The Green Hornet centred on Britt Reid (Van Williams), a millionaire playboy and publisher of The Daily Sentinel, who also happened to fight crime as the masked Green Hornet. Kato (Bruce Lee) was his valet, chauffeur, and partner when it came to fighting crime. In their fight against evil, The Green Hornet and Kato utilized a specially modified, weapons laden Chrysler Imperial called "Black Beauty." The Green Hornet also used a knockout gas gun and a device called the "Hornet's Sting," which emitted ultrasonic waves (it was used primarily to knock down doors). While Kato primarily relied on his skills as a martial artist, he also had knockout darts that he could deliver from his sleeves.
To the world at large, The Green Hornet was a notorious criminal, a cover he used in his fight against crime. Britt Reid's secretary Lenore "Casey" Case (Wende Wagner) knew The Green Hornet's identity, and hence the true nature of The Green Hornet. District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon (Walter Brooke) also knew Britt Reid's secret identity and the truth about The Green Hornet. Mike Axford (Lloyd Gough) was the crime reporter at the Daily Sentinel and was totally in the dark about The Green Hornet.
The Green Hornet was created by WXYZ co-owner George W. Trendle and writer Fran Striker, with some input from director James Jewell. George W. Trendle and Fan Striker had earlier created The Lone Ranger, and The Green Hornet owed a lot to that character. In fact, it was established that Britt Reid was the great nephew of The Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet debuted on January 31, 1936, on WXYZ in Detroit and joined the Mutual Broadcasting System on April 12, 1938 and later the NBC Blue Network and its successors The Blue Network and ABC. The radio show proved to be very popular, so much so it expanded into other media. Helnit Comics and later Harvey Comics published comic books featuring The Green Hornet during the Golden Age of Comics. Two movie serials were made: The Green Hornet (1941) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941).
Like The Lone Ranger before him, it was perhaps inevitable that The Green Hornet would find his way to television. In 1951, George W. Trendle pitched a Green Hornet television series to the networks and even produced a 25 minute pilot starring Steve Dunne as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet. A Green Hornet series did not emerge and the pilot is now considered lost. Another attempt at pitching a Green Hornet series was made in 1958, but, again, no series emerged. It would take William Dozier, who had produced such programmes as Suspense and You Are There, to television.
While William Dozier would produce the camp classic Batman, it was not due to the success of Batman that William Dozier decided to produce a Green Hornet TV series. William Dozier had already secured the rights to the classic radio show before Batman debuted. Indeed, both Van Williams and Bruce Lee were already cast as The Green Hornet and Kato well before Batman premiered on January 12, 1966. Of course, there can be no doubt that it was the success of Batman that led to ABC placing The Green Hornet on its fall 1966 schedule.
As to casting, Bruce Lee was actually cast as Kato before Van Williams was cast as The Green Hornet. It was hair stylist Jay Sebring who brought William Dozier and Bruce Lee together. Jay Sebring had seen Bruce Lee at the Long Beach International Karate Championships in 1964, where Mr. Lee gave a gung fu exhibition. Jay Sebring told William Dozier about Bruce Lee while trimming Mr. Dozier's hair. William Dozier then asked Bruce Lee to come in for a screen test.
William Dozier's initial plan was not to cast Bruce Lee as Kato in a Green Hornet series, but instead in a show to be called Number One Son. Bruce Lee would have played Charlie Chan's Number One Son (a role played by Keye Luke in the movies). In the first episode, Charlie Chan would have been murdered, leading Lee Chan (his Number One Son) to avenge his death. The prospective show was described as a "Chinese James Bond." ABC passed on the prospective show, not even ordering a pilot. When William Dozier was planning The Green Hornet, he naturally offered the role of Kato to Bruce Lee. Mr. Lee was initially reluctant to take the role, as he worried it would be a stereotypical houseboy role. Wiliam Dozier convinced him that this would not be the case. It was Bruce Lee who insisted on using Chinese martial arts in fight scenes.
While Bruce Lee was the only actor considered for Kato, other actors were considered for the role of Britt Reid/The Green Hornet. Two screen tests were made with Bruce Lee opposite two different actors: Jan Murray, best known for hosting various game shows, and Michael Lipton, who would become best known for the soap opera Somerset. Ultimately, neither would be cast as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet. Instead, the role went to Van Williams. who had played Ken Madison on Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside Six.
Although William Dozier produced both shows, The Green Hornet would have a very different tone from Batman. While Batman was played for camp, The Green Hornet was played as a straightforward action show. Much of this was due to William Dozier's desire to differentiate the two. Most it was due to George W, Trendle's desire that the TV show remain faithful to the tone of the radio show. This would result in a conflict between George W. Trendle and writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. (who wrote the pilot and several episodes of Batman). Lorenzo Semple Jr. wrote the pilot with a largely comedic tone, to which George W. Trendle objected. William Dozier intervened in the dispute, but ultimately sided with George W. Trendle. Quite simply, there was a clause in the licensing agreement with George W. Tremble that stipulated that the TV series, "..shall not depict The Green Hornet in a manner substantially different from which he or other major characters were depicted on the radio series."
That is not to say that The Green Hornet did not diverge from the radio show. On the radio show, The Green Hornet's link with law enforcement was Britt Reid's friend Police Commissioner James Higgins. Because Commissioner Gordon played such a large role on Batman, District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon became The Green Hornet's contact with law enforcement instead. On the radio show, it was not until later in the series that Britt Reid's secretary Casey would learn he was The Green Hornet, although on the TV show she knew from the beginning. While The Green Hornet's gas gun and his car Black Beauty were carryovers from the radio show, the Hornet's Sting was created for the TV show.
As to The Green Hornet's appearance, the TV show differed from both the comic books and the movie serials. The comic books of the Golden Age depicted The Green Hornet as wearing a mask that covered the lower part of his face. The movie serials depicted The Green Hornet as wearing a mask that covered most of his face. The radio show never went into detail about The Green Hornet's mask.
Despite the differences in the two show's tones, The Green Hornet and Kato would appear on Batman. They made a cameo in the first part of the Batman episode "The Spell of Tut"/"Tut's Case is Shut" during one of Batman and Robin's Batclimbs. Later in the season, The Green Hornet appeared in the episode "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman' Satisfaction." The episode called for a fight between Kato and Robin. According to Van Williams, the original script called for Kato to lose to Robin. Bruce Lee objected on the grounds that Kato would not lose to Robin. The script was then rewritten. In real life, Bruce Lee and Brut Ward (who played Robin) were friends who lived in the same apartment complex.
Sadly, The Green Hornet was scheduled against The Wild Wild West on CBS and Tarzan on NBC, two shoes that appealed to the same younger audience as The Green Hornet. This resulted in the show having ratings so low that it reportedly lost $40,000 per episode. It was then that ABC ultimately cancelled The Green Hornet. For a single season show, it would prove to have a particularly good afterlife. It was syndicated to local stations in the late Sixties and Seventies, often alongside Batman. It would later air on such cable channels as FX and Starz Action. It has aired on such digital broadcast networks as MeTV, Heroes and Icons, and Retro TV.
The Green Hornet would develop a cult following, in a large part due to the presence of Bruce Lee. Here it must be pointed that in many ways the show was ground breaking with regards to East Asian Americans on American television. Prior to The Green Hornet, Jack Soo had played Rocky Sin on Valentine's Day, the first American television show since The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong starring Anna May Wong and the very first sitcom to feature an East Asian American in a lead role. It was only the day before The Green Hornet debuted that another show featuring an East Asian in a significant role debuted. Star Trek featured George Takei as Lt. Sulu, the helmsman of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Of course, Sulu was only a supporting role while Kato was one of the leads.
The Green Hornet was also significant as the first show to extensive feature kung fu. While both Emma Peel on The Avengers and James West on The Wild Wild West incorporated Eastern martial arts in their fight scenes, neither character used Eastern martial arts as extensively as Kato on The Green Hornet. Bruce Lee's use of kung fu on The Green Hornet would help increase the popularity of Eastern martial arts in the United States. The Green Hornet would also boost Bruce Lee's acting career. Reruns of The Green Hornet had proven very popular in Hong Kong and Kato was so popular that it was often referred to as "The Kato Show." This would ultimately lead to Bruce Lee signing a contract with Golden Harvest.
In the end, The Green Hornet would be one of the most successful single season shows of all time, developing a cult following that it maintains to this day. Indeed, it is not simply a footnote in Bruce Lee's career, but one of the first showcases of his talent as an actor and a martial artist. Chances are good people will still be watching it sixty years from now.
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