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I found this copy-and-paste transcript containing summaries and reviews of BTAS episodes from a magazine called Animato, which was printed during the show's heyday. It contains quotes from Bruce Timm, Frank Paur, Boyd Kirkland, Michael Reaves, Kevin Altieri and Shirley Walker.

https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/animato/

Unsurprisingly, a recurring challenge the show had to work with was following censorship guidelines to ensure things didn't go too far. For example, Robin was originally going to be wounded by the Jazzman in the episode I Am the Night, but it was changed to Commissioner Gordon instead because Broadcasting Standards and Practices wouldn't allow any child characters to be seriously injured, let alone shot. And of course, episodes like Be a Clown, See No Evil and The Underdwellers had to tread carefully when it came to child endangerment, as outright abuse was understandably prohibited.

But censorship didn't only focus on child endangerment and violence, the subject of homelessness was seen as a sensitive subject by the higher-ups. Apparently, the episode The Forgotten had to remove any images of homeless families in the background and only focus on homeless men, because as Boyd Kirkland explained, it might have been too unsettling for the young audience to see women and children living in poverty. I personally don't think it makes much sense because the higher-ups didn't kick up a fuss about homeless children getting abused and used as slaves by the Sewer King in an earlier episode, but whatever...

What may be surprising to the unsuspecting audience is the showrunners had difficulty with a lot of storyboard artists and animation studios, with the creators not only unsatisfied but downright critical on several occasions. Timm, whose designs were getting outsourced to overseas animation studios, was particularly critical of AKOM for their efforts, even giving somewhat faint praise for their work on the episode Mad as a Hatter by remarking the need to do "a hundred retakes". In fact, there are over a dozen times that Timm and others have complained about the quality of the animation's final products, including the quality of the scripts for some episodes.

It's a long read, but I think fans here will appreciate the honesty of the creators reviewing their own show.

Here are some of my favourite comments by Timm.

On the episode Pretty Poison:

Quote
It wasn't intentional, but the Venus Fly-trap creature looks like a vagina with teeth. Originally, it looked like Audrey II, and I said, 'Naww, let's not do that, what other kind of plant can we do? What if it's like a big snow-peapod?' I started sketching it out, and stopped when I realized what it looked like, but it worked. In a way, it's a very good visual metaphor for what she is, a man-killer.

(https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/btas05ivy-998x794.jpg)

...I'm kind of surprised that BS&P didn't pick this up. It must've been too subtle for them. Not gonna lie, I didn't pick this up either.  :-[

On Two-Face Part II:

QuoteThis is such an adult show [he actually means episode here] that I bet kids don't like it. There's not a whole lot of action and Batman's hardly in it. It's a lot of talking heads. But it works on such a powerful emotional level that I'm sure that anyone over the age of six is going to get sucked right into it. It's absolutely compelling. They always talk about the BATMAN films as being oh, so psychological. Bull. This episode is a compelling psychological drama.

I think he underestimates how many kids loved those Two-Face episodes. I know I definitely loved them.

On the emotions while making the episode Robin's Reckoning Part I:

Quote
Dan Riba, who was a storyboard artist at the time, was crying in the editing room when Robin says goodbye to his circus friends and the elephant after his parents' deaths. I cried when I heard the score added to the scene by Carlos Rodriguez. The combination of the music and the visuals was just so moving, I started weeping.

It was a touching moment. But I thought the flashback of Bruce hugging a grieving young Dick before cutting off with an older Robin yelling "You deceived me! You can't do this alone, Zucco's mine!" was heavy.

On the score for the episode The Laughing Fish:

QuoteI wanted the Joker to be very scary in this show and scripter Paul Dini came through. The Joker is actually threatening. Obviously, we couldn't kill people, but his victims might as well be dead. We put them into comas with this horrible grin on their face. It's one of Paul's best scripts," Timm not only influenced the story, he also shaped the episode on the boards, storyboarding the entire third act himself and most of the rest. Timm also pushed the scariness of the episode during the scoring by Shirley Walker. "When we were spotting the show, I told Shirley I didn't want the Joker theme in it. I wanted it to sound like a horror movie. Not like an over-the-top melodramatic Universal horror movie, because most of our scores are already over-the-top, but I wanted it to sound like ALIEN. She didn't think a cartoon could support that type of score, but I convinced her that we had room to experiment in 65 episodes. It's the weirdest score of any of the shows, with this strange dissident music behind the Joker that builds a weird tension you're not consciously aware of. The first two acts have only this very straight demonic music and I think it helps the show immeasurably. Without it, it would just have been another show."

The theme for that episode was certainly ominous and a departure from the Joker theme we hear in other episodes. But I don't know about the Alien reference. I've always considered the TLF score as something from an old school thriller.

One thing that caught my attention was the episode Off Balance, the one that had Ra's and Talia al Ghul's debut and Vertigo being the main villain, had three different versions going on the air. This is news to me. Is there another version of Vertigo not falling to his apparent death or something? Have I completely been under a rock all this time?

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 14:18
Here are some of my favourite comments by Timm.

On the episode Pretty Poison:

Quote
It wasn't intentional, but the Venus Fly-trap creature looks like a vagina with teeth. Originally, it looked like Audrey II, and I said, 'Naww, let's not do that, what other kind of plant can we do? What if it's like a big snow-peapod?' I started sketching it out, and stopped when I realized what it looked like, but it worked. In a way, it's a very good visual metaphor for what she is, a man-killer.

(https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/btas05ivy-998x794.jpg)

Yeah, all those years the similarity went right by me. But here, I saw the picture before Timm's remarks and thought to myself "Y'know, that kinda sorta looks like..."

Then I had the same thought process. "Well, for any other character, it'd be a problem. But for Ivy, y'know, it kinda works".

Yeesh!

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 14:18
On the score for the episode The Laughing Fish:

QuoteI wanted the Joker to be very scary in this show and scripter Paul Dini came through. The Joker is actually threatening. Obviously, we couldn't kill people, but his victims might as well be dead. We put them into comas with this horrible grin on their face. It's one of Paul's best scripts," Timm not only influenced the story, he also shaped the episode on the boards, storyboarding the entire third act himself and most of the rest. Timm also pushed the scariness of the episode during the scoring by Shirley Walker. "When we were spotting the show, I told Shirley I didn't want the Joker theme in it. I wanted it to sound like a horror movie. Not like an over-the-top melodramatic Universal horror movie, because most of our scores are already over-the-top, but I wanted it to sound like ALIEN. She didn't think a cartoon could support that type of score, but I convinced her that we had room to experiment in 65 episodes. It's the weirdest score of any of the shows, with this strange dissident music behind the Joker that builds a weird tension you're not consciously aware of. The first two acts have only this very straight demonic music and I think it helps the show immeasurably. Without it, it would just have been another show."

Strange, I thought I imagined all that. Like, I was forgetting the Joker theme in the episode or I was projecting my own assumptions about the tone based on my adoration of the comic books. But no, they did all that on purpose and it plays like gangbusters. I wouldn't want that for every episode. But you can't deny how well it works here.

Also, I think he means "dissonant".

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 14:18One thing that caught my attention was the episode Off Balance, the one that had Ra's and Talia al Ghul's debut and Vertigo being the main villain, had three different versions going on the air. This is news to me. Is there another version of Vertigo not falling to his apparent death or something? Have I completely been under a rock all this time?

I've been asking myself the same question. First I'm hearing of that.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 21:37

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 14:18One thing that caught my attention was the episode Off Balance, the one that had Ra's and Talia al Ghul's debut and Vertigo being the main villain, had three different versions going on the air. This is news to me. Is there another version of Vertigo not falling to his apparent death or something? Have I completely been under a rock all this time?

I've been asking myself the same question. First I'm hearing of that.

I don't know about you know, but I somehow missed Timm's explanation of what the changes were in that very same paragraph.  :-[

Quote
"The distortion vertigo sequences weren't disorienting enough so we did retakes," said producer Bruce Timm of Sunrise's animation. "While we were waiting for them, we did effects in video with a computer that were real wobbly and quite nauseating. It worked great, but, we did that to just get the show on the air. When we got the retakes back, the film editors cut them into the episode, but dropped the video distortion effects on the whole sequence and that ran. We told them to put the effects back in, which is the version now airing.

There you go. Apart from changing effects for each episode repeat, everything else in Off Balance stayed the same.

I found a good extended interview with Alan Burnett. Here are some of my favourite comments he made when discussing BTAS.

https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/burnett.php

Quote
Two-Face, Part One features a heavy psychological storyline, practically unheard of in animation at the time. The episode in question is considered by many to be a huge turning point in the medium. Was there ever any initial resistance to the story from outside or even inside sources and do you additional comments to make about the episode?

There was no resistance whatsoever. Our crew and Fox network wanted to push the envelope. I have always loved Two-Face. I think he's on the very top tier of villains in comic books, even though the number of stories you can tell about him is probably limited. I always thought that it was wrong that the accident that scarred his face created his split personality. He had to have been that way before the scarring. So that was the idea I was working on. I thought it was an original idea for Two-Face, but I found out later that Andy Helfer had written a comic story with that very same notion.

I consulted with a child psychiatrist to come up with a kid-understandable reason why Harvey Dent developed a split personality, and was surprised to find out that it doesn't take much to start that sickness going.

We didn't want to reveal Harvey's scarred face until the end of the show, which presented the challenge of holding our audience's attention with a villain who had no costume or special accoutrements. He was just a Suit, albeit a crazy one. Fortunately he was well acted in the animation. Also, the director, Kevin Alteiri, bless his heart, figured out a way to foreshadow the scarred face with lighting effects in a scene in a psychiatrist's office.

That scene with the psychiatrist was central to me. It was the reason I wrote the story. I had Zelda Rubinstein, the clairvoyant in Poltergeist, in mind for the psychiatrist when I was writing, and our voice director, Andrea Romano, brought her in to do the original recording. When she hypnotizes Dent and releases the monster, I wanted that moment when you're thinking, "How the hell is she going to get out of this?". And she simply snaps her fingers. It was a Hitchcock moment.

I'm a big Hitchcock fan, by the way. Big. There's a picture of him in my office above my desk. So it was a real kick to have John Vernon playing Rupert Thorne. Vernon was Castro's man in Topaz, and even though the movie isn't perfect, Vernon is. I can still see him shooting Karin Dor and her dress billowing out over a checkerboard floor like a fallen queen. Every once in a while we'd get a Hitchcock player for a Batman recording, Roscoe Lee Browne, Tippi Hendron, and for me that was always extra special.

I had always assumed that the writers must've read Andrew Helfer's The Eye of the Beholder as an inspiration for their version of Harvey Dent and the whole Big Bad Harv personality. The fact they weren't aware that the comic existed proves one thing, both Helfer and the BTAS showrunners knew they had to make Two-Face a more psychologically grounded character than simply turning to the dark side only after getting disfigured. A very mature approach from both parties.

Quote
Yourself, Randy Rogel and Paul Dini wrote "Riddler's Reform." What are the positives and negatives of working with so many writers on a single episode? The Riddler himself is often described as a difficult nut to crack - what are your thoughts on the prince of puzzles?

I don't remember what the credits were on that show, but I think Paul came up with the original notion, which he and I worked out in story, and then Paul had to go on to something else, and Randy wrote the script. But Randy could have been in at the outline stage, too. Who knows? It all overlaps and melds after awhile.

Usually when one writer has written the story and another, the script, it's because the first writer had to go onto something else. It's rare when you have to switch writers because you don't trust that the guy who wrote the story can do justice to the script, but it happens.

As for the Riddler, he might be the worst Batman villain for TV, because you always have to go through three steps with him. He presents a riddle, the heroes have to solve it, and then have to stop the crime, at which point usually another riddle pops up. And another solution is discussed. And another crime is resolved. And it just goes on and on until you catch him in the end. It's redundant. And the riddles are usually a play on words, so it gets talky, too.

Riddler's Reform worked the best of all the Riddler stories because it broke that chain. Riddler was giving riddles without even realizing it, so the first step - presenting a riddle - was hidden. And most of the riddles turned out to be visual. He wasn't yapping his head off, like he usually does.

I understand Burnett's point about the Riddler and the difficulty in keeping him fresh. As good as the episodes What is Reality? and Riddler's Reform are, you can be forgiven for thinking either episode as being the definitive end for the Riddler. What is Reality? shows Riddler deleting all traces of his true identity and getting his mind trapped by his own virtual creation in the end, whereas Riddler's Reform shows him hanging up his criminal identity for good but his own hubris getting the better of him yet again. In terms of continuity though, it gets difficult to put them in chronological order. Riddler was left incapacitated in one episode, but recovers and would've changed his life around as a successful toy making businessman if it weren't for his obsessiveness. Biggest failure was creating that radio toy which was used to incriminate him in the end. Ouch.

Quote
Cartoons were still very much a children's medium at the time the show originally aired - a few years prior, networks rarely allowed superheroes to make a fist, never mind actually punch someone with it. How was BS+P on the show and are there any occasions you recall that especially hindered the show?

The head of BS&P for the Fox network was a lovely woman named Avery Coburn, who is the unsung hero of Batman: the Animated Series. She knew what we were going after and gave us a lot of leeway, and when we crossed the line, she helped us figure out solutions.

I'll never forget - we had a story called Perchance to Dream, in which Bruce Wayne realizes he's trapped in a dream induced by the Mad Hatter, and the only way he can get out of it is to startle himself so strongly that he wakes up. To do this, he jumps off a bell tower in his dream (and if the tower reminds you of the one in [Alfred Hitchcock's] Vertigo, you now know why). In essence, what Bruce has to do is commit suicide, which I dare say is something rarely advocated in children's programming. We were okay up until the storyboard, which was pretty blunt about him jumping off a building. (So was the script, but when you actually see it drawn, ay-yi-yi!) Avery sat down with us and edited that section of the board so that the jump became very abstract. Adults could easily read into it what was happening, but to the little ones, it was as if he was leaping into a cloud. We were extremely relieved to save this story, because it was one of the best scripts of the run (written by Joe Lansdale).

And while I'm praising Avery, let me also give a big nod to Sidney Iwanter, the Fox programmer at the time, who fought hard for serious, realistic, dark stories. Early on, he and Avery both told me that the upper hierarchy of Fox Television was expecting an Adam West-like television series. They had no idea what they were in for. The result was that Fox Children's Programs created a new demographic for their advertisers, 9 to 14-year-olds, which they continued with X-Men.

I don't know about anyone else, but when I was a kid and I watched Perchance to Dream, the suicide angle in that nightmare did cross my mind. Come on, Bruce stares down at the ground from above, and then rushes towards the edge of the belltower? If that was meant to be subtle then BS&P would be horrified to learn that they failed.

As a kid, I never thought that moment was anything other than Bruce "committing suicide". I was impressed by Bruce's balls of solid rock for taking the plunge. But the idea of him doing it wasn't disturbing to me in any way. Kids are more resilient than the censors seem to realize.

Of course, the censors set policy based on a worst case scenario. So, there's that.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 21:37

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 14:18
Here are some of my favourite comments by Timm.

On the episode Pretty Poison:

Quote
It wasn't intentional, but the Venus Fly-trap creature looks like a vagina with teeth. Originally, it looked like Audrey II, and I said, 'Naww, let's not do that, what other kind of plant can we do? What if it's like a big snow-peapod?' I started sketching it out, and stopped when I realized what it looked like, but it worked. In a way, it's a very good visual metaphor for what she is, a man-killer.

(https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/btas05ivy-998x794.jpg)

Yeah, all those years the similarity went right by me. But here, I saw the picture before Timm's remarks and thought to myself "Y'know, that kinda sorta looks like..."

Then I had the same thought process. "Well, for any other character, it'd be a problem. But for Ivy, y'know, it kinda works".

Yeesh!

If the episode wasn't enough, the vagina-looking Venus Fly-trap monster was adapted as a stage boss in the SNES video game adaptation of The Adventures of Batman and Robin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGfICropQF0

The nineties was a strange decade. You get lots of parent groups freaking out over explicit content in BR and even in Power Rangers, yet it seems this imagery was too subtle for a lot of people. But the fact that some of us still didn't notice the metaphor even though we're older, I guess you really have to give credit to Timm and co for their creativity.

And let's face it, it does make great video game content. ;D

Seeing them talk about their battles with Standards and Practices, I can't help but wonder how in the world they snuck "The Ultimate Thrill" by. I get Kids WB was apparently a lot more relaxed than Fox but my gosh. They had to be giggling like school boys the first time it aired.

Two things stick out. Batgirl's "sources:"

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2RkNjYzODEtOTdjZi00MzkxLWIzOGQtNmYwNzM2OTA2NWVlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDQxNjcxNQ@@._V1_.jpg)

And then Roxy just...um...yea....

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/22/bb/bb/22bbbbac3f11ef188aa777a55fb9be1d.jpg)

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed,  8 Sep  2021, 19:06
As a kid, I never thought that moment was anything other than Bruce "committing suicide". I was impressed by Bruce's ball of solid rock for taking the plunge. But the idea of him doing it wasn't disturbing to me in any way. Kids are more resilient than the censors seem to realize.

Of course, the censors set policy based on a worst case scenario. So, there's that.

I appreciate the theme greatly but the severity of the moment is reduced somewhat as Bruce knows he's in a dream world. However, I build that theme back up by arguing Bruce would still rather die than live in a world that does not contain Batman, even if it means his parents are alive. Reality is reality, and it's all he's known for the majority of his life, regardless of how nostalgic he is for childhood. Batman is someone who makes pain and his enemy his energy. It's become a drug now, and I don't think he'd give it up. If his parents came back to life tomorrow their presence would be contrary to his current day existence. Bruce's power comes from the past. He is who he is now. I don't think he really wants them back.

Quote from: Catwoman on Fri, 10 Sep  2021, 00:06
Seeing them talk about their battles with Standards and Practices, I can't help but wonder how in the world they snuck "The Ultimate Thrill" by. I get Kids WB was apparently a lot more relaxed than Fox but my gosh. They had to be giggling like school boys the first time it aired.

I've read that Fox wouldn't even permit an underage Robin in BTAS. They were a bit sensitive about certain taboo subjects such as child endangerment, death, bleeding and sexual references. So yeah, history shows us that Kids WB were much more lenient in comparison.

I wonder if Fox ever used the exact same excuse as DC did when they objected to Batman doing something they thought was inappropriate?  ;D

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/batman-oral-sex-catwoman-harley-quinn-1234968296/

Can you imagine Alan Burnett pitching the end of Mystery of the Batwoman to Fox if they were producing the movie?

Alan Burnett: "Batman's great fun to tease. He's been such a monk all his life - re-channeling his sex drive to fight crime - he has no idea what do to when a woman attracts him, even when she's crawling all over him. This is why Catwoman is his most enduring romance - she's a criminal, so he knows there's no chance for a relationship. He really is nuts, you know. When I let him win the girl at the end of Mystery of the Batwoman, it was like a gift. "Here. Take her. Have sex. Get a life".

Fox: Heroes don't do that.

That was so ridiculous. So heroes don't do that but they do this at least.

(https://64.media.tumblr.com/a30723f7dacfeb2979e031076de928d0/tumblr_mr8rzkJiY11rl14rno1_1280.png)

(https://img.fireden.net/co/image/1460/17/1460176036492.jpg)

The list of Batman's bedpost notches almost certainly includes:

* Catwoman
* Talia
* Andrea (in BTAS continuity)
* Lady Shiva (fight me, they totally did)
* Poison Ivy (she totally roofied him in TLH, yeah they did it)
* Wonder Woman, probably
* Black Canary
* Zatanna

I've even wondered about Post-Crisis Power Girl, actually. The only female characters I'm convinced Batman never hit it and quit it are Lois Lane, Big Barda and probably Hawkgirl. I just can't picture any of them hopping into the sack with Batman. But the rest, totally, yeah.

It's edgy to talk about Batman bumping uglies but I actually don't think he's putting serious importance on it. I see Batman being much like Affleck in BvS, or even B89. Doing the deed from but time to time, but still waking up tired, depressed and hollow - rather than feeling content or at peace. He's focused on his crusade so much that nearly everything in his life is sidelined, from his business dealing to friendships. Batman tied down in a domesticated type setting is a type of love and happiness that doesn't mesh with my interpretation of the character. When you're depressed or fixated on a problem it's the centre of your universe and it's hard to feel any other emotions. But it's there if he wants it.

Quote from: The Dark Knight on Tue, 14 Sep  2021, 00:54
It's edgy to talk about Batman bumping uglies but I actually don't think he's putting serious importance on it. I see Batman being much like Affleck in BvS, or even B89. Doing the deed from but time to time, but still waking up tired, depressed and hollow - rather than feeling content or at peace. He's focused on his crusade so much that nearly everything in his life is sidelined, from his business dealing to friendships. Batman tied down in a domesticated type setting is a type of love and happiness that doesn't mesh with my interpretation of the character. When you're depressed or fixated on a problem it's the centre of your universe and it's hard to feel any other emotions. But it's there if he wants it.

Grant Morrison theorized that at the very bare minimum, Bruce Wayne would have standing, ah, arrangements with maybe three or four different friends of a similar status to him. Basically, plates in modern parlance.

His theory comes from the fact that Bruce probably strives to be as healthy as possible. And y'know has various health benefits to it. I don't think it would be a lustful thing for him so much as an item he checks off his to-do list.

I don't rly agree with Morrison there. But I think I understand his logic.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Mon, 13 Sep  2021, 21:36
The list of Batman's bedpost notches almost certainly includes:

* Catwoman
* Talia
* Andrea (in BTAS continuity)
* Lady Shiva (fight me, they totally did)
* Poison Ivy (she totally roofied him in TLH, yeah they did it)
* Wonder Woman, probably
* Black Canary
* Zatanna

You forgot Barbara Gordon (both in the DCAU and The Killing Joke animated adaptation).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0qjOADpqw

So Bruce Timm reckons Batman hooking up with Barbara is meant to be a mistake and is intended to make you feel gross. It definitely felt weird when I saw that phone call scene in Mystery of the Batwoman, that's for sure.

If Wonder Woman was meant be 18 years old in JL, as Dwayne McDuffie suggests, then that definitely makes Bruce Wayne creepy. Even more so than hooking up with Barbara.

The late Boyd Kirkland was interviewed in 2005 and looked back at the show.

https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/kirkland.php

These are the comments that caught my attention.

Quote
Given how you left Mr. Freeze at the end of the SubZero direct to video feature, how did you feel about the characters return in The New Batman Adventures?

Well, it's certainly not a direction I would have gone. The Mr. Freeze in Heart of Ice and SubZero was a wonderfully tragic, sympathetic character. The walking head with two bimbo sidekicks in Cold Comfort was played just for shock value.

I agree with him that Mr. Freeze in TNBA cheapens what seemed to be a rather fitting conclusion for the character in SubZero, where he was finally at peace once Nora was finally cured and seeks refuge in the Arctic, away from civilisation. To see him go from that to relapsing as an android beyond reason or humanity was disappointing.

​But then again, SubZero wasn't originally planned as the final chapter of Mr. Freeze's journey. Bruce Timm wanted to adapt the short comic story White Christmas from Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1 for an episode, but he had to drop it when Boyd Kirkland and Glen Murakami wrote SubZero. The reason is because the comic took place when Nora had died, whereas she is still alive and comatose in Kirkland's movie. As a matter of fact, Timm went so far to state he thought Nora had already died by the end of Heart of Ice, and never would've kept her alive if he had a choice.

All this goes to show is the showrunners and creators didn't always see eye-to-eye with some ideas. Kirkland did mention some of the ideas he gave to the writers for some episodes weren't used, so he must've looked at SubZero as an opportunity of doing a Batman story his way. According to his writing credits on IMDB, SubZero was the only Batman story he ever wrote.

If anybody is interested in reading Timm's thoughts about Nora Fries, check out the link below and turn to page 14:
https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/backissue99preview

Quote
What did you have planned for The Catwoman feature, especially considering it looked to be based from a movie everyone hated? Is the project now dead?

I can only assume it's dead, although I've heard nothing official. About a year before the Catwoman movie came out, Warner Animation asked me if I would be interested in developing a direct-to-video Catwoman movie to be released in the wake of the live action feature. I came up with a story about Selina Kyle, based loosely on an idea I had while developing another Batman video after SubZero. They liked it, and asked me to write an outline, which I did. Then, Warner Home Video decided it had to also include the new Catwoman portrayed by Halle Berry. They sent me the script for the movie so I could see who this new Catwoman was. I had to completely rethink my story, but still managed to retain the central premise. I wrote a complete script, which portrayed how these two women meet, and discover more about themselves. It delved much deeper into the Egyptian mythology set up in the Catwoman movie. I think it would have made a pretty entertaining video. Too bad the live action film did so poorly, as that pretty much killed any chance of my script ever getting made.

Judging by how poor that mess of a Catwoman movie was, I don't believe the animated tie-in was going to be any good. Nothing will be more disappointing than the prospect of a Catwoman movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer going to waste.

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Wed, 15 Sep  2021, 11:59
The late Boyd Kirkland was interviewed in 2005 and looked back at the show.

https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/kirkland.php

These are the comments that caught my attention.

Quote
Given how you left Mr. Freeze at the end of the SubZero direct to video feature, how did you feel about the characters return in The New Batman Adventures?

Well, it's certainly not a direction I would have gone. The Mr. Freeze in Heart of Ice and SubZero was a wonderfully tragic, sympathetic character. The walking head with two bimbo sidekicks in Cold Comfort was played just for shock value.

I agree with him that Mr. Freeze in TNBA cheapens what seemed to be a rather fitting conclusion for the character in SubZero, where he was finally at peace once Nora was finally cured and seeks refuge in the Arctic, away from civilisation. To see him go from that to relapsing as an android beyond reason or humanity was disappointing.

​But then again, SubZero wasn't originally planned as the final chapter of Mr. Freeze's journey. Bruce Timm wanted to adapt the short comic story White Christmas from Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1 for an episode, but he had to drop it when Boyd Kirkland and Glen Murakami wrote SubZero. The reason is because the comic took place when Nora had died, whereas she is still alive and comatose in Kirkland's movie. As a matter of fact, Timm went so far to state he thought Nora had already died by the end of Heart of Ice, and never would've kept her alive if he had a choice.

All this goes to show is the showrunners and creators didn't always see eye-to-eye with some ideas. Kirkland did mention some of the ideas he gave to the writers for some episodes weren't used, so he must've looked at SubZero as an opportunity of doing a Batman story his way. According to his writing credits on IMDB, SubZero was the only Batman story he ever wrote.

If anybody is interested in reading Timm's thoughts about Nora Fries, check out the link below and turn to page 14:
https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/backissue99preview

Never was a big SubZero fan. Always thought it was just plain weak. Plus, I think the only time Nora was ever shown on screen in Heart Of Ice was in the flashback. Based on that, I assumed that Boyle had killed her with his little stunt. It made sense that Mr. Freeze wanted revenge on Boyle for his wife's death, not just because Boyle turned him into a freak. Discovering that Nora was somehow alive after all just rang hollow for me.

Plus, the White Christmas comic story is just so powerful.

And that leads into my big criticism of Mr. Freeze in BTAS. Honestly, aside from "Heart Of Ice", I don't think that version of the character is very good. SZ just isn't a good movie if you ask me, I think "Deep Freeze" brought Nora back too (which is lame), "Cold Comfort" misses the whole point of "Heart Of Ice" and "Meltdown" is almost (but not quite) redeemed by Freeze's "Believe me, you're the only one who cares" line.

All in all, "Heart Of Ice" is where the character's story should've ended. His subsequent appearances don't do him any favors, mostly.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Tue, 14 Sep  2021, 02:03
Grant Morrison theorized that at the very bare minimum, Bruce Wayne would have standing, ah, arrangements with maybe three or four different friends of a similar status to him. Basically, plates in modern parlance.

His theory comes from the fact that Bruce probably strives to be as healthy as possible. And y'know has various health benefits to it. I don't think it would be a lustful thing for him so much as an item he checks off his to-do list.

I don't rly agree with Morrison there. But I think I understand his logic.

It's pretty clear that Grant would NOT have fit as a member of the Bat books around the time that "No Man's Land" was up and running. I'll have to find the magazine to scan some pages, but I distinctly recall Dennis O'Neil adamantly stating in a Wizard Batman special published around 1998, that "Son of the Demon" was definitely a Elseworlds story, and even then-Editor Scott Peterson stating that Batman probably hasn't had sex in 10 years!

Course, roughly 8 years go by, Grant starts his run, and my, my, my, how things changed.

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Tue, 14 Sep  2021, 08:18

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Mon, 13 Sep  2021, 21:36
The list of Batman's bedpost notches almost certainly includes:

* Catwoman
* Talia
* Andrea (in BTAS continuity)
* Lady Shiva (fight me, they totally did)
* Poison Ivy (she totally roofied him in TLH, yeah they did it)
* Wonder Woman, probably
* Black Canary
* Zatanna

You forgot Barbara Gordon (both in the DCAU and The Killing Joke animated adaptation).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0qjOADpqw

So Bruce Timm reckons Batman hooking up with Barbara is meant to be a mistake and is intended to make you feel gross. It definitely felt weird when I saw that phone call scene in Mystery of the Batwoman, that's for sure.

If Wonder Woman was meant be 18 years old in JL, as Dwayne McDuffie suggests, then that definitely makes Bruce Wayne creepy. Even more so than hooking up with Barbara.

Yeah, Diana sleeping with Batman within the DCAU, is about the only universe I can imagine that ever happening in a long running continuity (excluding any possible Elseworlds type stories out there of course). Wondy being around 18 at the time, pretty much makes it the DC answer to Marvel's Magneto/Rogue coupling that's brought up from time to time. Though Mags got Bruce beat in the age difference gap there. :D

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed, 15 Sep  2021, 13:11
Never was a big SubZero fan. Always thought it was just plain weak. Plus, I think the only time Nora was ever shown on screen in Heart Of Ice was in the flashback. Based on that, I assumed that Boyle had killed her with his little stunt. It made sense that Mr. Freeze wanted revenge on Boyle for his wife's death, not just because Boyle turned him into a freak. Discovering that Nora was somehow alive after all just rang hollow for me.

Plus, the White Christmas comic story is just so powerful.

And that leads into my big criticism of Mr. Freeze in BTAS. Honestly, aside from "Heart Of Ice", I don't think that version of the character is very good. SZ just isn't a good movie if you ask me, I think "Deep Freeze" brought Nora back too (which is lame), "Cold Comfort" misses the whole point of "Heart Of Ice" and "Meltdown" is almost (but not quite) redeemed by Freeze's "Believe me, you're the only one who cares" line.

All in all, "Heart Of Ice" is where the character's story should've ended. His subsequent appearances don't do him any favors, mostly.

The Batman (2004) has Nora completely absent, which gives a change of pace considering the modern reliance on that backstory. No ice gun either. He's shooting it from his hands, similar to a character like Sandman. This Freeze started out as a thief, remains that and becomes more of a monster, right down to his voice. There's also a plot with him hibernating for 1000 years after Batman's death, which gets creativity and determination points from me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QwcXs0uD1E

Is it as nuanced as Heart of Ice? No. But I appreciate the difference.

Of the Heart of Ice backstory I like the Arkham depiction, particularly the resolution with Nora. She wakes up and chooses to live her remaining few days with Victor, rather than be frozen again and watch his criminality and madness. That's an ending I can get behind.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed, 15 Sep  2021, 13:11
Never was a big SubZero fan. Always thought it was just plain weak. Plus, I think the only time Nora was ever shown on screen in Heart Of Ice was in the flashback. Based on that, I assumed that Boyle had killed her with his little stunt. It made sense that Mr. Freeze wanted revenge on Boyle for his wife's death, not just because Boyle turned him into a freak. Discovering that Nora was somehow alive after all just rang hollow for me.

Plus, the White Christmas comic story is just so powerful.

Difference of opinion over SubZero aside, history tells us the reason it got made is because WB wanted to capitalise on the hype surrounding Schumacher's next Batman movie. Long before it got delayed for nearly a year after B&R flopped. If Mr. Freeze didn't appear in B&R then I think it's safe to say SubZero never would've happened, and Kirkland would've gotten another Batman story to work with.

I can't tell if this video is joking or not, but it claims Kirkland was going to use Bane as the main villain during early development, until he was replaced with Mr. Freeze once Schwarzenegger was cast. That's the first time I heard about this.

https://youtu.be/uFRfWz6J04s?t=152

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed, 15 Sep  2021, 13:11
And that leads into my big criticism of Mr. Freeze in BTAS. Honestly, aside from "Heart Of Ice", I don't think that version of the character is very good. SZ just isn't a good movie if you ask me, I think "Deep Freeze" brought Nora back too (which is lame), "Cold Comfort" misses the whole point of "Heart Of Ice" and "Meltdown" is almost (but not quite) redeemed by Freeze's "Believe me, you're the only one who cares" line.

All in all, "Heart Of Ice" is where the character's story should've ended. His subsequent appearances don't do him any favors, mostly.

I have to call out Timm's inconsistency when he claims Nora died in Heart of Ice. I watched Deep Freeze today, and not only does Nora appear again, Timm's name appears in the story credits together with Paul Dini. At the very best, Nora was presumed dead until Grant Walker smuggled her back to his lair. The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is Timm completely forgot about this episode and always favoured Heart of Ice, which he directed. That's very unlikely because he was involved in making both episodes, but I suppose it does go to show how forgettable Deep Freeze is compared to its predecessor.

Despite expressing creative differences over SubZero, Timm wasn't always faithful when it came to his take on Nora's fate.

Quote from: The Joker on Wed, 15 Sep  2021, 21:09
Yeah, Diana sleeping with Batman within the DCAU, is about the only universe I can imagine that ever happening in a long running continuity (excluding any possible Elseworlds type stories out there of course). Wondy being around 18 at the time, pretty much makes it the DC answer to Marvel's Magneto/Rogue coupling that's brought up from time to time. Though Mags got Bruce beat in the age difference gap there. :D

Magneto is in his fifties at the very least, isn't he? I believe Rogue is roughly around the same age as Scarlet Witch, his daughter.

Yeah, that is definitely weird, and wrong.

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Fri, 17 Sep  2021, 16:22
Magneto is in his fifties at the very least, isn't he? I believe Rogue is roughly around the same age as Scarlet Witch, his daughter.

Yeah, that is definitely weird, and wrong.

Being that Magneto was a child during the holocaust, chronologically speaking, Magneto would be either in his late 80's, or knocking on 90 right now! As he would have had to have been born during the early-mid 1930's for his traditional depiction of being a child holocaust survivor, rather than a infant, to line up correctly.

The reasoning why Magneto doesn't look his age, is basically due to a story where was reverted to a baby by a character called, Mutant Alpha. This was eventually reversed by Eric the Red, where Magneto was restored back as an adult, but with Mags now being younger than he was originally, in addition to being able to retain all his memories as well.

It's comics, but yeah, mentally/emotionally, Magneto would be pushing 90 now. Physically, he's probably somewhere in his 40's.

Marvel has had to use a sliding timescale to get out of some characters being essentially too old in modern day (Tony Stark getting hit by sharpnel in Vietnam, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm being in WW2, ect), but as far as I am aware, Magneto's background as a holocaust survivor has been retained, and is pretty crucial to his character. Course, this wasn't originally the case back during the Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, or even Neal Adams days, but has been ever since the celebrated Chris Claremont run. That's for sure.

So in terms of Rogue/Magneto age difference. We're talking about great grandfather, and/or great, great grandfather difference in age. Plus, Rogue was decidedly written as still being a teenager when she was accepted into the X-Men back in, I think, 1983. So .... yeah. Magneto has known her since she was a child.

Which makes this occasional relationship shipping creepily bizarre, and as you mentioned, Scarlet Witch is roughly about the same age as Rogue, as is Mags' other daughter, Polaris.

Quote from: The Joker on Sat, 18 Sep  2021, 15:53

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Fri, 17 Sep  2021, 16:22
Magneto is in his fifties at the very least, isn't he? I believe Rogue is roughly around the same age as Scarlet Witch, his daughter.

Yeah, that is definitely weird, and wrong.

Being that Magneto was a child during the holocaust, chronologically speaking, Magneto would be either in his late 80's, or knocking on 90 right now! As he would have had to have been born during the early-mid 1930's for his traditional depiction of being a child holocaust survivor, rather than a infant, to line up correctly.

The reasoning why Magneto doesn't look his age, is basically due to a story where was reverted to a baby by a character called, Mutant Alpha. This was eventually reversed by Eric the Red, where Magneto was restored back as an adult, but with Mags now being younger than he was originally, in addition to being able to retain all his memories as well.

It's comics, but yeah, mentally/emotionally, Magneto would be pushing 90 now. Physically, he's probably somewhere in his 40's.

Marvel has had to use a sliding timescale to get out of some characters being essentially too old in modern day (Tony Stark getting hit by sharpnel in Vietnam, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm being in WW2, ect), but as far as I am aware, Magneto's background as a holocaust survivor has been retained, and is pretty crucial to his character. Course, this wasn't originally the case back during the Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, or even Neal Adams days, but has been ever since the celebrated Chris Claremont run. That's for sure.

So in terms of Rogue/Magneto age difference. We're talking about great grandfather, and/or great, great grandfather difference in age. Plus, Rogue was decidedly written as still being a teenager when she was accepted into the X-Men back in, I think, 1983. So .... yeah. Magneto has known her since she was a child.

Which makes this occasional relationship shipping creepily bizarre, and as you mentioned, Scarlet Witch is roughly about the same age as Rogue, as is Mags' other daughter, Polaris.

So Magneto's relationship with Rogue is even worse than I gave it credit for. Ugh. Makes Bruce hooking up with Diana and Barbara look normal in comparison.

Speaking of Marvel, I wonder whether or not Magneto's backstory will remain untouched like Captain America. With Cap, you can buy the idea that he was cryogenically frozen while fighting in WWII. But if they try to retain Magneto's history but slow down his aging process, you might risk of losing that ideological conflict between himself and Xavier. I got the impression these two characters coming from the same generation highlighted the different directions they took morally, yet still show a degree of empathy for each other. If Marvel were to try and deviate that and make one of them younger than the other, the rich relationship between the two would be lost. If they can change Iron Man's backstory from being set in the Cold War era to War in Afghanistan, then changing Magneto's period of time shouldn't be a problem. As long as the core of the character's motivations remain the same.

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon, 20 Sep  2021, 14:48
So Magneto's relationship with Rogue is even worse than I gave it credit for. Ugh. Makes Bruce hooking up with Diana and Barbara look normal in comparison.

Speaking of Marvel, I wonder whether or not Magneto's backstory will remain untouched like Captain America. With Cap, you can buy the idea that he was cryogenically frozen while fighting in WWII. But if they try to retain Magneto's history but slow down his aging process, you might risk of losing that ideological conflict between himself and Xavier. I got the impression these two characters coming from the same generation highlighted the different directions they took morally, yet still show a degree of empathy for each other. If Marvel were to try and deviate that and make one of them younger than the other, the rich relationship between the two would be lost. If they can change Iron Man's backstory from being set in the Cold War era to War in Afghanistan, then changing Magneto's period of time shouldn't be a problem. As long as the core of the character's motivations remain the same.

Magneto and Professor X being roughly the same age increasingly gets complicated, but as far as I am concerned, Magneto's origins being tied to him being a holocaust survivor (the only one of his family to do so if I am not mistaken ... Magneto Testament is outstanding BTW) is undeniably at his core. Having him merely be the son of a holocaust survivor, or tying him to the civil rights movement (which I wouldn't doubt Disney is going to do and would be pleasantly surprised if they wouldn't) ultimately cheapens his character and his personal experience of being subjected to, and enduring, the very worst of humanity. Which gives his character's later actions, as a mutant supremacist/extremist, that kind of tragic irony that makes him compelling, and to which would be lost to some degree.

As far as Mags' age goes, well in the comics you have the whole baby deal, and other explanations that might work in a reboot. One being is that Magneto is supposedly a geneticist to some extent (possibly good enough to retard his natural ageing process. Thus in his mind, giving even more credence that mutants are just that much better than neanderthal humans). Another explanation, is that he sorta feeds off Earth's magnetic field, which in turn slows down his ageing, because, comics. Hell, Disney could probably incorporate both explanations if they wanted to, and throw in a Disney MCU quip on top of it. "I can keep my body rejuvenated. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about this white hair." Har har.

With Magneto and Professor X being contemporaries age wise, it's become increasingly awkward as the years go on, and as a consequence, I'm not as invested in that as I am with the holocaust origins for Magneto. Personally, I always viewed Captain America and Iron Man as the patriarchs of the Marvel Universe. Both as Avengers leaders, and age wise (at least as far as their outward physical appearances). In Disney's Marvel Universe, there is a obvious difference in age. Appearance wise. Possibly why Alex Ross was, around 2009-ish or so, strongly advocating Jon Hamm for Captain America. Which might have been interesting. Certainly has the chin and classic profile when one thinks of Cap.

I think "X-Men First Class" handled the friendship between Xavier and Erik pretty well. A reboot is going to have to change some things around, but I think the friendship can be sustained. It might be a case where Magneto is finding himself on the fence about executing a grand scheme, befriends Charles, begins drifting away from his plan, until something bad happens, and all hell breaks loose. It's a friendship that defies the expectation of forcing the other to bow to your worldview. Rather, differing heightened emotions can be reduced, and a relaxing game of chess is in order.

I've been thinking about Spider-Man: TAS lately and remember watching it back in the nineties and enjoying it, but I don't think it has aged very well compared to BTAS. So I did some reading behind the scenes to understand why the quality of Spider-Man was cheaper and cheesier in comparison, and to my surprise, it wasn't a creative choice. Among other issues, the show got screwed over by double standards when it came to censorship.

Quote from: Bob Richardson - Spider-Man supervising producer
There was an increased sensitivity to violence by the time we did our series, and the network's Broadcast Standards and Practices people would look at various issues they felt were inappropriate for children. One thing that was somewhat annoying, was that because Batman had started earlier and was more cartoony, they let them do much more action that was considered "violent" than what they would allow us to do. We had more restrictions, because they felt that since our series was more realistic, it would have more of a negative effect on kids if the content was too violent.

https://www.starburstmagazine.com/features/bob-richardson-spider-man-animated-series

Quote from: John Semper - Spider-Man writer, editor and producer
By the time Spidey came on, there was a LOT of censorship at Fox. They were having whole countries like Canada ban some of their shows (Power Rangers, for instance) and they were very nervous about violence. When I watch the older episodes of Batman that first aired on Fox, they do all kinds of things that we couldn't do. By the time Spidey came on, Fox wouldn't let us do anything like that. No fists to the face, no realistic guns, no fire, no crashing through glass, no children in peril, no mention of the words death, die, or kill. I used to read notes from the censors when I made personal appearances for the show. Some of them were quite funny. Like, "When Spider-Man lands on the rooftop, be sure that he doesn't harm any pigeons." Stuff like that.

http://drg4.dancemania-ex.com/semper.html

According to this opinion piece below, Bruce Timm knew how to persuade the censors to get what he wanted, more often than not.

Quote
The honest truth about censors is you have to know how to play them.

The same time Spider-Man was not landing hard enough to disturb pigeons and The Punisher was not allowed to say 'Kill', and everyone used laser guns on 'stun', Bruce Timm had to work with the very same censors for BATMAN. Timm is an interesting man, and not at all without flaws, but the man knew how to play a room.   

Censors wanted pew pew laser guns in BATMAN. Kids had seen BATMAN RETURNS, Timm argued, and that movie had real guns.  Lasers would 'confuse children'. Bruce Timm got to keep real guns.

There were complaints about Joker shooting a Thompson submachine gun at the screen. Again, Timm argued a Thompson was impossible to purchase as a private citizen at the time, thus the scene was not replicable.  He got the keep the scene. 

Whenever I hear John Semper complain about dealing with the censors, I just have to remind myself that he dealt with the very same censors Timm did. Timm got the show he wanted, so why didn't Semper? Semper's only win against a censor where Bruce Timm failed was in regards to vampirism.

Bruce Timm wanted to do an episode with Nocturna as a vampire, which the censors flat-out refused; Timm would not budge on onscreen blood consumption via a vampiric bite. John Semper Jr. did a very watered down version of Morbius the living Vampire; but one lacking the ability to bite humans, and instead sucked 'plasma' through a set of suckers on his palm. If you have to water down the character that much, could you really call it a win?

https://comicsverse.com/take-off-those-nostalgia-glasses-for-90s-marvel-animation/

I'd understand the Spider-Man censorship if BTAS, Power Rangers and X-Men were all toned down too, but the fact that those other shows remained intense throughout their runs is rather unfair. The excuse of BTAS's animation style being less realistic than Spider-Man shouldn't really be a cause for exemption.

But I suppose censorship is less about having a consistent set of standards across the board, and more about the challenge in circumventing restrictions. BTAS was lucky it had people like Timm being capable of doing that, it seems.

In retrospect, it has become more widely known that Fox was a pretty restrictive network. There's an interview with the BTAS team in Wizard #72 where either Dini or Timm compares Fox's censoring to Kids WB's censoring. Unfortunately, I can't find the actual quotes anywhere. But the interview is definitely in that issue. And the gist of it goes that Fox might have two pages of notes on what to censor whereas Kids WB might have only had half a paragraph on what to censor.

The Fox show seems more widely loved than the Kids WB show, however. So, hmm.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed, 27 Oct  2021, 11:55
In retrospect, it has become more widely known that Fox was a pretty restrictive network. There's an interview with the BTAS team in Wizard #72 where either Dini or Timm compares Fox's censoring to Kids WB's censoring. Unfortunately, I can't find the actual quotes anywhere. But the interview is definitely in that issue. And the gist of it goes that Fox might have two pages of notes on what to censor whereas Kids WB might have only had half a paragraph on what to censor.

I found the quote, thanks to this tweet: https://twitter.com/MattieWashburn/status/1159976956865073152

(https://i.imgur.com/BB5S4Nv.jpg)

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed, 27 Oct  2021, 11:55
The Fox show seems more widely loved than the Kids WB show, however. So, hmm.

TNBA is solid, but I always go back to watching BTAS. It's DCAU Batman at its peak, from the writing to the voice acting (particularly in Conroy's case) and animation too. If Fox's tough restrictions challenged the showrunners to become more creative then I'm very grateful for them.

THANK YOU!

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Fri, 17 Sep  2021, 16:22Yeah, that is definitely weird, and wrong.

Why?

I found another interview, this time it's with Michael Reaves.

https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/reaves.php

Here are the highlights that caught my attention.

On Mystery of the Batwoman:

Quote
Concerning your work on the DC Animated Universe, let's work our way backwards a little bit. Your last listed work for the DCAU was the DTV film Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. How did that project come about? Did you pitch the concept initially? And were you pleased with the outcome?

How it came about was simple - WBA decided to do one last DTV about Batman. They gave it to Alan Burnett, who was my producer on TAS, and he hired me to write it. He had to fight for me a little, since WBA's (perfectly sensible) attitude was, Why hire an outside writer when we have writers on staff? But Alan went to bat (so to speak) for me, and you know the rest.

Reaction from Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman was a bit mixed. Some fans really loved it, particularly the introduction of Batwoman, while others were hoping for a little bit more substance for the last Batman: TAS DTV. How do you respond to that? Do you think the fans are being ungrateful or . . . well . . . just fans?

Everyone's entitled to an opinion. It was a conscious decision to lighten this one up a bit; we felt that, over the years, we'd put Bats through a fair bit of angst and suffering, and since this would be our farewell to the TAS universe, why not let him get the girl for once?

It seems to me Reaves shared Burnett's perspective over Batman needing to embrace his sex life sometimes, as far as the happy ending with Bruce and Kathy Duquense was concerned. I have no problem with that. But I could've done without the idea that Bruce and Barbara Gordon once hooked up. :-[

On having more creative freedom in Mask of the Phantasm:

Quote
DC has really dug deep into the DTV format, as well as the feature length live-action movie genre. What type of freedoms, or even censorship, do you come across when writing for this genre? Basically, how does writing for a feature length movie differ from writing a standard length episode?

Obviously, a movie is much more complex in terms of story, and much more lenient in the matter of censorship. I remember in B:MOTP, we, the storyboard guys, went a little nuts in the opening fight with broken glass, something we were never allowed to show in the series.

Very true. Batman bleeding and Phantasm discovering the dead body of Sal Valestra would never have been allowed on TV. I don't even think Joker getting his tooth knocked out would've escaped censorship either.

On the episode The Terrible Trio:

Quote
And, right now, my apologies in advance for bringing this up, but you also wrote the episode "The Terrible Trio." How did that episode come about and were you disappointed when the reactions came back as so negative toward it? How do you compare this episode, one of the least popular of the series, to one of your highly acclaimed work (like "Avatar" for example)?

I guess the law of averages says you have to come up with a stinker every once in awhile. I've written over 400 TV scripts, the vast majority for animation, and of those I'd say that I'm very proud of maybe 50, cringe in shame on seeing maybe 20, and the rest are just ... there. A script is a blueprint, a schematic - not the finished product. There are so many variables over which you have no control. You sweat blood writing something really great and then, depending on which production house is up next in rotation, see it shipped to either TMS and be animated brilliantly, or to Akom and be animated ... not so brilliantly. It's the luck of the draw. Regarding 'The Terrible Trio', I don't remember that much about it - it was just one of many on my schedule. You try to make every one of them as good as you can, but ultimately airdates must be met.

It might not be the greatest BTAS episode ever, but the most distinctive memory I've had of TTT is when the trio is captured and sent to jail. Aside from one of the Trio members getting intimidated while his big cellmate stares him down, nothing happens in this scene. Yet it's the ugliness of jail and the creepy, suspenseful music makes the scene unsettling, and it reminds me of all the horrors that go on behind prison walls. It's probably one of the most unsettling episode endings in the entire show, because the music and mood evokes the harsh realities of prison life, just merely implying. That alone deserves praise, in my opinion.

On adapting comic book stories for BTAS and his proudest work on BTAS:

Quote
During your time, you've also adapted some comic-book stories into episodes ("A Bullet for Bullock"). What's the process of adapting a comic book story onto the small screen? Is it relatively simple, or harder than it looks? Why?

Generally it's harder, because unless you're adapting multiple issues you tend to run out of material before the first act is finished. Since there are usually three acts to the show, this presents a problem.

Finally, to wrap up this segment of the Q & A, looking back on your time at BTAS, what work are you most proud of? What will you always take from working on this series?

I think I'm happiest with the quality of the work I did - especially an episode called "I Am the Night" - and grateful for the opportunity to stretch.

There's definitely a lot to be proud of in I Am The Night. Great episode.

I found this interview with former casting and voice director Andrea Romano, I'll post some excerpts here.

On helping Michael Ansara in shaping his Mr. Freeze voice in Heart of Ice:

Quote
What was it like as a casting director and voice director when you could take a B, C, or D-list character from the comics and transform them into a big-time player, a prime example being Michael Ansara as Mr. Freeze?

Those decisions, as to which characters would be animated and brought to the front, were done before I became a part of the process. I treated all of the characters as if they were all major characters, as if they were just as regular a cast member as Batman or Robin or Joker. They all got treated equally as far as who I was going to cast and getting the best performance from the actor for the role.

Michael Ansara is an excellent example. I loved his work. Again, it's kind of a dream for me. There's a publication called The Players Directory that's like a big yearbook. It was a major directory of talent, and it would have a little photograph of the talent and their contact information. Say I was casting a villain, I'd page through it and see photographs of people that would remind me what their voice sounded like. I would go through the book and go through my lists of people who've been submitted and people I wanted to see, and there's Michael Ansara. I thought, "Ooh, he would be a really cool Mr. Freeze." He's got a quality to his voice, a placement to it that's really interesting. He came in and was cast, and I thought he did a terrific job. As we finished it, as we were getting towards the end of the recording session. We'd record a 22-minute episode in about 2 1/2 hours, but the Screen Actors Guild allows me four hours. At the 2 hour 15 minutes mark, Bruce Timm comes over and taps me on the shoulder to say, "The voice of Mr. Freeze isn't working." I said, "Okay, let's keep Michael after, we'll work with him on this. I know he's the right guy for the role."

Everybody else was released, Michael stayed after, and Bruce and Michael and I sat down together and talked about what we wanted Mr. Freeze to sound like. Ultimately what came through, what Bruce expressed, was that without deliberately creating the monotone, he wanted the frozen heart aspect of this character to come through vocally. So we played with Michael on several different options for the voice. Sometimes it came out kind of monotone and wasn't right, but we just gave him a bit of time as an actor to process that information and to think it through. And then, he found this wonderful place which is what you hear now as Mr. Freeze. It is cold, it does have a detached sense to it, but how I think that works so beautifully is when you then do let him get emotional, when he talks about what happened to his wife. When he acts in Heart of Ice, it's so touching, it's so moving because this was once a man with very deep feelings and he had to get rid of those feelings in order to continue to exist – and then it became about vengeance. It was a very intricate process that 100% in my viewpoint paid off and just absolutely was the right thing to do. Michael was the right actor. Taking the extra time to find the voice for him was the right thing to do, and it was Bruce being articulate enough to describe what he was looking for. Without his [Bruce Timm's] input I was actually happy with what we were getting, but I didn't realise Bruce wanted to go one step farther and make this just a bit of a colder performance. Not that the actor didn't engage, because he was incredibly engaged, it's just we needed this to sound like a man who was once passionate but he had had that stolen from him. There needed to be a bit of resentment come through in the voice, there literally had to be a coldness in the voice, and I think he achieved that beautifully.

I never knew it took a lot of effort in creating the Mr. Freeze voice, but Timm had a certain criteria. It paid off quite well.

On working with Adam West in the episode Beware the Grey Ghost:

Quote
On the topic of Adam West, one of the greatest episodes of BTAS is Beware the Gray Ghost in which Adam played the Gray Ghost. I take it that his casting was a process you were involved in?

Heck, yeah! Number one, that was an excellent cartoon – I absolutely adore that episode – and I knew Adam West was absolutely the guy. I had known him from Hanna-Barbera; I had worked with him there. I reached out to him and sent a message specifically to him through his agent saying, "Here's this remarkable Batman script. Here's this wonderful character called the Gray Ghost. Please present it to Adam and let him know that I absolutely think this is such a wonderful opportunity for him to be able to sink his chops in to some real acting and let the world know what a good actor he is. But I want him to know that we are not making fun of his career by asking him to play a has-been actor, because none of us think of him as a has-been actor." He sent back a message saying, "I love this role, I love that you thought of me. I'll be there." It was a wonderful mix of everyone agreeing he was the right guy, him himself thinking it was a good role, and the fans went nuts for it. Absolutely nuts for it. It's a great cartoon episode on many levels; it's a wonderful story, it's wonderfully cast. It was also the first time Bruce Timm ever acted as himself and drew himself into the cartoon. And the truth of it is that Bruce Timm became a pretty good actor. It was a very special cartoon, I love it, it's one of my very favourite episodes.

As great as it was hearing West's voice in the role, I must say that Bruce Timm as the toymaker villain and cartoon resemblance was a hilarious highlight. It's a great episode, from the choice of actors to the beautiful way the dark alleyways, skies and city landscape is lit up by the fire.

(https://64.media.tumblr.com/e7d792db26e8a028d247af2de39ef052/tumblr_mkcj6oCnsp1rrkahjo1_250.gifv)

(https://64.media.tumblr.com/3b1226498d7db103c34b4e6e3e311089/334bdedaf59bac96-9e/s500x750/362144fdb4d914a780a5f4ebe8fd838c26d5c0e5.gifv)

(https://64.media.tumblr.com/52bd8a5ffb35e123adfb5003cc12cf65/334bdedaf59bac96-d1/s500x750/4decd348dae1cede1ae85a9f817b6f4fa12c5507.gifv)

On which actor she regretted not getting the chance to work with:

Quote
One of the most popular episodes of BTAS is 'Almost Got 'Im'. With that in mind, then, throughout your involvement on so many Batman projects over the years, was there ever a particular 'one that got away' when it came to a piece of casting?

I always wanted to work with Christopher Lee. I was very sad that I never got to work with him. I kept a wish list of people that I wanted to work with, and I got through most of them – which was glorious – but Christopher Lee was the fish that got away. It wasn't that he didn't want to come and play, it was that we never could make the schedule line up. However, who I wanted him for initially was Ra's al Ghul. He would've been awesome, but we did get the brilliant David Warner instead, who I thought was an excellent Ra's al Ghul. I loved working with David, and I was very sad when he decided to move back to England as it's very hard to record with that many hours' time difference on a regular basis. David did many series with me, he did Freakazoid! and a bunch of other shows. He's just a wonderful actor. So even though I didn't get Christopher Lee, I did get the awfully good David Warner.

https://www.starburstmagazine.com/features/andrea-romano-batman-complete-animated-series

Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon,  7 Dec  2020, 14:18
https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/animato/

Following up on my last post about Beware the Gray Ghost, I had another look at what was said about the episode.

Quote
Timm described a few of the show's in-jokers. "The Gray Ghost is Batman's boyhood hero, and The Shadow was Bob Kane's inspiration for Batman. That's doubled by the fact that Adam West was my childhood hero and my inspiration for getting into Batman." Other in-jokes include a People magazine cover with the Gray Ghost is casting Batman's shadow, and the violator reads: "Matt Hagen: Man of a Million Faces." In a Batcave shrine to the Gray Ghost, the poster on the wall has the Gray Ghost in the same pose as Batman is in the series logo. 

Kane using the Shadow as his inspiration for Batman makes this reference in a Bronze Age comic a lot of sense. I'd like to know which issue this came from.

(https://preview.redd.it/x9x8el1ab0781.jpg?auto=webp&s=48eb0f1b7fa1a608556047ccfa4e2707c2ba2f47)

Seeing as Clayface would debut a few episodes later after Gray Ghost, the Matt Hagen reference in the People magazine was quite foretelling. Nicely done.

I had another look at dcanimated.com to see if there were more quotes by the showrunners behind BTAS, and I found a few fascinating comments by producer Eric Radomski.

https://dcanimated.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/radomski.php

Here is one answer Radomski gave about the question of the varying degrees quality of animation produced by multiple studios:

Quote
While the show hit a consistent tone with story, there were obvious fluctuations with the animation and the different studios used. Did you ever see that as an issue, and did this cause any problems with what you wanted the show to achieve visually?

ER: The production design met resistance with all of our oversea's studios, simply because our series was like nothing else they'd worked on. Some studios had more difficulty adapting to the style then others. We made every effort to help each studio understand the style. i believed from the beginning that if embraced, this style would prove to be simpler, more efficient, and serve to deliver a better looking product overall. Considering we had up to seven studios in four different countries working simultaneously for two years, our ratio of good versus average looking episodes was very high all things considered.

The series would look amazing using today's technology. Reminder – BTAS was a traditional 2D production. Hand-made, shot on film with no digital assistance outside of the final music and sound effects mix. The days of hand-painted animation cels is quickly becoming a style of the past. Hang on to those series cels ... the market will return sometime soon.

^The animation did look a little spotty in some episodes, but in terms of consistency and quality, I'd say BTAS - as well as the entire DCAU - was always rather high. I thought the 90s X-Men cartoon fluctuated a lot in terms of quality, with messy character shadings and shadows. Even the final season's animation style was given a bit of an overhaul.

Radomski explained what were the inspirations behind the use of black backgrounds for the show, in simple yet informative terms:

Quote
Visually, your impact on Batman: The Animated Seriesis readily apparent. The black backgrounds and the title cards are two highly important visuals from the first 85 episodes that are basically owed to you. Can you run us through why you opted to use the black backgrounds, and how you came up with the idea for the title cards?

ER: Claude Monet, Bernie Fuchs, Coppola, Fleischer's Superman – All had a technical impact on the concept of starting in the dark and coaxing the imagery out with light and color. It's a visual storytelling technique that allows the viewers imagination to fill in the blanks.

From a production standpoint, I felt the technique allowed us to suggest more detail and atmosphere then actually existed (or we could afford), and it was easily transferable so that we could maintain consistency amongst all the hands involved.

Like Bruce Timm, Radomski expressed his frustration in trying to work around the censorship, but acknowledged this challenged to showrunners to think creatively.

Quote
It's well-know that show has frequent run-in with the network censors. Are there any particularly interesting instances of censorship for the series? Also, did you ever find said restrictions a problem that perhaps held the series back in your view?

ER: Actually the restrictions inspired many clever solutions for us to vent our action-adventure spleens. Watch closely, I promise in one episode you'll see Robin punch a thug in the crotch ... or did he?

One instance that always comes to mind when asked this question, this FOX Broadcast Standards and Practices note and solution: "Characters can not punch each other in the head but they can kick each other in the chest"

To be fair, the networks and studio's have been badgered into these stupid rules by members of the audience that ignore "against fare warning" and "do not try this at home." The results have been annoying and expensive, but eventually inspiring to the animators. We always seem to find a work around [laughs]!

^I can empathise with his annoyance over the inconsistent logic over violence. I've been watching the 90s Spider-Man cartoon lately, and you can tell how Spider-Man isn't allowed to punch people in the face, but kicking his enemies in the chest or behind is perfectly okay for some reason. I would've thought kicking somebody in the chest could risk causing a serious injury, i.e. a heart attack or a serious spinal injury, but I guess some people think that's far less dangerous than getting hit in the face.

Radomski's reveals which BTAS episode was his favorite...

QuoteOn Leather Wings was our first born and closest to the vision we were searching for from the start, it defined Batman: The Animated Series.

...and he gets more specific in this other article (comments were copied and pasted from slides nine and ten):

Quote
On Leather Wings the very first episode we got back complete. It was the embodiment of everything that we intended for the series to be, even though the first 90-second piece that Bruce and I produced definitely represented the art direction that we intended. But to sustain it for 22 minutes, let alone 85 episodes, was really proved in that first episode.

It was a big sigh of relief almost two years after we had started the project originally. To see that come together, to put the sound and music to it, it just sort of fulfilled everything that we had hoped it would be. It also gave us the confidence that we knew we could deliver the rest of the series. All the challenges were there anyway, but we had sort of broken through the membrane of what we had hoped it would be and very pleased with the quality of what we ended up with.

https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/features/1004713-exclusive-batman-the-animated-series-cast-reveal-favorite-episodes#/slide/10

Bruce Timm shared his perception of Batman's origin story and how different it is compared to Superman's, and why he jumped on the opportunity to do a three-part backstory in the beginning of STAS.

Quote
With B: TAS, Batman's origin was implied but never shown outright, whereas, with Superman, you showed the origin over the course of three episodes. Why did you want to show the origin and was there any pushback doing a three-parter to launch the series?

As far as I know, I don't remember that there was any pushback. The people that we worked with at Kids' WB at the time were very easygoing, much more so than Fox Kids. Fox Kids was a little more uptight about things, particularly of the Standards and Practices nature whereas we couldn't believe our luck when working at Kids' WB that first season. These guys were letting us do whatever we wanted, which was great. [laughs]

On the one hand, Superman's origin story has been told so many times but he has the best origin story. The thing about Batman's origin story is it's an incident. It's something that happened. It's not a whole episode, it's six minutes of screen time. Superman's is epic. It's got all kinds of biblical stuff in it and a huge scale. We knew it was a great way to say, right out of the gate, this is not B: TAS again, this is something really different. We're going to spend the entire first episode on another fricking planet. I just couldn't resist it. I love the origin story and getting to design Krypton from the ground up into something that didn't look like the Christopher Reeve movie or specifically like anything from the comics, was a super fun blast. All the rest of it is great too: the Smallville stuff warms the cold corners of my heart. When you get to Metropolis, you get introduced to Dana Delaney and Clancy Brown -- what's not to love?

https://web.archive.org/web/20221225163457/https://www.cbr.com/bruce-timm-superman-the-animated-series-interview/

I get the sense BS&P might've had a role in why Batman's backstory never was explored in BTAS, due to censorship reasons. But once again, it might've been for the best, in hindsight. It allowed creative freedom to use nightmarish images of guns bleeding from the crumbling ground like in the episode Dreams in Darkness and Bruce having a vision of his disappointed parents in Two-Face Part II, and parts of Bruce's beginnings were tied together with the Andrea Beaumont backstory in Mark of the Phantasm.

I reckon this approach to Batman's backstory is much more interesting than showing everything in sequence. Whereas in Superman's case, his backstory is much more expansive with so much to explore.

I've been reading this really good interview with BTAS writer and executive producer Tom Ruegger, and he revealed the Fox Kids TV executives wanted to remove Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski because they thought their animation pitch for the show was too dark and were too inexperienced for children's programming.

QuoteEarly on the network wanted to get rid of Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski. They said, "These guys, they've never made an animated series before, they don't understand TV, they're not making a show for kids, we need this thing to be nicer." I remember going to Bruce and Eric and telling them this. They said, "Can we quit now?" So, we made a stand against the network and said, "Listen, they're not going. Cancel this series, because we're making this with Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski. They have the vision that works alongside Tim Burton's vision. You've seen the little clip that they're capable of making. Now you just have to let them do it, clear out, and let's just continue – or skip it!" We did get to that moment, and normally I think the network gets its way. At that point, we had had experience with the network in making the Steven Spielberg show [Tiny Toon Adventures]. On that production, they'd say, "Oh, we don't like this, we don't like that, we want that changed." We'd go back with, "Well, Steven likes this, and we don't want to change it."

..

We knew that they had a breaking point. Tim Burton really wasn't involved, but we knew that Eric and Bruce had a visual vision that would make this show unique and special. The network may have wanted it to be a better flavour of vanilla, but we did fight them on that.

Ruegger says writing this  particular moment in Pretty Poison episode was his greatest moment:

QuoteI wrote the first Poison Ivy episode, and I realised that I loved the show and I loved the process when I was writing the first scene for that script. I realised, "Oh my gosh, this is like we're making movies here. We're actually making 22-minute feature films." They were very dramatic. The first scene I had was Harvey Dent at dinner with the character who would become Poison Ivy. I believe he's lamenting that Bruce Wayne couldn't make it, "Where's Bruce? He was supposed to come to dinner. But you know Bruce, he's always a lowkey, loner of a guy who stays to himself and doesn't like to go out much." We're intercutting everything Harvey Dent says with contradictory footage of Bruce as Batman beating the living crap out of a villain. I realised, "This is so much fun to write!" For me, that was like a turning point in that, "Oh, I don't just have to write little shenanigans with Buster and Babs. I can write these really dramatic scenes and I have the freedom to let it go wherever it goes." It was just a wonderful creative writing experience that I think was the turning point for me. This was the episode prior to Harvey turning into Two-Face.

While on the subject of B89's influence on the show, Ruegger mentioned Danny Elfman forced Shirley Walker to change the musical theme of the show so he could get credited.

QuoteI suspect the tendency would've been to go with a lighter quality if the Tim Burton movie hadn't existed. Especially for TV animation, Batman: The Animated Series was unique. It wasn't really aimed at a very young kid audience. Clearly, not every little kid should've been watching it, because it was a little bit rough or a little bit more violent. The music was by Tim Burton's orchestrator, Shirley Walker. Danny Elfman had done the music for the feature film, and Shirley Walker had been Danny's orchestrator. That's one of the odd little moments with the series, because Shirley wrote the theme music for Batman: The Animated Series, and Danny Elfman was very unhappy that Shirley had gone off to do this. What happened with the theme tune is that Danny insisted that it be slightly rewritten so his name could be credited. That was between Danny and Shirley, but it worked out and Shirley did all of Batman: The Animated Series; she did all of the composing and she was just fabulously brilliant.

Here's the rest of the interview: https://www.starburstmagazine.com/features/tom-ruegger-batman-complete-animated-series/

Quote from: Tom Ruegger on Sun, 26 Nov  2023, 01:14Listen, they're not going. Cancel this series, because we're making this with Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski. They have the vision that works alongside Tim Burton's vision. You've seen the little clip that they're capable of making. Now you just have to let them do it, clear out, and let's just continue – or skip it!

The prospect terrifies me, frankly.

I've said before that B89, Adam West, The Complete Frank Miller Batman and The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told were what introduced me to the character. It was totally true.

But I think BTAS is what cemented everything for me. Because there was such a huge range of characters. I knew the Joker and Penguin, obviously. But other characters like Man-Bat, Two-Face and so forth were less familiar to me. So, it was BTAS that gave me entrée into those villains.

And it's funny that Tom Ruegger mentions Poison Ivy. Because Pretty Poison is exactly what I was thinking of. What a terrible loss it would've been if that particular episode was never produced. And I guess I never realized how close the show came to getting scrapped. Frankly, in my own list of greatest Batman stories ever told in any medium, I count quite a few BTAS episodes. Pretty Poison, On Leather Wings, Heart Of Ice and so forth.

Batman would be a less rich character today if not for the gigantic impact BTAS had in its time.

Despite not having a favourite episode, Timm - like Radomski - is very sentimental when it comes to On Leather Wings.

QuoteWe're sure you've answered this a thousand times in the last twenty-five years, but do you have a particular episode that stands out as your personal favorite?

BT: No! I will say, and this is my stock answer but it's true, it's not the best episode or the most memorable, or the deepest, but I have tons of fond memories of "On Leather Wings" because it was the first episode we put into production, it was the first time we saw the characters animated, it was the first time we recorded an episode with our wonderful cast, and it was the first time I heard Shirley Walker's amazing music, and it all kind of came together! I think it's a really solid episode. It kind of "planted the flag" and did exactly what we intended to do with the show. It was a little bit spooky and a little bit fun, a little bit funny, it had a lot of adventure and didn't talk down to kids, so it was great. Here's the thing, we were doing a lot of things that, at the time, were revolutionary with how to style an animated show. With painting the backgrounds on black paper and the stylized look of the characters. We had no idea if it was going to work or not! So when we got the first episode, which was "On Leather Wings", back from Japan, it was kind of like "Oh thank God it actually works! This is gonna be good!".

https://sciencefiction.com/2017/10/16/nycc-2017-twenty-five-years-later-bruce-timm-talks-batman-animated-series/

I thought this episode was solid, although it's not really among my favourites. But it was critical to get this right to lay the foundation for the rest of the show.

Quote from: Bruce Timm on Sat, 13 Jan  2024, 03:47No! I will say, and this is my stock answer but it's true, it's not the best episode or the most memorable, or the deepest, but I have tons of fond memories of "On Leather Wings" because it was the first episode we put into production, it was the first time we saw the characters animated, it was the first time we recorded an episode with our wonderful cast, and it was the first time I heard Shirley Walker's amazing music, and it all kind of came together! I think it's a really solid episode. It kind of "planted the flag" and did exactly what we intended to do with the show. It was a little bit spooky and a little bit fun, a little bit funny, it had a lot of adventure and didn't talk down to kids, so it was great. Here's the thing, we were doing a lot of things that, at the time, were revolutionary with how to style an animated show. With painting the backgrounds on black paper and the stylized look of the characters. We had no idea if it was going to work or not! So when we got the first episode, which was "On Leather Wings", back from Japan, it was kind of like "Oh thank God it actually works! This is gonna be good!".

It's one of my favorites. It has a bit of Bronze Age flavoring, a bit of horror movie flavoring and obviously Batman had never looked that good in animation before.

Frankly, OLW is one of my favorite episodes of BTAS. Technically, The Cat & The Claw Pt. 1 aired first. But for me, OLW is the true debut of BTAS. I absolutely cherish this episode.

Plus, everything I knew about Man-Bat came from The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told vol. 01. I knew of the character but didn't know much else about him. OLW was what began changing that.

Amazing episode.

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Sat, 13 Jan  2024, 17:31

Quote from: Bruce Timm on Sat, 13 Jan  2024, 03:47No! I will say, and this is my stock answer but it's true, it's not the best episode or the most memorable, or the deepest, but I have tons of fond memories of "On Leather Wings" because it was the first episode we put into production, it was the first time we saw the characters animated, it was the first time we recorded an episode with our wonderful cast, and it was the first time I heard Shirley Walker's amazing music, and it all kind of came together! I think it's a really solid episode. It kind of "planted the flag" and did exactly what we intended to do with the show. It was a little bit spooky and a little bit fun, a little bit funny, it had a lot of adventure and didn't talk down to kids, so it was great. Here's the thing, we were doing a lot of things that, at the time, were revolutionary with how to style an animated show. With painting the backgrounds on black paper and the stylized look of the characters. We had no idea if it was going to work or not! So when we got the first episode, which was "On Leather Wings", back from Japan, it was kind of like "Oh thank God it actually works! This is gonna be good!".

It's one of my favorites. It has a bit of Bronze Age flavoring, a bit of horror movie flavoring and obviously Batman had never looked that good in animation before.

Really? Despite all the contempt you expressed towards me during our last discussion and ranted about how "literally everyone" ignores me at the end of your overreacting outburst, here you are replying to a piece of info I shared. You're unbelievable.

You know, I would not have known you made this post had I not logged in and got an alert saying you replied to me. I don't even think you meant to do this on purpose, so let me give you this advice: if you want to avoid quoting me directly by removing my comments and username, and just respond to something I share, delete the message and date code embedded in the quote - the bits that say "link=msg=whatever date=whatever". That way, I don't get alerted about any replies coming from you, and we can avoid contacting each other forever. Because after THAT outburst of yours, why the hell would I want to talk to somebody who hates my guts? I've got no time for you.

I think we agree this should be the final time we speak to each other. Farewell.