In January of 1979, NBC aired two of the most bizarre TV specials you've (perhaps) never seen. They were hour-long, live-action comedy shows produced by Hanna-Barbera featuring Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, The Flash and other DC super-heroes. One was a silly adventure with the heroes running around, interacting with a batch of super-villains. The other was a superhero "roast" hosted by Ed McMahon. Why did someone think these would be a good idea? I'll tell you that story in a moment.
Adam West and Burt Ward re-created their roles as Batman and Robin. Charlie Callas played Green Lantern's arch-nemesis, Sinestro. Jeff Altman played the Weather Wizard. Howie Morris played Dr. Sivana. William Schallert played a new and elderly character named Retired Man. (You'll see him in the clip below.) A lot of roles were played by folks who hadn't done much before and don't seem to have done much since.
The shows themselves are hard to describe. They were called The Legends of the Superheroes and the last few years, the bootleg market offered up a DVD of fuzzy, incomplete copies. Now, the Warner Archive is making them available in a new made-to-order version made from the original masters and including footage that was edited before broadcast. Are they worth buying? I'm telling you about them, not recommending them. You might try watching this clip. If you enjoy it, order a copy from Amazon by clicking on this link. If you don't…well, I'm afraid it doesn't get a lot better than this, though the sheer campiness of the shows might amuse you…
Now then: The story of how these shows came to be. You may find this hard to believe and I'm not 100% sure I do, either. I'll just tell you that the following was told to me by a man I worked for once named Lewis Heyward, who was running Hanna-Barbera at the time and that I related it to Bill Carruthers, who directed one of them. Bill said, "Yeah, that's the way I heard it."
Shelly Moldoff, who drew comics for DC for years, suggested the idea of a super-hero roast. This concept was passed on to Joe Barbera and it was among about fifty he had on his mind one day when he went to NBC to pitch ideas for prime-time specials. With him was the studio's agent, Sy Fischer, a very nice and smart man who played a large role into building Hanna-Barbera into the huge company it became. Joe and Sy were a terrific team: Joe knew how to interest networks in ideas. Sy knew how to close a deal. If you can do those two things, you can be very successful.
Joe Barbera was a great salesman. In the meeting, he was dazzling and funny and hypnotic as he tossed out idea after idea, sometimes merging two into one or one into six. Finally, after an hour or so of dozens of ideas being discussed, the Vice-President in Charge of Variety for NBC said, "That's great, Joe. We'll buy two hours."
That was Sy's cue to end the meeting. First rule of selling: When they say "yes," get out. If you stick around, you give them the opportunity to change the "yes" into a "no." So Sy said something like, "Whoops! We're late for another meeting, Joe. Gotta run!" And they left. They were out in the hall when J.B. turned to Sy and said, "I know they just bought two hours…but I'm not sure which idea they agreed to." Sy said, "Neither do I…but let's close the deal and then figure it out."
The next day, someone at NBC called Sy and said, "Uh, we're going to honor the commitment of course, but…well this is kind of embarrassing but could you tell us what we bought?" Once Sy and Joe had left the meeting, the assembled NBC execs realized they weren't sure. A couple thought it might have been the idea about a superhero roast…so H-B went ahead and started on two roasts. Then they realized the roast idea was only good for one hour (if that) so they turned the other hour into more of an adventure story.
That's how I was told it happened…and having seen Mr. Barbera in action, I think I can believe it. I can believe he actually sold something to a batch of network execs…and neither Joe nor the execs knew what he'd sold and they'd bought.