The Green Hornet

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Image:Green Hornet cover.jpg The Green Hornet was an American radio program that ran from January 31, 1936 to 1952, created by George W. Trendle, who also created The Lone Ranger, and initially starring Al Hodge as the Hornet. It was later made into a 1966-67 television program starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet and Bruce Lee as Kato.

The series detailed the adventures of Britt Reid, debonair newspaper publisher by day, crime-fighting masked hero at night, along with his trusty sidekick, Kato. Kato was a Filipino of Japanese ancestry. With the outbreak of World War II his Japanese heritage was almost completely dropped, leading to the common misperception that the character's nationality had been switched by the show's writers. (When the characters were used in a pair of movie serials Kato's nationality was inexplicably given as Korean.) Reid is a close relative of John Reid, The Lone Ranger. The character of Dan Reid, who appeared on the Lone Ranger program as the Masked Man's nephew was also featured on the Green Hornet as Britt's father.

The original introduction of the radio show proclaimed that the Green Hornet went after criminals that "even the G-Men (FBI agents) couldn't reach". The show's producers were called by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover who prompted them to remove the line implying that some crime fighting was beyond the abilities of the FBI.

The radio show's name was used as a codename for SIGSALY, secret encryption equipment used in World War II.

The Green Hornet was adapted into a pair of movie serials in the early 1940s. It is best known through the 1966-67 TV series adaptation, which introduced martial arts master Bruce Lee to American audiences and starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet. The television program was inspired by the success of the campy Batman series. Unlike Batman, the TV version of Green Hornet was played straight, but in spite of the considerable interest in Lee, it was cancelled after only one season. However, the rise of Lee as a major cult movie star ensured continued interest in the property to the point where proposed Green Hornet productions typically have the casting of some major martial arts film star as Kato as the first order of business. Lee's popularity in his native Hong Kong was such that the show was marketed there as The Kato Show.

One of the best-remembered elements of the TV series was the Green Hornet theme. Whereas the radio show used Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme song, the TV series used a jazzed-up variation played on trumpet by Al Hirt. Years later, this recording was featured during a key scene in the 2003 film, Kill Bill, which paid tribute to Kato by featuring dozens of swordfighters wearing Kato masks during the film's key fight sequence.

The TV series also featured the Hornet's car, Black Beauty, a 1965 Chrysler Imperial customized by Dean Jeffries. The car's regular headlight cluster could be flipped over to reveal green headlights. It could fire tiny explosive charges from tubes at its bumpers, which were said to be rockets, but these were just for show.

One of the gimmicks used dated from the radio show. In its era, the engines of cheaper cars made a lot of noise; the expensive Pierce-Arrow was reputed to be extremely quiet. So, when the Green Hornet said, "rig for silent running," the hornet-like buzz on the radio show was turned off and the hearer was left to imagine that the car really was silent. On the TV show, the car sounded like a modern car, but the noise was removed from the soundtrack after this command.

In the 1990s a comic book series, written by Ron Fortier and illustrated by Jeff Butler, attempted to reconcile the different versions of the character. The Britt of the radio series had fought crime as the Hornet in the 1930s and 1940s before retiring. The television character was revealed to be the nephew of the original Britt Reid, who took up his uncle's mantle. In the comic a young descendant named Paul Reid takes on the role of the Hornet and is assisted by a new, female Kato. According to Fortier, it was the addition of this character, Mishi Kato, that led to the comic series' cancellation.

A film version of the character has been in the works for several years now. Screen writer John Fusco created a screenplay for the film around 2002; as of the summer of 2004, Kevin Smith was writing a screenplay for a new rendition of The Green Hornet which was originally scheduled for release in 2005. It is rumored that Jet Li will portray Kato and Jake Gyllenhaal will play the Green Hornet.

In 2004, upon announcing the plans for Clerks II, Kevin Smith put the film on the backburner. After a long downtime in which his status with the project was unknown, Smith announced at the 2006 Wondercon that he officially no longer has anything to do with The Green Hornet [1].de:Green Hornet fr:Le Frelon vert ja:グリーン・ホーネット