

you know I didn't really my mother

29:49

I used to call my mother into the room and

29:52

I to help me read what was

29:54

on the screen. And she'd run into the

29:56

room drop what she was doing and come in and yell

29:58

she'd say BAM! KAPOW!

30:01

KAPOW! YOW! And

30:03

my mother is turning 90 in July, and

30:05

she still talks about that. I

30:08

went out to visit her and she said, I opened the door,

30:10

and she said, Adam West

30:12

died. And I was, I was, I got choked

30:14

up. Yeah. And I

30:17

have been all week. And it's

30:19

silly because, you know, they're actors, they're

30:21

not people that we're intimate with, but...

30:25

I did, I did. He meant something

30:27

to me, he meant something to my childhood. I did print

30:29

up the lyrics, I thought maybe Gilbert would sing the theme,

30:31

so I printed up the lyrics. Oh no. Oh

30:34

no. Oh my God, the lyrics,

30:36

the lyrics are... Wait, wait, wait. It

30:38

was composed by Neil Hefty. You bet. You

30:41

bet. And he also did,

30:43

well of course, The Odd Couple, and

30:46

he did another Jack Lemmon comedy, How to

30:48

Murder Your Wife. Which you have recommended on

30:50

this show. Yes. I haven't seen that

30:52

one. I love Neil Hefty. Anyway, the

30:54

entire lyrics can be summed up in one word. Na,

30:57

na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na,

30:59

na, na, na, na, na, batman. That's it, that's

31:01

it, that's the whole lyric. I get

31:03

it. Batman, batman,

31:06

batman, batman, batman,

31:09

batman, batman, batman.

31:17

Beautiful. That's why I printed them up, I didn't

31:19

want Gilbert to get stuck. That was beautiful. Now

31:21

was that the closing theme or the opening theme?

31:24

Oh God. Now you're getting tricky here. Because they're a

31:26

little different. I think that was the... That was

31:28

beautiful. Well, we better come back and do them both

31:30

in a future episode. I

31:33

hope wherever Adam is, he didn't hear them. Yeah.

31:39

Alright, and also I want to recommend,

31:42

what was I going to say, bye, bye, bye, bye. Oh

31:45

yes, our mini episode about Batman was a lot of fun

31:47

too. Oh yes. You will get

31:49

to hear how obsessed I was with the

31:51

show and Gilbert Lesso. But

31:54

just enough. And of

31:56

course if it wasn't for that show, we wouldn't

31:59

have the signature... story that has made this

32:01

podcast. Exactly. Exactly. Now,

32:05

what is that one we can't go and

32:07

escape to? We're

32:09

also grateful for that. Thanks Paul, thanks for doing the

32:11

research on that. Sure. Thank

32:13

you. This has been Gilbert and

32:16

Frank's amazing colossal obsessions. Thank you Adam,

32:18

we love you. And

32:20

you admit, you fully admit to

32:22

throwing orange wedges. She's

32:25

a romantic. Good

32:27

God no. I'll

32:32

never look at another orange. Okay.

32:37

You guys have, you've

32:39

been a lot of

32:41

fun. Really,

32:44

really fun. You've been a ton of fun. Thanks for

32:46

doing it. Well, I'll let you go. Oh,

32:49

you've been such a great sport. Thank

32:52

you. So much fun. Thank

32:54

you Gilbert. We've been listening

32:56

to the greatest Batman of

32:59

all time, Adam West.