Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

The Green Hornet TV series and related topics

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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

Ultimately, if the Batman Blu Rays have taught us anything, its that TV copies are horrible compared to the way the film originally captured images, so for me, its painful to watch copies recorded from TV. There's so much information lost.
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NJ_Batfan
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by NJ_Batfan »

weirdkorey wrote:
Fatbat wrote:Thank goodness I recorded the entire series UNCUT off the Action Channel years ago...without commercials on VHS @ SP! It actually reran for well over a year or so from episode 1 to the end multiple times.
I actually have a copy of the ones from encore action channel & I'm pretty sure on The Silent Gun there was a scene edited out at the end which accounts to about 30-45 seconds approximately it involves Brit Reid in his office. I don't think any other scenes from any other episode were missing though & I would still consider this probably the best quality version I have seen

True, The Encore Action airing was missing "The Silent Gun" epilogue, and the second parts of the two-parters
also were missing the part one recaps that preceded the theme sequence.
HELLOLARRY
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by HELLOLARRY »

True. The Silent Gun is missing the epilog and the two parters are all missing the next week promos at the end of pt 1 and the recaps at the beginning of part 2.

There are also some fun little 30 second promos at the end of the first 4 or so eps.

I had a complete set from 16mm and recorded the series from action. I edited in the missing tag all and all the promos along with the in color bumper (used the correct bumper for the pilot as it had music and not just the hornet sound) and fox fanfare / ABC presentation at the end when I transfered everything to DVD years ago. Even did a bonus disc with the two test films, Bruce Lee screen test, appearance on Milton Berle Show, outtakes (from that Bruce Lee import DVD), and misc promos.

Id still buy a blu ray once released but I did put a lot of time into my version of the series.
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

NJ_Batfan wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2016 2:12 pm
weirdkorey wrote:
Fatbat wrote:Thank goodness I recorded the entire series UNCUT off the Action Channel years ago...without commercials on VHS @ SP! It actually reran for well over a year or so from episode 1 to the end multiple times.
I actually have a copy of the ones from encore action channel & I'm pretty sure on The Silent Gun there was a scene edited out at the end which accounts to about 30-45 seconds approximately it involves Brit Reid in his office. I don't think any other scenes from any other episode were missing though & I would still consider this probably the best quality version I have seen

True, The Encore Action airing was missing "The Silent Gun" epilogue, and the second parts of the two-parters
also were missing the part one recaps that preceded the theme sequence.
Post FX airings in the early 90s, TGH has always suffered a number of edits, such as Dozier's narration over the preview at the end of "Invasion from Outer Space: Part One", where he refers to the concluding episode as a "final" adventure. To me, that meant he was announcing end of the series. I had the FX version on VHS, but its so degraded that I'm afraid of attempting a digital transfer.
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by MysticNitekatt »

Oh, I love this subject...4 decades in the making, if you think about it.

The Current TV Syndication length on THE GREEN HORNET is 22:30 before commercials - this is the syndication set made c.1985 - when all old TV shows were cut from 25:00/25:30 down to 22:30 for more commercials.

These 22:30 before commercials are the versions that HEROES & ICONS is currently airing on Sundays 2-shows a week (and MeTV and DECADES when they run them) and RETRO TELEVISION (That retro television network that has mostly low-power stations as affiliates.) airs them once a week. "The Silent Gun", although edited has the missing tag scene. The 2-parters have the usual next week/previous week cut.

The only true uncut set turned up from 16mm prints from Woody Wise's old "Hollywood Discount Video"/"Hollywood's Attic" in the late 1980's-Early 1990's - color was decent, and every episode was uncut as aired, complete with The next week/last week on the 2-parters and "The Green Hornet in Color" opening. 2 episodes per tape, the 2-parters on their own tapes. Sadly. he went out of business over a decade ago - sold off to "Nostalgia Family Video" (Who got in some trouble and was forced to shut down) - Woody was *mostly* a Public Domain guy (One of the first video guys in the early 1980's), but he'd slip in a few *ahem* underground titles on his TV List, and and a second *Ahem* underground list of Hollywood Features from the 1930's-1960's. Anyone with true uncut 16mm transfers came from his tapes. If you are tracking down a set, these are the ones to find. If you can actually find them. Originals are 2 per tape, in Yellow and grey boxes with the title "Television Classics" with pictures of various classic TV stars on them. Spine is a simple label with the series title and volume number. His quality was always nice, and had a great selection of movie series - I think any one that was going around he had - and that was back when getting The Columbia Serials and Some of The Universals were difficult. But I digress.

Then there was that set that leaked out from the studio that started to run around c.1990 - nice transfers, some episodes had "Place Commercial Here" tags - but episodes were mixed of edited and unedited. No one knows who the source was but it was shortly after the "Studio Set" of "Batman" episodes started running around.

The first episodes of "The Green Hornet" to run around on VHS were from Canada - CITY TV in Toronto, Ontario (Before they became a big regional station) in the mid-late 1980's ran the episodes. 16mm prints, most appeared uncut - supposedly they DID NOT air all 26 episodes for whatever reason (20th Canada may have not had a full set available?) as only 22 episodes turned up. Or perhaps the person who recorded them only got 22 - who knows - the other 4 were sourced from "someplace else" but the station was unknown. A lot of fans first saw episodes from "Bootlegs" from these broadcasts that made their way to the states. The 2-parters did have their next week/last week material intact.

The show turned up in Chicago - who aired the edited episodes - with ADDITIONAL edits for MORE Commercials in the 1990's pre-dating FX. If you've ever seen copies of oddly edited episodes that run short, these are them! (A handful of other markets did run the show in the 1990's, but a complete list is unknown, and they would have aired the 22:30 length episodes.)

Then of course, the FX broadcasts. Apparently they had their own set of episodes struck up and were not the syndication 22:30 length, nor the later "uncut" episodes ENCORE ACTION aired. Episode lengths varied.

Then there are those two "feature" films, "The Green Hornet" (a/k/a "Kato & The Green Hornet") and "Fury of The Dragon" - the only release that was not "Fake Letterboxed" was the Japanese Laserdiscs from 1991 - those were full screen and looked great - however, they had burned in small Japanese subtitles at the bottom, but were in English. These also had rough looking end credits which were lesser quality than the rest of the "film". (and are chaptered by "episode", although it's the same theatrical 1970's version with extra footage from episodes cut in.) The Official DVD releases (British, Japanese, and French) of both were "fake widescreen", but had English tracks. There is not official domestic version of either on DVD, and only the first got a VHS release "officially" in the states in the 1990's.

Beware of the "fake" Hong Kong DVD Releases - those are just dubs of TV airings. (and supposedly were created stateside from the same outfit who did the set of Angela Mao Kung-Fu films among others rarer films from old 16mm prints and beat up 35mm prints!)
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Ben Bentley
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by Ben Bentley »

MysticNitekatt wrote: Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:07 am Oh, I love this subject...4 decades in the making, if you think about it.

The Current TV Syndication length on THE GREEN HORNET is 22:30 before commercials - this is the syndication set made c.1985 - when all old TV shows were cut from 25:00/25:30 down to 22:30 for more commercials.

These 22:30 before commercials are the versions that HEROES & ICONS is currently airing on Sundays 2-shows a week (and MeTV and DECADES when they run them) and RETRO TELEVISION (That retro television network that has mostly low-power stations as affiliates.) airs them once a week. "The Silent Gun", although edited has the missing tag scene. The 2-parters have the usual next week/previous week cut.

The only true uncut set turned up from 16mm prints from Woody Wise's old "Hollywood Discount Video"/"Hollywood's Attic" in the late 1980's-Early 1990's - color was decent, and every episode was uncut as aired, complete with The next week/last week on the 2-parters and "The Green Hornet in Color" opening. 2 episodes per tape, the 2-parters on their own tapes. Sadly. he went out of business over a decade ago - sold off to "Nostalgia Family Video" (Who got in some trouble and was forced to shut down) - Woody was *mostly* a Public Domain guy (One of the first video guys in the early 1980's), but he'd slip in a few *ahem* underground titles on his TV List, and and a second *Ahem* underground list of Hollywood Features from the 1930's-1960's. Anyone with true uncut 16mm transfers came from his tapes. If you are tracking down a set, these are the ones to find. If you can actually find them. Originals are 2 per tape, in Yellow and grey boxes with the title "Television Classics" with pictures of various classic TV stars on them. Spine is a simple label with the series title and volume number. His quality was always nice, and had a great selection of movie series - I think any one that was going around he had - and that was back when getting The Columbia Serials and Some of The Universals were difficult. But I digress.

Then there was that set that leaked out from the studio that started to run around c.1990 - nice transfers, some episodes had "Place Commercial Here" tags - but episodes were mixed of edited and unedited. No one knows who the source was but it was shortly after the "Studio Set" of "Batman" episodes started running around.

The first episodes of "The Green Hornet" to run around on VHS were from Canada - CITY TV in Toronto, Ontario (Before they became a big regional station) in the mid-late 1980's ran the episodes. 16mm prints, most appeared uncut - supposedly they DID NOT air all 26 episodes for whatever reason (20th Canada may have not had a full set available?) as only 22 episodes turned up. Or perhaps the person who recorded them only got 22 - who knows - the other 4 were sourced from "someplace else" but the station was unknown. A lot of fans first saw episodes from "Bootlegs" from these broadcasts that made their way to the sates. The 2-parters did have their next week/last week material intact.

The show turned up in Chicago - who aired the edited episodes - with ADDITIONAL edits for MORE Commercials in the 1990's pre-dating FX. If you've ever seen copies of oddly edited episodes that run short, these are them! (A handful of other markets did run the show in the 1990's, but a complete list is unknown, and they would have aired the 22:30 length episodes.)

Then of course, the FX broadcasts. Apparently they had their own set of episodes struck up and were not the syndication 22:30 length, nor the later "uncut" episodes ENCORE ACTION aired. Episode lengths varied.

Then there are those two "feature" films, "The Green Hornet" (a/k/a "Kato & The Green Hornet") and "Fury of The Dragon" - the only release that was not "Fake Letterboxed" was the Japanese Laserdiscs from 1991 - those were full screen and looked great - however, they had burned in small Japanese subtitles at the bottom, but were in English. These also had rough looking end credits which were lesser quality than the rest of the "film". (and are chaptered by "episode", although it's the same theatrical 1970's version with extra footage from episodes cut in.) The Official DVD releases (British, Japanese, and French) of both were "fake widescreen", but had English tracks. There is not official domestic version of either on DVD, and only the first got a VHS release "officially" in the states in the 1990's.

Beware of the "fake" Hong Kong DVD Releases - those are just dubs of TV airings. (and supposedly were created stateside from the same outfit who did the set of Angela Mao Kung-Fu films among others rarer films from old 16mm prints and beat up 35mm prints!)
I just want to say a genuine THANK YOU for this post. Fascinatingly detailed and presented articulately! A winning combination around these parts.
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rsaffle
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by rsaffle »

I second Ben's Thank You! Awesome information.
*See more 3D printed props @ https://www.instagram.com/saffledesigns/
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STEPhonIT
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by STEPhonIT »

I've seen a few youtube channels who have The Green Hornet, I'm not sure if its edited for syndication or not. What is actually holding it back from a video release?
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STEPhonIT
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by STEPhonIT »

No updates for Blu ray or 4k? Most of the people involved are dead, whats the hold up? I'm sure there's demand for it especially for Bruce Lee fans. Earlier this year Criterion brought out remasters of Li's movies and they sold very well, The GH has a following and I would like to see it come out some day.
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svl
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by svl »

Diamond just made the deal with the Hornet & Lee estates for merch, so it can't be impossible...
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by Jerb »

NJ_Batfan wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:22 am As Wayne points out, overcoming these obstacles for a release that does not have a perceived high profit margin makes the property less attractive to pursue. However, I never thought the obstacles for Batman would ever be resolved and now we have an embarrassment of collectible riches, so maybe someday...
Agree with NJ
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Ben Bentley
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by Ben Bentley »

svl wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:02 pm Diamond just made the deal with the Hornet & Lee estates for merch, so it can't be impossible...
Apples and oranges in this case sadly. Keep in mind that Medicom had a license for TV GH in the early/mid-2000's way before Factory, Diamond and others and nearly ten years before the TV Batman merchandising deal was inked. Some argue that the Batman merch deal opened the door for the TV rights deal to eventually be done, but that was not in a literal sense but more so that it was the litmus test for interest in the show during an all important window of time when Warners did not have an active big-screen Batman franchise.

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AndyFish
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by AndyFish »

Some of the blame goes to Seth Rogan who's less than mediocre big budget movie flopped. I know at the time it was in production things started to move for an official DVD release but it never made it. Interest in the Hornet evaporated with Rogan's "comedy".

Batman's release can be attributed to many board members here who pushed the legal challenges and set a course for an agreement. I'm not sure those same folks would offer the same effort for GH, and for a production company having only 20 episodes makes for a tough sell profit wise, although that hasn't stopped my all time favorite show, KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER from getting VHS, DVD and finally this year Blu Ray releases.

So here's hoping. I have a nice set of GH but I'd be first in line for an official release.
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

Personally, at this point, I'm on the "Not holding my breath waiting for this one" side of the matter. If Fox, Greenway and whatever company now owns GH cannot get their act together (or believe it has to have a certain level of interest to invest time/money into remastering /releasing TGH), then it just inspires indifference in some of the fans, to the point where they no longer care if its ever released.
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Re: Will Green Hornet ever come to DVD?

Post by AndyFish »

I completely understand your sentiment Batwinged, but I think for most of us that icy exterior would melt if it got a real release. A company like Kino, Arrow or Criterion would seem a logical choice. There is a big market for GH in Asia, so I think at the very least it would do well there.
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