Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jan 15, 2014 | 2 comments

EXCLUSIVE: When I talked to Burt Ward tonight, he had not even been informed of the announcement. And when I told him about Conan O’Brien making it public, he immediately thought it might be a hoax.

I actually had to convince him otherwise, that I had two sources confirming it.

So he explained that he and Conan go way back: Ward was invited to a speak at a tongue-in-cheek event at Harvard back in the ’80s. His Robin costume was on display behind him and O’Brien, who led the Harvard Lampoon at the time, stormed the stage and ran off with the outfit. (Peter Sagal of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” a fellow student at the time, chased the red-haired rascal, but Conan escaped — and held the costume hostage, according to the Harvard Crimson.)

It’s pretty clear, then, that a lot of the elements of this whole project are still being put together.

Because as I noted earlier, he said that he hadn’t recorded any commentaries. When Adam West told me in an interview recently that he had recorded something that could be used as a commentary, he wasn’t specific. He’s Batman, after all, and he wasn’t giving up any secrets. A lot of people on the web are thinking perhaps it’s the audio from “Adam West Naked,” his self-produced video in which he discusses every episode while walking through his house.

Anyway, Ward sounds eager to get together with the senior half of the Dynamic Duo.

“Adam and I did do commentary for the Batman movie,” he said. “I understand people just love it because, at a lot of my appearances, (they) say, “I love the movie but I love the commentary a lot more. That was worth the price just to get you and Adam talking to each other. Because Adam and I, we get along so well. … We have a very special chemistry. You put the two of us together and immediately people start laughing. And we tease each other, y’know in a nice way. I have a great fondness for Adam. He’s a lot of fun, a terrifc guy and I love to needle him a little bit about this and that.”

He’s on the money on that score. The commentary for the Batman ’66 theatrical release, which has long been available, is hilarious. It’s like listening to two brothers who have a lot of inside jokes.

Warner Bros. can’t do a box set without Burt Ward — at least not do it properly. Because as the banner above shows, you cannot break up Batman and Robin.

Photo by Stupendous Seth Kushner.