Its a Bootleg.  No official series has been released

BatFanJC wrote on 10/11/08 at 1:25am:

I don't regret buying it. Other than the Batman episodes the Green Hornet pilot and fan film are worth the cost. Plus it's a cool addition to my collection.

Yeah, fan films are interesting. I have one called "Superman:Luthor For President" which also features Batman.I'd like to see more. I know a couple local fan-film makers but they are mostly into Horror and ICP kinda stuff.

Bill the Bat wrote on 10/12/08 at 10:12pm:



I'm just going by what the box said. I'm not a GH expert. I still am glad to have it in my collection. To each his own.

The "company" that put these out has also released loads of martial art films including Angela Mao films - usually from beat-up 35mm prints!

There was no 'pilot' as such for the Green Hornet television series.
ABC gave the go ahead for the series in return for the merchandise rights.

There are a couple of tests featuring different actors in different masks, coats etc...

Bruce Lee and his acting coach appeared in both tests while Lloyd Gough appeared as Mike Axford in one. They are fairly easy to find on youtube.

There was one official 3 episode video compilation released in England in the 1990's which, if nothing else, proves it can be done. There's one available here:
http://tinyurl.com/59s5mm

Catfan wrote on 10/11/08 at 5:57am:


Cons have always sold bootlegs--usually under codenamed titles since some entertainment industry-friendly organizers have tried to crack down on the practice, but amazon is a major company operating "above ground" so to speak; as a dealer of official products of all kinds, they seem to be incredibly slow in preventing the sale of distributed and/or auction bootlegs.

I've seen eBay yank bootlegs of Filmation cartoons, unreleased/unsold pilots with famous stars, TV promos and other prouctions--so much that some sellers were forced out of business.

One would think amazon has the resources to do the same (kick the material off of their service, ban private sellers of bootlegs, etc.).

As I understand the UK release mentioned should be the same thing that was released here by a company called Brentwood.  Having not seen the UK release its only a guess.  If it is the Brentwood release there is also a version in Australia as well.  The Brentwood release is the film that was a cobbled together and shown here in the US just after Bruce Lee's death in the 70's.  Brentwood sought the rights to this film and gained them however after its release 20th Century Fox took them to court.  The disagreement ensued and Brentwood never released the second film "Fury of the Dragon" here in the US.  Both films are available abroad.

As I recall they have never been licensed for release anywhere in the world.  So technically all editions other than the cobbled together films are all unauthorized bootlegs.
Now enforcing the law outside the US has always been a difficult proposition for any studio.  Just take a trip to the east and you can find first run films already on DVD for sale, of course the studios don't get a dime for this and that is their complaint.

If your question is why the Brentwood (Movies) are no longer released in the US then the answer is that 20th Century Fox TV and Brentwood reached an agreement to no longer distribute and produce the film versions.

Ahh that makes sense there was a "international" release (VHS) some time ago which I forgot about.  I thought we were talking DVD only.   As I recall it was only a couple of episodes and not the entire series.