Le Frelon vert

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.

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.

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!

"The Green Hornet" first started his long crime-fighting career-and remains to this day-an urban variation of the Western cowboy hero The Lone Ranger. In fact,the popular version of the "Green Hornet",a vigilante superhero,was first imagined by Lone Ranger originator George W. Trindle,and writer Fran Striker in the late 1930's,first appearing on radio,and later on during the 1940's made the transition from radio to theaters with two low budget but very popular multi-part serials which starred Gordon Jones as the heroic Britt Reid and Keye Luke as his ever devoted sidekick Kato. "The Green Hornet" being so very popular in the movies and on the radio made the leap into the comics too. Over the years the character has appeared in comic books series from publishers Holyoke to Harvey Comics,Dell Comics,and finally to coincide with the Gold Key in the 1960's,as part of the TV series,and most recently in DC Comics. As part of the story of The Green Hornet is concerned,the story genealogically speaking,was a man who was bent on fighting for justice and triumphs over the forces of evil. In fact,The Green Hornet,Daily Sentinal owner and millionaire Britt Reid,was the grand-nephew of John Reid,The Lone Ranger. More to the point,Britt modeled his life on his famous ancestor,right down to his life's mission,choice of sidekick and job-related gear. Instead of an Native American sidekick(Tonto),Britt Reid worked with another "ethnic" outsider,the Asian adversary and humble servant and sidekick Kato. Instead of a great white steed named Silver,Britt chased down criminals in a rolling black arsenal called The Black Beauty. Both heroes fought their criminals with masks and hats,to hide their secret identities. The Green Hornet's main nemesis was the mob and corruption,rather than rustlers,nefarious cowboys and Indians,but if you think about it his dedication to fighting crime was about the same as his grand-uncle's in which the setting was the mean streets of the big city instead of the wild west.

Despite these variations,especially during the mid-1960's that "The Green Hornet" continued onward in popularity in the new format of the series created by William Dozier,who was executive producer of this series under his company Greenway Productions and produced through Twentieth Century-Fox Television. In the spring of 1966,after the runaway success of "Batman",every major television network at the time was looking to repeat the success of the Adam West-Burt Ward series which was a huge hit for ABC. Usually with the other silly or campy which consisted of shows like "Captain Nice and Mister Terrific",or for that manner the spy genre of "Get Smart",and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", Dozier was behind the brains of adapting "The Green Hornet" for television,though he also had the rights to create other projects for television,DC's Wonder Woman(which wasn't produced until the 1970's),and Dick Tracy. The TV series starred Van Williams as Britt Reid,and Bruce Lee as his loyal companion and fierce sidekick Kato. For the most part,the series was more serious than Dozier's "Batman",since most of the attention went toward Bruce Lee,who would go on to become one of the greatest International action stars of all time,due to this series. But the real star of "The Green Hornet" was a customized 1966 black Chrysler Imperial. As far as the villains were concerned,this was a show that did not have freaks who wore outrageous outfits,but some of the villains on the show were either counterfeiters,bootleggers,thieves, corrupt politicians,drug runners,crooked cops,and arsonists. For the most part this was basically your average "crime drama" with a kick. As far as the action were concern,the fight scenes were often brutal with Bruce Lee showing some of his breathtaking martial arts action,which was the best part of the entire show. The series also starred Wende Wagner,Lloyd Gough and Walter Brooke. Only 26 episodes were produced for ABC-TV which ran for one season from its premiere episode on September 9, 1966 and ended on March 17,1967. The show was on Friday nights and had some stiff competition against the fantastically inventive and popular,"The Wild,Wild West"(CBS,1965-1969), and also against the Ron Ely series "Tarzan"(NBC,1966-1969). It was preceded by the Irwin Allen action/science fiction series "The Time Tunnel"(ABC,1966-1967). In order to save the show and boost ratings,the two superheroes met on an "Batman" episode titled "A Piece Of The Action"(3/1/67),and its continuation "Batman's Satisfaction"(3/2/67)where The Green Hornet and Batman(along with Robin and Kato)take on a diabolical villain played by Roger C. Carmel. As the result of low-ratings,The Green Hornet was cancelled by ABC after just one season,but with the episodes it was rarely run or rarely seen in its original form in syndication,which is still rarely seen today but can be seen again through the advanced technology of video and DVD. Shortly after the demise of the series,the success of Bruce Lee proved phenomenal beyond belief. After his death in 1973,he was still quite popular,and a compilation film consisting of Green Hornet episodes was released here in the states to great acclaim. The films were released between 1973 and 1976. The second Green Hornet film called "Fury Of The Dragon",released in 1976 was a smash hit with audiences.

In recent years,there has been talk of bringing the adventures of The Green Hornet to the big screen,and there is a feature film in the works directed by Kevin Smith and starring Jason Mewes as Britt Reid and Jet Li as Kato.