Today's Bonus Video Link

The Batman TV show (the one starring Adam West) went out of production in early 1968. In 1972 or 1974 (accounts vary), Burt Ward got back into the Robin suit and Yvonne Craig redonned her Batgirl tights to film this ad for…well, you'll see what it's an ad for when you watch it. That's Batman producer William Dozier — who narrated the original show — reprising his role, too.

But that is not (repeat: not) Mr. West playing Batman. At the time, he had decided those days were behind him and that he would never again wear the costume or do the Batusi, the better to establish that he could play other parts. So the guy in the bat suit is Dick Gautier, who may be best known to you for playing Hymie the Robot on Get Smart, Robin Hood on When Things Were Rotten and about eight thousand other appearances. Dick, with whom I've had the pleasure of working a few times, is one of the funniest human beings on this planet and also, as you can see on his website, a gifted cartoonist. I always thought that if they'd made a TV series of Will Eisner's The Spirit when Gautier was younger and if James Garner wasn't available — or maybe even if he was — Dick would be the guy.

The clip runs one minute. The person who prepped it for uploading to the Internet has an odd way of spelling the word "commercial" but there's nothing I can do about that so don't complain to me.

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