200 Words with Paul Dini #42 - Disney's Batman

15 Posted on Jan 9, 2009 in articles by Conor Kilpatrick |

January 9, 2009

When I was a kid my favorite TV show was about a member of elite society who led a double life. Accompanied by a young sidekick with a bird-inspired nickname and a capable, though occasionally comical Man Friday, this midnight avenger struck terror into the hearts of all who encountered him. In time even the local constable would come to acknowledge and respect the vigilante’s deeds.

Batman? Not quite; Walt Disney’s Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.

Any kid who saw the Scarecrow thundering across the moors never forgot him. By day he was Dr. Syn, trusted country parson. By night, he traded his bible for a mask and became a ruthless, possibly deranged smuggler chief. Matching wits with the king’s soldiers, Syn played both allies and traitors as pawns in his ostensibly heroic schemes.

A few years later rumors circulating among kids at my playground said a new TV hero, Batman, was going to be just like the Scarecrow. That first night as I watched the Caped Crusader disco dance with Jill St. John, I knew grim, oppressed Romney Marsh was worlds apart from sunny Gotham City and that Batman was nothing like the Scarecrow.

But he would be someday.

Paul Dini is the Emmy and Eisner Award winning writer of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Detective Comics, Countdown among many, many other things. You can find him online at either kingofbreakfast.livejournal.com or http://www.jinglebelle.com/.

Comments

I only heard about this series recently with the DVD release. Actually really interested in checking it out.

Crazy. We actually watched the entire Prisoner series in TV Production class in high school and I remembered thinking McGoohan would've made a great Batman.

Posted by PaulMontgomery on 01/09/09 at 12:10 PM

Ah, the times when Batman was just a swining single...

Posted by Neb on 01/09/09 at 02:52 PM

Gosh, I caught that when Disney channel was cool and played the good stuff (Tailspin, Darkwing Duck, Short Circut and heavily-edited versions of The Goonies). Scarecrow was awesome. My Dad has fonder memories of Scarecrow; he and his brother cut a hole out of the floor of the laundry room and began digging a tunnel from the house to the woods in the back to be just like Scarecrow. "It was a wonder it didn't cave in while we were in it and kill us all," he's said a few times.

Posted by OttoBott on 01/09/09 at 02:57 PM

Also a member of Prospero's League

Posted by Heroville on 01/09/09 at 03:11 PM

I got this DVD for Christmas! Actually I bought it for myself before Christmas since the DVD sold out its entire limited print run in less than three weeks, but I didn't open it until Christmas. I had been wanting to watch this for years and it did not disappoint. Lots of Disney fans compared it to Disney's Zorro but I too compared it to Batman. Great minds think alike!

Funny story. On the making of feature on the DVD, I learned that the famous theme song was performed by George Patterson, who also recorded the Gilligan's Island theme and...was one of my professors in grad school/seminary. He is now a psychologist and teaches as adjunst faculty at Fuller Seminary to the Marriage and Family Therapy students. He taught my addiction and therapy class. And then I saw him on the DVD.

Posted by brandmed on 01/09/09 at 05:53 PM

The intro reminds me of the Blackadder intro. This is the best I could find:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsqfKl5qpLY

There was a later theme that was a bit different with more clips of him riding a horse.

Posted by chlop on 01/09/09 at 06:47 PM

I'd rather watch Batman. Sorry.

Posted by robbydzwonar on 01/09/09 at 10:16 PM

@chlop - Blackadder is tops. I've slowly been completing my Blackadder series (it's cheaper to do it individually per-season then the boxed set, oddly enough). So far I think the 3rd is my favorite, but I still have to get Goes Forth at some point.

Posted by OttoBott on 01/10/09 at 03:07 AM

This show/movie is fantastic. The Scarecrow scared the hell outta me as a kid. I'm gonna have to buy this DVD.

Posted by Doctor13 on 01/10/09 at 01:05 PM

if thi guy really existed, wouldnt someone just beat the crap out of him and pee in his butt?

Posted by thefreakygeeky on 01/10/09 at 04:39 PM

I'm old enough to remember Sunday night Disney being cool. I just can't imagine Disney making something like this or Swamp Fox (a personal favourite through the rose-coloured glasses of time) nowdays. I don't know what that says about me or perhaps our evolution as a society... but damn it, I want to see idealized fictional recounting of historical figures promoting violence as an equitable means of solving problems!

Posted by Crippler on 01/11/09 at 06:29 PM