"Why Dozier wanted me for 'Batman' I'll never know, because I asked his wife, Ann Rutherford, 'Why did Bill think of me for this part?' She said, 'I don't know, Butch. He said he saw you in something, and he said, "He's the one I want to play the Joker."' I haven't the slightest idea what it was he saw me in, because I had never done anything like it before." "I was very suprised when Bill Dozier called me and and said he was doing a series called 'Batman' and the important characters were the villains. They had done the first two with the Riddler and the Penguin with Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith, and now they were ready to do the third, and the villain was the Joker. He said,'I would like you to play the part.' So, I said I would like to read the script and know what it is all about. So he said, 'Come on over to the studio, and I will show you the film of the first episode.' Of course, it was great. I said, 'Let me read this Joker part, and if it is as good as the first one, hell yes, I will do it.' So, I read the script, and I thought it was a gas, and I said, 'Sure, I'll do it.'"