Bruce Timm

Bruce: My first exposure to superheroes was the Adam West show. Of course, I was 5 years old, so I didn't realize that it was a parody; I thought that it was straight, and I took it seriously. The weird thing is that my parents really liked it, but they were liking it on a completely different level than I [was]. I thought that it was real. I didn't understand that everything was high-blown and camp. I'll never forget this one episode — The cliffhanger was Robin being eaten by a clam. [Laughs] Normally, the cliffhangers wouldn't actually show Batman & Robin getting killed; that was part of the rules, that they would always be trapped, but in the next episode they'd get out. But in this one particular episode, you saw Robin getting eaten by a clam, and when his foot disappeared inside the clam, I thought, "Oh my God! They killed Robin!" The next day in school, we were all talking about it; that's how seriously we took it.

Bruce: (Talking about the fights he and the staff of Batman: The Animated Series had with censors) We were just like 'Look, we're not trying to destroy the boys of America, we just want to make a good show.'

Bruce: I went on record many times saying I would never, ever do Justice League. All I can say is be careful what you promise!