Great story.
Mine is much less cool. I wanted a smooth bass/baritone voice to be dubbed one character and I kept trying to give the agency an idea of what I wanted, Finally, I tried to do a n inaction myslef, using a mock up trailer and guy weren’t, “Dude, that was Hilarious! You sound just likie him!”
“Who?”
” You know.. the guy in the suit! On the walls, with the belt and shit..?”
“….?”
“Batman!”
“Batman?”
(This was about 1989 or so, and I am thinking Michael Keaton…)
He finally told me meant West, and it was obvious. It was pretty last minute, and I knew he’d done voiceover, so I contacted friend at Warners who did a lot of Catoon and Anime voices… he tried his best, but no luck.

Everyone was coming up with nothing, not my agent, manager, nobody..

That night (actually this wholes toy should be datable took the exact nigh, based on the following facts, should anyone care to check them., I came to an editing room at the request of my best friend Boy Kris, who was doing assistant sound editing for a Dolph Lundgren/Jean Claude Vanne Damme picture which he had been telling me hilarious stories for weeks. We got pretty stoned, the for some reason took a whole bunch of niacin, and were. Laughing our asses off, with burning skin at these soldiers who were supposedly capable of learning sny knowledge, language or skill, with the simple insertion of a little chip, but chose to talk in pigeon English accents, à la Arnie’s Terminator.

The halls were long (verynlong, and ot terribly well lit, and the toilets far away. Were were getting ready to go (to high to go that far down such dark corridors) when a figure appeared at the end of the hall and was coming towards is Ina sort fo Orsom Welles flat-footed shuffle. We recognized him immediately.

Tim Burton.

At the time there was a huge rush to get Batman 2 finished, so practically all of the editing has and
Renting houses in LA were operating overtime, full of editors and colour balancées, etc, scrambling to get it out (I was told that when the premiere for the film began, the reels for the third on were still wet and being brought in by taxi and escort at the aaat possible secon, but I cannot vouch for the truth if this story.)

We recognized him because he had gone to the same school as us, as had Keaton, amd as usual, BK was trying to get e to do the dirty work of taking to him. this to,e I refused.. Just as he approached, Kris blurted out, “Hey Tim, when did you graduate from CalArts?”

Not missing as step, He kind of turned, hands out of pockets in a “Who me?” Shrug, as he proceeeded back,wards now don the hall.. “ActuallY, I didn’t really graduate. Not really…”

He was turning around when I had a brainstorm, “Hey Tim? You wouldn’t happen to have Adam West’s contact details, would you?

That stoped him, on his tracks.

“I might..” (he fucking well, did, I could see it!), “What do You need them for?”

Il told him, and it turned out he had seen my show, ADN we got to talking about CalArts, and laughing, ad he seemed pretty col whn all of a sudden a PA showed remindin him he was supposed to be making a film..

Took cool! We were so excited, he was lie one of ours! Making it big!

And I didn’t get the damn number, I’d forgott n. He was far down this long (did I mention how very, very long and I’ll-lit these corridors were?) halllwaym so I had to yell, “Hey Tim, what about that number?”

It echoed terribly.

He turned a tarted to return. Stopped, adm said,”Gotta run. I ll get it to you!”

Well that was that! He was way late with anhzaugey expensive film, and we’d screwed the pooch wasting our letting on giggles and bonhomie.

The next day, though, BK called to tell me that the had been a signed note tackle odnthe door with a simple phone number on it, LA area code, and Burtons signature on. By the time my agent, magnager amd even Kris rang, I had already dialed. After all, I didn’t want nah more layers of problems. I don’t wan to go through them, THEN his people, or Agency and ThEN his people made then possibly him.

So I dialed, asking BK if he knew who West was with. Someone picked up.

Hellooo?
The next day, though, BK called to tell me that there had been a signed note tacked onto the door with a simple phone number on it, LA area code, and Burtons signature on. By the time my agent, manager and even Kris rang, I had already dialed. After all, I didn’t want any more layers of problems. I didn’t want to go through them, THEN his people, or Agency and ThEN his people made then possibly himself (if we were lucky)

So I dialed, asking BK if he knew who West was with. Someone picked up.

“Hellooo?” A man’s voice! I had been picturing the cute receptionist there who claimed to have been Demi Moore’s GG for years…

“Yes, erm, hello this is RJ calling..I would like to talk to the person who reps Adam West, You, know,Bat–”
“Yes, Indo…I do know.. that would be me!”
It was lowly dawning on my little brain, but nonetheless, less I proceeded…
“Well, that’s a bit of luck! You rep Adam West?”
“Well, I guess you could say that. His friends certainly think so. His wife is right in front of me.. Shall I put her on?”

Yup, it was HIM. I do not know if he was between representation, doing it on his own always, or what, but Burton had given me his damn HOME PHONE NUMBER!

I don’t know if you realize how rare this is in LA. I have been to second, third base with young ladies who then gave me their agent’ number (to be fair, there is a sort of actor/model who doesn’t ever have a fixed address long eough to print cars or get a number. Obviously mobile phones have changed this, but Oi am
OLD folks! Live with it!

“Tim told me you’d call and that you were a very amusing young man indeed.”

So that’s about that. I do not know how he looked recently but then, apart from receding hair, he looked remarkably fit, and exactly the same as in the old Batman show. Remarkably professional and personable, it was admittedly a bit. Difficult to get Jim to leave after (and we were an eager audience).

He even agreed to come back. for a cameo as BatMan/Himself, and everything was go when lawyers from Warner’s arrived in his stead, explaining to us that BatMan didn’t belong to Mr West, nor did the costume, both of which were valuable properties of the Bros Warner, bla-bla-blah. We tried to put hair behind the ears and and and say it was Granpa Batman, so it was different, right?

No go.

I wanted to just proceed and let Warners look like dicks for stepping on us, but- You guessed it, we had only just been sued (or threatened to be sued– if anyone can help me with these incidents from the Scion side of the curtains I would be enormously appreciative), as had the Shiners (both came to nothing), and Showtime was not very hot ion the idea of having to defend out little comedy pieces every month. Still the show had to go on, we had sets, crew, camera, etc…

So, we found an El Pollo Loco Chicken costume (the kind the poor immigrants stand in with panel signs angling over his poor drooped shouldered because at that time a Hispanic clandestin immigrant (including possible fine) was cheaper to use than, you know, a stick.

(Excuse me, I stand corrected: A Fucking AMERICAN stick! YEAH)

So, we tried to do a bit about West being there and we had the wrong costume, but he was not into it. At all.

I got the feeling he really liked getting into that suit.

We even tried to get Michael Keaton to do a sketch either with West (No thanks!) or tot are his lace ôté chicken suit,amd He was OK with it… aft r the press junket and his ext film so.. ext spring maybe?

Hmmm… 9 months after our air date…

I don’t think so…

Later.at a party, Burton told me he had only just seen with West who was continually devising ideas for how he could fit into the new films as Batmans Uncle, or alter-ego, or something, anything… and that he just wouldn’t let it go.

I cannot say. But he was a very nice, professional, generous man to us and I am still grateful,

PS: film turned out OK, don’t worry, and his voice Zoe’s on the others was exactly like it sounded in my head.

RIP

in low cut jeans.. you’re leaving out the teaser. Damnation is not part of my belief system, so perhaps my use of ‘sin’ should be redefined. 😉 And perhaps I’m just an old dungeon master, dreaming of past glory. But Wilford Brimley was not swoon inducing was the point. Trust, safety, those are possible, but swooning implies lust to a certain extent, as do tight abs and low cut jeans. Long way around the mountain, as far as proofs go, but you get the idea.

I can’t see what either has to do with tight abs.

Are you sure? My knowledge so far is not to deep. But after reading your comments first time and seeing your youtube video about “fair game” and being followed, i can see deeper and darker levels of Scientology. I really thought that both Marty Rathbun and the other top executives had revealed all the dark secrets about Scientology as a terrorist org to those who suffered from that actions of being followed.

The actions of Scientology is really actions against civilization and the right to free speech. Thank you for your strong and balanced descriptions

After reading this, new questions… coming up
1 how can the ex-scientology community accept the criminal acts of other ex Scientologist that still actively protecting the monetary pseudoreligion with their silence?

I’m not on Facebook or any other social media. My email address is . I’m looking forward to hearing more from you…

Definitely the same for me. Are you on Facebook? I would like to send you my email address and stay in touch.

Hello Hana, I have to say it’s an honor to have even this small exchange with someone I consider a hero.
I was in Salt Lake City in the early 80s but I don’t recall if I was on staff at the time you were there. I was on staff there for a short time during the “coup of ’82” when the mission network was gutted by senior management. Things got pretty bad and I blew. I was later ‘recovered’ at an org after I moved to California. I finally blew for good in the late 80s. I too was still under the spell of Hubbard’s ideology and considered joining up with David Mayo’s group but did not. When I left I didn’t really have much to go on other than an increasing level of cognitive dissonance and strong gut feeling that something was terribly wrong. Lots of little things added up and took their toll on my beliefs. Seeing you in so much pain in Salt Lake City was one of those little things. I didn’t have any interaction with you then, but I knew who you were and that you had spent time with Hubbard on one of the ships and that you were mentioned in Mission Into Time (?). Your suffering there and ‘bad indicators’ had a definite effect on me even though it took time to come to fruition. I thank you for that. Time and the wide open places in nature of Montana and Alaska finally helped clear and heal my mind enough to the point that I could face the fact that I had been duped and suckered into a cult. I was filled with shame, disgust and embarrassment. I thought I was done with scientology for good, but they finally found me and attempted another ‘recovery’. By that time the internet was available. I started looking into what was really going on in scientology and found all those earlier gut feelings validated and confirmed in spades. I wasn’t the only one having negative experiences and seeing ‘outpoints’. Jon Atack was key. Many others have followed including yourself.
I have to say that I am very impressed with your work and level of compassion and growth as a human being. Your post here is fine evidence of that. I like to think that I am free from the baggage of the scientology experience I had, but just the plain fact that I still hang around these critic’s blogs and post occasionally says otherwise. There was some damage done and I think it manifests mostly as being too vigilant, too critical, too untrusting. There is always something to work on in one’s life and since being out of the cult life has just gotten better and better despite the usual ups and downs we all go through. I hope the same for you.

lol now now

I think it must have lost the “l” when I put it through the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/web/)