This TV series,although short lived,was part of that vast and creative area of 20th Century Fox Television,back in the height of its success with ABC's "BATMAN" series, and CBS's "LOST IN SPACE" series-this was the perfect arrangement for superior productions,and "THE GREEN HORNET" never failed to disappoint,although ABC's faith was less then optomistic! the lovely young lady,who shot the electrical bolts at Kato in Pt.1 of "Invasion From Outer Space",was Linda Gaye Scott,who later that same year,guest starred,along with a pre "HILL STREET BLUES" Daniel J Travanti,as a bunch of misfit space hippies(?) in "Colision of The Planets" episode of "LOST IN SPACE",another enjoyable romp from 1960s TV!
One thing to note: this is the one time that The Green Hornet never tried to muscle in on the operation. This time it was personal. So while these episodes were a step down from what we're used to, at least they had that going for them.
As a lot of people here are saying this was a sort of 'testing the water' story and if the series had continued onto its second series it would probably have been in a more fantastic and 'comic book' direction like this, more on the wavelength of the Batman series. As it is it is a curse and a blessing. Curse in that the show was cancelled and remains always in the shadow of Batman in popular culture and awareness but a blessing in that the series at least maintained its dignity and was not remembered as being too outlandish or ridiculous (like this is clearly)
When the Green Hornet became a Godzilla film. Loved how in the Zilla films the aliens were just humans in chrome outfits and sunglasses, like the ones here but more cool.
WFIL-TV 6, Philadephia supposedly received tons of complaints from parents whose kids "had the hell scared out of them" at the appearance of "Dr. Mabuse".
Something of a serious thriller episode. Surprising and refreshing, after so many campy episodes of the Batman TV series. Also, that conveyor leading up to the furnace stunt looked genuinely risky for the actress.
Van Williams said that the producers were now in a panic over the show by this point because it wasn't garnering the strong ratings like its sister series Batman. So they tried this over-the-top episode to see if they could make the GH show more spectacular by having larger-than-life villains similar to the ones Batman and James Bond faced. Van wasn't pleased and stated he would have disliked this direction for the show. Larry D. Mann who plays the mad scientist Dr. Mabuse also was the voice for Yukon Corneilus in the classic stop-motion animated TV holiday classic "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer."
So excellent that bruce lee featured so much in this series....it is a different side to him we would never have known from the woefully short martial arts movies
wrong. a madman with an H-bomb is James Bond. It was what they were going for from the start. If it had gone to a second season you would've seen more episodes like this. There was only so many stories you could do about gangsters.
I’m inclined to agree that these two episodes sealed the series’ fate...there was a different producer on these shows, which turned out to be a mistake which Bill Dozier usually didn’t make
What Really Happened: ABC had already decided to cancel Green Hornet; Dozier had to fill out the string to meet the contract, and brought in Shpetner to just put anything on film. What Dozier really wanted all along was a serious, one-hour show, to air at a later time slot; that's why he scheduled so many two-part shows. Late in the season, Dozier wrote a long memo to the ABC brass, requesting exactly this procedure ( a recent book about the series reprints the memo in its entirety).
You are correct. Linda Gaye Scott, who plays Vama, also played the Riddler's moll Moth in the Batman two-parter ”The Ring of Wax”/ “Give 'Em the Axe”, episodes S1E23 and S1E24, respectively.
Sorry, these last two episodes have some weird non-standart resolution, but you're right, I should check and search again, maybe this time I would be more lucky.
Notice the change in Line Producer? I did. Notice the change of Line Producer for Season 3 of Star Trek and Season 2 of Space: 1999? I did. Shame on ABC.
At 8:33 watch the automatic dialer, using small punched cards to dial out. In 1967 the tone dialing system was not in use, so the punched cards triggered pulses for dialing.
Bill Corman (1:20) was played by Joe di Reda who also portrayed one of the Joker's henchmen on the Batman episode the "Zodiac Crimes". Would guess William Dozier would use actors from Batman under contract with Greenwood Productions
Larry D. Mann's character of Dr. Eric Mabuse is the closest thing to being a costumed villain for the Green Hornet in this 2 part episode which was also the last of the series.🤔🧐🦸🦸🦹🦹
I think this was the one time that Green Hornet reached a certain campiness like Batman, seeing those..." aliens" ..in those ridiculous outfits zap Kato, I kept wondering in Batman was gonna show.
This episode was to try and catch the camp crowd that was following Batman at the same time. The Green Hornet was originally shot as straight with no camp and gangsters and hit men getting killed. Sorry it was a little to violent for kids back in 66. ABC had no faith in the legs for this show and wanted more campy crap like in Batman. Bruce Lee was all business no camp. So if camp is what your looking for in this series look somewhere else.
Not really. there was no camp in this episode. This is James Bond not Batman. They were trying to do something a little different from the gangster stories. I thought they did a good job
"The Green Hornet" was canceled for the next season at the last minute. This silly episode with space aliens probably sealed its fate. Most of the episodes were played seriously compared to "Batman". William Dozier was producer and narrator for "Batman" and "The Green Hornet". Adults and kids could enjoy "Batman" -- adults for laughs and kids for the action. "The Green Hornet" did not attract many adults, and since the show aired on Friday night, it had little chance to attract what small adult audience who might watch. Van Williams said the show would have greatly improved if it were expanded to an hour.
+Tony Williams Word also was that Dozier felt he had gone too far in the opposite direction. He was looking to strike some sort of balance between the silly camp and the straight seriousness of his respective entries. The Dick Tracy pilot was his proposed solution. Unfortunately, he made three significant misfires: he didn't use a highly established villain (considering the huge rogues' gallery Tracy dealt with); it took far too long to introduce the main character; and the description of the coming episode, which showed only Tracy's likeness in a Dragnet-like shot, *followed* the outro (it's on Dailymotion). Still, that pilot fared far far better than his proposal for Wonder Woman (only a screen test).
Yep. From a fandom site "Green Hornet and Kato first made a cameo appearance in "The Spell of Tut", appearing in the window of a building that Batman and Robin are scaling. Batman and Green Hornet appear to know each other, and introduce their sidekicks to one another. Later in the season, they appear in the (Batman) two-parter "A Piece of the Action" and "Batman's Satisfaction" in a team-up and square-off." "In an in-joke cameo on Batman, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson watch their favorite television show, The Green Hornet, while on The Green Hornet Britt Reid and Kato watch their favorite show, Batman." I don't think Batman and Robin had a guest appearance on the Green Hornet show though.
This is, without a doubt, the absolute worst episode of the season and series. God-awful. It's nearly 50 years later, but it's a damn shame this series never got a second season. I would have loved for Adam West and Burt Ward to cross over onto their show and do a serious take of their characters on the Hornet's show.
Kato has the worst disguise to his dual identity... his name is the same, his KungFu is the same and he carries that Hornet dart even in his butlet guise... even a moderately competent detective can deduce and expose Kato and connect Reid to the Green Hornet... 8:36 that's so cool... a punch card operated phone to instantly speed dial whoever you want to call... a 60s solution and precursor to the speed dial...
These last two episodes of this series are pretty awful to say the least. The only thing good about it is Miss Case's dark-green go-go boots. 👢👢👢👢👢 💚💚💚💚💚 😁😁😁😁😁
few episodes have such gaping holes as this one. britt needed to ask the “leader” three things: 1. how do you know our language? 2. how do you know our units for time and distance? 3. how did you know where i live, and my position with the paper? had that been done, it would’ve been unlikely that a plausible explanation would’ve been forthcoming. also, mr. scanlon usually isn’t this gullible. here, he never bothers to check if anything of any import would be on those roads. again, that would’ve undone the entire operation. i m o, this is probably the worst episode, and two parts make it that much more difficult to watch.
It was not an aliens episode anymore than a person wearing a sheet is a ghost. It was the end of the world stuff which is refreshing from the episodes involving insurance fraud.
I'm sure this episode had nothing to do with it being cancelled. While you're watching episode 1, the studio was already thinking about the future of the series.
