West --- born William West Anderson ---, with co-author Jeff Rovin, spiels freely about his struggling acting career before being cast (over Lyle Waggoner, who went to lease luxury StarWaggons for studios and locations) as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Burt Ward --- born Bert John Gervis Jr. --- was a high school super-achiever scholar-athlete.
West's unexpurgated dish about his coworkers on the series is priceless, especially on the often washed-up movie/TV stars who were the archvillains.
Otto Preminger (Mr. Freeze #2): "I couldn't wait to get rid of our second Mr. Freeze, (the despicable...) Otto Preminger. Otto asked for the part so he could give his grandchildren a thrill. Fair enough. But the man insisted on enhancing his reputation as one of the meanest bastards who ever walked a soundstage. Otto was crude; though most men have been guilty of looking on women as sex objects at some point (including yours truly), Otto was the only man I ever met who did that on his good days. The rest of the time, he treated them like dirt. He would swear at them, insult them, comment on their weight, the size of their nose (if it was too big) or their breasts (if they were too small); say anything that might hurt them. He would stand near men and ask someone else, in a loud voice, if that person was gay."
Rudy Vallee, as Lord Marmaduke Ffogg: Rudy was a former superstar (of the 1930s and early '40s) who had an ego the size of the Batcave and took himself very, very seriously. He tried to have his residential street renamed Rue de Vallee. Between shots he used to play reel-to-reel tapes of h is greatest hits and lip-synch them for the cast and crew. It was a trifle embarrassing....". In Joel Eisner's "The Official Batman Batbook", Yvonne "Batgirl" Craig said, "Rudy Vallee was without a doubt one of the worst people I've ever worked with. He came on the set and was an absolute churl; a little old cranky man. He was the meanest man, just awful. With that three-parter (featuring Vallee, who enjoyed new recognition with the mid-60s Top 40 hit "Winchester Cathedral", which copped his megaphone-singing style), we thought we'd never get rid of him."
If you look up actors and actresses on IMDb.com, you get used to seeing hagiographic, overblown praise of each, often written by their agents and/or publicists. Not so Rudy Vallee, of whom his IMDb.com profile reads: "....In the 1920s and early '30s he had a hit radio program, though his explosive, ego-driven personality made his cast and crew hate him)..... A huge hit on radio in 1933 with his show, Vallee was considered a slavedriver by his staff, known to instigate fist fights with virtually anyone who got on his nerves. During his show's run he slugged photographers, threw sheet music at pianists' heads, and socked hecklers in their noses. While audiences loved him, most of his staff hated him."
West writes freely of how the producer of both "Batman" and "The Green Hornet" (starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee), William Dozier --- who also narrated both series --- tried a combo/crossover show, with Bruce Lee absolutely terrifying Burt Ward as Robin, thinking an intense Lee was so prepared to do serious damage to him in his role as Kato.
West writes of some of the gorgeous women who were cast as gun molls and lovebirds of the archvillains, saving his best words for slinky Julie Newmar as the best Catwoman; famed movie star Anne Baxter as Zelda the Great and as Egghead's assistant ("Anne was beautiful and exuded sexuality") and ballet star Yvonne Craig as Batgirl. I recall, as a 13-year old watching "Batman", telling my mother how pretty Anne Baxter was "for an old lady". She and my mom were the same age.
If your TV provider has Heroes and Villains TV (www.handitv.com) or the Frndly TV app (https://tinyurl.com/2tdpkchh) , you can see "Batman" reruns on weekends.