Lorenzo Semple, Jr.

In his two-and-a-half-hour interview, Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (1923-2014) talks about his early life and his first job as a journalist during World War II. He describes his attempts to become a playwright in the 1950s and chronicles his early television work on such shows as Burke's Law and The Alcoa Hour. He details writing for The Rogues, Rat Patrol, and the unsold Charlie Chan pilot, Number One Son. He then discusses adapting and creating the Batman series -- writing the series from a remote location in Spain and interacting with the producers, writers, and actors Adam West and Burt Ward. Semple comments on the cultural impact of the show and outlines his successful subsequent career in feature films with such movies as Papillion, The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor, as well as the cult classics Pretty Poison and Flash Gordon. Lee Goldberg conducted the interview on September 25, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA.