While I was attending the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston--more years ago than I care to remember!--my Theatre Arts class was required to produce a skit and record it on audio tape. As the writer in my group, naturally I was assigned the task of writing the skit. Following my own nerdy tastes, I decided to spoof Adam West's extremely popular Batman TV show.
The professor, Mr. Floyd Covert, was skeptical; he told me such a thing couldn't be done: "You can't spoof a spoof!" But I was determined to give it a try.
Producing that skit was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my college career. Several of my classmates got to play the parts of Batman, Robin, Alfred, etc. Strangely enough, Mr. Covert agreed to play the part of Commissioner Gordon. I was stuck playing Bruce Wayne's ditsy Aunt Harriet--a minor part, thank goodness, as I was extremely shy.
Another female classmate got to play the enviable role of the evil villainess Pussy Willow ( a character I invented. ) She had the most evil cackle imaginable; it was right up there with the late June Foray's!
To this day I remember some of my lines: "Flapped? Flounder? In Gotham Lake? Really, Bruce!"
We all had a great time and a load of laughs rehearsing and recording our opus. It amounted to maybe twenty minutes of air time, but when we played the final tape for our professor and classmates, they found it hilarious. We actually were funny!
As a result, our entire crew earned As! Mr. Covert even asked me to autograph his copy of our script and apologized for thinking I couldn't pull off a spoof of a spoof.
In the end, I have to thank the late Adam West, Burt Ward, and the entire cast and crew of TV's Batman. They gave me great material to work with. So R.I.P., Batman--and thanks again for the A in Theatre Arts.
Keep reading and keep writing, folks,
MRTighe
