Before ‘Batman,’ Michael Keaton Did a Short-Lived ‘70s Slapstick Sitcom

Michael Keaton is a world-renowned, award-winning actor who has been wowing audiences for decades. For longtime fans and cinephiles, Keaton is best known for his genre-defining role as The Dark Knight, aka Batman/Bruce Wayne, starting with Tim Burton’s classic, iconic 1989 film, Batman. However, before he impressed audiences across the globe with his performance as The Caped Crusader, Keaton was largely known as a comedy actor, cutting his teeth in such films as The Night Shift and Mr. Mom. But in the late 1970s, one of his earliest leading roles was a short-lived, slapstick CBS sitcom called Working Stiffs. Keaton starred in the series opposite Jim Belushi. Let’s take a look back at this short-lived, memorable project.

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What Is ‘Working Stiffs’ About?

Working Stiffs follows the working-class, blue-collar brothers Ernie (Belushi) and Mike (Keaton) O’Rourke. The two are recently hired janitors working in the office building owned by their Uncle Harry. Both are knuckleheads, but they aspire to work up the ladder in the corporate business world. Their lives are by no means extravagant. They live in the storage room above a café owned by their friend, Mitch Hannigan (Allan Arbus). The brothers are best friends with the café waitress, Nikki (Lorna Patterson), Ernie’s longtime crush. While they hope to earn promotions and a raise in wages, they get into various shenanigans and have a competitive rivalry with their miserly boss, Mr. Falzone (Phil Rubenstein).

The pilot of the series was directed by the late great Penny Marshall in one of her earliest credited directing roles. Only four episodes made it to air on CBS in the fall of 1979. The show was unable to surpass more popular television hits it was competing against at the time, such as CHiPS on NBC and The Ropers on ABC. Only nine episodes were produced in total before CBS canceled the series. However, due to the popularity of its notable leads in later years, some of the unaired episodes would find their way onto home video and cable networks, such as A&E, Comedy Central, and TV Land.

Working Stiffs was a fairly straightforward simple sitcom, focusing more on slapstick and physical gag humor. While the show wasn’t a success, Belushi and Keaton shared solid comedic chemistry onscreen. Their talent and charisma were evident, and it’s no surprise that both actors would go on to have long and prolific careers in the coming years. Keaton later became one of the biggest stars on the planet with the release of Batman. After directing the pilot, Marshall enjoyed quite an illustrious filmmaking career, directing such classics as Big, Awakenings, and A League of Their Own. She later worked with Belushi once again in 2009, directing episodes of the hit sitcom According to Jim.

Michael Keaton and Jim Belushi Were a Great Comedic Duo in ‘Working Stiffs’

What’s obvious from the pilot of Working Stiffs is that Belushi and Keaton had all the makings of a great comedic duo. Belushi’s Ernie was more of the straight man and self-styled brains of the group, even though he’s not as smart as he pretends to be. Keaton’s Mike acts as more of the funny man and takes more of the pratfalls as part of the duo. In the pilot’s opening scene, Mike is failing badly at moving a filing cabinet into a new office as Ernie is lugging it on his back like a backpack. The scene culminates with a business executive passing the clipboard into Mike’s hands, sending him careening backward through a wooden table.

The physical gags continue during the pilot as Ernie and Mike climb across an incredibly high ledge in the building to repair a broken light bulb in a clock embedded in the building’s exterior. In a scene that’s certainly reminiscent of Harold Lloyd‘s Safety Last!, Mike tries to repair the light bulb but is left precipitously hanging for his life from the arms of the large clock. Keaton was not only a gifted charismatic comedian but a gifted physical comedian as well, as he perfectly demonstrates in this role. For his part, Belushi also does well joining Keaton in the clock scene, and the two play off of one another incredibly well.

While the series did not last very long, there were hints of a sentimental side. A later episode that aired on CBS before the show’s cancelation depicts a very pregnant Nikki, who is about to give birth after being dumped by her boyfriend. Ernie attempts to propose to Nikki, but Nikki gently lets him down since it’s not a good time for her to start dating or considering marriage again. The brothers are then left scrambling to help Nikki deliver her baby as they are left stranded without an ambulance overnight in the café. After Nikki goes into labor, Mike is so flustered, he basically goes to war with a payphone attempting to call an ambulance. In these scenes, Keaton demonstrates humorous, manic comedic energy. It’s a similar type of manic energy that he displays in his roles in the coming years. The empathy and care that Ernie and Mike showed to their friend Nikki in this episode proved that while they are a pair of knuckleheaded dimwits, they watch out for their friends, and they came through for Nikki when they needed it most. Ernie and Mike both had an endearing side to their characters to go along with the physical gags and laughs.

Michael Keaton Was Widely Known as a Comedy Actor Before Landing ‘Batman’

Keaton is probably best known for his role as Batman. And more recently, he impressed audiences and critics alike with his more dramatic turns in Birdman, The Founder, and Dopesick. Previously, however, Keaton tended to star in straight-up, irreverent, or screwball comedies. Earlier in his career, Keaton made multiple guest appearances in sitcoms and TV shows, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, before leading his own short-lived series Working Stiffs and later Report to Murphy. In 1982, he landed his first major motion picture role in the memorable comedy The Night Shift opposite star Henry Winkler. The family comedy hit, Mr. Mom, followed in 1983. He would continue to star in comedies throughout the 1980s before forging a relationship with filmmaker Tim Burton for his new film, Beetlejuice, portraying the titular, undead “bio-exorcist” known as Betelgeuse, aka Beetlejuice. While technically not the lead of Beetlejuice, Keaton’s performance bowled over audiences with its unique supernatural horror-comedy mashup. The film was a major hit and secured Burton the gig to bring DC Comics’ iconic hero Batman to the big screen. Going back to Working Stiffs, you can see a similar type of wild energy in Keaton’s performance that’s still evident in his later work, such as The Night Shift, Beetlejuice, or even Multiplicity.

Keaton’s success as Beetlejuice and relationship with Burton paid off, as it ultimately landed him the coveted role of Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, in Burton’s 1989 film, which was a box-office smash and a groundbreaking feature for the comic book superhero genre. Interestingly, Keaton’s casting was controversial at the time. Many fans were skeptical that Keaton could pull the role off due to his comedy-centric background, and there was a backlash among fans due to his unconventional look that fans didn’t think fit the mold for what Batman or Bruce Wayne should look like. Of course, Keaton and Burton would soon go on to shatter those expectations when Batman was released in theaters.

The Return of The Dark Knight and The Ghost With the Most

Recently, Keaton made his long-awaited return to the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in DC and Warner Bros. Discovery’s The Flash. The Flash has not been a substantial hit at the box office or with critics, but Keaton’s return as Batman is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the film. Even while wearing a restrictive black rubber suit in his portrayal of Batman, his uniquely appropriate charisma still shines through, and he grabs attention in every scene in which he appears.

Batman is not the only iconic role from a Burton movie that Keaton is reprising. Production recently began in May for the long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice. Keaton is starring in the film in his iconic role as “The Ghost with the Most,” Beetlejuice, opposite other returning cast members Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara as Lydia and Delia Deetz. New cast members for the sequel include Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, who is purported to play the wife of Beetlejuice, and Scream franchise star Jenna Ortega, who is portraying the daughter of Lydia Deetz.

Even at 71 years old, Keaton is not slowing down, and he’s still portraying iconic roles. Fans will see him on the big screen once again when Beetlejuice 2 hits theaters on September 6, 2024.