The bomb scene in question could have come straight out of a Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton film for how simple and hilarious it is. When infiltrating a villain’s lair, located inside a pier tavern, Batman finds an enormous bomb, its fuse already lit. This is a cartoon world, so the bomb is a large black sphere like in a “Rocky & Bullwinkle” episode. Batman picks up the bomb, brings it out into the tavern, and implores everyone to flee for their lives. He then runs out onto the pier, hoping to throw the bomb into an uninhabited area. The pier is so crowded, however, that Batman is constantly stymied. A marching band gets in his way. Then some nuns. A pair of lovers in making out in a rowboat. On the other side of the pier … ducklings. “Some days,” Batman bemoans, “you just can’t get rid of a bomb.”
Adam West recalled how that kind of comedy was spitballed back on the early days of the show, and how the exact tone was decided:
“Creating scenes that were funny and ridiculous, and yet inventively wonderful. For example, first of all, we had great writers, and our directors were good -– most of them. And the wonderful thing is that the executive producer, the late Bill Dozier and the others, Charlie Fitzsimons, and I, we all got together with the same kind of concept about tone and what we were doing, and how we wanted to do it.”
Once decided, the comedy flowed forth. West saw his exact discussions come to fruition with the bomb scene.
