First Time I ever saw Green Hornet

[Batfan 66]

I am not really a Green Hornet fan, but I think it was a great series anyway I just wanted to mention the first time I ever saw it, and ask about anyone else's first time

It was St.patrick's day, and 7pm, we turn on the tv to watch Batman! But there is no Batman - they are playing the Green Hornet back to back all night, and I'm like 'whaaaat? noooooooooo!' I had no clue what the Green hornet was, and it looked really weird...especially the beginning, but we watched it anyway, hoping for Batman to come on It was an episode where this guy called The Scarf was a murderer, and there were a bunch of wax figures involved. Couldn't help thinking how fun it would be in one of the wax figures started spouting out riddles and turning around and shooting paint out of a gun But of course that didn't happen It was interesting, and seemed like a good show, but I was too intent on waiting and hoping for Batman to actually notice this

Did this series last long? How popular was it? Did Batman smother any chances of huge popularity? Did William Dozier narrate this too?

And most of all, what was your first time watching it like?

[v194]

You saw probally the worst episode as far as action is concerned and you missed one of the major stars of the show, The Black Beauty. Yes Dozier narrated and it unfortunately only ran one season. This was primarily because it was really a masked crime fighter working on a crime drama (think of like Mannix with masks) and it took more than 1/2 hour to develop a plot. ABC refused to let it go to 1 hour and they pulled the plug. In addition cost runs were out of hand and money was bleeding from Batman and the Green Hornet so that was a factor also.
Actually in front of test audiences the Green Hornet did better than Batman. But by time it came along Batman was already established and extremely popular.

[Lounge lizard]

The Green Hornet tv show wasn't broadcast at the time in the UK.
The only sight we had of him and Kato was on the Batman show.
I remember feeling annoyed that these 2 were invading Batman's patch.

I also remember, at the end of the first part, the announcer on Southern tv said "that was the last episode in the series" (of course it wasn't but I guess ratings were spiralling). Holy cliff-hanger !

I had to wait until Batman was re-run in the 80's to find out what happened.

[Wayne Faucher]

I know I saw the show's first run. I must have, because I had the lunch box and the Captain Action outfit. It's funny that NOW I wait for Bruce to do his stuff, but THEN I just waited for Van and the Beauty to show up! Still love it though and like anything good, you learn to love it for different reasons as time passes....

And ok, I still wait for Van and the Beauty to show up too....

[BATWINGED HORNET]

OP: interesting story!

I do not have the official syndication package data at hand, but in the Los Angeles market (my home city), The Green Hornet was a total no-show in syndication until the FX channel brought it back in the early 1990s.

Until then, one had to rely on the Batman crossover episode, the compilation movie (if you were lucky to find it), or in the late 70s, the "superheroes" episode of the Fox-produced/ABC-aired film history series That's Hollywood (hosted by Tom Bosley).

In that segment, the Bruce Lee angle was played up (remember, this only a few short years after his passing). Batman was profiled, of course, with clips from a few episodes. The series even used the catapult cliffanger from "Penguin is A Girl's Best Friend," to tease before the break.

For someone not yet born when TGH was first run, seeing any clips at all was a great treat.

[BatandGHfan54]

I was 11 when Batman started and was turning 12 just as the Green Hornet had its first show. I was impressed by the darker angle of GH in contrast to the campiness of Batman which was wearing thin by that time. Nonetheless, I liked the crossover Batman episodes despite the earlier episodes of each show that indicated that the other was a TV show in its setting.

I never knew until recent years why GH went off, that it was a dispute between producer and network over time format. I knew something was not right that summer after the first season when the actor who played Scanlon had a bit part in one of my mom's soaps, I think playing a DA ironically enough. Then in the fall GH was not on anymore.

[TheoriginalBat-James]

I remember watching it. Reruns of course. Now I understood why it wasn't campy. In an interview Mr. Dozier said it was going to be totally different from the batman series. I'm sure it could've lasted longer. And Dozier did a fine job on it.

Now the movie..... that's another story. I mean why did they have so much "Camp" in it. Don't get me wrong. I loved the movie. And it shows a side of the Hornet we've never seen before, and I loved seeing his and Kato go at it. "You even sound like a baby, ma ma goo goo."Bret said ha ha I just wished the merchandise was there at Wal-Mart. But I'm gratful they thought at least for making the movie. But as with the series though. The ratings wasn't there. I'll always be a fan of Dozier's batman and Hornet, and Wonder Woman. He was a man before his time.

[John Mack]

Techinically, the first time I saw the Green Hornet was on Batman. But as for an actual episode of the show, it was during football season in 1973 or 1974 on WGN in Chicago--so it did have reruns there. They had Batman listed as being shown after the game (but in case you didn't know, if football runs over in time, the show listed airs in part or not at all.) It wasn't Batman, but a GH episode already in progress. I had no idea this show existed until then, which is odd being such a 66 fan. Much later in life, I found the name of the episode I'd been watching: "The silent gun" the series premiere episode.

This will come as no surprise to people here, but I was taken by the music. Little did I know then, it was because Billy May did the 3rd season of some other show I had been watching. LOL

John

[The Green Hornet]

I first viewed saw "The Green Hornet" t.v.series when I was 8 years old in 1966,and 9 years old in 1967,and have never forgotten my experience.It was on a completely other and darker much more serious more realistic level than the very campy light hearted "batman" series which was also airing showing during that time.It is so very hard to beleive that both series were made by the same people since the approach to both shows were so differant from each other.I grew up liking "The Green Hornet" best better no contest.And I am still a huge fan to this day and will always be.

[BAT CAVERN]

OP: interesting story!

I do not have the official syndication package data at hand, but in the Los Angeles market (my home city), The Green Hornet was a total no-show in syndication until the FX channel brought it back in the early 1990s.

Until then, one had to rely on the Batman crossover episode, the compilation movie (if you were lucky to find it), or in the late 70s, the "superheroes" episode of the Fox-produced/ABC-aired film history series That's Hollywood (hosted by Tom Bosley).

In that segment, the Bruce Lee angle was played up (remember, this only a few short years after his passing). Batman was profiled, of course, with clips from a few episodes. The series even used the catapult cliffanger from "Penguin is A Girl's Best Friend," to tease before the break.

For someone not yet born when TGH was first run, seeing any clips at all was a great treat.

THe GREEN HORNeT, in fact, did see early syndication in Los Angeles.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Actually in front of test audiences the Green Hornet did better than Batman. But by time it came along Batman was already established and extremely popular.

I always found that to be a fascinating comment on the true taste of audiences. With all of the 2000s push for "realistic" or "gritty" superheroes on film (the suggestion that audiences do not want anything light and/or silly), people reached that point as "early" as 1966, despite the success of Batman.

Test audiences seemed to find a GH-level of "costumed" character acceptable--probably believable. It is just too bad GH did not see a 2nd season, because i'm guessing the way out, Irwin Allen-y finale "Invasion from Outer Space" would have been an anomaly--and not a sign of things to come, since the test audiences bought the GH concept without over the top villains.

[John Mack]

Ya know in TODAY'S MARKET, the market share that Batman had in the 3rd season and GH had at the end of their first season, these shows would not have been cancelled. Batman had a 30 share in the third season and GH had a 18 share!! Of course with only 3 channels and PBS, no one had anywhere else to turn. Today, with the hundreds of channels, an 8% share is considered good enough for another season.

John

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Ya know in TODAY'S MARKET, the market share that Batman had in the 3rd season and GH had at the end of their first season, these shows would not have been cancelled. Batman had a 30 share in the third season and GH had a 18 share!! Of course with only 3 channels and PBS, no one had anywhere else to turn. Today, with the hundreds of channels, an 8% share is considered good enough for another season.

John

ABC and Dozier dropped the ball on GH. If not expanding to an hour was (ultimately) the deal breaker, it would have been difficult to hire better writers accustomed to adding depth in the 26 minute format--which was not uncommon in the 1960s. As far as the 1967/68 schedule goes, ABC greenlit money wasting and/or poor concept nonsense such as Hondo, The Second Hundred Years, Custer, Cowboy in Africa, The Guns of Will Sonnet, etc., but a series which had a growing following and more creative potential for growth was kicked from the schedule.

Unless one is a serious student of TV history, all of the aforementioned series earn a collective "huh--what?" if mentioned. They were not memorable, or short-lived gems, but The Green Hornet--beyond any connection to Batman (and long before Lee's movie stardom) lived on, inspiring interest after its ABC run.

[WaltP]

But I liked Guns of Will Sonnet. It was what we watched just before Star Trek.

I was bummed when GH was cancelled after one season, too. at my age then, Batman was still better, but GH was right up there with it. Kinda reminds me of the Arrow/Flash of today, with Arrow being the gritty show, and Flash lighter.

[Todd Grimes]

Sorry for the LONG story below, but I've spent a bit of time pondering the answer to the question of "the first time I ever saw The Green Hornet." So anyway . . . .

I love this character! When I was very young, Batman ruled the syndicated airwaves and I watched every day – Saturday through Sunday! It was on the Batman series that I first saw character known as The Green Hornet. For some reason I was mesmerized by this character. I knew from the context of the two-part episode that he was a “bad guy” but yet still fought other bad guys – so he was sort of a good guy . . . I think(?) I wanted to know about this guy! I wanted to know his back story and why he was a bad guy who was also a good guy. The only knowledge I would ever gain was what little information I could get from the two episodes of Batman. I distinctly remember watching the show every day and hoping that it would be “the episode with The Green Hornet.” I remember playing up in my room one day, and my sister yelling to me from downstairs “Todd! Come quick, the episode with The Green Lantern is on!” Of course I corrected her. But seriously, who was this mysterious guy??

For years I thought about this character. I drew pictures of him beating up bad guys . . . I made up stories about him fighting Batman etc. etc. Then years later in 1989, the ’66 Batman show made a comeback on cable, during the popularity of the Tim Burton film that had come out that summer. Of course I watched nightly, and then saw that famed season two episode “A Piece of the Action” with a special guest villain, The Green Hornet. Suddenly I was overcome with childhood memories of my favorite character. I was a teenager at this point and I decided I needed to know more about this guy. So I headed to the local library and searched him out in old archived magazine articles and microfiche! (If you’re under the age of 35, you’re going to have to google that one!)

In my search I discovered that there was an entire TV show dedicated to this character, and that there was a whole 26 episodes of it somewhere out there! So I set out to find it!

What I found was NOTHING. It was like the show was nothing more than an urban legend. It was nowhere to be found in any format or on any broadcast channel in any market (as far as my research could tell me at the time). These were the days LONG before the internet. If you wanted to research something, you had to do real leg-work. What I was able to uncover was a lot of photographs and synopses for each of the 26 episodes. I already knew what every episode was about and yet I had never even seen the show.

Then one day I was at my father’s house on a Saturday and a TV special came on about Bruce Lee. Luckily I happened to be taping the special because my dad and I were big kung-fu movie fans, and we loved Bruce Lee! Well, what do you know . . . a portion of this special mentioned Bruce’s role as Kato and even showed some short clips from The Green Hornet show!! WHAT?!? At the time I was certain that the 20 seconds or so of grainy footage from an old ABC promo was the most I would ever see of the show. Enter the FX network . . .

The year was 1994 – I was 20 years old, and this new network appeared on our cable lineup. It quickly became my favorite channel as it had acquired all sorts of retro shows from the past, including Batman. But then one day I saw it. Searching the TV Guide, there it was . . . right there on the FX schedule lineup. Both Saturday and Sunday at 4pm and Midnight: The Green Hornet. I couldn’t believe it was real. Was this just another Bruce Lee tribute special? Could this actually be the show??

Much to my delight, it was indeed the elusive program that I had spent almost my entire life, to date, in search of – finally on TV in my lifetime. In fact, by the time I’d even noticed that the show was on FX it had already been airing for several weeks without my knowledge. So I watched. I sat in front of the TV recording the show on my VCR, and hitting the pause button every time the commercials came on so that I would have clean, commercial-free recordings of every episode. And I got all 26 during that summer of 1994 – 26 episodes on two VHS tapes. I had finally been able to physically witness a show that had only been a legend in my mind for as long as I could remember.

Now If I could only see this show make its way to Blu-ray one day . . . a boy can dream.