Last Wednesday was April Fool’s Day and while most of the world didn’t feel particularly up to pranks and jokes in light of the coronavirus pandemic, that didn’t mean that there wasn’t plenty of enjoying pranks of years past and that’s the case for Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim. Guggenheim took to Twitter to share what might be one of the most amusing April Fool’s Day pranks the Arrowverse has ever seen, revealing a prank script from Arrow‘s second season which jokingly turned the dark and gritty Green Arrow series into a campy delight patterned after Adam West‘s classic 1966 Batman television series.
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“On April 1, 2014 (during Arrow‘s second season), I had Production publish this script…” Guggenheim wrote, tagging the post “#AprilFoolsDay2014”. And as you can see for yourself, that script is comedy gold. Check it out for yourself below.
On April 1, 2014 (during Arrow’s second season), I had Production publish this script… #AprilFoolsDay2014 pic.twitter.com/4DD2r0cVxI
— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) April 1, 2020
Right off the bat the script, for the fake episode “Two-Face,” is definitely not your ordinary Arrow script. The voice over itself is a giveaway that something’s amiss.
“Another sunlight day in Starling City, bright and flawless as a jewel. But– is this perfection genuine?” the script reads. Try reading it in the voice of Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen.
The whole script is full of campy moments, too, from the names of characters — Mr. Bottomham who is the President of Crime-Does-Not-Pay-Well Association — to the actions of familiar Arrow characters. Moira Queen, for example is seen knitting while Oliver and Roy have a very Batman and Robin dynamic, complete with Oliver tutoring Roy in economics. Fans of Batman ’66 will recognize the script’s general structure and setup as being very similar to the iconic series.
While this script is, as Guggenheim notes, fake, Batman ’66 did end up making its way to the Arrowverse for real, thanks to “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. In the opening montage of the first hour of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” Burt Ward, who played Robin in the 1960’s Batman series, somewhat reprised his role as the Boy Wonder. In the scene Ward, dressed in a sweater matching the colors of Robin’s costume, takes a German Shepard on a walk when he notices the wave of anti-matter in the sky and exclaims “Holy crimson skies of death!” just as his world is about to be destroyed. That world? Earth-66.
You can check out Ward’s Arrowverse cameo for yourself when The CW re-airs “Crisis on Infinite Earths” beginning Tuesday, April 7.
