Hornet's cancellation

The Green Hornet TV series and related topics

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bat-rss
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Hornet's cancellation

Post by bat-rss »

Hi
I'm just finishing up watching the whole Hornet series on YouTube. Some episodes are better than others, but overall I enjoyed it. Thoughts on why it was cancelled? I've heard some suggestions, such as that "The Wild Wild West" was eating GH's lunch ratings-wise; the thirty-minute format didn't allow for much character development; viewers may have been put off by low production values, etc. Thoughts?

How could the show have been made better/more appealing to viewers?
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doob
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by doob »

I think ABC was expecting another Batman. Another tongue in cheek action-sitcom. I don't think the era was ready to accept the subject matter played straight. I'm sure that lead to some of the later campier episodes. Yes- most of the characters were under developed. But the end result, in hindsight, is awesome.
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dell
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by dell »

Batman worked because it was fast paced and you could pack a lot of humor in a 30 minute episode (most stories were really 60 minutes split into two parts). I think GH was hampered by the 30 minute format. They had to do it all in 30 minutes; find out about the crime, investigate and solve it. There was no humor to lighten it up.

Plus I think the gimmick of the GH being a "criminal" wore thin pretty quickly.
dell
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bat-rss
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by bat-rss »

I remember as a kid watching "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman's Satisfaction" and finding it frustrating that Green Hornet was seen as a criminal when he wasn't. I wanted him to work together with Batman!

"Ace in the Hole" (Hornet #20) struck me as the funniest episode. If they had deployed even that level of humor a little more often, it might have helped the series survive. I note that in 1967 they did a couple of two-parters, which implies to me that they were trying to address the problems with 30-minute adventures, but it was a bit too late by then. (And anyway, "Invasion from Outer Space" is a pretty jarring couple of episodes! Even after we understand what's really going on, it doesn't fit comfortably into the Hornet's universe.)

Paul and I (and a guest!) will be recording a "To the Batpoles" episode about the Green Hornet series in a few hours (putting "A Piece of the Action" off till the following episode). I'm sure the reasons for cancellation will be tossed around more then. Thanks!
"I'm half-demented with whimsical outrage!"
-- The Joker, in a line cut from "The Joker's Epitaph"
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

doob wrote: Tue May 02, 2017 8:12 am I think ABC was expecting another Batman. Another tongue in cheek action-sitcom. I don't think the era was ready to accept the subject matter played straight. I'm sure that lead to some of the later campier episodes. Yes- most of the characters were under developed. But the end result, in hindsight, is awesome.
Batman was not a sitcom. It was largely action/adventure, but (by the first quarter of season 2) sank into lazy writing that embraced trying to be unintentionally silly, which some of the staff thought was being clever.

The Green Hornet never really moved to Batman-style camp; the oft-referenced "Invasion from Outer Space" was a pure Cold War / Bond-ian plot, from Dr. Mabuse's methods and reason for hijacking & threatening to trigger an atomic weapon, to couching that in more fantastic elements (the belt that generates electric bolts). The Green Hornet was intended to be its own animal, not a copy of Batman at all, so it played by its own, serious rules. You were never going to see giant clams, party store spiders pulled on a string, surfing heroes or a sassy sidekick (Batgirl) who cannot believably engage in one of the series' hallmarks (the Batfight) anywhere near the sets of The Green Hornet.
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Progress Pigment
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by Progress Pigment »

I'll tell you, I'm hot & cold on the Hornet. It often seemed like a green tinted 'Dragnet'. There was humor. Usually at the end, and directed at Mike Axford, the good natured butt of their jokes. The actor had actually been a low echelon film star in the 40's/50's. Batman was fast paced in the first season, which worked. By season 2 they were largely standing in place & reciting banal Stanley Ralph Ross lines. Was that really Dr. Mabuse?! Wow. A film character that begain in the 20's. I'll have to re-watch that one.
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AndyFish
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by AndyFish »

I'm with Progress except I like DRAGNET better than THE GREEN HORNET. Some of the campiness of that show boggles my 2017 sensibilities and I think Jack Webb is great.

I've been watching HORNET's while working in my studio, mixed in with other 60s show on my own streaming service and it really does run hot and cold. The one with the fake Hornet was pretty good, but other episodes have been very flat. Mike Axford was always an annoying character be it here, in the serials or on the radio.
elgualterio
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Re: Hornet's cancellation

Post by elgualterio »

...Could one problem for the GH "66 series rating/gaining viewers- wise have been that, unlike Batman, the series did not have the support of regularly-published comic books out on the market that had, furthermore, been going u interrupted for more than 25 years so that even those not reading the comics once had and/or still passed by the comic book on their nearby stand? The radio series had been cancelled nearly 15 years previous and I suppose the (rather minor) TH comic books did too.
Maybe Dozier/ABC/Fox thought middle-aged adults would nostalgize for their childhood hero, perhaps getting overly caught up in the supposed " camp/nostalgia revival " - but with that the only source of recognition, no present- day kids-reminding presence or even much if any familiarity to younger (20-something, say.) adults? (I recall reading of some later-50s reruns of the original, but I read of no such referenced in Wimipedia.)
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