Those of us of a certain age remember the original Batman television series. I can remember some of it. I quickly became a Batman fan.

It was a cheesy show but we didn’t know that. It was just entertainment in the days before personal computers and ground-breaking technology. Remember the words like “Bam!” and “Pow!” popping up on the screen during a fight seen? Today it looks silly but then it was just part of the story presentation. The show was camp and lighthearted and the good guys always won. There were messages delivered of good versus bad, right versus wrong.

There were 120 episodes aired during the show’s three seasons from January 12, 1966, to March 14, 1968. The shows aired twice weekly during the first two seasons, weekly during the third season. I’ve read that it was geared toward a teenage audience but I was much younger than that. It was so popular that a feature film was released in 1966 between the first and second seasons of the TV show. Batman held the record for the longest-running live-action superhero television series (in terms of episodes) until Smallville took the top spot in 2007.

Adam West and Burt Ward were forever labeled as Batman and Robin.

Now Burt Ward, a.k.a. Robin, uses his name recognition to sell pet food. That is just a part of his venture, though. The real purpose of his work now is rescuing large dogs and finding their furrever homes. It all began with the owner of a Great Dane who passed away and left a dog that needed a home. Burt and his wife, Tracy, took the dog in and the rest is history. The Boy Wonder has a huge heart for large dogs waiting to be adopted. He and Tracy have opened their home to these dogs. Currently there are about 50 large dogs at their home outside of Los Angeles.

Now 77 years old, Burt and Tracy started their nonprofit in 1994 and named it Gentle Giants Rescue and Adoptions. The nonprofit has found furrever homes for more than 15,500 dogs. No matter who you are, that’s an impressive number.

“We always have about 50 dogs at home ready for adoption,” Ward shares, describing his residence outside of Los Angeles as “an animal-friendly community.”

Their work hasn’t gone unnoticed, with celebrities like Vanessa Williams, America Ferrera, and Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons, adopting from the Wards.

In 2005, Ward launched a natural pet food line. He wants to help large dogs live longer, healthy lives. Besides rescuing them, he wanted to improve their lives. “We couldn’t stand to see our dogs dying so young,” Ward reveals. You may have seen commercials on television where he explains the pet food line and offers online purchases. He keeps the price of his products down by not taking a salary from the company. He wants to be remembered as “as a person that left this planet better off than I found it.”

Here is a YouTube video of Ward on The Ellen Show. It is from four years ago.

What a great story. It’s nice when a person who made their fame and fortune in Hollywood turns out to be a good guy in real life.