Burt Ward Remembers ‘Batman’ Adam West

As the city of Los Angeles honored the late Batman actor Adam West on Thursday night, ComicBook.com was able to catch up with the man who played his trusty sidekick, Burt Ward, who portrayed Robin on the classic television series and reprised the role for animated features and even a pair of “superhero roasts” in the late 1970’s.

Like many who encountered Mr. West over the years, Burt Ward, too, had a great story about their first meeting.

“It was minutes before our screen test, and in the first three minutes of talking to him, he and I began laughing, and we’ve never stopped laughing,” Ward recalled. “I love that man. He and I have a very similar — not twisted, not warped sense of humor, but a different sense of humor.

“He saw things like nobody in my life ever saw things. He had that suggestive, deep voice, and oh my God, he is so hilarious. I love the guy.”

That sense of humor is part of what made Batman work so well as a series and as as a pop culture phenomenon.

“We used to say we put on the tights to put on the work. We were the superheroes to put our underwear on the outside of our clothes,” Ward explained. “Batman was so different because it wasn’t just played straight; it was played straight for kids, but the suggestiveness, the meaning, the camp, the style, all of these things made people kind of have a little ding in their stomach, like ‘what’s really going on here?’ And people loved that. The college kids loved it.”

That love has led to two animated features in recent years. The first, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, was released in 2016; the sequel, The Caped Crusaders vs. Two-Face, is expected to come in the future, with West’s role already having been recorded.

“We’ve completed one, and we’ve done our portion of the second one that’s coming out before Christmas, I believe, from Warner Brothers,” Ward said, before diffusing the “what was it like to work together again” question.

“You have to understand, we worked together every single month. There’s nothing different! People say ‘well, tell me, when you get him away from the camera, how is he different?’ We’re always the same,” Ward said.

You can find the official description for Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders below.

It’s back to the 1960s as Batman and Robin spring into action when Gotham City is threatened by a quartet of Batman’s most fiendish foes – Penguin, The Joker, Riddler and Catwoman. The four Super-Villains have combined their wicked talents to hatch a plot so nefarious that the Dynamic Duo will need to go to outer space (and back) to foil their arch enemies and restore order in Gotham City. It’s a truly fantastic adventure that will pit good against evil, good against good, evil against evil … and feature two words that exponentially raise the stakes for both sides: Replicator Ray. Holy Multiplication Tables!

The film features the vocal performances of Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin) and Julie Newmar (Catwoman). It also includes Jeff Bergman as the Joker, William Salyers as The Penguin, Wally Wingert as The Riddler, Lynne Marie Stewart as Aunt Harriett, Jim Ward as Commissioner Gordon, and Sirena Irwin as TV show host Miranda Moore.

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders is available now.

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