The Green Hornet (TV series)
| The Green Hornet | |
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Van Williams and Bruce Lee, 1966.
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| Genre | Action/Adventure |
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| Narrated by | William Dozier |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | William Dozier |
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| Running time | 30 min. |
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| Distributor | 20th Television |
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| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | Color |
| Original release | September 9, 1966 – March 17, 1967 |
The Green Hornet is a television series on the ABC US television network that aired for the 1966–1967 TV season starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet/Britt Reid and Bruce Lee as Kato.
The single-season series premiered September 9, 1966, and ran through March 17, 1967, lasting 26 episodes; ABC repeated the series after its cancellation by the network, until July 14, 1967, when The Green Hornet had its last broadcast on network television.
The character had originated as the star of a radio series (1930s to 1950s), and it had previously been adapted to movie serials, comic books, and other media. Owing in part to George W. Trendle and Fran Striker having created all the central characters and developed the core formats of both radio shows, Britt Reid shares the same family name as the Lone Ranger, as Britt's father had been the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan Reid.
Playboy bachelor and media mogul Britt Reid is the owner and publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper, but as the masked vigilante Green Hornet, he fights crime with the assistance of his martial-artist expert Kato, Britt's crimefighting partner, and his weapons-enhanced car, the Black Beauty (license plate V-194). On police records, the Green Hornet is a wanted criminal, but in reality, the Green Hornet is masquerading as a criminal so that he can infiltrate and battle criminal gangs, leaving them and the incriminating evidence for police arrival. Beyond Kato, Britt's dual identity is known only to his secretary Lenore "Casey" Case and District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon.
Britt's motive for fighting crime was explained on-screen: his father had died in prison after having been framed for a crime he did not commit.
Despite character co-creator George W. Trendle's failed efforts to generate interest in a Green Hornet TV series in 1951 and 1958, the success of ABC's 1960s Batman series prompted the network to adapt the venerable radio and movie-serial character. The series starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet and introduced martial artist Bruce Lee to American television audiences as his partner, Kato. Unlike the campy and humorous Batman series, The Green Hornet was played straight. Though it was canceled after one season, Lee became a major star of martial arts movies. Lee's popularity in Hong Kong, where he was raised, was such that the show was marketed there as The Kato Show. The Green Hornet and Kato also appeared in two episodes of Batman titled "A Piece Of The Action/Batman's Satisfaction," with Reid mentioning that he and Bruce Wayne had been acquaintances and rivals since childhood. Though other characters in the story were all led to believe wrongly that the Green Hornet and Kato were villains, as on The Green Hornet: The Series, Roger C. Carmel acted out the show's real villain, who called himself Colonel Gumm.
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