Tonight's Wednesday Dungeon Weirdness is a wartime hero called
"The Green Hornet!"
This first Green Hornet comic came out on December 01, 1940, and featured a guy kind of smack dab in the middle between Dick Tracy and Batman!!
"The Green Hornet" TV show came out in 1966, arguable, THE best year in pop culture!
"Batman" was on TV for the first time in January of 1966, and "The Green Hornet" and "Star Trek" both came on in September of the same year! The Billboard Hot 100 songs of the year, are still listened to today some 51 years later! Here's just a handful of the some of the unforgettable titles: "96 Tears" - ? and The Mysterians, "Paint It Black" - The Rolling Stones, "Wild Thing" - The Troggs, "Sunshine Superman" - Donovan, "Good Vibrations" - The Beach Boys, "Secret Agent Man" - Johnny Rivers, "Wipe Out" - The Surfaris, "Psychotic Reaction - Count Five, "I Fought The Law," - Bobby Fuller Four! And that's only nine out of one hundred!
The first "Green Hornet" Episode was called "The Silent Gun!" It was a big deal back then to have a gun that didn't make any noise or flash!!
Van Williams was newspaper publisher Britt Reid, aka "The Green Hornet!" Van had been one of the stars on two previous TV shows, "Bourbon Street Beat," and "Surfside 6," as Ken Madison on both shows. He was also in an episode of "77 Sunset Strip" as Ken Madison, and was on three "Batman's" as "The Green Hornet!" Van just passed away last year at the age of 82
"The Green Hornet's" Sidekick is Bruce Lee as Kato! This role was Bruce Lee's big breakout success in the United States! Pretty weird that Van Williams lived exactly 50 years longer than Bruce Lee! He was so fit, after all these years, it's still hard to believe he's dead!
You know what they say about "don't go poking a hornest's nest!" Good advice!!
"The Green Hornet" was only on for one season, but back in the 60's, one season consisted of 26 episodes!
"The Green Hornet" was only on for one season, but back in the 60's, one season consisted of 26 episodes!
I love the wall advertisement for "Kissin' Candy Mints" that also acts as the exit for "The Green Hornet's" car.................
..........A bitchin' tricked out 1965 Chrysler Imperial called "Black Beauty!"
Green Hornet and Kato have a lot of high-tech equipment like this!
And the show has tricky shots like this!
"Alley-Oop-Oop!"
Is Argyle to Arms what Manicotto is to Legs?
Is Argyle to Arms what Manicotto is to Legs?
In 2011, they tried it again with Seth Rogen as "The Green Hornet" and Jay Chou as Kato! I can't tell you much more than that, because I just found out five minutes ago!
Speaking of wild things, once again, I have to tell you, only because it's true, that Lord Litter in Berlin was the guy who came up with this for me, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but really, go check out some of his radio shows, and you just might find out that there is actually still good music being made in the world since 1966! Here's the place to go!
Here's a look at issue number 07 from June of 1942 of "The Green Hornet" Just think, he was only the headliner! What about all the secondary supporting acts like "The Blonde Bomber," "Zebra," "Robin Hood," the "Mighty Midgets," and the "Spirit Of '76," and then there was those evil clowns! Damn!!!!! I hate evil clowns!
7 comments:
My favorite song listed there from 1966, the year we graduated from HS, is SUNSHINE SUPERMAN...
As I recall, the Green Hornet was generally played pretty straight. (Although, like most drama shows, it had some occasional comedy relief.) Which seems odd, since it was by the same producer as the campy Batman TV show. And 1966-67 was the peak of the camp fad. Adam West as Batman, Dean Martin as Matt Helm, James Coburn as Flint, Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaise, and David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen as James Bond.
That was one weird year.
In the 1970s, when Bruce Lee became a big movie star, some fly-by-night producer dug up some Green Hornet episodes, edited them into a feature-length film, and released it as a new kung fu action movie, "starring Bruce Lee." It was taken out of circulation when the rightful copyright owner threatened to sue.
I think Van Williams later did some crime-fighting IRL, as a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County.
GREEN HORNET was aired on Friday evenings, followed by TIME TUNNEL! Two of my favorite shows that year, for sure. Problem was, we lived in an old steel mill town in Ohio, and the nearest ABC-TV affiliate was in Pittsburgh, PA, about an hour's drive from us.
So every Friday, I'd spend a half-hour after dinner, moving the "rabbit ears" around trying to get a decent picture to watch those two shows. I mean, two very colorful series with great music and action scenes, on an old black and white 21 inch RCA console set with a fuzzy picture...still, I watched both episodes every Friday, enthralled!
Now, if somebody would just come out with a DVD set of the GREEN HORNET series, I'd be all set to relive those Friday evenings in REAL hi-fidelity! ;)
I haven't seen it in forever, so I'm surprised to hear it was played so generally straight, unlike BATMAN.
That would explain that last photo above with the gun.
We lived in a suburb of Atlanta back then, and had no trouble getting all three networks. The big complaint among my third grade classmates was that the cool action shows were all on at the same time: Tarzan and t.h.e. cat on NBC, Green Hornet and Time Tunnel on ABC, Wild Wild West on CBS. And we did not have DVRs or even VCRs back then.
KD - https://archive.org/details/GreenHornetTV
Anon: Oooh!
BTW, Arthur C. Pierce wrote for and worked with Wende Wagner of GREEN HORNET TV series fame, in his feature film DESTINATION INNER SPACE. Asked to describe her, he used one word: "Dreamy."
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