The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet was a United States radio program that ran 1936-1952, created by George W. Trendle, who also created The Lone Ranger. It was later made into a 1966-67 television program starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet and Bruce Lee as Kato. As its theme music, the program used the classical piece, Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov.

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. Reid is said to be a descendent of 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 Green Hornet was adapted into a pair of movie serials in the early 1940s, but 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. This was technically a spinoff of the then-popular, campy Batman series, the TV version of Green Hornet was played straight, but outside the considerable interest in Lee, and it poor ratings. It was cancelled after only one season.

In the 1990s a comic book series attempted to reconcile the different versions of the character. The Britt of the radio series was the version of the Hornet who fought crime 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 Kato.

As of the summer of 2004, Kevin Smith is writing a screenplay for a new rendition of The Green Hornet which is scheduled for release in 2005 or 2006.

The show's name was used as a codename for SIGSALY, secret encryption equipment used in World War II. A rendition of The Green Hornet theme was used as part of the sountrack for Kill Bill, played on trumpet by Al Hirt.

de:Green Hornet

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia article. Browse Wikipedia for more information.