September 21, 2025 • 60 mins
In this conversation, veteran animation writer and producer Alan Burnett reflects on his groundbreaking work shaping Batman: The Animated Series, the show that redefined superhero storytelling for television. Burnett walks us through the creative challenges of translating Gotham City’s noir-infused atmosphere and complex characters into a format that spoke to both kids and adults, setting a new standard for superhero animation in the 1990s.
We also dive into his collaboration with Paul Dini on DC Comics’ adaptation of the series, where the two carried the show’s tone and visual style onto the comic page. Burnett explains how the book’s run—often praised for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the animated classic—expanded the mythology, introduced new dimensions to fan-favorite villains, and helped bridge the gap between animation and comics. This interview offers rare insight into how Burnett balanced studio mandates, creative instincts, and long-term storytelling, all while working alongside some of the most influential voices in modern Batman history.
We also dive into his collaboration with Paul Dini on DC Comics’ adaptation of the series, where the two carried the show’s tone and visual style onto the comic page. Burnett explains how the book’s run—often praised for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the animated classic—expanded the mythology, introduced new dimensions to fan-favorite villains, and helped bridge the gap between animation and comics. This interview offers rare insight into how Burnett balanced studio mandates, creative instincts, and long-term storytelling, all while working alongside some of the most influential voices in modern Batman history.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everybody, Welcome back time again for word Balloon, the
comic book conversation show. John sntriss with you. Alan Burnett
joins me today on word Balloon. We talked Wenny. He
was doing the adaptation of Batman, the animated series comic.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Book with Paul Deny just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
But of course I had to take the opportunity and
talk to him about the amazing Batman animated series because
he was a story editor on it. He wrote some
of the classic episodes, and it was a really great
chance to find out more great behind the scenes stuff.
And I figured, with Saturday being Batman Day, let's make
it a Batman weekend and bring back this great conversation
with Alan Burnett talking about Batman animated and in comic
(00:38):
book form on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought
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(01:45):
It's a fun way to support the show and get
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Word Balloon Listeners. Check it out today at Patreon dot
com slash word Balloon. Alan Burnette, Welcome to word Balloon.
It's a pleasure to have you on. Man I. We
had a brief press roundtable chat when Batman Gotham Night
(02:07):
was debuting at Wizard Chicago got eleven years ago. I
want to say maybe, so it's great to have you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Back, very good, glad to be here well.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And am I right Allen? When it comes to animation,
are you are you? Have you retired? Technically, I don't
want to put words in your mouth.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
That was Oh no, I retired. I was. I was
an animation. I was very lucky in animation. I started
work in animation in eighty one and had never been
without any work until I retired about two years ago.
And I have enjoyed animation, but there comes a time
when you want to stop and smell the roses, you know.
(02:44):
And I have grandchildren and so I'm helping take care
of them too, although right now, you know, it's a
strange time. So indeed, yeah, so, but in any event, yeah,
I wasn't an animation for a long time.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I'm looking at your credits right now, and we thank
you for your body of work all these years. And
just as I was saying to Paul, who we recorded
this conversation just a few minutes ago, that you've seen
the evolution of animation and I think it's fantastic that
you you were able to contribute as much and help
it evolve and make it into an all ages format again,
(03:26):
because we had that period in the in the seventies
and eighties where I think well meaning parent groups really
got involved with animation and really unfortunately dumbed the product down.
And I think it took shows like Batman Animated Series
and the like to kind of bring us out of
the adul drums and give us quality entertainment again from
an animation standpoint here in the States.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, Well, when I think about the years I was
an animation, what changes was how it was, how it
was distributed. Really. I mean when I started, there were
three networks. I worked for Hannah Barbara when I started,
and they had on Saturday morning, they had thirteen half
hours on Saturday morning by themselves. Wow, there are some
(04:11):
time slots where they were up against their own shows
in all three time slots. And that time, you know,
those prehistoric days, there were only three networks. And then
syndication came in and that started affecting things and loosening
things up because the sensors couldn't be as strong as
syndication as they could on the network. And then cable
(04:34):
came in. I mean, it's all been a step in
the way this stuff is distributed, how it has informed
what you actually write or what you actually show. And
today I got out just as streaming was coming in.
So it's just everything changes. That is the rule of life.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So as you guys were making these We'll get to
the comic in a secon but as you guys were
making these direct to video animated films, and I like, well,
and even though it was an anthology like our Gotham Knight,
what kind of pushback and how much did it take
for the people upstairs the bigger offices to understand what
(05:17):
you guys can do and how adult you could get,
and also that there really was this adult audience that
wanted this product and everything. It seemed like as each
convention when we'd see you guys in panels and asked
this question of you know, hey, what are you guys
going to do? The Judas contract? When are you going
to do And now I'm blanking the killing joke, which
(05:37):
you guys saw obviously ultimately did. Yeah, you know, and
it's like, well, you know, seventy minutes and we got it.
It's an all ages product and all that. So, like,
you know, how long did it take? And you know, really,
what do you know? Was there a was there a
single production or was it just the volume of what
you guys were putting out where they're like, okay, we
get it, all right, there's an adult audience there.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, I realized, you know, I realized somewhere along the
line when I was doing the videos that like, like
at least fifteen years ago, I realized that that the
video people realized that their biggest audience was going wasn't
it wasn't the mom shopping a target anymore. It was
(06:18):
it was the fans. And uh. And so that's so
from that point on, we were we really, we really
were directing our stuff to the fans and to an
older audience. So it was it was happening. But the
first the first show where we were told, yeah, you
can do R rated was killing joke. And I was
(06:41):
so happy because I always wanted to be a part
of an R rated and I have I mean, you
can ask people. I've always been pushing for a more adult,
more adult animation, I mean, and and so so that
was our rated and it worked, I mean, it worked wonderfully.
(07:02):
So and then after that, almost immediately I wrote a
suicide squad, which I said, this could be our rat
is that okay? And they were fine with it, So
that is definitely Our material is definitely part of the mix.
At least it was when I left, So which is y. Yeah,
(07:24):
I mean, and you know what, I knew this back
in the eighties. I mean, I knew there was a
hunger for this kind of programming, but it was impossible
at that time because, like I said, there were only
three networks and they really that Saturday morning schedule was
sort of designed to appeal from two year olds to
eleven year olds. Sure and so so, and the earlier
(07:47):
in the day that you had your show, the more
they wanted to make shows safe for two year olds.
That's why when I started on the super Friends, I
got to do the last two seasons of super Friends.
I had this dream of doing big comic book stories
and dangerous stuff, and it was just it just didn't
(08:10):
didn't happen because the strictures were so tough. But it's
better now, much better now.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Indeed. Well, and again, you know, back in the early eighties,
when things like the Heavy Metal movie came out and
it's so funny, I've been rediscovering the post heavy metal
animated adult movies like rock and Roll and American Pop
and some of these others.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Well, of course cool world backshit. You know, he's his
own category, of course when it comes to adult animation. Well,
getting back first of all, all right, Michael Corley on
what drug you back into doing this digital comic back
in your animated world but now in comic book form
with Paul and Tye.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, you know, Andrew Marino called me about of nowhere,
and I have yet I think to meet Andrew in person.
But they were planning on doing comic books based upon
the animated series, and Paul had started working on them.
I imagine you've talked with him about this, but he
started working on some development for them, and then because
(09:12):
there was a there was a hunger I guess for
that show and doing merchandise off that show, and so
they wanted to they wanted to continue it in this
digital comic book format, and then Paul sort of I
(09:33):
don't know the history, but it sort of died down
and when they were coming back to it, Paul wasn't available,
and so they gave me a call and they hit
me at the right time, I was kind of bored,
and so I thought, this is this would be great
because on top of everything, I didn't have to worry
about the continuity of other comic books. All I had
to worry about was the continuity of my show, which
(09:53):
I knew sure, And and I gave Paul a call saying,
you sure you don't want to come back and do
this with me? And he said, I he has, He
had other things going on. But then after a day
or two he called me back and said, you know,
I think I can fit this in if we can
do it together. And I said great. And I said, oh,
(10:14):
by the way, this is this is our history. In
the beginning of Batman the animated series, he started work
on the series, doing work on the Bible. There were
some people and then he saw he sort of stepped
back from it and he wasn't going to be doing
the show. And they called me in and I said
to him, don't you want to do the show? Come on,
(10:35):
you you got to write one thing. So I, you know,
I brought him back to two Batman projects that he's
uh and you know, and and thank god, So.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's great, man, No, And I'm glad you guys are
doing this, and it was a great start. I loved
the first story, especially the tea's at the end that
we're finally going to get Batman and death stroke from
your guys perspective, that's exciting to see. But first I
want to ask, and I did ask Paul this, but
I want your opinion as well, tell me about the
Batman Luther dynamic, because really, those are two guys that
(11:09):
should have been There should be hundreds of stories of literally.
I mean, it's always great to have Superman there, but
but really, I mean, from an intellectual standpoint, who better
to match Lex Luthor with than Batman.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, and they're both, you know, with Bruce Wayne, they're
both titans of industry. Yeah, and and they both know well,
Bruce knows Bruce is clever, the probably cleverer than Lex,
but he doesn't let Lex in on that. But yeah,
you're right, I mean, they're they're they're a perfect match
(11:43):
in a way, and so natural to work together, to uh,
to be at odds, to be friends as as Bruce
and to be at odds as Batman. No, you're right,
and so you're right, there should be more stories. Man.
Maybe we'll do some more. I don't know, but yeah,
he's a natural. I mean he has such an ego
(12:07):
and uh Luther does. So yeah, yeah, we had we've had.
We had good time with with that.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
No, it's a great first story. And again the the
door is opened now, Paul, Paul let the cat out
of the bag, and I want to ask you about
it as well. Uh, it seems like Jason Todd might
be making his debut in the animated universe.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. We were supposed to keep that a secret, but
he but it got it gets out.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That Tannel Man of clearly a robinesque character with the
red mask, you know, shadowing that Ty Gavin and stuff.
I mean, you know, come on man in the best way.
We're like, oh that's great. That meets Jason's coming back.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah. So yeah, we decided there's a there's a little
secret history to the Batman animated series. There was another
Robin that we never dealt with, and so we're fitting
him in fact, it's a story we're doing right now.
So so, and he's a great character. I mean, he
(13:11):
just has a lot of he just has a lot
of vengeance within him and and anger. And he makes
me a great character well.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And again, it's it's one of you know, the two
great regrets in Batman's life are the death of his
parents and then the failure with Jason, because you know,
you know Jason and and and really you know, I
handed to jud Winnick and what he did in the
comics with Jason and stuff, and certainly as well in
the animated movie as well. But yeah, I mean, that's
(13:41):
that's terrific that that there's this one thing that Batman
actually had technically could have had control over as opposed
to the death of his parents, and he kind of
failed with Jason, and I'm sure at Hatson.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, and uh, and that particular video that we did
the DVD was I think probably one of the best
one of the two of them all because it's such
an intense and personal story that it really it really
you really go with it, You really are.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Intrigued with the actual character dynamics going on in that thing.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Absolutely. Man. Well, and again you're you and and and
Stan Berkwitz and all of you guys that were behind
the animated series. This isn't hyperbole when I said this.
You guys elevated the animated properties and really told some
really adult stories again. I was just talking to Paul
about heart device and the evolution of mister Freeze and now, really,
(14:41):
mister Freeze is now a tragic character twenty five years
later because of what you guys did in the show.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, and you know that was Paul's doing. I'll never forget.
I was. I just started to work as a producer,
and this was the situation where I was trying to
woo Paul back into the into the corral, and I said,
don't you it's gotta be something you want to write.
He said, Okay, I have a story idea I'd like
to probably work out, so I'll get that to you.
(15:11):
And a couple of days later, I was alone in
my office and he had handed it in and it
was like seven o'clock at night, and I was tired.
I was beating, you know. It was just the start
of a new show, and I didn't know if I
had Paul or not or what was going And I
got his story, which is two pages, I think it
(15:32):
was just two single space pages. And I'm reading the
story and it is exactly exactly the kind of story
I wanted to do in this series had everything, and
I called up, I actually called it Fox that night,
and I said, listen, I'm sending you a story. And
(15:53):
if you're not happy with this story we're doing, I'm
not doing the show you want then that you want
to do, or you're not doing the show that I
want to do. But you have to know that this
is this is what I want the show to be.
This is exactly it. And they loved it. And then
Paul was writing the script and he was on staff.
(16:15):
You know, that's great. Paul's interesting guy. He's our relationship
is really we're really good friends and we write together
really well. And he would, you know, during that whole
first sixty five episodes of Batman, he would just come
up to my door and say, and he said, I
(16:35):
have this idea and he would say an idea in
one line and I whatever he wanted to do, I said,
go with it. And uh, seriously, I believe it. You know.
He said, I had this idea of Harley and Ivy
working together, and uh, and Joker gets jealous and and uh,
(16:58):
you know, I had complete trusting and whatever he wanted
to do, and that was all he had to say.
I mean, he's just a remarkable guy.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
He really is amazing.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Indy. He just thinks deeply on these things.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well, it seems like a lot of your writers did
and continue to now and again, obviously, as you say,
you just retired. But I'm an acquaintance of James Tucker's
and I love what he's been doing with the animated movies.
But even going back to the animated series, so many
ideas that evolved, not only from an animation standpoint, but
(17:35):
literally the generation or two of writers that are now
writing the comics and probably the films and new TV
products as well, that I think are taking ideas of
what you guys did. As I told Paul, I know
for a fact that Devin Grayson was not a Batman
comic book reader, but she loved Your Guys television show
and that's why she became such a strong Batman universe
(17:56):
writer and stuff. And so so yeah, I mean it's
you know, again, how many comic book people And I
do remember some like Marty Pasco I know, worked with
you guys and then made Mask of the Phantasm and
also was am I right like kind of the liaison
between the show in DC in terms of you know,
use of characters and whatever. But like, how many of
(18:17):
the crew was, you know, really steeped in comic books.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
You know, they're pretty much all were you, Yes, And
Marty was maybe the first story editor I hired. I'm
not sure, but I think that's the case. And part
of the reason was that he wrote. He wrote comics,
and he was a good writer, and he knew the history,
and you know, we took from the comics. On the
(18:40):
first trip I made to New York to have a
discussion with d C. He came with me, I remember that.
And there was a there was a meeting that I
had with Paul Levitz in which we went through every
he literally got all the books of all the comic
books that they had put together, and we went all
(19:03):
these volumes, I should say, and we went through every
Batman story since I think nineteen fifty six, fifty five,
and we just we went through all the Batman stories
and all the Detective stories and just did an overview
that way. It took us two days, and he was
he knew them all. I mean, Paul Levitt's was astonishing
(19:25):
to me. Around nineteen fifty nine, I started to realize, yes,
I had that comic book. I was I would have
been nine years old and it was just it was
just a you know, you pitch yourself, because to go
through all those stories, to do that, it's just such
a fanboy wonderful thing, you know. And we took you know,
(19:48):
we all read comics and some of us wrote comics,
and we we we're fans, and we took the best
from those comics.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, you did, No, were great, And I know you hired,
didn't Len Wing right on your show?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Lenn wrote on the show. Marv Wolfman wrote on the show.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yes, Danny, Well, of course you adapted a lot of
Danny O'Neil stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Denny wrote the Rachel Gould story.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
You know, yes, and you know, I wanted to talk
about that one in particular because again this is on
a kids show. And you guys, well Andrea, I mean,
I assume Andrea was the one who thought David Warner
would be a fantastic and I would say rosda ghul
And I know you guys said on the show raza
gull and now all of a sudden the movies, it's
rashaw goual whatever. But regardless, I mean it man, that
(20:34):
is that you got.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It the opposite. It's oh tell me it is racial
Goul in the movies, they call him Roza Ghul or
something like that, okay, But it's technically it's racial Ghoul,
and that comes from Dannie O'Neill, whose daughter deciphered the
name in some way. I mean, she's I don't know,
she's a linguist or whatnot, but she she knew how
(20:59):
to pronounce that name and that's when you got it.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So yes, it is race, okay, And I accept that absolutely. Man,
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna argue with you and
Dannie o' neil and Daniel and Neil's daughter. That's cool.
But the crystallization of that adaptation, the animation and the
acting is and of course Andrea's direction as well. I mean,
it is really my favorite adaptation directly from the comics
(21:23):
because again there's that regal sense of ration, the way
he talks to the detective and then yeah, man, I
you know David Warner and Kevin Connry are acting their
asses off in that thing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, it was. It was wonderful. It was wonderful. And
you know, you get these actors in there, like David Warner,
who you've seen the movies, and it's just so special.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Really you guys have been blessed with unbelievable uh you know,
voice actors up until your retirement, and then I think
it continues beyond now as well. Yeah, and you know,
Susan Eisenberg has become a good friend of mine, and
I mean wonder woman of course, and you know, yeah,
she's I think she's been greatly appreciative of the opportunity
she's gotten in the DC Animated Universe over the years.
(22:10):
Back to the comic So Jason is coming, but also
I you know, it's going to be interesting to see
what new ideas you guys want to put forward in
these six stories in twelve parts. Yes, yes, it's not
a question.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, six issues which are sort of divided in half,
so they come in these half comic book chapters. I'm
going to put it that way. I'll tell you that
we're dealing with death stroke and we're also dealing with
Asrael in these you know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Glad you mentioned because I didn't talk about Asriel with Paul.
I read that DC article that you guys did where
the two of you had Taie talked about this new series.
Tell us what you can about Azrael, because again that's
an interesting care man. I love that original Denny story
about Asrael, and I thought, you know again came at
a very interesting time. Is this going to be an
(23:03):
original story with as How are you going to handle this?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
It's it's we're handling that that he and Bruce Wayne
had history and Bruce Wayne actually studied in the same cult. Uh.
But so and and the title of the the story
is called The Darker Night, so they'll give you a
hintap what it's about. But I think again, it's a
(23:32):
lot of fun. So, I mean, I don't want to give.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I followed this if you think that's where I'm leading Alan,
that is where No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Know, And I will tell you this about death Stroke,
we sort of gave him a little touch of Errol
Flynn because we felt that there's something that should be
attractive about him that you know, the Teen Titans deal
with him and all that. There's there's something about him
(24:01):
that a young superhero who could lose her way or
his way would come under his wing. And so we
get him a little bit of an Aero Flynn type
(24:21):
of personality. But underneath that he is really a wicked,
wicked fellow. So that will be in the second issue.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I'm glad to see that death Stroke is getting a
chance again, much like Luther, but more from a well
and also from a tacticitional standpoint, a good match for Batman,
but also purely from a skill fighting standpoint as well.
So that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
That's excellent, man, that's great. Tell me about writing. Had
you ever written comic book sexual comic books? Prior to this?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I've written twenty comics, Okay, that's all. And so when
I'm done with these, six or twelve, however you want
to look at it, I'm looking at six. That'll be
twenty six. Yeah. I wrote some I wrote a Superman
Batman thing and some Justice League stuff and some Flash stuff,
(25:14):
and I just felt like I should do that before
I retired, so I did. Yeah. I was a big
comic book fan when I was a kid, and I
used to This is going to sound bizarre, but I
used to make up my own comic book stories using
the panels of comic books. Yeah, and I used to
(25:37):
write down a list of each story. I had created
my own character in my head. And this is when
I was like, I must have been ten or eleven,
and I actually created in my head. This character I
called him Centaire, and he was like he looked a
little bit like Concrete, if you know that character in Comeds.
(26:00):
He had a suit, this big suit that would repel stuff,
and so he's able to fly by repelling and he's
able to shoot. I mean, this is an eleven year
old kid.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Apologize, man, this is great.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And so years and years later, I'm doing this show
called Batman Beyond, and we needed a character. Were trying
to come up with new supervillains, and this character, I thought,
I can do this guy. This guy has a suit
that repelled stuff. He's practically vulnerable. He isn't vulnerable, and
(26:36):
so we did. We did a story which had to
do with a boy in a bubble, that sort of
situation where the medical people had created this suit that
a kid who would normally be in a bubble to
keep germs from attacking him would be in the suit.
And so that and the super villain was one of
(26:59):
the But it was odd that, you know, fifty years later,
I'm using it my eleven character.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
It's excellente Man. By the way, I did the same
thing at about eleven or twelve, and I have a
feeling a lot of comic book fans were writing our
own fan fiction back then as well, so you're not alone.
Bit it's cool mentioning Batman Beyond. I got that pilot
episode and especially that beginning of Batman's Last Case. Seriously, Man,
(27:28):
that's uh. You know others have written over the years,
and I'm sure you've read them as well, Batman's final cases.
Whether it was Earth to Batman that they did, I
think in adventure comics with the Justice Society, and I remember,
I want to say Batman three hundred where I was
in the future and it was Batman's last case. But
really that's interesting. Was it was it something you felt
(27:49):
you had to do or or was it how much
of a challenge was it?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, the challenge, you know, the challenges you we were
creating a whole new Batman, and we didn't we didn't
want to make the fans crazy. I mean, we felt,
if we stay true to the legend of Bruce Wayne
and Batman, if we stay true to that and built
upon that with another character, they would like that. And
(28:14):
the way to tell the story is when I was
running the outline, I had a little bit of a
block in that I didn't want to show the suit
in the beginning, but I had to show the suit
because it would be Batman's last case, and it worked
out fine. I mean, he actually has a bit of
a heart attack in that first scene. It's hard to
(28:36):
believe we were making this under children's programs, y and
he lives up a gun because he's desperate to save himself,
and then he realizes at that point it is over.
I can't do this. We just wanted to respect the
character of Batman for the fans in creating this new Batman,
because we knew we were taking a chance, but it
(28:57):
was better than just having another guy in another suit. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So, and so when you say using the suit, do
you mean that futuristic suit that Terry ultimately wears. Yeah, okay,
And yeah, man, no, you're right. It's that ultimate moment
where Batman is facing death and literally has to use
the one weapon that he kind of always vowed not
to use because that's what killed his parents. And yeah,
he had to cross his own line. So yeah, no,
he I mean, both from the heart ailmen and the
(29:25):
fact that he had to use a gun. Yeah, no,
he can't do this anymore. And it's a great contrast
to the Dark Knight Strikes, you know, or forgive me
if I'm probably saying it ron Frank Milly's classic story.
And of course I really love that Fox put it
on as a primetime Sunday night show. I mean I
remember vividly watching it and especially those first you know,
(29:47):
that first opening act blowing my mind. It's like, wow,
look at that man, Look what happened to poor Bruce?
Holy shit?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You know, I think that was by that time we
were on the WB.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Ohay, excuse me. That's awesome that they thought enough of
it to make it a primetime movie and everything.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, it was very nice. And later on, you know,
the WB wanted us to do a Young Batman show,
and this is what we came up with. Our shows
were sort of skewing toward an older audience, like fourteen
year olds, and they really wanted to get that eleven
year old demographic, you know, at the top. They wanted
(30:27):
to go not over eleven. So they thought if they
if we created a young Batman and that would that
would do it. But they just didn't realize who they
were working with, because we ended up creating a show
that was darker than the original Batman.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, and what a great compliment too that
you know, after the show ended, all of the comic
book rereaders were like, hey man, we want work Terry.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
What the hell?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
This is great? And also the solution and I know
it was not Justice League, And I don't know what
involvement you had. Was Terry always Bruce's son by cloning
in DNA or whatever the gene splicing was that made
Terry Bruce's son? Was that always your guys, in the
back of your guys.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Heads, No, it's never, you know, but it was in
the back of Bruce Tim's head, and he was running
that show and he wanted to tell that story. And
I said to him, I'm not buying this, you know,
it's just to me, Batman is the most democratic of
(31:36):
superheroes because anybody can become Batman. They don't have to
have the DNA, they don't have to have the lineage.
They all they have to have is this crazy will
power to turn yourself into a superhero. Even though that
story exists, and somehow, and I really I really don't
know the story, but somehow Bruce got Terry to have
(32:02):
the DNA of I'm talking about Bruce tim got to
have the DNA of Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis. I
just don't buy it. I just fell against that notion.
So he knows that I talked about it. We're friendly
about it. It's fine. You want to do that. Fine,
I'm in my head. He's not so.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
And that's the only place where continuity met has when
in our own heads. So I love that answer, and
I think that's fantastic. But again, Dan Jergens is doing
a great job with the character. Terry's further adventures now,
I think it's great and truly, man, I think that's
a real testament to all you guys for that happening
the way that it did. So I'm glad that the
(32:45):
show resonated so much. And also, man, I love Darwin
Cook's title sequence. Got exciting and so beautiful and everything.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
It's not CGI. Everything is sort of I mean there's
a scene where characters are sort of going around and
I think they did that on a tabletop on a
you know, a record player.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, it's not really CGI at all. I don't think
there's any elements got him?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I right? Did you for the Superman Show? Didn't you
write the Legacy. The final two parter, Superman is brainwashed
by dark Side, I think, and he's dark sided son.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I did
on that one. I'm not sure, but yeah, we were
supposed to have another season and they decided to stop,
and so we ended on this strange dark storyline. But
the idea was that if we had another season, we
(33:40):
were going to do a sort of a darker Superman
situation where people were a little bit afraid of him
because you know, Superman's he's the toughest character, because he
is so powerful. Yeah, he is such a boy scout.
And I was not unhappy that that show ended in
the end because the stories, the stories that were hard
(34:02):
to do, and sometimes you felt like you were writing
a character who was like a ragdal being thrown around,
and that was his the ragdal who cannot be hurt.
And he's just a tough He's a tough guy. I
was talking with I Forget, the comic book writer. He
had written a lot of Superman, and he said, you
(34:25):
know those stories when we were a kid, they were
never about him being powerful. They were all about him
having to make a decision and being caught on the
horns of the dilemma, do I save this person or
do I save that person? Do I keep my secret
(34:46):
as Clark Kent, or do I sacrifice it to do
this other thing? And I thought, that's that's true. I mean,
that's what made those stories. They weren't about him always
smashing through buildings, you know, they were those stories had
a moral compass to them. So I don't know, I'm
(35:07):
just talking through my hat right now, but that's he's tough.
He's a tough superhero because he's so so strong.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
That initial meeting of Batman and Superman, again, the way
you guys handled it very different from the of course
the original comic book meeting. And just loved the dual
moment that each of them discover each other's identities and
do it in there in their own ways that only
they could, and just that great little wave between the
(35:35):
two two wards. Yeah, I know who you are too,
don't sweat it. So that's again, man, it's this characterization
that you guys nailed that made the show really entertaining
for us older fans as well. And I know the
kids loved it because now they're adults and again they're
building out what you guys built, you know, started back then.
But yeah, man, it was just great stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
That may be my favorite thing that I've written on
that particular three parter of the Joker and Luther working
together and Batman and the Superman meeting for the first time,
because really they don't like each other, they don't even
like each other in.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
The end, but they respect each other.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
They respect each other.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
That's great well, and also Lois's little flirtation with Bruce
and everything, and Bruce of course charming and the pants
off of her not quite literally, but you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I you know, I was. I read a review of
that movie, and I don't read reviews of anything I
do if I can help it. But the critics said it,
how do you describe it? He described it as a
you know, there's usually it's not a minosata. It was
a cathrotoa. It was it was it was Bruce and
(36:50):
Batman and Clark and Superman all vying for Lois's attention
because they really are each of those Here are two
people on one and I thought, my gosh, I never
thought about that. But you know, sometimes you learn something
from critics. So that was one case where that happened.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Tell me about making Mask of the Phantasm and it
going out in theaters, because again, that was so that's
a I felt it was such a confliment to you
guys to propose that kind of production. And I saw
it in the theater and it was great, man, including
even just the little things like the singer Sayta Garrett
(37:32):
who sings the closing credits, and it's like, holy shit,
this is like a movie and it's not like a
Disney cartoon movie. This feels like a live action movie.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, and you know what, A lot of responsibility for
that goes to Shirley Walker, who scored it. And really,
I mean it's just there's the soundtrack is just tremendous.
That started off as a video and one of the producers,
Eric Radomski, did this opening credit sequence in CG, which
(38:06):
at the time was kind of new, and it was
going through you know, it was a sort of helicopter
shot going through Gotham, and it was very striking. I mean,
there's no other CG in the whole movie. This is
the only part. And one of the executives, I don't
know who it was, from the lot came in to
(38:26):
look at what we were doing, and he saw this
opening and he said, why don't we make this a
movie that you show in the theaters. And so it
became a movie. But we weren't given any extra money,
we weren't given any extra time. And there was a
while there where we were getting footage back that we
(38:48):
were wondering if it was going to play or not.
And then at the very end we got the scenes
from the third act, which is of course the most
important act, and it looked really good that those scenes
look pretty darn good, and so we said, oh, you
do have a movie here, and anyway, so so, but
that's how it ended up in the theaters. It was
(39:08):
a matter of executive seeing some CG that the only
CG that was in the show, and figuring, we'll make
a movie out of this.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Well yeah, I mean, god man, it looked great on
the screen. Did you guys have to worry?
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Aboy?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Here's a boring technical question, but you know, the wide
screen versus the you know, aspect ratio of what was
standard television back then, were there any concerns about that
making it a wide screen you know, product?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
They did that in the boards. Okay, they accounted that
for the boards. I'll tell you the strange thing that
took a lot of time was we were moving frame
by frame on the dialogue because sometimes the dialogue didn't
seem on the big screen, didn't seem like it was
(39:55):
matching with the mouth flips. Oh, and that was I
remember that being just an enormous problem. And I think
that would happen on anything that gets blown up from
a DVD to a big screen. But we took a
lot of time and care just moving dialogue like half
frame or frame just to just to make sure that
(40:18):
the mouthflips were right. I remember that was bothering me
a lot as we were going through.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Probably did it, No, it turned out amazing. Man, back
to the direct to video movies of the last you know,
Jesus fifteen years and really again this evolution, the shift
from Bruce tim being the supervising guy, and you know,
if I'm wrong, please correct me. But moving to James
and what James has now done with the movies moving
forward and stuff. You know, what's that been like? What
(40:49):
was your participation in that? As far as you know
these things, because again, I really think each year there's
a new level of sophistication. It seems like again like
you said with the killing joke, that they're okay with
it getting a little rougher and stuff like that. But yeah,
just tell me about the different experiences. And I know
that James started working with you guys during Bruce's era,
(41:12):
but yeah, any differences or what do you perceive of
that evolution?
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Well, you know, I don't know why Bruce stopped doing him.
I think he was doing the Green Lantern Show. I'm
just not sure on the timetable there, but I think
he wanted a break from doing the DVDs, and which
is why James was brought on and I was brought on.
I mean they had done a couple already and then
I was brought on because there was they were doing
(41:39):
so many that there was a need for a guy
to oversee the scripts and which was my basic job
and dealing with writers and coming up with stories and
stuff like that. So that's the basic evolution. I stayed
on them. I was very lucky I stayed on. I
think I did about thirty of them, and it was
great because because I didn't have to deal with a network,
(42:02):
I didn't have to deal with Yeah, really it was
the people were all creative people and DC people and
and the video people gave us a lot of room,
and every one was different. We kept doing different things,
so creatively, it couldn't have been better for me and
(42:26):
my last decade there couldn't have been better.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
A couple of non DC universe things that you were
involved with that that I really love, The Scoopy Doo
movie Mask or The Revenge of the Blue Falcon. I'm
saying I'm probably saying the wrong. Yes, it is Mask
of the Blue Falcon. Yeah, man, And it's for people
who don't know. You gotta get this movie because it's
the Scoopy Gang. They're at a comic con. It's Hanna Barberas,
(42:52):
so instead it's all Hanna Barbera heroes as far as
the booths and attractions go. And it's a fantastic story.
I love this story.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Who wrote that?
Speaker 1 (43:03):
And that's Oh, I'm gonna click on the link here
and I'll give you that answer in a second. But
it's hilarious and all that one second, and let's get
to the writer. So Michael Ryan wrote it and Marley
Halpin Grazer wrote the story.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah, it's very funny, that guy, Marley. Yeah, it was,
and I think it was the brainchild of mister Tucker.
I think he really wanted to do that. I didn't
even know who the Blue Falcon was when we started.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Oh that's hilarious, man, Okay, yeah, you know Dina Mountain
Blue Falcon. Sure, great hand of Barbara cartoon. The other
one that I loved was Tom and Jerry Spy Quest
putting the Johnny westcast in a Tom and Jerry and
it's great because it starts as a classic Henna Barbera,
you know, Tom and Jerry thing that could have easily
(43:56):
played in nineteen forty nine in the theaters. I mean
it's so it's all until they meet the Quest people
and it's classic Tom and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
That was not easy, that thing, but we we Yeah,
it was a good We had a good time on
that in the end. My gosh.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, hey man, honestly, these are these are great productions,
and I'm glad you were a part of them. Heath
Courtston is a Chicago guy and we've become friends over
the years, and I'm really glad that he must have,
you know, impressed you in some way that you've let
him into the fold. And he wrote so many of
the later animated movies and stuff. Tell me tell me
about like tell me that some of the guys that
you might have, like you know, discovered in this portion
(44:34):
of the time post animated television shows that the newer
writers that you guys have been able to get involved
with these things.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Well, Heath was great, and he he loves the stuff.
And what I look for in a writer is uh
I usually read when I read their scripts, I read
their dialogue and his he wrote some hysterical stuff for
a show that was being done at Disney and and
so that's how I got him. We had of the
(45:05):
recent writers, you know, Greg Burlianty wrote for us.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Really, yes, I'll give you a name right now if
you don't mind throwing it in if you have any thoughts.
And that's Justice League versus the Fatal Five. Eric Carrasco.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Eric is a Supergirl writer. I don't know quite how
he made contact with us. It was probably through Jim Kreeg.
I guess I was a story editors on Justice League Action.
Eric had some terrific ideas for doing a Legion Superhero DVD.
(45:37):
He's a great action writer. He had written a pilot
for Zoro that I was reading.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, I don't know if that you know, he appreciates
me saying that, but that was one of his scripts.
His takes were different on everybody from what I've ever
thought about. On these Legion characters. We did a co
writing with that, Jim Craig and I also I rode
on and part of the reason was because he was
(46:03):
busy with other stuff and he had wonderful, very modern
takes on characters. There was nothing old in his view
of characters. I'm hard put to tell you exactly what
I'm talking about, but he would go for girl characters
and make them strong, and there was no sexism. Everybody
(46:26):
felt fresh in his writing. And he's just one of
the more exciting action writers out there. And I'm not
sure how much animation is going to eat up his time,
because I think he's going to be and probably is
very much in demand as a live action writer. But
he was one of the early young writers that we
dealt with, and he was one of these writers who
(46:48):
grew up on our stuff. So anyways, that's Eric.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Okay, I got one more name, if you got a second,
and then see if you've got any thoughts on Jonathan
Callen oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Jonathan Callen also is one of these writers who brings
a freshness to the characters. He wrote for us on
Justice League Action. There's little idiosyncratic things that he brings
to characters that you wouldn't think about. He one time
said to me he thought that Bruce Wayne was a
(47:19):
little autistic, and it made sense, you know, And I'm thinking,
because he's so directed, he's a guy who sometimes has
blinders on, and I thought that is an interesting take.
So you meet these young writers who really think deeply
about these characters and have ideas about them that I
(47:39):
never thought about before, And when you think about him,
you're kind of amazed. We dealt with writers who were
working on the primetime shows. They wanted to do an
animated show, and they wanted to do the animated show
because they grew up on Batman, the animated series.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
It's good to hear, though, that these are people that
you were getting from live action that really wanted to
do cartoons. That isn't that interesting now that there is
this back and forth that is possible between live action
and animation. And I'm a huge fan. I was just
telling Paul the new Harley Quinn series is fantastic, And
I think Rick and Morty funny in the best ways
(48:16):
that it can be. But DC Universe continuity crazy in
the best way. And as a longtime DC fan, I
love the Easter eggs in every episode and then and
I you know, I don't know if you've had a
chance to watch that.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
No, I haven't watched it.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Tell you always. Well that's all right, man. Well again,
you know, it's like somebody that's worked in a hardware
store all their life and you're gonna go home and
dive into a pile of nails. I don't think so,
you know, so I I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
But I mean I've had I've worked with some tremendous writers.
I mean, one of my favorites was Joe Lansdale.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
Well, that's fantastic. I had no idea he was doing
stuff with you guys in animation. I love Joe stuff
comics and novels and the like. He's amazing. Go on, please, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
He did the first Ventoko story for the Batman and
animated series.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Of course. That's excellent.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Man, oh man, that's wonderful. Geez. He did a show
which was called Perchance to Dream, which was one of
my favorite stories, maybe my favorite story of the whole series.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
So you're doing these these six stories now with Paul
and I know, and I know you're you know, was
were there all? Right? Now, here's some stock a couple
of stock questions. Were there any characters you wanted to
use on the on the shows or even in the
movies that you didn't have a chance to use beyond Destroke?
Who were you're now using in the digital Last comic?
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Are you talking about the old stuff?
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Well, just even you know, like through the whole body
of work, have there been DC Universe characters you never
got to that you may not get to in these
six stories? And and yeah, just in general, in terms
of all the years that you worked in animation, was
there any any characters you're like, They're like, either no,
they weren't available, maybe they were in development for a
different project or something like that.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
I I think Bruce tim would say, Nocturna. She's a
vampire character from the comics, and we couldn't deal with
blood in that particular show. Hilarious in that serious we
did about everyone. You know, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't
mind trying Court of Owls seeing what we would do
with that interesting. Sure, you know talent and interesting character
(50:22):
from that.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
And I don't think we did Huntress to do Huntress
not in the series.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I didn't think, so you
keep going.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
On Justice League. No, it is Justice League show. He
did everybody, So okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
I was going to ask about the Justice League Action
shorts because that show was great. And as I was
telling Paul, I've had a couple of conversations with Paul
about that show. You guys packed in so much story
in nine minutes. That's that's amazing, honestly, and I and
I that's a hell of a challenge because it's tough
enough to write, you know, twenty minutes of animation, let
alone try and compress it all into into nine minutes.
(50:59):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It's really The show had a lot of character to it,
and we had there was a guy named Tim Sherid
and my brother, and there was a writer who who
worked really well for us. And it was a comedy show.
In the end evolved into a comedy show and pretty quickly,
pretty quickly realized that that's what it would be. It
was essentially the super Friends that I would have liked
(51:23):
to have done back in nineteen eighty. Yeah, that was
my last sura and I enjoyed that show quite a bit.
As far as serious TV. That was my last hurrah. Yeah,
and it just had a good feel to it. And
Batman was a real character, a real ballbuster.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
And oh my gosh, can't Space Cavvy Perhaps because I
got to tell including Space Cavvy was so fat. I
was such a fan of those Silver Age stories and
it was such fun seeing him with the Justice League.
I thought that was excellent.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yeah, I remember we were We did weird, wacky stuff.
We had a train in space. It was great. We
had Jonah has It was just wonderful. But it didn't
I don't think that the network had an interest in it,
tell you the truth. I think it was something that
the corporation, I don't know, was foisting on them. I
(52:14):
don't know. But it never just had the backing that
I thought it should have had one.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Hundred percent man because again, and I was shocked talking
to Paul to learn. I mean, it was on at
six in the morning Chicago time, and apparently there is
no West Coast feed for Cartoon Network. So if you
were on the West Coast. You were getting it four
in the morning, so clearly they were burying the show.
And I really hope and Paul even said this as well,
here's hoping that either DC Universe Streaming or HBO Max
(52:44):
finds a place for that show, because it absolutely did
not give the respect it deserved. And you know something,
networks change hands. I've got my hands up in the air.
You know it better than I do. And I mean,
this happens all the time in movies where a movie
is made under a certain regime, a new regime come
in and it's either sitting on the shelf never to
be released, or it comes out for two weeks and
(53:04):
then thank God for video and then the aftermarket, or
you'd never see it again. And I really those Justice
League Action things. It made a DC fan very tough,
hard for them to see this stuff. And thank God
for DVRs because yeah, man, I mean I was watching
you later in the day and completely delighted with every
nine minutes. So it was you guys deserved a better
form for that show.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
I know, we really did. It's a worthy show and
it's a good kid show too.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
It is a good kid show. It's a great kid show. Yeah,
great visuals and a lot of great ideas. Very accessible
and isn't that interesting now too? Are you aware of
the current you know, comic situation in terms of, you know,
what's happening on the publishing side with Diamond obviously having
to shut down and everything, and what you likely are
because I know that the digital comic was supposed to
probably be a paper product as much as a digital product.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Yeah, it was supposed to be, so I guess we're
going to have to wait for the paper to come out.
But fortunately it's a digital project first. Yes, so it
has a life, which I'm very happy about.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
So, hey, man, I hope I hope this is you know,
depending on your own you know, it seems like you're
excited about this, and I'm glad you guys are doing
the sixth stories. I hope that it's a success and
we get another season of digital comics of this great presentation,
because it's it's great to see the three of you
guys back doing this stuff. Had you ever done the
(54:28):
uh cartoon or you know, the comics that were based
on the cartoon? You mentioned the twenty or so comics
that you did. Did you ever work on the series.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
No, but I read some of them and I liked
them a lot. Tye worked on them, so oh yeah,
so he wrote the stories and uh and they were
good stories. I don't know why we hadn't didn't work
with him because I guess it was coming too late.
I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
But as an animation designer, Ty no as writer, Oh oh, sure,
that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Of course we were talking about it and then it
sort of fizzled out, maybe because they stopped Batman beyond early,
I guess, but I remember liking his writing.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
So oh absolutely, man, is Ty helping you guys plot
it all beyond you know, drawing character designs in that?
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Not really, not yet. I mean it was all pretty much.
They had the characters that they wanted, and Paul and
I went through one day and just did a round
up of the stories. We beated them out and we
sent them to DC and it was very quick. I mean,
DC liked the stories that we sent them, and we've
been writing scripts off those stories ever since.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
That's excellent, man. I'm really excited to see the designs
that Ty has for Asrael and death Stroke and stuff
and then fitting it into your guys, universe, and as
I mentioned to Paul, on the comic book side of
the adaptations of the cartoon series Man, I've had a
chance to talk to people like Dan Slott, who wrote
a lot of the comics of the Batman Adventures, and
(56:06):
also Mark Miller doing that Superman stuff as well. And
you know, again, I think it's a testament to what
you guys did on the animation side, because those comics,
including the comics that you and Paul and Ty are
doing right now. Yeah, it's an all ages product, but
at their heart, they're just purely good Batman stories and
that's exactly what we want, and you guys are delivering.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, we're not reinventing the wheel responts. All good stories,
you know, that's all. And it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
You'll forgive me. But I just saw something on IMDb
and this is my I swear last thing, But if
you have any thoughts on this, I noticed that there
was an article this week that said that there was
a live action Batman Beyond considered in the early two thousands,
and they were considering Clint Eastwood as old Bruce Wayne.
Any any information on that that you're aware.
Speaker 2 (56:55):
Of, Yes, there was a script that was written for
Batman Beyond live action feature script and it was written
with Boaz Jaiken wrote it with me and Paul Wow,
and he was the driving force in it. He had
a new vision on Batman Beyond It. He wanted to
create a an R rated movie, or let's put it
(57:20):
this way. He wanted to create a tough movie that
if it was R rated, so be it. And so
we wrote a script together. He was the primary writer
on it, and he brought us an in on it actually,
and he's a great fellow. And the script was written
(57:43):
and it was just to adult to R rated for
the the for Warner Brothers, and he didn't want to
change it, and so that was that.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
But there is a script and it is pretty dark
and it was interesting working with him.
Speaker 1 (58:05):
Well, here's here's hoping that somebody, as they move forward
with whatever new possible live action projects, maybe do'st off
your guys script because I think that would be fantastic.
And there's certainly I mean I could see a lot
of different actors potentially play older Bruce Wayne and be
in that mentor role. That's what that's what made them
and Beyond so amazing.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Yeah, Clint Eastwood was talked about, and uh and the Bruce,
the Bruce Wayne and the script does some very active stuff,
So it would have been interesting to see. Wow, man,
I was.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
Going to say, it, wouldn't it be great to, you know,
go to that universe where that movie was made and
see what you what they would have come up with.
Speaker 2 (58:46):
It was quite different. I mean, Bo has had some
interesting notions. The school was sort of a private school.
There were uniforms. It was the near future like ours,
but it had a different slant to it. But it's
never gonna happen, at least with that script. So what
are you gonna do? You?
Speaker 1 (59:06):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (59:07):
Well?
Speaker 1 (59:07):
I'm hoping that this kind of assignment is something that
you can fit in but still kind of enjoy a
more leisurely paced to your life. And it sounds like
you're handling the shut in okay. I mean I hope
you are, and I hope you know everything's okay on
your end and everything.
Speaker 2 (59:23):
It is amazing how I can waste a day and
it just feels great. Yeah, but I do miss I'm
not seeing my grandchildren, and I do wait for that
moment when we can come together again, but I see
(59:43):
them on Skype and all that. But yeah, it's been
it's been good to be writing for d C at
this time.
Speaker 1 (59:56):
I'm glad you've got time to do it. And as
as a member of the viewing audience of your body
of work, it's great to see you back, you know,
back in the saddle and doing this stuff. This is
this is terrific. Thank you, truly, thank you for the
decades of entertainment you've provided. And uh, you know, I hope,
I hope we can do another conversation in the future
(01:00:16):
because I've been hoping to talk to you for a
really long time and having at least it's kind of
in depth chalk and you've you've really given me great
insight of a lot of your productions, and of course,
you know, we're just scratching the surface. There's a hell
of a lot more to talk about with Alan Burdette.
So thank you very much for your time and well,
thank you absolutely continued success and really looking forward to
the rest of this wonderful digital series.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Well, thank you very much. I hope, I hope the
audience enjoys them
Hi, everybody, Welcome back time again for word Balloon, the
comic book conversation show. John sntriss with you. Alan Burnett
joins me today on word Balloon. We talked Wenny. He
was doing the adaptation of Batman, the animated series comic.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Book with Paul Deny just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
But of course I had to take the opportunity and
talk to him about the amazing Batman animated series because
he was a story editor on it. He wrote some
of the classic episodes, and it was a really great
chance to find out more great behind the scenes stuff.
And I figured, with Saturday being Batman Day, let's make
it a Batman weekend and bring back this great conversation
with Alan Burnett talking about Batman animated and in comic
(00:38):
book form on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought
to you by Alex Ross Art dot com, the official
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(01:01):
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(01:24):
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(01:45):
It's a fun way to support the show and get
more content you can't find anywhere else the League of
Word Balloon Listeners. Check it out today at Patreon dot
com slash word Balloon. Alan Burnette, Welcome to word Balloon.
It's a pleasure to have you on. Man I. We
had a brief press roundtable chat when Batman Gotham Night
(02:07):
was debuting at Wizard Chicago got eleven years ago. I
want to say maybe, so it's great to have you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Back, very good, glad to be here well.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And am I right Allen? When it comes to animation,
are you are you? Have you retired? Technically, I don't
want to put words in your mouth.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
That was Oh no, I retired. I was. I was
an animation. I was very lucky in animation. I started
work in animation in eighty one and had never been
without any work until I retired about two years ago.
And I have enjoyed animation, but there comes a time
when you want to stop and smell the roses, you know.
(02:44):
And I have grandchildren and so I'm helping take care
of them too, although right now, you know, it's a
strange time. So indeed, yeah, so, but in any event, yeah,
I wasn't an animation for a long time.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I'm looking at your credits right now, and we thank
you for your body of work all these years. And
just as I was saying to Paul, who we recorded
this conversation just a few minutes ago, that you've seen
the evolution of animation and I think it's fantastic that
you you were able to contribute as much and help
it evolve and make it into an all ages format again,
(03:26):
because we had that period in the in the seventies
and eighties where I think well meaning parent groups really
got involved with animation and really unfortunately dumbed the product down.
And I think it took shows like Batman Animated Series
and the like to kind of bring us out of
the adul drums and give us quality entertainment again from
an animation standpoint here in the States.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, Well, when I think about the years I was
an animation, what changes was how it was, how it
was distributed. Really. I mean when I started, there were
three networks. I worked for Hannah Barbara when I started,
and they had on Saturday morning, they had thirteen half
hours on Saturday morning by themselves. Wow, there are some
(04:11):
time slots where they were up against their own shows
in all three time slots. And that time, you know,
those prehistoric days, there were only three networks. And then
syndication came in and that started affecting things and loosening
things up because the sensors couldn't be as strong as
syndication as they could on the network. And then cable
(04:34):
came in. I mean, it's all been a step in
the way this stuff is distributed, how it has informed
what you actually write or what you actually show. And
today I got out just as streaming was coming in.
So it's just everything changes. That is the rule of life.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So as you guys were making these We'll get to
the comic in a secon but as you guys were
making these direct to video animated films, and I like, well,
and even though it was an anthology like our Gotham Knight,
what kind of pushback and how much did it take
for the people upstairs the bigger offices to understand what
(05:17):
you guys can do and how adult you could get,
and also that there really was this adult audience that
wanted this product and everything. It seemed like as each
convention when we'd see you guys in panels and asked
this question of you know, hey, what are you guys
going to do? The Judas contract? When are you going
to do And now I'm blanking the killing joke, which
(05:37):
you guys saw obviously ultimately did. Yeah, you know, and
it's like, well, you know, seventy minutes and we got it.
It's an all ages product and all that. So, like,
you know, how long did it take? And you know, really,
what do you know? Was there a was there a
single production or was it just the volume of what
you guys were putting out where they're like, okay, we
get it, all right, there's an adult audience there.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, I realized, you know, I realized somewhere along the
line when I was doing the videos that like, like
at least fifteen years ago, I realized that that the
video people realized that their biggest audience was going wasn't
it wasn't the mom shopping a target anymore. It was
(06:18):
it was the fans. And uh. And so that's so
from that point on, we were we really, we really
were directing our stuff to the fans and to an
older audience. So it was it was happening. But the
first the first show where we were told, yeah, you
can do R rated was killing joke. And I was
(06:41):
so happy because I always wanted to be a part
of an R rated and I have I mean, you
can ask people. I've always been pushing for a more adult,
more adult animation, I mean, and and so so that
was our rated and it worked, I mean, it worked wonderfully.
(07:02):
So and then after that, almost immediately I wrote a
suicide squad, which I said, this could be our rat
is that okay? And they were fine with it, So
that is definitely Our material is definitely part of the mix.
At least it was when I left, So which is y. Yeah,
(07:24):
I mean, and you know what, I knew this back
in the eighties. I mean, I knew there was a
hunger for this kind of programming, but it was impossible
at that time because, like I said, there were only
three networks and they really that Saturday morning schedule was
sort of designed to appeal from two year olds to
eleven year olds. Sure and so so, and the earlier
(07:47):
in the day that you had your show, the more
they wanted to make shows safe for two year olds.
That's why when I started on the super Friends, I
got to do the last two seasons of super Friends.
I had this dream of doing big comic book stories
and dangerous stuff, and it was just it just didn't
(08:10):
didn't happen because the strictures were so tough. But it's
better now, much better now.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Indeed. Well, and again, you know, back in the early eighties,
when things like the Heavy Metal movie came out and
it's so funny, I've been rediscovering the post heavy metal
animated adult movies like rock and Roll and American Pop
and some of these others.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Well, of course cool world backshit. You know, he's his
own category, of course when it comes to adult animation. Well,
getting back first of all, all right, Michael Corley on
what drug you back into doing this digital comic back
in your animated world but now in comic book form
with Paul and Tye.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, you know, Andrew Marino called me about of nowhere,
and I have yet I think to meet Andrew in person.
But they were planning on doing comic books based upon
the animated series, and Paul had started working on them.
I imagine you've talked with him about this, but he
started working on some development for them, and then because
(09:12):
there was a there was a hunger I guess for
that show and doing merchandise off that show, and so
they wanted to they wanted to continue it in this
digital comic book format, and then Paul sort of I
(09:33):
don't know the history, but it sort of died down
and when they were coming back to it, Paul wasn't available,
and so they gave me a call and they hit
me at the right time, I was kind of bored,
and so I thought, this is this would be great
because on top of everything, I didn't have to worry
about the continuity of other comic books. All I had
to worry about was the continuity of my show, which
(09:53):
I knew sure, And and I gave Paul a call saying,
you sure you don't want to come back and do
this with me? And he said, I he has, He
had other things going on. But then after a day
or two he called me back and said, you know,
I think I can fit this in if we can
do it together. And I said great. And I said, oh,
(10:14):
by the way, this is this is our history. In
the beginning of Batman the animated series, he started work
on the series, doing work on the Bible. There were
some people and then he saw he sort of stepped
back from it and he wasn't going to be doing
the show. And they called me in and I said
to him, don't you want to do the show? Come on,
(10:35):
you you got to write one thing. So I, you know,
I brought him back to two Batman projects that he's
uh and you know, and and thank god, So.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's great, man, No, And I'm glad you guys are
doing this, and it was a great start. I loved
the first story, especially the tea's at the end that
we're finally going to get Batman and death stroke from
your guys perspective, that's exciting to see. But first I
want to ask, and I did ask Paul this, but
I want your opinion as well, tell me about the
Batman Luther dynamic, because really, those are two guys that
(11:09):
should have been There should be hundreds of stories of literally.
I mean, it's always great to have Superman there, but
but really, I mean, from an intellectual standpoint, who better
to match Lex Luthor with than Batman.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, and they're both, you know, with Bruce Wayne, they're
both titans of industry. Yeah, and and they both know well,
Bruce knows Bruce is clever, the probably cleverer than Lex,
but he doesn't let Lex in on that. But yeah,
you're right, I mean, they're they're they're a perfect match
(11:43):
in a way, and so natural to work together, to uh,
to be at odds, to be friends as as Bruce
and to be at odds as Batman. No, you're right,
and so you're right, there should be more stories. Man.
Maybe we'll do some more. I don't know, but yeah,
he's a natural. I mean he has such an ego
(12:07):
and uh Luther does. So yeah, yeah, we had we've had.
We had good time with with that.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
No, it's a great first story. And again the the
door is opened now, Paul, Paul let the cat out
of the bag, and I want to ask you about
it as well. Uh, it seems like Jason Todd might
be making his debut in the animated universe.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. We were supposed to keep that a secret, but
he but it got it gets out.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That Tannel Man of clearly a robinesque character with the
red mask, you know, shadowing that Ty Gavin and stuff.
I mean, you know, come on man in the best way.
We're like, oh that's great. That meets Jason's coming back.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah. So yeah, we decided there's a there's a little
secret history to the Batman animated series. There was another
Robin that we never dealt with, and so we're fitting
him in fact, it's a story we're doing right now.
So so, and he's a great character. I mean, he
(13:11):
just has a lot of he just has a lot
of vengeance within him and and anger. And he makes
me a great character well.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And again, it's it's one of you know, the two
great regrets in Batman's life are the death of his
parents and then the failure with Jason, because you know,
you know Jason and and and really you know, I
handed to jud Winnick and what he did in the
comics with Jason and stuff, and certainly as well in
the animated movie as well. But yeah, I mean, that's
(13:41):
that's terrific that that there's this one thing that Batman
actually had technically could have had control over as opposed
to the death of his parents, and he kind of
failed with Jason, and I'm sure at Hatson.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, and uh, and that particular video that we did
the DVD was I think probably one of the best
one of the two of them all because it's such
an intense and personal story that it really it really
you really go with it, You really are.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Intrigued with the actual character dynamics going on in that thing.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Absolutely. Man. Well, and again you're you and and and
Stan Berkwitz and all of you guys that were behind
the animated series. This isn't hyperbole when I said this.
You guys elevated the animated properties and really told some
really adult stories again. I was just talking to Paul
about heart device and the evolution of mister Freeze and now, really,
(14:41):
mister Freeze is now a tragic character twenty five years
later because of what you guys did in the show.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, and you know that was Paul's doing. I'll never forget.
I was. I just started to work as a producer,
and this was the situation where I was trying to
woo Paul back into the into the corral, and I said,
don't you it's gotta be something you want to write.
He said, Okay, I have a story idea I'd like
to probably work out, so I'll get that to you.
(15:11):
And a couple of days later, I was alone in
my office and he had handed it in and it
was like seven o'clock at night, and I was tired.
I was beating, you know. It was just the start
of a new show, and I didn't know if I
had Paul or not or what was going And I
got his story, which is two pages, I think it
(15:32):
was just two single space pages. And I'm reading the
story and it is exactly exactly the kind of story
I wanted to do in this series had everything, and
I called up, I actually called it Fox that night,
and I said, listen, I'm sending you a story. And
(15:53):
if you're not happy with this story we're doing, I'm
not doing the show you want then that you want
to do, or you're not doing the show that I
want to do. But you have to know that this
is this is what I want the show to be.
This is exactly it. And they loved it. And then
Paul was writing the script and he was on staff.
(16:15):
You know, that's great. Paul's interesting guy. He's our relationship
is really we're really good friends and we write together
really well. And he would, you know, during that whole
first sixty five episodes of Batman, he would just come
up to my door and say, and he said, I
(16:35):
have this idea and he would say an idea in
one line and I whatever he wanted to do, I said,
go with it. And uh, seriously, I believe it. You know.
He said, I had this idea of Harley and Ivy
working together, and uh, and Joker gets jealous and and uh,
(16:58):
you know, I had complete trusting and whatever he wanted
to do, and that was all he had to say.
I mean, he's just a remarkable guy.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
He really is amazing.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Indy. He just thinks deeply on these things.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well, it seems like a lot of your writers did
and continue to now and again, obviously, as you say,
you just retired. But I'm an acquaintance of James Tucker's
and I love what he's been doing with the animated movies.
But even going back to the animated series, so many
ideas that evolved, not only from an animation standpoint, but
(17:35):
literally the generation or two of writers that are now
writing the comics and probably the films and new TV
products as well, that I think are taking ideas of
what you guys did. As I told Paul, I know
for a fact that Devin Grayson was not a Batman
comic book reader, but she loved Your Guys television show
and that's why she became such a strong Batman universe
(17:56):
writer and stuff. And so so yeah, I mean it's
you know, again, how many comic book people And I
do remember some like Marty Pasco I know, worked with
you guys and then made Mask of the Phantasm and
also was am I right like kind of the liaison
between the show in DC in terms of you know,
use of characters and whatever. But like, how many of
(18:17):
the crew was, you know, really steeped in comic books.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
You know, they're pretty much all were you, Yes, And
Marty was maybe the first story editor I hired. I'm
not sure, but I think that's the case. And part
of the reason was that he wrote. He wrote comics,
and he was a good writer, and he knew the history,
and you know, we took from the comics. On the
(18:40):
first trip I made to New York to have a
discussion with d C. He came with me, I remember that.
And there was a there was a meeting that I
had with Paul Levitz in which we went through every
he literally got all the books of all the comic
books that they had put together, and we went all
(19:03):
these volumes, I should say, and we went through every
Batman story since I think nineteen fifty six, fifty five,
and we just we went through all the Batman stories
and all the Detective stories and just did an overview
that way. It took us two days, and he was
he knew them all. I mean, Paul Levitt's was astonishing
(19:25):
to me. Around nineteen fifty nine, I started to realize, yes,
I had that comic book. I was I would have
been nine years old and it was just it was
just a you know, you pitch yourself, because to go
through all those stories, to do that, it's just such
a fanboy wonderful thing, you know. And we took you know,
(19:48):
we all read comics and some of us wrote comics,
and we we we're fans, and we took the best
from those comics.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, you did, No, were great, And I know you hired,
didn't Len Wing right on your show?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Lenn wrote on the show. Marv Wolfman wrote on the show.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yes, Danny, Well, of course you adapted a lot of
Danny O'Neil stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Denny wrote the Rachel Gould story.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
You know, yes, and you know, I wanted to talk
about that one in particular because again this is on
a kids show. And you guys, well Andrea, I mean,
I assume Andrea was the one who thought David Warner
would be a fantastic and I would say rosda ghul
And I know you guys said on the show raza
gull and now all of a sudden the movies, it's
rashaw goual whatever. But regardless, I mean it man, that
(20:34):
is that you got.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It the opposite. It's oh tell me it is racial
Goul in the movies, they call him Roza Ghul or
something like that, okay, But it's technically it's racial Ghoul,
and that comes from Dannie O'Neill, whose daughter deciphered the
name in some way. I mean, she's I don't know,
she's a linguist or whatnot, but she she knew how
(20:59):
to pronounce that name and that's when you got it.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So yes, it is race, okay, And I accept that absolutely. Man,
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna argue with you and
Dannie o' neil and Daniel and Neil's daughter. That's cool.
But the crystallization of that adaptation, the animation and the
acting is and of course Andrea's direction as well. I mean,
it is really my favorite adaptation directly from the comics
(21:23):
because again there's that regal sense of ration, the way
he talks to the detective and then yeah, man, I
you know David Warner and Kevin Connry are acting their
asses off in that thing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, it was. It was wonderful. It was wonderful. And
you know, you get these actors in there, like David Warner,
who you've seen the movies, and it's just so special.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Really you guys have been blessed with unbelievable uh you know,
voice actors up until your retirement, and then I think
it continues beyond now as well. Yeah, and you know,
Susan Eisenberg has become a good friend of mine, and
I mean wonder woman of course, and you know, yeah,
she's I think she's been greatly appreciative of the opportunity
she's gotten in the DC Animated Universe over the years.
(22:10):
Back to the comic So Jason is coming, but also
I you know, it's going to be interesting to see
what new ideas you guys want to put forward in
these six stories in twelve parts. Yes, yes, it's not
a question.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, six issues which are sort of divided in half,
so they come in these half comic book chapters. I'm
going to put it that way. I'll tell you that
we're dealing with death stroke and we're also dealing with
Asrael in these you know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Glad you mentioned because I didn't talk about Asriel with Paul.
I read that DC article that you guys did where
the two of you had Taie talked about this new series.
Tell us what you can about Azrael, because again that's
an interesting care man. I love that original Denny story
about Asrael, and I thought, you know again came at
a very interesting time. Is this going to be an
(23:03):
original story with as How are you going to handle this?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
It's it's we're handling that that he and Bruce Wayne
had history and Bruce Wayne actually studied in the same cult. Uh.
But so and and the title of the the story
is called The Darker Night, so they'll give you a
hintap what it's about. But I think again, it's a
(23:32):
lot of fun. So, I mean, I don't want to give.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I followed this if you think that's where I'm leading Alan,
that is where No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Know, And I will tell you this about death Stroke,
we sort of gave him a little touch of Errol
Flynn because we felt that there's something that should be
attractive about him that you know, the Teen Titans deal
with him and all that. There's there's something about him
(24:01):
that a young superhero who could lose her way or
his way would come under his wing. And so we
get him a little bit of an Aero Flynn type
(24:21):
of personality. But underneath that he is really a wicked,
wicked fellow. So that will be in the second issue.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I'm glad to see that death Stroke is getting a
chance again, much like Luther, but more from a well
and also from a tacticitional standpoint, a good match for Batman,
but also purely from a skill fighting standpoint as well.
So that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
That's excellent, man, that's great. Tell me about writing. Had
you ever written comic book sexual comic books? Prior to this?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I've written twenty comics, Okay, that's all. And so when
I'm done with these, six or twelve, however you want
to look at it, I'm looking at six. That'll be
twenty six. Yeah. I wrote some I wrote a Superman
Batman thing and some Justice League stuff and some Flash stuff,
(25:14):
and I just felt like I should do that before
I retired, so I did. Yeah. I was a big
comic book fan when I was a kid, and I
used to This is going to sound bizarre, but I
used to make up my own comic book stories using
the panels of comic books. Yeah, and I used to
(25:37):
write down a list of each story. I had created
my own character in my head. And this is when
I was like, I must have been ten or eleven,
and I actually created in my head. This character I
called him Centaire, and he was like he looked a
little bit like Concrete, if you know that character in Comeds.
(26:00):
He had a suit, this big suit that would repel stuff,
and so he's able to fly by repelling and he's
able to shoot. I mean, this is an eleven year
old kid.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Apologize, man, this is great.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And so years and years later, I'm doing this show
called Batman Beyond, and we needed a character. Were trying
to come up with new supervillains, and this character, I thought,
I can do this guy. This guy has a suit
that repelled stuff. He's practically vulnerable. He isn't vulnerable, and
(26:36):
so we did. We did a story which had to
do with a boy in a bubble, that sort of
situation where the medical people had created this suit that
a kid who would normally be in a bubble to
keep germs from attacking him would be in the suit.
And so that and the super villain was one of
(26:59):
the But it was odd that, you know, fifty years later,
I'm using it my eleven character.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
It's excellente Man. By the way, I did the same
thing at about eleven or twelve, and I have a
feeling a lot of comic book fans were writing our
own fan fiction back then as well, so you're not alone.
Bit it's cool mentioning Batman Beyond. I got that pilot
episode and especially that beginning of Batman's Last Case. Seriously, Man,
(27:28):
that's uh. You know others have written over the years,
and I'm sure you've read them as well, Batman's final cases.
Whether it was Earth to Batman that they did, I
think in adventure comics with the Justice Society, and I remember,
I want to say Batman three hundred where I was
in the future and it was Batman's last case. But
really that's interesting. Was it was it something you felt
(27:49):
you had to do or or was it how much
of a challenge was it?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, the challenge, you know, the challenges you we were
creating a whole new Batman, and we didn't we didn't
want to make the fans crazy. I mean, we felt,
if we stay true to the legend of Bruce Wayne
and Batman, if we stay true to that and built
upon that with another character, they would like that. And
(28:14):
the way to tell the story is when I was
running the outline, I had a little bit of a
block in that I didn't want to show the suit
in the beginning, but I had to show the suit
because it would be Batman's last case, and it worked
out fine. I mean, he actually has a bit of
a heart attack in that first scene. It's hard to
(28:36):
believe we were making this under children's programs, y and
he lives up a gun because he's desperate to save himself,
and then he realizes at that point it is over.
I can't do this. We just wanted to respect the
character of Batman for the fans in creating this new Batman,
because we knew we were taking a chance, but it
(28:57):
was better than just having another guy in another suit. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So, and so when you say using the suit, do
you mean that futuristic suit that Terry ultimately wears. Yeah, okay,
And yeah, man, no, you're right. It's that ultimate moment
where Batman is facing death and literally has to use
the one weapon that he kind of always vowed not
to use because that's what killed his parents. And yeah,
he had to cross his own line. So yeah, no,
he I mean, both from the heart ailmen and the
(29:25):
fact that he had to use a gun. Yeah, no,
he can't do this anymore. And it's a great contrast
to the Dark Knight Strikes, you know, or forgive me
if I'm probably saying it ron Frank Milly's classic story.
And of course I really love that Fox put it
on as a primetime Sunday night show. I mean I
remember vividly watching it and especially those first you know,
(29:47):
that first opening act blowing my mind. It's like, wow,
look at that man, Look what happened to poor Bruce?
Holy shit?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You know, I think that was by that time we
were on the WB.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Ohay, excuse me. That's awesome that they thought enough of
it to make it a primetime movie and everything.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, it was very nice. And later on, you know,
the WB wanted us to do a Young Batman show,
and this is what we came up with. Our shows
were sort of skewing toward an older audience, like fourteen
year olds, and they really wanted to get that eleven
year old demographic, you know, at the top. They wanted
(30:27):
to go not over eleven. So they thought if they
if we created a young Batman and that would that
would do it. But they just didn't realize who they
were working with, because we ended up creating a show
that was darker than the original Batman.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, and what a great compliment too that
you know, after the show ended, all of the comic
book rereaders were like, hey man, we want work Terry.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
What the hell?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
This is great? And also the solution and I know
it was not Justice League, And I don't know what
involvement you had. Was Terry always Bruce's son by cloning
in DNA or whatever the gene splicing was that made
Terry Bruce's son? Was that always your guys, in the
back of your guys.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Heads, No, it's never, you know, but it was in
the back of Bruce Tim's head, and he was running
that show and he wanted to tell that story. And
I said to him, I'm not buying this, you know,
it's just to me, Batman is the most democratic of
(31:36):
superheroes because anybody can become Batman. They don't have to
have the DNA, they don't have to have the lineage.
They all they have to have is this crazy will
power to turn yourself into a superhero. Even though that
story exists, and somehow, and I really I really don't
know the story, but somehow Bruce got Terry to have
(32:02):
the DNA of I'm talking about Bruce tim got to
have the DNA of Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis. I
just don't buy it. I just fell against that notion.
So he knows that I talked about it. We're friendly
about it. It's fine. You want to do that. Fine,
I'm in my head. He's not so.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
And that's the only place where continuity met has when
in our own heads. So I love that answer, and
I think that's fantastic. But again, Dan Jergens is doing
a great job with the character. Terry's further adventures now,
I think it's great and truly, man, I think that's
a real testament to all you guys for that happening
the way that it did. So I'm glad that the
(32:45):
show resonated so much. And also, man, I love Darwin
Cook's title sequence. Got exciting and so beautiful and everything.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
It's not CGI. Everything is sort of I mean there's
a scene where characters are sort of going around and
I think they did that on a tabletop on a
you know, a record player.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, it's not really CGI at all. I don't think
there's any elements got him?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I right? Did you for the Superman Show? Didn't you
write the Legacy. The final two parter, Superman is brainwashed
by dark Side, I think, and he's dark sided son.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I did
on that one. I'm not sure, but yeah, we were
supposed to have another season and they decided to stop,
and so we ended on this strange dark storyline. But
the idea was that if we had another season, we
(33:40):
were going to do a sort of a darker Superman
situation where people were a little bit afraid of him
because you know, Superman's he's the toughest character, because he
is so powerful. Yeah, he is such a boy scout.
And I was not unhappy that that show ended in
the end because the stories, the stories that were hard
(34:02):
to do, and sometimes you felt like you were writing
a character who was like a ragdal being thrown around,
and that was his the ragdal who cannot be hurt.
And he's just a tough He's a tough guy. I
was talking with I Forget, the comic book writer. He
had written a lot of Superman, and he said, you
(34:25):
know those stories when we were a kid, they were
never about him being powerful. They were all about him
having to make a decision and being caught on the
horns of the dilemma, do I save this person or
do I save that person? Do I keep my secret
(34:46):
as Clark Kent, or do I sacrifice it to do
this other thing? And I thought, that's that's true. I mean,
that's what made those stories. They weren't about him always
smashing through buildings, you know, they were those stories had
a moral compass to them. So I don't know, I'm
(35:07):
just talking through my hat right now, but that's he's tough.
He's a tough superhero because he's so so strong.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
That initial meeting of Batman and Superman, again, the way
you guys handled it very different from the of course
the original comic book meeting. And just loved the dual
moment that each of them discover each other's identities and
do it in there in their own ways that only
they could, and just that great little wave between the
(35:35):
two two wards. Yeah, I know who you are too,
don't sweat it. So that's again, man, it's this characterization
that you guys nailed that made the show really entertaining
for us older fans as well. And I know the
kids loved it because now they're adults and again they're
building out what you guys built, you know, started back then.
But yeah, man, it was just great stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
That may be my favorite thing that I've written on
that particular three parter of the Joker and Luther working
together and Batman and the Superman meeting for the first time,
because really they don't like each other, they don't even
like each other in.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
The end, but they respect each other.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
They respect each other.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
That's great well, and also Lois's little flirtation with Bruce
and everything, and Bruce of course charming and the pants
off of her not quite literally, but you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I you know, I was. I read a review of
that movie, and I don't read reviews of anything I
do if I can help it. But the critics said it,
how do you describe it? He described it as a
you know, there's usually it's not a minosata. It was
a cathrotoa. It was it was it was Bruce and
(36:50):
Batman and Clark and Superman all vying for Lois's attention
because they really are each of those Here are two
people on one and I thought, my gosh, I never
thought about that. But you know, sometimes you learn something
from critics. So that was one case where that happened.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Tell me about making Mask of the Phantasm and it
going out in theaters, because again, that was so that's
a I felt it was such a confliment to you
guys to propose that kind of production. And I saw
it in the theater and it was great, man, including
even just the little things like the singer Sayta Garrett
(37:32):
who sings the closing credits, and it's like, holy shit,
this is like a movie and it's not like a
Disney cartoon movie. This feels like a live action movie.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, and you know what, A lot of responsibility for
that goes to Shirley Walker, who scored it. And really,
I mean it's just there's the soundtrack is just tremendous.
That started off as a video and one of the producers,
Eric Radomski, did this opening credit sequence in CG, which
(38:06):
at the time was kind of new, and it was
going through you know, it was a sort of helicopter
shot going through Gotham, and it was very striking. I mean,
there's no other CG in the whole movie. This is
the only part. And one of the executives, I don't
know who it was, from the lot came in to
(38:26):
look at what we were doing, and he saw this
opening and he said, why don't we make this a
movie that you show in the theaters. And so it
became a movie. But we weren't given any extra money,
we weren't given any extra time. And there was a
while there where we were getting footage back that we
(38:48):
were wondering if it was going to play or not.
And then at the very end we got the scenes
from the third act, which is of course the most
important act, and it looked really good that those scenes
look pretty darn good, and so we said, oh, you
do have a movie here, and anyway, so so, but
that's how it ended up in the theaters. It was
(39:08):
a matter of executive seeing some CG that the only
CG that was in the show, and figuring, we'll make
a movie out of this.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Well yeah, I mean, god man, it looked great on
the screen. Did you guys have to worry?
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Aboy?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Here's a boring technical question, but you know, the wide
screen versus the you know, aspect ratio of what was
standard television back then, were there any concerns about that
making it a wide screen you know, product?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
They did that in the boards. Okay, they accounted that
for the boards. I'll tell you the strange thing that
took a lot of time was we were moving frame
by frame on the dialogue because sometimes the dialogue didn't
seem on the big screen, didn't seem like it was
(39:55):
matching with the mouth flips. Oh, and that was I
remember that being just an enormous problem. And I think
that would happen on anything that gets blown up from
a DVD to a big screen. But we took a
lot of time and care just moving dialogue like half
frame or frame just to just to make sure that
(40:18):
the mouthflips were right. I remember that was bothering me
a lot as we were going through.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Probably did it, No, it turned out amazing. Man, back
to the direct to video movies of the last you know,
Jesus fifteen years and really again this evolution, the shift
from Bruce tim being the supervising guy, and you know,
if I'm wrong, please correct me. But moving to James
and what James has now done with the movies moving
forward and stuff. You know, what's that been like? What
(40:49):
was your participation in that? As far as you know
these things, because again, I really think each year there's
a new level of sophistication. It seems like again like
you said with the killing joke, that they're okay with
it getting a little rougher and stuff like that. But yeah,
just tell me about the different experiences. And I know
that James started working with you guys during Bruce's era,
(41:12):
but yeah, any differences or what do you perceive of
that evolution?
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Well, you know, I don't know why Bruce stopped doing him.
I think he was doing the Green Lantern Show. I'm
just not sure on the timetable there, but I think
he wanted a break from doing the DVDs, and which
is why James was brought on and I was brought on.
I mean they had done a couple already and then
I was brought on because there was they were doing
(41:39):
so many that there was a need for a guy
to oversee the scripts and which was my basic job
and dealing with writers and coming up with stories and
stuff like that. So that's the basic evolution. I stayed
on them. I was very lucky I stayed on. I
think I did about thirty of them, and it was
great because because I didn't have to deal with a network,
(42:02):
I didn't have to deal with Yeah, really it was
the people were all creative people and DC people and
and the video people gave us a lot of room,
and every one was different. We kept doing different things,
so creatively, it couldn't have been better for me and
(42:26):
my last decade there couldn't have been better.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
A couple of non DC universe things that you were
involved with that that I really love, The Scoopy Doo
movie Mask or The Revenge of the Blue Falcon. I'm
saying I'm probably saying the wrong. Yes, it is Mask
of the Blue Falcon. Yeah, man, And it's for people
who don't know. You gotta get this movie because it's
the Scoopy Gang. They're at a comic con. It's Hanna Barberas,
(42:52):
so instead it's all Hanna Barbera heroes as far as
the booths and attractions go. And it's a fantastic story.
I love this story.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Who wrote that?
Speaker 1 (43:03):
And that's Oh, I'm gonna click on the link here
and I'll give you that answer in a second. But
it's hilarious and all that one second, and let's get
to the writer. So Michael Ryan wrote it and Marley
Halpin Grazer wrote the story.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah, it's very funny, that guy, Marley. Yeah, it was,
and I think it was the brainchild of mister Tucker.
I think he really wanted to do that. I didn't
even know who the Blue Falcon was when we started.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Oh that's hilarious, man, Okay, yeah, you know Dina Mountain
Blue Falcon. Sure, great hand of Barbara cartoon. The other
one that I loved was Tom and Jerry Spy Quest
putting the Johnny westcast in a Tom and Jerry and
it's great because it starts as a classic Henna Barbera,
you know, Tom and Jerry thing that could have easily
(43:56):
played in nineteen forty nine in the theaters. I mean
it's so it's all until they meet the Quest people
and it's classic Tom and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
That was not easy, that thing, but we we Yeah,
it was a good We had a good time on
that in the end. My gosh.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, hey man, honestly, these are these are great productions,
and I'm glad you were a part of them. Heath
Courtston is a Chicago guy and we've become friends over
the years, and I'm really glad that he must have,
you know, impressed you in some way that you've let
him into the fold. And he wrote so many of
the later animated movies and stuff. Tell me tell me
about like tell me that some of the guys that
you might have, like you know, discovered in this portion
(44:34):
of the time post animated television shows that the newer
writers that you guys have been able to get involved
with these things.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Well, Heath was great, and he he loves the stuff.
And what I look for in a writer is uh
I usually read when I read their scripts, I read
their dialogue and his he wrote some hysterical stuff for
a show that was being done at Disney and and
so that's how I got him. We had of the
(45:05):
recent writers, you know, Greg Burlianty wrote for us.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Really, yes, I'll give you a name right now if
you don't mind throwing it in if you have any thoughts.
And that's Justice League versus the Fatal Five. Eric Carrasco.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Eric is a Supergirl writer. I don't know quite how
he made contact with us. It was probably through Jim Kreeg.
I guess I was a story editors on Justice League Action.
Eric had some terrific ideas for doing a Legion Superhero DVD.
(45:37):
He's a great action writer. He had written a pilot
for Zoro that I was reading.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, I don't know if that you know, he appreciates
me saying that, but that was one of his scripts.
His takes were different on everybody from what I've ever
thought about. On these Legion characters. We did a co
writing with that, Jim Craig and I also I rode
on and part of the reason was because he was
(46:03):
busy with other stuff and he had wonderful, very modern
takes on characters. There was nothing old in his view
of characters. I'm hard put to tell you exactly what
I'm talking about, but he would go for girl characters
and make them strong, and there was no sexism. Everybody
(46:26):
felt fresh in his writing. And he's just one of
the more exciting action writers out there. And I'm not
sure how much animation is going to eat up his time,
because I think he's going to be and probably is
very much in demand as a live action writer. But
he was one of the early young writers that we
dealt with, and he was one of these writers who
(46:48):
grew up on our stuff. So anyways, that's Eric.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Okay, I got one more name, if you got a second,
and then see if you've got any thoughts on Jonathan
Callen oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Jonathan Callen also is one of these writers who brings
a freshness to the characters. He wrote for us on
Justice League Action. There's little idiosyncratic things that he brings
to characters that you wouldn't think about. He one time
said to me he thought that Bruce Wayne was a
(47:19):
little autistic, and it made sense, you know, And I'm thinking,
because he's so directed, he's a guy who sometimes has
blinders on, and I thought that is an interesting take.
So you meet these young writers who really think deeply
about these characters and have ideas about them that I
(47:39):
never thought about before, And when you think about him,
you're kind of amazed. We dealt with writers who were
working on the primetime shows. They wanted to do an
animated show, and they wanted to do the animated show
because they grew up on Batman, the animated series.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
It's good to hear, though, that these are people that
you were getting from live action that really wanted to
do cartoons. That isn't that interesting now that there is
this back and forth that is possible between live action
and animation. And I'm a huge fan. I was just
telling Paul the new Harley Quinn series is fantastic, And
I think Rick and Morty funny in the best ways
(48:16):
that it can be. But DC Universe continuity crazy in
the best way. And as a longtime DC fan, I
love the Easter eggs in every episode and then and
I you know, I don't know if you've had a
chance to watch that.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
No, I haven't watched it.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Tell you always. Well that's all right, man. Well again,
you know, it's like somebody that's worked in a hardware
store all their life and you're gonna go home and
dive into a pile of nails. I don't think so,
you know, so I I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
But I mean I've had I've worked with some tremendous writers.
I mean, one of my favorites was Joe Lansdale.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
Well, that's fantastic. I had no idea he was doing
stuff with you guys in animation. I love Joe stuff
comics and novels and the like. He's amazing. Go on, please, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
He did the first Ventoko story for the Batman and
animated series.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Of course. That's excellent.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Man, oh man, that's wonderful. Geez. He did a show
which was called Perchance to Dream, which was one of
my favorite stories, maybe my favorite story of the whole series.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
So you're doing these these six stories now with Paul
and I know, and I know you're you know, was
were there all? Right? Now, here's some stock a couple
of stock questions. Were there any characters you wanted to
use on the on the shows or even in the
movies that you didn't have a chance to use beyond Destroke?
Who were you're now using in the digital Last comic?
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Are you talking about the old stuff?
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Well, just even you know, like through the whole body
of work, have there been DC Universe characters you never
got to that you may not get to in these
six stories? And and yeah, just in general, in terms
of all the years that you worked in animation, was
there any any characters you're like, They're like, either no,
they weren't available, maybe they were in development for a
different project or something like that.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
I I think Bruce tim would say, Nocturna. She's a
vampire character from the comics, and we couldn't deal with
blood in that particular show. Hilarious in that serious we
did about everyone. You know, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't
mind trying Court of Owls seeing what we would do
with that interesting. Sure, you know talent and interesting character
(50:22):
from that.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
And I don't think we did Huntress to do Huntress
not in the series.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I didn't think, so you
keep going.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
On Justice League. No, it is Justice League show. He
did everybody, So okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
I was going to ask about the Justice League Action
shorts because that show was great. And as I was
telling Paul, I've had a couple of conversations with Paul
about that show. You guys packed in so much story
in nine minutes. That's that's amazing, honestly, and I and
I that's a hell of a challenge because it's tough
enough to write, you know, twenty minutes of animation, let
alone try and compress it all into into nine minutes.
(50:59):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It's really The show had a lot of character to it,
and we had there was a guy named Tim Sherid
and my brother, and there was a writer who who
worked really well for us. And it was a comedy show.
In the end evolved into a comedy show and pretty quickly,
pretty quickly realized that that's what it would be. It
was essentially the super Friends that I would have liked
(51:23):
to have done back in nineteen eighty. Yeah, that was
my last sura and I enjoyed that show quite a bit.
As far as serious TV. That was my last hurrah. Yeah,
and it just had a good feel to it. And
Batman was a real character, a real ballbuster.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
And oh my gosh, can't Space Cavvy Perhaps because I
got to tell including Space Cavvy was so fat. I
was such a fan of those Silver Age stories and
it was such fun seeing him with the Justice League.
I thought that was excellent.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yeah, I remember we were We did weird, wacky stuff.
We had a train in space. It was great. We
had Jonah has It was just wonderful. But it didn't
I don't think that the network had an interest in it,
tell you the truth. I think it was something that
the corporation, I don't know, was foisting on them. I
(52:14):
don't know. But it never just had the backing that
I thought it should have had one.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Hundred percent man because again, and I was shocked talking
to Paul to learn. I mean, it was on at
six in the morning Chicago time, and apparently there is
no West Coast feed for Cartoon Network. So if you
were on the West Coast. You were getting it four
in the morning, so clearly they were burying the show.
And I really hope and Paul even said this as well,
here's hoping that either DC Universe Streaming or HBO Max
(52:44):
finds a place for that show, because it absolutely did
not give the respect it deserved. And you know something,
networks change hands. I've got my hands up in the air.
You know it better than I do. And I mean,
this happens all the time in movies where a movie
is made under a certain regime, a new regime come
in and it's either sitting on the shelf never to
be released, or it comes out for two weeks and
(53:04):
then thank God for video and then the aftermarket, or
you'd never see it again. And I really those Justice
League Action things. It made a DC fan very tough,
hard for them to see this stuff. And thank God
for DVRs because yeah, man, I mean I was watching
you later in the day and completely delighted with every
nine minutes. So it was you guys deserved a better
form for that show.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
I know, we really did. It's a worthy show and
it's a good kid show too.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
It is a good kid show. It's a great kid show. Yeah,
great visuals and a lot of great ideas. Very accessible
and isn't that interesting now too? Are you aware of
the current you know, comic situation in terms of, you know,
what's happening on the publishing side with Diamond obviously having
to shut down and everything, and what you likely are
because I know that the digital comic was supposed to
probably be a paper product as much as a digital product.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Yeah, it was supposed to be, so I guess we're
going to have to wait for the paper to come out.
But fortunately it's a digital project first. Yes, so it
has a life, which I'm very happy about.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
So, hey, man, I hope I hope this is you know,
depending on your own you know, it seems like you're
excited about this, and I'm glad you guys are doing
the sixth stories. I hope that it's a success and
we get another season of digital comics of this great presentation,
because it's it's great to see the three of you
guys back doing this stuff. Had you ever done the
(54:28):
uh cartoon or you know, the comics that were based
on the cartoon? You mentioned the twenty or so comics
that you did. Did you ever work on the series.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
No, but I read some of them and I liked
them a lot. Tye worked on them, so oh yeah,
so he wrote the stories and uh and they were
good stories. I don't know why we hadn't didn't work
with him because I guess it was coming too late.
I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
But as an animation designer, Ty no as writer, Oh oh, sure,
that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Of course we were talking about it and then it
sort of fizzled out, maybe because they stopped Batman beyond early,
I guess, but I remember liking his writing.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
So oh absolutely, man, is Ty helping you guys plot
it all beyond you know, drawing character designs in that?
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Not really, not yet. I mean it was all pretty much.
They had the characters that they wanted, and Paul and
I went through one day and just did a round
up of the stories. We beated them out and we
sent them to DC and it was very quick. I mean,
DC liked the stories that we sent them, and we've
been writing scripts off those stories ever since.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
That's excellent, man. I'm really excited to see the designs
that Ty has for Asrael and death Stroke and stuff
and then fitting it into your guys, universe, and as
I mentioned to Paul, on the comic book side of
the adaptations of the cartoon series Man, I've had a
chance to talk to people like Dan Slott, who wrote
a lot of the comics of the Batman Adventures, and
(56:06):
also Mark Miller doing that Superman stuff as well. And
you know, again, I think it's a testament to what
you guys did on the animation side, because those comics,
including the comics that you and Paul and Ty are
doing right now. Yeah, it's an all ages product, but
at their heart, they're just purely good Batman stories and
that's exactly what we want, and you guys are delivering.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, we're not reinventing the wheel responts. All good stories,
you know, that's all. And it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
You'll forgive me. But I just saw something on IMDb
and this is my I swear last thing, But if
you have any thoughts on this, I noticed that there
was an article this week that said that there was
a live action Batman Beyond considered in the early two thousands,
and they were considering Clint Eastwood as old Bruce Wayne.
Any any information on that that you're aware.
Speaker 2 (56:55):
Of, Yes, there was a script that was written for
Batman Beyond live action feature script and it was written
with Boaz Jaiken wrote it with me and Paul Wow,
and he was the driving force in it. He had
a new vision on Batman Beyond It. He wanted to
create a an R rated movie, or let's put it
(57:20):
this way. He wanted to create a tough movie that
if it was R rated, so be it. And so
we wrote a script together. He was the primary writer
on it, and he brought us an in on it actually,
and he's a great fellow. And the script was written
(57:43):
and it was just to adult to R rated for
the the for Warner Brothers, and he didn't want to
change it, and so that was that.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
But there is a script and it is pretty dark
and it was interesting working with him.
Speaker 1 (58:05):
Well, here's here's hoping that somebody, as they move forward
with whatever new possible live action projects, maybe do'st off
your guys script because I think that would be fantastic.
And there's certainly I mean I could see a lot
of different actors potentially play older Bruce Wayne and be
in that mentor role. That's what that's what made them
and Beyond so amazing.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Yeah, Clint Eastwood was talked about, and uh and the Bruce,
the Bruce Wayne and the script does some very active stuff,
So it would have been interesting to see. Wow, man,
I was.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
Going to say, it, wouldn't it be great to, you know,
go to that universe where that movie was made and
see what you what they would have come up with.
Speaker 2 (58:46):
It was quite different. I mean, Bo has had some
interesting notions. The school was sort of a private school.
There were uniforms. It was the near future like ours,
but it had a different slant to it. But it's
never gonna happen, at least with that script. So what
are you gonna do? You?
Speaker 1 (59:06):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (59:07):
Well?
Speaker 1 (59:07):
I'm hoping that this kind of assignment is something that
you can fit in but still kind of enjoy a
more leisurely paced to your life. And it sounds like
you're handling the shut in okay. I mean I hope
you are, and I hope you know everything's okay on
your end and everything.
Speaker 2 (59:23):
It is amazing how I can waste a day and
it just feels great. Yeah, but I do miss I'm
not seeing my grandchildren, and I do wait for that
moment when we can come together again, but I see
(59:43):
them on Skype and all that. But yeah, it's been
it's been good to be writing for d C at
this time.
Speaker 1 (59:56):
I'm glad you've got time to do it. And as
as a member of the viewing audience of your body
of work, it's great to see you back, you know,
back in the saddle and doing this stuff. This is
this is terrific. Thank you, truly, thank you for the
decades of entertainment you've provided. And uh, you know, I hope,
I hope we can do another conversation in the future
(01:00:16):
because I've been hoping to talk to you for a
really long time and having at least it's kind of
in depth chalk and you've you've really given me great
insight of a lot of your productions, and of course,
you know, we're just scratching the surface. There's a hell
of a lot more to talk about with Alan Burdette.
So thank you very much for your time and well,
thank you absolutely continued success and really looking forward to
the rest of this wonderful digital series.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Well, thank you very much. I hope, I hope the
audience enjoys them
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