THE EVERLASTING FIRST: The Green Hornet

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every love story still needs to begin with that first kiss.


 

This was originally posted as part of a longer piece covering both pop music and comic book characters. It's separated here for convenience.

Another challenge for The Green Hornet, his aide Kato, and their rolling arsenal, The Black Beauty! On police records a wanted criminal, The Green Hornet is really Britt Reid, owner-publisher of The Daily Sentinel, his dual identity known only to his secretary and to the District Attorney. And now, to protect the rights and lives of decent citizens, rides The Green Hornet!

Oh yes--the 1966 TV series was absolutely my introduction to The Green Hornet and Kato. But first, a little background information is in order.

The Green Hornet was originally one of the most successful radio heroes of the 1930s. Created as a contemporary follow-up to the success of The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet's modus operandi was to make everyone--the public, the authorities, the underworld itself--believe he was the biggest, baddest supercriminal of them all. The Green Hornet and Kato would move in on some crook's evil scheme, ostensibly to cut the Hornet in on a piece of the ill-gotten profits, but really to work secretly in smashing that scheme and bringing the crook to justice. The parallels between The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet were many: just as The Lone Ranger was often mistaken for an outlaw because he wore a friggin' mask, fercryinoutloud, The Green Hornet posed as an outlaw to accomplish his crimefighting goals; each had an ethnic assistant--The Lone Ranger's faithful Indian companion Tonto and The Green Hornet's Asian chauffeur Kato--but neither was really played as the comic relief or stereotype that could have been expected in Depression-era pulp entertainment (Tonto's broken English speech patterns notwithstanding); both had distinctive modes of transportation--The Lone Ranger's fiery horse Silver and The Green Hornet's supercar The Black Beauty; both eschewed killing, obeying a strict moral code, even when dealing with a murderous criminal element; and both had telltale signature weapons (The Lone Ranger's silver bullets and The Green Hornet's nonlethal gas gun). It was even revealed that the two characters were blood relatives: John (The Lone Ranger) Reid's nephew Dan, who appeared in some of The Lone Ranger's adventures, would grow up to be the father of Britt (The Green Hornet) Reid.



While The Lone Ranger's success survived the demise of the golden age of radio, leading to a classic TV series (and a pair of feature films) in the late '40s and '50s, The Green Hornet could not duplicate that success in other media. Both characters appeared in movie serials, and both appeared in licensed comic book series, but The Green Hornet was really long gone from the spotlight by the time he returned in 1966.



The Green Hornet's return was prompted by the success of Batman, the campy, twice-weekly ABC TV show that had been the breakout hit of '66.  Batman producer William Dozier wanted to return to the four-color well, hoping for another comics-related hit. He shot an unsold pilot for Dick Tracy. He shot test footage for a legendarily awful sitcom approach to Wonder Woman. And he sold The Green Hornet series to ABC.

Actor Van Williams was cast as crusading publisher Britt Reid and his alter ego, The Green Hornet. A then-unknown Chinese-American actor named Bruce Lee became Kato. And they were both just outstanding in their roles. We all know of Lee's subsequent fame and acclaim as a martial arts expert and movie star in the early '70s, and much of his raw talent and charisma was already evident here. But one shouldn't ignore Williams' easygoing charm and believable authority as the titular hero; this show wouldn't have worked without the talents of both Williams and Lee.

Unlike Batman, The Green Hornet was played relatively straight; there were few truly outlandish villains, very little campy humor, and a sense of action and adventure that was never really present in the exploits of our Caped Crusaders over in Gotham City. It was a crime drama, a detective show, where the leads happened to have secret identities and high-tech crimefighting gear. Even when the shows crossed over, as The Green Hornet and Kato tangled with Batman and Robin on a two-part episode of Batman, Williams and Lee still seemed to play things straight amidst all that campy silliness (versus the exaggerated, comedic "straight" required of Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin).

Where Batman was a colorful, incandescent explosion of self-conscious pop-art exuberance, The Green Hornet was cool. Taking a partial cue from Peter Gunn, each episode was propelled by jazzy, uptempo music, with Al Hirt's "Green Hornet Theme" (itself a jazzed-up version of "Flight Of The Bumblebee") setting the tempo at the beginning of each show. Lee's impressive skill with gung fu was simply dazzling, and the show delivered tight-lipped thrills with panache and style.

It was doomed from the start.

Batman's mass popular appeal had been as a self-aware joke. The American viewing public was not in the mood for super-heroics played straight, and The Green Hornet lasted but one season. After Bruce Lee's death, as anything he'd done became a potential box-office bonanza, three episodes of The Green Hornet were badly stitched together, fattened up with extraneous and nonsensical Bruce Lee fight scenes from other, unrelated episodes of the show, and released to movie theaters as a feature film in 1974. The film has been variously referred to as The Green Hornet and as Kato And The Green Hornet. I saw it (as Kato And The Green Hornet) at The Biograph Theater in downtown Syracuse, an old-time movie house (originally called The Eckel) that was in its death throes, and would be a parking lot before long. A DVD version of Kato And The Green Hornet remains the only legitimate home-video release of anything from The Green Hornet TV series.




     


During the show's original run, there were a handful of tie-in products. Gold Key Comics published three issues of a Green Hornet comic book, the hero's first comics appearances since a one-shot in 1953.  There was a set of Green Hornet playing cards, a paperback novel called The Infernal Light, a Green Hornet Halloween costume (which my Dad tried to get me to choose, insisting it would be more distinctive than the Batman costume I went with instead), a Green Hornet costume for the Captain Action action figure, and a Green Hornet Better Little Book. Al Hirt released an LP of (mostly) TV theme songs, The Horn Meets "The Hornet," with a proud cover of Hirt standing next to Van Williams, in costume and in character.

The Green Hornet largely faded from pop culture after that. There have been sporadic attempts to license the character for comic-book revivals, and there was a simply horrible feature film version starring Seth Rogen a few years back. I'm thankful that didn't catch on! I've heard some of the original radio episodes, and I've watched the first movie serial from the '30s, and enjoyed them. But my Green Hornet remains Van Williams, with Bruce Lee at his side, charging forth in The Black Beauty with gas guns, Hornet's sting, and gung fu, set to kick the bad guys' asses and elude the police while jazz plays in the background and foreground. Another challenge for The Green Hornet? Yes, please.

Oh. And release the TV series on Blu-ray awready!

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