First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

The Green Hornet TV series and related topics

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John Mack
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by John Mack »

Great story Todd! I hope we see TGH on disc soon as well. Debbie and Robert Dozier and no doubt the estate of the late Bruce Lee, not to mention the current owners of the "property" all have something to do with it I'm sure. Not to mention that horrid Seth Rogan farce. That certainly could not have helped in the minds of Execs.

John
Music. BAT! Music.
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Todd Grimes
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by Todd Grimes »

Thanks John! And maybe if Batman can finally see the light of Bluray, we can hold out hope for The Green Hornet! Fingers forever crossed . . .
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1966.batmobile
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by 1966.batmobile »

I remember watching it when it was new. I loved the music, the Black Beauty, the cool hidden garage door , but I didn't remember much else until it was on cable much later on. I recorded every episode ( I think I have them all) but I don't have the interest that I have always had with Batman. Maybe I will watch them again now that we have an official release of Batman. I will wait until I get to the season 2 episode before I start watching them.

I do have the repro Corgi and polar lights Black Beauty's. I never built the model. The Corgi is proudly displayed in my office along with my Batman Corgis.

I wish the horrible movie from a few years ago was done seriously. I have said before, I think Michael Weatherly (NCIS) would have been great- He resembles Van a bit.
greenhornet66
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by greenhornet66 »

I think if the GH was given more of a chance to be viewed, it would be just as popular as the Batman show. Especially when Bruce Lee went on to higher levels as a major martial arts actor. Many Bruce Lee fans probly dont even know he played a tv role here in the U.S. as Kato.
I also feel that if the GH was given the right attention, and the right story line, it would become a major film / tv series icon today. The Batman legacy has continued for decades, the Green Hornet character could also reach high ratings if only given a chance. The Green Hornet will always out do Batman in my opinion.
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STP Swallowthispill
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by STP Swallowthispill »

greenhornet66 wrote:I think if the GH was given more of a chance to be viewed, it would be just as popular as the Batman show. Especially when Bruce Lee went on to higher levels as a major martial arts actor. Many Bruce Lee fans probly dont even know he played a tv role here in the U.S. as Kato.
I also feel that if the GH was given the right attention, and the right story line, it would become a major film / tv series icon today. The Batman legacy has continued for decades, the Green Hornet character could also reach high ratings if only given a chance. The Green Hornet will always out do Batman in my opinion.
I agree with you 100% when they started advertising the Seth Rogan version and I saw the attention to detail they did with recreating the black beauty I thought man this is going to be good!
I hate that movie they ruined what could have been a great movie with the right actors and writing.
Vann Williams and Bruce Lee made a great team!

Charles
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STEPhonIT
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by STEPhonIT »

In the early 2000's I didn't remember The Green Hornet tv series but on Starz Action channel there was a Bruce Lee marathon where the event started with the series. It had this Batman production value to it, but I never connected the dots it was a spin-off series. I thought Li was under used throughout the series, it was done because of the racial prejudices of that era.

As for the series itself, it was interesting but I thought what it needed were colorful villains- not in a campy fashion. Van Williams was good but I loved the action choreography from Bruce Li; he was electrifying and the embodied image of a live action superhero. What a shame the series wasn't renewed but after that series it launched Li's film career in Hong Kong and later back in the states with Enter the Dragon.

I've never watched all of the episodes and I would like a Blu ray treatment of the series because it's Bruce Li's lost segment from his early career.

I can't imagine what the images will look like in HD; it will look better than anything anyone has ever seen since the producers watched episodes on a film projector.

I can imagine the huge disappointment from those artists who put so much detail for their craft to be ruined by the ancient NTSC. There are some very ignorant Star Trek fans who are in disbelief Captain Kirk's uniform was actually Avocado GREEN than that goofy yellow color.
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Lou Szabo
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by Lou Szabo »

I saw it on its original run, and was even GH for Halloween, using a bathroom vanity chrome leg as the stinger, with some sort of knob at the top. My brother and I always thought Kato was cooler than the Hornet as he did some of the heavy lifting (carried through to the recent movie).

I have since discovered the old time radio series, and when placed next to this series, Lee's Kato comes to the forefront as a major lead character, where Keye Luke's Kato was there for GH to explain his actions and thoughts to the audience (Kato). However, in that original serial, Kato is more of a manservant, Lee's portrayal elevates Kato to a new level. if you watch carefully, in some of the episodes, the villains "flinch" when he moves toward them, after they have been defeated - demonstrated a respect or even fear of Lee's abilities. In the "Dragon" movie, there's a great scene of describing the action sequence to Lee, and Lee's interpretation of the direction. That little 7 year old boy bursts forth whenever I see that, just like I did when watching the original series.

Here's hoping they'll eventually resolve their differences, especially in light of the success of the other Dozier property.

Another thought occurred to me just now - any thoughts if the GH series lead to the demise of the Batman series. In particular because GH was darker, and the Batman audience was a year older, but Batman seemed to become more comic in years 2 and especially 3.
Some days you just can't get rid of a ... SHARK!
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John Mack
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by John Mack »

STEPhonIT wrote:There are some very ignorant Star Trek fans who are in disbelief Captain Kirk's uniform was actually Avocado GREEN than that goofy yellow color.
For those who have no idea where THAT statement came from, take a look:

http://www.anovos.com/blogs/news/149003 ... rk-s-tunic

John
Music. BAT! Music.
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STEPhonIT
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by STEPhonIT »

Thanks, John, but what the site gets wrong is claiming the cameras depicted the color change. That was incorrect, just look at the Blu Rays from seasons one through three and the Kirk tunics were always green and were never yellow.

Check out this season one promotional photo.
Image
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Golddragon71
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by Golddragon71 »

I got back into Batman in the late '80s following the Death of Robin and then the '89 Batman movie. as i moved from Connecticut to Long Island during my Junior year in High School my interest in Martial Arts intensified and I became a fan of Bruce Lee. I don't think that i had seen the Crossover episodes featuring the Green Hornet and Kato during my initial Bat-Fandom in the mid 70's when i was in my single digit years, but when I watched the reruns of Batman '66 on MTV (at the time before FX came into being) The two part episode aired (although as an established Trekkie my Primary reaction was seeing Harry Mudd aka Colonel Gumm.)
Around that same time I had started collecting old-Time Radio Shows on tape including the Green Hornet and this coupled with the awesome Green Hornet Comic published by NOW! Comics made me a full-time Hornet fan.
As I started college I went to several comic cons and bought up bootleg tapes of the Hornet TV series.
My first episode were Silent Gun, Secret of the Sally Bell, A Frog is a Deadly Weapon, A Preying Mantis Kills and the Hunters and the Hunted.
To this day I still love watching the series as well as the old 1940 Cliff-hanger Serials.
"Someone might be able to substitute for Batman, for a very short time, but no one could ever replace him!"
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Therin of Andor
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by Therin of Andor »

I saw "Batman" on Australia's opening night (1967) and stuck with it. I loved the Green Hornet & Kato appearances in that show, and only had a vague awareness that they belonged to a different series. I'm sure I had read some Gold Key "Green Hornet" comics back in the day.

My awareness that "Green Hornet" was played straight as a TV series - and very different to the campiness of "Batman" - wasn't really until the home video era of the 80s. I assume the series aired Down Under, but probably in an adult timeslot and off my radar. I found a Betamax title in a video rental store: "Superman Meets the Green Hornet", which played up participation by "Bruce Lee as Kato". The caricature cover art had Superman grimacing at Kato - were they arm-wrestling? Perhaps. (I did eventually buy a copy of the one I rented. Will try to find it.)

The video turned out to be a "lost" b/w mini episode of "The Adventures of Superman", which had never aired in Australia, called "Stamp Day for Superman" (a promotion for US savings bonds), plus a random - and rather underwhelming - episode of "The Green Hornet". I really missed the comedy of GH&K's "Batman" appearances.
"Holy nostalgia, Batman!"
Therin of Andor

(aka Ian McLean, from Sydney, Australia)
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The Boss
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Re: First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

Post by The Boss »

Both series were really before my time but, I still enjoy them both. While I knew of the series due to the cross over episode of Batman I never saw any episodes of the Green Hornet TV series until the late 80s when I saw the collage film from 1974. I don't think this was a bad introduction to the series - especially seeing as how its features some of Bruce Lee's best scenes - but it was not until I bought the full Batman TV series on bootleg some 10+ years ago that I finally got to watch the Green Hornet in its entirety as the full series was included in a bonus disc.

From the moment I watched it I could not understand how the series did not succeed passed a single season. As has been mentioned, the only thing that could have made it better would have been an hour format. Even Britt Reid and Kato's relationship evolves in that single season. In the beginning Kato was simply Britt's manservant in the daytime and at night he was little more than his Chauffeur (Albeit one who The Green Hornet often relied on to save him). Later on in the season however Kato began getting a more prevalent speaking role and he and the Green Hornet became more like equal partners in crime (fighting).
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