Die grüne Hornisse

I was a huge fan of The Green Hornet TV series when it premiered in the fall of 1966.Several years ago I bought the complete set of tapes for the show & watched it with great interest having not seen it since it went off the air in '67.It has many wonderful qualities to it.A fine cast,intriguing hardware,and a serious approach.I am still impressed with The Black Beauty,loaded with an array of clever weapons, as it revolves out of its hiding place.The Hornet Gas Gun is a nifty,non-lethal device that originated with the character when he first came to radio.I always loved The Hornet Sting as it telescoped outward in order to use its sonic waves.And what an imaginative premise it was to have a crimefighting duo "appear" as mastermind criminals in order to infiltrate the bad guys orginizations,and thus break them up from within.Yes, the series does have its drawbacks.The 30-minute format does not allow much character development of the cast or guest stars,as well as the plot.Bruce Lee's superb martial arts skills are underutilized,and he was never happy that Kato was a servant.Some of the scripts are formulaic and the crooks of the week routine.Van Williams who played Britt Reid,a.k.a.the Green Hornet,said that the show was renewed for a second season.But there was a dispute between the ABC network & the producers of the show.One wanted to have the series return as an hour show,the other wanted it to remain in its half-hour format.As an hour series it could have corrected its flaws & become a cult classic.Come to think of it,it already is.

Just because the main characters (Notice the plural) are wearing masks doesn't mean that the program is camp. This is the show that introduced the martial arts legend Bruce Lee to the world, and he probably was the first actor that made people think "Gee I didn't know human beings can move like that". I mean seeing Lee for the first time had that much shock value to the audience, and the attraction of the show had much to do with what's Lee going to do this week ? But I'd like to point out the superb acting that was done by Van Williams too. He looked so good as the main character, and he had a chameleon like method acting capability that made his acting fit the scene's mood perfectly every time. If he was British, I wouldn't be surprised if he was recruited to play James Bond after Sean Connery. Keeping in mind that this was a 30 minute show made in the '60s, this series still scores high in its production value. I would say that it's right up there with other '60s popular action show such as Mission Impossible. The only regret is that this show didn't last longer than a season. Audiences wanted more but for some odd reason, it was canned. They should have made at least two more seasons followed by a movie. I would say that it was a monumental blunder on the network's part to not see what a dynamite show they had in hand. Bruce Lee and Van Williams' talent should have been exploited to its max with this show and who knows what other shows they might have stared in.

I just watched the Green Hornet for the first time since MeTv just ran a marathon of all episodes. It was great. I thought it would be as campy and cheesy as Batman (although I grew up on that and still like it), but it wasn't. Yeah, some of the effects were low grade, and the scenes of the Black Beauty driving around town were always the exact same clips, but I still liked it a lot. Bruce Lee is awesome, and Van Williams had to be one of the most handsome guys on TV at the time (or even now). I really can't understand why this show didn't make it. I know that Batman is much more popular, but as far as "cool" ratings go, this show has it beat. Cooler lead character, cooler sidekick (no comparison), cooler car, and cooler music. I got them all on DVR and will probably go through them again this weekend.

Like it's predecessor Batman, The Green Hornet was a campy and funny show. Van Williams did an excellent job as he played Britt Reid aka The Green Hornet. The best character was Kato, played by Bruce Lee. I've heard that during the filming, Bruce Lee was going too fast with his slick karate moves that the filmmakers had to play his fight scenes on slow. But that Mike Axford character in this show was such a wimp!

Instead of the silly villains of Batman, The Green Hornet and Kato fought organized crime. Even though it was more of a serious format, I've never failed to see any humor in this show. I've always watched this for laughs as well. Van Williams is the only surviving cast member of this show. Also you could see him play a small part in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" as a Green Hornet producer. Another great film.

Unfortunately, this show only had 2 seasons. Batman and The Green Hornet have some things in common as TV shows, but not everything. They're both good shows. And like Batman, this was popular for a while too, until it faded away.

I ordered the entire series on VHS (pirated) and this show is great! It's definitely not everybody's taste, since it is a little hokey, but NOT campy. It really is a treat to see Bruce Lee before he'd made those great movies, even though in most episodes he has about 2 lines. It's kind of obvious that 60's American TV wasn't ready for a real chinese action star. (the show Kung Fu anyone??)But even so it's a fun show and it would have been even better if they'd let Bruce show them what he can really do. The best episode has to be the Preying Mantis where Kato totally stole the show!