Burt Ward said that Adam West introduced him to ''the wildest debauchery that you can imagine'' during their time on Batman
"We were the ones being chased," said the man who played Robin.
Holy depravity, Batman!
As Robin, Burt Ward was the forthright sidekick who was always focused on the crime at hand. Even as his secret identity, Dick Grayson, Robin was never more than a "Ka-Pow" away from truth, justice, and the American way. The Boy Wonder was upright and clean-cut in everything he did, but according to the actor who played him, things weren't exactly puritanical when the cameras were off in Gotham.
In a 1995 interview with the Montreal radio station CJAD 800 AM, Ward promoted his new book and spilled the beans about what a bad influence Batman really was.
"When I entered Batman as a naive 20-year-old who had only dated a couple of girls, I met Adam West, who immediately introduced me to the wildest debauchery that you can imagine. Within a few months, we were like two hungry sharks in a world of unlimited halibut."
Not even their trusty Bat Shark Repellant could keep these two at bay.
"Maybe I'm a little too harsh on Adam. Actually, to be more descriptive, he was more like a killer whale with a world of plankton. Together we had this wild time. Of course, remember, this was the '60s. You know, it's a different world now."
Despite the kaleidoscope of impropriety that his newfound fame exposed him to, Ward went on to say that he had no guilt or uneasiness that stemmed from being on Batman.
"Oh gosh no," said Ward, responding to a question about whether he regretted being part of the craziness. "How can you? I mean, we're talking about some of the wildest things you can imagine. Things that were absolutely kept from the public. In my book, Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, everything I have in there is only the material and the things that people would most likely never have found out about. Everything that was regular and average I left out because people already know about it."
The wild times didn't last forever, though, and thankfully Ward straightened his act out in later adulthood.
"Only in the last five years did I find what I call holy maturity, finding that balance, finding the right person in my life so that I could live a normal life."
23 Comments
I'm glad I was raised in an era when it was possible for a kid to be stupid AND have it be unnoticed or just plain forgotten.