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98-415: Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media. The Green Hornet appeared in film serials in the 1940s, The Green Hornet television series in the 1960s, (which costarred Bruce Lee in his first adult role), multiple comic book series from the 1940s onwards, and a film in 2011 . The franchise is owned by Green Hornet, Inc., which licenses

196-403: A cliffhanger , in which characters found themselves in perilous situations with little apparent chance of escape. Viewers had to return each week to see the cliffhangers resolved and to follow the continuing story. Movie serials were especially popular with children, and for many youths in the first half of the 20th century a typical Saturday matinee at the movies included at least one chapter of

294-407: A hero (or heroes) battling an evil villain and rescuing a damsel in distress . The villain would continually place the hero into inescapable deathtraps, or the heroine would be placed into a deathtrap and the hero would come to her rescue. The hero and heroine would face one trap after another, battling countless thugs and lackeys, before finally defeating the villain. Notable American serials of

392-720: A 1930s descendant of Zorro . It was written by Chris Roberson with art by Alex Ross and Dennis Calero . Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman wrote a crossover title, Batman '66 meets the Green Hornet , released in June 2014. A crossover with Miss Fury was announced in August 2024. In 2018, the Green Hornet appeared in newspaper strips as a guest-star in Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis (script) and Joe Staton (art), continuing

490-498: A 3-issue series based on the TV show. In 1989, NOW Comics introduced a line of Green Hornet comics, initially written by Ron Fortier and illustrated by Jeff Butler . It attempted to reconcile the different versions of the character into a multigenerational epic. This took into account the character's ancestral connection to The Lone Ranger , though due to the legal separation of the two properties, his mask covered his entire face (as in

588-493: A cliffhanger. This serial was directed by Richard Donner and featured the first African American action hero in a chapter play. The violence present in most of the episodes, though much of it was deliberately comical and would not be considered shocking today, also raised concerns at a time when violence in children's TV was at issue. On February 27, 1979, NBC broadcast the first episode of an hour-long weekly television series Cliffhangers! , which had three segments, each with

686-655: A coup by licensing the comic-strip character Flash Gordon for the screen; the serial was a smash hit, and was even booked into first-run theaters that usually did not bother with chapter plays. Universal followed it up with more pop-culture icons: The Green Hornet and Ace Drummond from radio, and Smilin' Jack and Buck Rogers from newspapers. Universal was more story-conscious than the other studios, and cast its serials with "name" actors recognizable from feature films: Lon Chaney Jr. , Béla Lugosi , Dick Foran , The Dead End Kids , Kent Taylor , Robert Armstrong , Irene Hervey , and Johnny Mack Brown , among many others. In

784-499: A different serial: a horror story ( The Curse of Dracula , starring Michael Nouri ), a science fiction/western ( The Secret Empire, (inspired by 1935's The Phantom Empire ) starring Geoffrey Scott as Marshal Jim Donner and Mark Lenard as Emperor Thorval) and a mystery ( Stop Susan Williams! , starring Susan Anton , Ray Walston as Bob Richards, and Albert Paulsen as the villain Anthony Korf). Though final episodes were shot,

882-439: A first episode of three reels (approximately 30 minutes in length) and begins with reports of a masked, secret, or unsuspected villain menacing an unspecific part of America. This episode traditionally has the most detailed credits at the beginning, often with pictures of the actors with their names and that of the character they play. Often there follows a montage of scenes lifted from the cliffhangers of previous serials to depict

980-452: A heart attack, and Kato—given the first name Hayashi, after that of the first actor to play Kato on radio—goes on to become a star of ninja movies. The NOW comics established Hayashi Kato as Ikano Kato's son. Britt Reid's nephew, Paul Reid, a concert pianist, takes on the role of the Hornet after his older brother Alan, who had first taken on the mantle, is killed on his debut mission. Paul Reid

1078-478: A limited run of 6000 each. In late 2021, Diamond Select Toys announced the start of a new line of Green Hornet and Kato collectible merchandise in partnership with The Green Hornet Inc. and the Bruce Lee Family. Their line of collectibles include a mini bust of Kato and various action figures of Kato in different outfits. In 2022, Aurora Plastics Corporation , under their Polar Lights brand, reissued

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1176-427: A long green overcoat, gloves, green fedora hat and green mask, Reid fights crime as the mysterious vigilante known as "The Green Hornet". He is accompanied by his loyal and similarly masked partner and confidant, Kato , who drives their technologically advanced car, the "Black Beauty". Though both the police and the general public believe the Hornet to be a wanted criminal, Reid uses that perception to help him infiltrate

1274-531: A model of the Black Beauty car from the 1960's television series. Aluminum Model Toys released their own model kit of the Black Beauty in the same year. Serial film A serial film, film serial (or just serial ), movie serial , or chapter play , is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, generally advancing weekly, until

1372-477: A permanent position in Columbia's serial unit. Horne had been a comedy specialist in the 1930s, often working with Laurel and Hardy , and most of his Columbia serials after 1939 are played tongue-in-cheek, with exaggerated villainy and improbable heroics (the hero takes on six men in a fistfight and wins ). After Horne's death in 1942, the studio's serial output was somewhat more sober, but still aimed primarily at

1470-618: A popular actor in the US as well as in Hong Kong . Audience interest even led to Van Williams asking to learn some martial art moves. Williams and Lee's Green Hornet and Kato appear as anti-heroes in the second season of the Batman TV series in the two-part episode "A Piece of the Action" / "Batman's Satisfaction". The episode ended with Batman himself questioning whether or not the Green Hornet

1568-513: A popular radio series); from the British novelist Edgar Wallace , the first archer-superhero, The Green Archer; and even from television: Captain Video . Columbia's early serials were very well received by audiences—exhibitors voted The Spider's Web (1938) the number-one serial of the year. Former silent-serial director James W. Horne co-directed The Spider's Web , and his work secured him

1666-562: A serial, along with animated cartoons , newsreels , and two feature films. There were films covering many genres, including crime fiction , espionage , comic book or comic strip characters, science fiction , and jungle adventures . Many serials were Westerns , since those were the least expensive to film. Although most serials were filmed economically, some were made at significant expense. The Flash Gordon serial and its sequels, for instance, were major productions in their times. Serials were action-packed stories that usually involved

1764-512: A standard 15 episodes (with the single exception of Mandrake the Magician , which ran 12 episodes). By the mid-1950s, however, episodic television series and the sale of older serials to TV syndicators by all the current and past major sound serial producers, together with the loss of audience attendance at Saturday matinees in general, made serial-making a losing proposition. The classic sound serial, particularly in its Republic format, has

1862-423: A subsidiary of Jerry Hyams's Hygo Television Films, bought the 1936-1946 Universal serials (including all titles, rights, and interests) for $ 1,500,000. Also in 1956, Columbia's TV subsidiary Screen Gems reprinted many of its serials for broadcast syndication. Only the films' endings were changed: Screen Gems replaced the "at this theater next week" title card with its standard Screen Gems logo. Screen Gems acquired

1960-438: A two-issue follow-up in 1992, both written by Mike Baron . He also wrote a third, first announced as a two-issue miniseries, then as a graphic novel, but it was never released due to the company's collapse. Tales of the Green Hornet , consisting of nine issues spread out over three volumes (two, four, and three issues, respectively), presented stories of the two previous Hornets. Volume One featured Green Hornet II, and its story

2058-521: Is assisted by Mishi Kato, Hayashi's much-younger half-sister who was trained by Ikano Kato. Her being female caused problems between the publishers and the rights-holders, who withdrew approval of that character and mandated the return of "the Bruce Lee Kato". After Mishi's departure—explained as orders from her father to replace an injured automobile designer at the Zürich , Switzerland, facility of

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2156-444: Is based on the Green Hornet. A film version of the character had been contemplated since the 1990s, with Universal Pictures and Miramax each attempting to develop a film. Sony Pictures announced plans for a feature film of the superhero in 2008. Eventually, Sony Pictures , through its subsidiary Columbia Pictures , released an action-comedy Green Hornet feature on January 14, 2011, starring Jay Chou and Seth Rogen , who co-wrote

2254-528: Is understandable that this practice was adopted in view of their success in theaters on a Saturday matinee exhibition policy. But cliffhangers simply cannot be treated on TV as they were in theaters and still maintain the suspense so vital to their entertainment content. This suspense factor is diluted by the vast amount of other TV entertainment beamed between weekly showings." TV stations began showing serials daily, generally on weekday afternoons, as children's programming. In July 1956 TV distributor Serials Inc.,

2352-628: The Republic serials ) and he could not be called by name. In this interpretation, the Britt of the radio series had fought crime as the Hornet in the 1930s and 1940s before retiring. In NOW's first story, in Green Hornet #1 (November 1989), set in 1945, the nationality of the original Kato (named in this comic series Ikano Kato) is given as Japanese, but because of the American policy regarding

2450-862: The 1910 Deutsche Vitaskop 5 episode Arsene Lupin Contra Sherlock Holmes , based upon the Maurice LeBlanc novel, and a possible but unconfirmed Raffles serial in 1911. Europe had its own serials: in France Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset launched his series of Nick Carter films in 1908, and the idea of the episodic crime adventure was developed particularly by Louis Feuillade in Fantômas (1913–14), Les Vampires (1915), and Judex (1916); in Germany, Homunculus (1916), directed by Otto Rippert ,

2548-456: The 1940s Universal's serials employed urban and/or wartime themes, incorporating newsreel footage of actual disasters. The 1942 serial Gang Busters is perhaps the best of Universal's urban serials; Universal often cannibalized it for future cliffhangers. Don Winslow of the Navy may exemplify Universal's best war-themed chapterplay. The studio's reliance on stock footage for the big action scenes

2646-642: The 1940s and completed in 1966. The plot involved a masked villain named The Master Duper, one of three members of a Film Commission who attempts to steal the only known prints of priceless antique films, and the heroic Captain Celluloid, who wears a costume reminiscent of that of the Black Commando in the Columbia serial The Secret Code and is determined to uncover him. Roles in the serial are played by, among others, film historians and serial fans Alan G. Barbour , Al Kilgore , and William K. Everson . In

2744-544: The 1980s, serial fan Blackie Seymour shot a complete 15-chapter serial called The Return of the Copperhead. Seymour's only daughter, who operated the camera at the age of 8, attests that as of 2008 the serial was indeed filmed but the raw footage remains in cans, unedited. In 2001, King of the Park Rangers, a one-chapter sound serial was released by Cliffhanger Productions on VHS video tape in sepia. It concerned

2842-519: The Black Dragon , and Panther Girl of the Kongo . With the rise in popularity of Super 8 sound-film equipment in the late 1970s, Columbia issued home-movie prints of entire 15-chapter serials, including Batman and Robin , Congo Bill , and Hop Harrigan . These were in print only briefly, until the studios turned away from home-movie films in favor of home video. Film serials released to

2940-879: The Disappearing Doctor by Brandon Keith, a tie-in to the television series. At about the same time, Dell Publishing released a mass-market paperback, The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light by Ed Friend , not only derived from the small-screen production as well, but, "allegedly based on one of the TV episodes". In 2009, Moonstone Books gained the prose license and has released three Green Hornet anthologies as part of its "Chronicles" line: The Green Hornet Chronicles , The Green Hornet Casefiles , and The Green Hornet: Still at Large . The Green Hornet and Kato appears in The Green Hornet: Wheels of Justice (2010) for iPhone , based on

3038-572: The Doctor ", the BBC character introduced in 1963. Doctor Who serials would run anywhere from one to twelve episodes and were shown in weekly segments, as had been the original theatrical cliffhangers. Doctor Who was syndicated in the US as early as 1974, but did not gain a following in America until the mid-1980s when episodes featuring Tom Baker reached its shores. Although the series ended in 1989, it

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3136-533: The Highland Rogue ; and The Fighting Prince of Donegal ) edited into segments for television presentation often had a cliffhanger-serial-like feel. In England, in the 1950s and 60s, low-budget six-chapter serials such as Dusty Bates and Masters of Venus were released theatrically, but these were not particularly well-regarded or remembered. The greatest number of serialized television programs to feature any single character were those made featuring "

3234-635: The Hornet Sting, Gas Gun, and Kato's Dart from the 1960's television series. A plaque signed by Van Williams was included in a limited run of "Signature Edition" replicas. In June 2018, the toy company Funko released a Funko Pop figure of the Green Hornet as a Specialty Series figure. This was later followed up with multiple Funko Pop figures of the Green Hornet and Kato, released as exclusives at San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con . In January 2020, Funko announced Green Hornet and Kato figures as part of their initial SODA vinyl figure offerings with

3332-558: The Hornet. On learning the truth behind his son's dual identity, Dan Reid recalls his days riding with his uncle, as the William Tell Overture plays briefly and softly in the background. The character debuted in The Green Hornet , an American radio program that premiered on January 31, 1936, on WXYZ , the same local Detroit station that originated its companion shows The Lone Ranger and Challenge of

3430-658: The Hygo company in December 1956, and packaged both Columbia and Universal serials for broadcast. Republic's TV division, Hollywood Television Service, issued serials for television in their unedited theatrical form, as well as in specially edited six-chapter, half-hour editions ready made for TV time slots. In the late 1970s and 1980s, serials were often revived on BBC television in the United Kingdom. Both Republic and Columbia issued "highlights" versions of serials for

3528-477: The Japanese minority during World War II, Reid referred to Kato as Filipino in order to prevent Kato's being sent to an American internment camp. The NOW comics considered the 1960s television character as the namesake nephew of the original, 1930s–1940s Britt Reid, referred to as "Britt Reid II" in the genealogy, who took up his uncle's mantle after a friend is assassinated. Britt Reid II eventually retired due to

3626-600: The Kato of that era. Discounting depictions of the cars utilized by the 1940s and 1960s Hornets, there were two versions of the Black Beauty used in the NOW comic series. The first was based on the Pontiac Banshee . The second was a four-door sedan based on the eleventh-generation Oldsmobile 98 Touring Sedan. In March 2009, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the license to produce Green Hornet comic books. Its first release

3724-535: The Pirates , Mandrake the Magician , The Phantom , and Brenda Starr, Reporter ; from the comic books, Blackhawk , Congo Bill , time traveler Brick Bradford , and Batman and Superman (although this last owed more to its radio incarnation , which the credits acknowledged); from radio, Jack Armstrong and Hop Harrigan ; from the hero pulp characters like The Spider (two serials: The Spider's Web and The Spider Returns ) and The Shadow (despite also being

3822-618: The Universe (Hearst), Adventures of Captain Marvel (Republic Pictures), Batman and Batman and Robin (Sony), Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman (Warner). The Universal serials had been controlled by Serials Inc. until it closed in 1970. The company now known as VCI Entertainment obtained the rights. VCI is offering new Blu-Ray and DVD restorations of many Universal serials, including Gang Busters , Jungle Queen , Pirate Treasure , and three Buck Jones adventures. All of

3920-664: The Western Sea", "The Secret of Mystery Lake", "The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Ghost Farm", and The Adventures of Clint and Mac . Other Disney programs shown on Walt Disney Presents in segments (such as The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh , The Swamp Fox , The Secret of Boyne Castle , The Mooncussers , and The Prince and the Pauper ) and Disney feature films (including Treasure Island ; The Three Lives of Thomasina ; The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men ; Rob Roy,

4018-620: The Yukon . Beginning on April 12, 1938, the station supplied the series to the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and then to NBC Blue and its successors, the Blue Network and ABC , from November 16, 1939, through September 8, 1950. It returned from September 10 to December 5, 1952. It was sponsored by General Mills from January to August 1948, and by Orange Crush in its brief 1952 run. The Green Hornet

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4116-414: The action, and staging more elaborate stunts. Republic was one of Hollywood's smaller studios, but its serials have been hailed as some of the best, especially those directed by John English and William Witney . In addition to solid screenwriting that many critics thought was quite accomplished, the firm also introduced choreographed fistfights, which often included the stuntmen (usually the ones portraying

4214-515: The adventures of a Park Ranger named Patricia King and an FBI Agent who track down a trio of killers out to find buried treasure in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. A second ten-chapter serial, The Dangers of Deborah, in which a female reporter and a criminologist fight to uncover the identity of a mysterious villain named The Terror, was released by Cliffhanger Productions in 2008. In 2006, Lamb4 Productions created its own homage to

4312-581: The character in the public-service one-shot War Victory Comics in 1942, and gave him one adventure in each of two issues of All-New Comics , #13 (where he was also featured on the cover) and #14, in 1946. In 1953, several months after the radio series ended, Dell Comics published a one-shot with the character (officially entitled Four Color #496). Both stories therein share titles with late-era radio episodes ("The Freightyard Robberies", June 23, 1949; and "[The] Proof of Treason", October 17, 1952) and might be adaptations. In 1967, Gold Key Comics produced

4410-424: The costumed identity of her father, he brings Britt Jr. to China for training and safekeeping as he becomes the new Green Hornet. Writer Jai Nitz also wrote Green Hornet: Parallel Lives , a miniseries prequel to the 2011 Green Hornet feature film . In 2013, an eight-issue miniseries called Masks brought together famous heroes from the pulp era. It starred The Shadow , The Green Hornet and Kato, The Spider and

4508-427: The early days of television. Veteran producers Louis Weiss and Nat Levine were among the first to offer their serials for broadcast. The traditional week-to-week format of viewing serials was soon abandoned. As Republic executive David Bloom explained, "Attempts to program serials with full week intervals between chapters during the earlier days of television just about killed them off as effective sales product. It

4606-600: The family corporation, Nippon Today—Hayashi Kato returned to crime fighting alongside the Paul Reid Green Hornet. Mishi Kato returned in volume two as the Crimson Wasp, following the death of her Swiss police-officer fiancé, on orders of a criminal leader. In NOW's final two issues, vol. 2, #39–40, a fourth Kato—Kono Kato, grandson of Ikano and nephew of Hayashi and Mishi—took over as Paul Reid's fellow masked vigilante. The comics also introduced Diana Reid,

4704-456: The film serials of the 1940s with its own serial titled "Wildcat." The story revolves around a super hero named Wildcat and his attempts to save the fictional Rite City from a masked villain known as the Roach. This eight-chapter serial was based heavily on popular super hero serials such as "Batman and Robin," "Captain America," and "The Adventures of Captain Marvel." After its premiere, "Wildcat"

4802-552: The film. Few examples of Green Hornet merchandise have appeared since the 1960s. To coincide with the 2011 movie, Factory Entertainment produced six-inch action figures and a die cast Black Beauty, among other collectibles. Hollywood Collectibles has made a full-size prop gas gun replica. Mezco Toyz has made a set of 12-inch action figures, with the prototypes donated to the Museum of the Moving Image . CKE Restaurants, Inc. ,

4900-484: The first serial to be released on Blu-ray. An early attempt at a low-budget Western serial, filmed in color, was entitled The Silver Avenger. One or two chapters exist of this effort on 16mm film but it is not known whether the serial was ever completed. The best-known fan-made chapter play is the four-chapter, silent 16mm Captain Celluloid vs. the Film Pirates, made to resemble Republic and Columbia serials of

4998-481: The hat would stay on during fight scenes. Exposition of what led up to the previous episode's cliffhanger was usually displayed on placards with a photograph of one of the characters on it. In 1938, Universal brought the first "scrolling text" exposition to the serial, which George Lucas first used in Star Wars in 1977 and then in all of the following Star Wars films. As this would have required subcontracting

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5096-721: The hero's mask was in place, while The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) stars Warren Hull . Keye Luke , who played the "Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films, plays Kato in both. Also starring in both serials are Anne Nagel as Lenore Case, Britt Reid's secretary, and Wade Boteler as Mike Axford, a reporter for the Daily Sentinel , the newspaper that Reid owns and publishes. Ford Beebe directed both serials, partnered by Ray Taylor on The Green Hornet and John Rawlins on The Green Hornet Strikes Again! , with George H. Plympton and Basil Dickey contributing to

5194-474: The home video market from original masters include most Republic titles (with a few exceptions, such as Ghost of Zorro )—which were released by Republic Pictures Home Video on VHS and sometimes laserdisc (sometimes under their re-release titles) mostly from transfers made from the original negatives, The Shadow , and Blackhawk , both released by Sony only on VHS, and DVD versions of Flash Gordon , Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars , and Flash Gordon Conquers

5292-514: The home-movie market. These were printed on 8mm silent film (and later Super 8 film) and sold directly to owners of home-movie projectors. Columbia was first to market, with three abbreviated chapters from its 1938 serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok . When Batman became a national craze in 1965, Columbia issued a six-chapter silent version of its 1943 Batman . Republic followed suit with condensed silent versions of its own serials, including Adventures of Captain Marvel , G-Men vs.

5390-630: The juvenile audience. Batman (1943) was quite popular, and Superman (1948) was phenomenally successful despite using cartoon animation for the flying sequences instead of more expensive special effects. Spencer Gordon Bennet , veteran director of silent serials, left Republic for Columbia in 1947. He directed or co-directed the studio's later serials. In 1954 producer Sam Katzman, whose budgets were already low, slashed them even further on serials. The last four Columbia serials were very-low-budget affairs, consisting mostly of action scenes and cliffhanger endings from older productions, and even employing

5488-407: The late 1940s. Although Republic discontinued new serial production in 1955, the studio continued making older ones available to theaters through 1959. Columbia, which canceled new serials in 1956, kept older ones in circulation until 1966. Columbia still offers a handful of serials to today's theaters. Serials, with their short running times and episodic format, were very attractive to programmers in

5586-423: The main character escaped. Often the reprised scene would add an element not seen in the previous episode, but unless it contradicted something shown previously, audiences accepted the explanation. On rare occasions the filmmakers would depend on the audience not remembering details of the previous week's chapter, using alternate outcomes that did not exactly match the previous episode's cliffhanger. The last episode

5684-412: The manner of a clip show in modern television). Serials had been including older scenes for years, as flashbacks during later parts of the narrative, but the wholesale insertion of entire sequences was introduced in the 1936 outdoor serial Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island . It was scheduled as a standard 12-chapter adventure, but when bad weather on location delayed the filming, writer Barry Shipman

5782-797: The new VCI releases derive from Universal's 35mm vault elements. Notable restorations of partially lost or forgotten serials such as The Adventures of Tarzan , Beatrice Fairfax , The Lone Ranger Rides Again , Daredevils of the West and King of the Mounties have been developed and made available to fans by The Serial Squadron. A gray market for DVDs also exists consisting of DVD companies releasing titles from privately owned 16mm prints or even copies of previously released VHS or laserdisc editions, and various websites and internet auctions. These DVDs vary between good and poor quality, depending on their source. In 2017, Adventures of Captain Marvel became

5880-642: The new serials. Most of the studio's serials of the 1950s were written by only one man, Ronald Davidson —Davidson had co-written and produced many Republic serials, and was familiar enough with the film library to write new scenes based on the older action footage. Republic's last serial was King of the Carnival (1955), a reworking of 1939's Daredevils of the Red Circle using some of its footage. Columbia made several serials using its own staff and facilities (1938–1939 and 1943–1945), and these are among

5978-596: The noble but clueless Dudley. The Hanna–Barbera Perils of Penelope Pitstop was a takeoff on the silent serials The Perils of Pauline and The Iron Claw, which featured Paul Lynde as the voice of the villain Sylvester Sneakley, alias "The Hooded Claw". Danger Island , a multi-part story in under-10-minute episodes, was shown on the Saturday morning Banana Splits program in the late 1960s. Episodes were short, full of wild action and usually ended on

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6076-553: The optical effects, Republic saved money by not using it. Columbia used printed recaps until 1941, replaced by spoken recaps by offscreen announcer Knox Manning . Universal had been making serials since the 1910s, and continued to service its loyal neighborhood-theater customers with four serials annually. The studio made news in 1929 by hiring Tim McCoy to star in its first all-talking serial, The Indians Are Coming! Epic footage from this western serial turned up again and again in later serials and features. In 1936 Universal scored

6174-406: The original Britt Reid's daughter, who had become district attorney after the TV series' Frank Scanlon had retired. A romantic relationship eventually formed between her and Hayashi Kato. NOW's first series began in 1989 and lasted 14 issues. Volume Two began in 1991 and lasted 40 issues, ending in 1995 when the publisher went out of business. Kato starred solo in a four-issue miniseries in 1991, and

6272-468: The parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's , teamed with the studio on a promotional marketing partnership that included commercials featuring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou in character as the Green Hornet and Kato; a beverage promotion with Dr. Pepper ; The Green Hornet food items, kids' meal toys, and employee uniforms; and a contest with the grand prize of the Black Beauty car from the film. In 2012, Factory Entertainment released screen accurate replicas of

6370-561: The previous year's serial blockbuster success at Universal, Flash Gordon , decided to enter the serial field and contracted with the Weiss Brothers (as Adventure Serials Inc.) to make three chapterplays. They were successful enough that Columbia then established its own serial unit and the Weisses essentially disappeared from the serial scene. Mascot Pictures was absorbed by Republic Pictures , so that by 1937, serial production

6468-406: The property across a wide variety of media that includes comics, films, TV shows, radio and books. As of the 2010s, the comic-book rights are licensed to Dynamite Entertainment . Though various incarnations sometimes change details, in most versions the Green Hornet is the alter ego of Britt Reid ( / r iː d / ), the wealthy young publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper. By night, clad in

6566-490: The reboot. The Green Hornet is a television series shown on the ABC U.S. television network. It aired for the 1966–1967 television season and stars Van Williams as both the Green Hornet and Britt Reid, and Bruce Lee as Kato . With his insistence on using his martial arts skills, Bruce Lee stole the show as Kato. This was the first time Asian martial arts fighting was seen on American TV. The show launched Bruce Lee's career as

6664-444: The rights to The Green Hornet and started preliminary work on developing a reboot with Gavin O'Connor as producer and director of the film and Sean O'Keefe as writer. In 2020, Amasia Entertainment gained the rights of the Green Hornet and officially teamed with Universal Pictures for the reboot titled Green Hornet and Kato with David Koepp writing the script. On June 23, 2022, Deadline reported that Leigh Whannell will direct

6762-576: The rights to the newspaper comic character Dick Tracy , the radio character The Lone Ranger , and the comic book characters Captain America , Captain Marvel , and Spy Smasher . Republic's serial scripts were written by teams, usually from three to seven writers. From 1950 Republic economized on serial production. The studio was no longer licensing expensive radio and comic-strip characters, and no longer staging spectacular action sequences. To save money, Republic turned instead to its impressive backlog of action highlights, which were cleverly re-edited into

6860-655: The same actors for new scenes tying the old footage together. The new footage was so threadbare that it would often show the new hero watching the action from a distance, rather than actually participating in it. Columbia outlasted the other serial producers, its last being Blazing the Overland Trail (1956). There was always a market for action subjects in theaters, so as far back as 1935 independent film companies reissued older serials for new audiences. Universal brought back its Flash Gordon serials, and both Republic and Columbia began re-releasing its older serials in

6958-528: The same cliffhangers, stunt and special-effects sequences over the years. Mines or tunnels flooded often, even in Flash Gordon (reusing spectacular flood footage from Universal's 1927 silent drama Perch of the Devil ) and the same model cars and trains went off the same cliffs and bridges. Republic had a Packard limousine and a Ford Woodie station wagon used in serial after serial so they could match

7056-441: The same location would be used several times in the serial, often given different signage, or none at all, just being referred to differently. There would often be a female love interest of the male hero, or a female hero herself, but as the audience was mainly children, there was no romance. The beginning of each chapter would bring the story up to date by repeating the last few minutes of the previous chapter, and then revealing how

7154-473: The screenplays for both serials. The Green Hornet runs for 13 chapters while The Green Hornet Strikes Again! has 15 installments, with the Hornet and Kato smashing a different racket in each chapter. In each serial, they are all linked to a single major crime syndicate which is itself put out of business in the finale, while the radio program had the various rackets completely independent of each other. A 10-minute 2006 French short film titled Le frelon vert

7252-540: The script with Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg . It was directed by Michel Gondry . Jay Chou co-starred as Kato. Also starring were Cameron Diaz as Lenore Case, Edward James Olmos as Mike Axford, David Harbour as Frank Scanlon, Christoph Waltz as the main villain Benjamin Chudnofsky, and Tom Wilkinson as James Reid. In 2016, Paramount Pictures and Chernin Entertainment acquired

7350-405: The series is completed. Usually, each serial involves a single set of characters, protagonistic and antagonistic, involved in a single story, which has been edited into chapters after the fashion of serial fiction and the episodes cannot be shown out of order or as a single or a random collection of short subjects. Each chapter was screened at a movie theater for one week, and typically ended with

7448-536: The series was canceled and the last program aired on May 1, 1979 before all of the serials could conclude; only The Curse of Dracula was resolved. In 2006, Dark Horse Indie films, through Image Entertainment, released a 6-chapter serial parody called Monarch of the Moon, detailing the adventures of a hero named the Yellow Jacket, who could control Yellow Jackets with his voice, battled "Japbots", and traveled to

7546-465: The shots with the stock footage from the model or previous stunt driving. Three different serials had them chasing the Art Deco sound truck, required for location shooting, for various reasons. Male fistfighters usually wore hats so that the change from actor to stunt double would not be caught so easily. A rubber liner on the hatband of the stuntman's fedora would fit snugly on the stuntman's head, so

7644-483: The silent era include The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine made by Pathé Frères and starring Pearl White . Another popular serial was the 119-episode The Hazards of Helen made by Kalem Studios and starring Helen Holmes for the first forty-eight episodes then Helen Gibson for the remainder. Ruth Roland , Marin Sais , and Ann Little were also early leading serial queens. Other major studios of

7742-418: The silent era, such as Vitagraph and Essanay Studios , produced serials, as did Warner Bros. , Fox , and Universal . Several independent companies (for example, Mascot Pictures ) made Western serials. Four silent Tarzan serials were also made. Serials were a popular form of movie entertainment dating back to Edison's What Happened to Mary of 1912. There appear to be older serials, however, such as

7840-529: The smaller companies that produced serials to upgrade to sound, and they went out of business. Mascot Pictures , which specialized in serials, made the transition from silent to sound and produced the first "talking" serial, King of the Kongo (1929). Universal Pictures also kept its serial unit alive through the transition. In the early 1930s a handful of independent companies tried their hand at making serials. The Weiss Brothers had been making serials in 1935 and 1936. In 1937 Columbia Pictures , inspired by

7938-602: The studio's best efforts: The Spider's Web , The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok , Batman , The Secret Code , and The Phantom maintained Columbia's own high standard. However, Columbia's serials often have a reputation for cheapness, because the studio usually subcontracted its serial production to outside producers: the Weiss Brothers (1937–1938), Larry Darmour (1939–1942), and finally Sam Katzman (1945–1956). Columbia built many serials around name-brand heroes. From newspaper comics, they got Terry and

8036-532: The trend of Tracy stories reviving characters from defunct strips. Western Publishing subsidiary Whitman Books released four works of text fiction based on the character, targeting younger readers. There were three entries in the children's line of profusely illustrated Big Little Books , The Green Hornet Strikes! , The Green Hornet Returns , and The Green Hornet Cracks Down , in 1940, 1941 and 1942, respectively, all attributed to Fran Striker . In 1966, their line for older juveniles included Green Hornet: Case of

8134-585: The underworld, leaving behind for the police the criminals and any incriminating evidence he has found. In the original radio incarnation, Britt Reid is the son of Dan Reid Jr., the nephew of the Lone Ranger (whose first name is never given, contrary to later articles), making the Green Hornet the great-nephew of the Ranger. The relationship is alluded to at least once in the radio shows, when Dan Reid visits his son to question him on why Britt has never captured

8232-402: The villains, never the heroes) throwing things in desperation at one another in every fight to heighten the action. Republic serials are noted for outstanding special effects, such as large-scale explosions and demolitions, and the more fantastic visuals like Captain Marvel and Rocketman flying. Most of the trick scenes were engineered by Howard and Theodore Lydecker . Republic was able to get

8330-454: The ways in which the master criminal was a serial killer with a motive. In the first episode, various suspects or "candidates" who may, in secret, be this villain are presented, and the viewer often hears the voice but does not see the face of this mastermind commanding his lieutenant (or "lead villain"), whom the viewer sees in just about every episode. In the succeeding weeks (usually 11 to 14), an episode of two reels (approximately 20 minutes)

8428-456: The writing attributed to Fran Striker . The stories were loosely based on episodes of the radio show. This series ended after six issues. Several months later, Harvey Comics launched its own version, beginning with issue #7. This series lasted until issue #47 in 1949; during that time it also changed its title twice: first to Green Hornet Fights Crime (issue #34) and later to Green Hornet, Racket Buster (issue #44). Harvey additionally used

8526-531: Was a miniseries written by Kevin Smith with pencils by Jonathan Lau. Revamped in 2010 as an ongoing series set in modern times, the new Green Hornet stars Britt Reid Jr., the rebellious and spoiled son of Britt Reid Sr., now a retired industrial and family man. When Britt Sr. is slain by the Black Hornet, a yakuza mobster whose family was shamed by the original Green Hornet, the aging but still fit Kato returns. With his daughter, Mulan Kato, who has taken over

8624-461: Was a six-part horror serial about an artificial creature. Years after their first release, serials gained new life at "Saturday Matinees", theatrical showings on Saturday mornings aimed directly at children. The arrival of sound technology made it costlier to produce serials, so that they were no longer as profitable on a flat rental basis. Further, the stock market crash of 1929 and the added expense of sound equipment made it impossible for many of

8722-453: Was adapted into two movie serials , 1940's The Green Hornet and, in 1941, The Green Hornet Strikes Again! Disliking the treatment Republic gave The Lone Ranger in two serials , George W. Trendle took his property to Universal Pictures , and was much happier with the results. The first serial, titled simply The Green Hornet (1940), stars Gordon Jones in the title role, albeit dubbed by original radio Hornet Al Hodge whenever

8820-469: Was certainly economical, but it often hurt the overall quality of the films. When the studio reorganized as Universal-International, it shut down most of the production units, including the serial crew. Universal's last serial was The Mysterious Mr. M (1946). Republic was the successor to Mascot Pictures , a serial specialist. Writers and directors were already geared to staging exciting films, and Republic improved on Mascot, adding music to underscore

8918-788: Was forced to come up with two extra chapters to justify the added expense. This was an emergency measure at the time, but Republic recognized that it did save money, so the recap chapter became standard practice in almost all of its ensuing serials. Recap chapters had lower budgets, so rather than staging an elaborate cliffhanger (a runaway vehicle, a stampede, a flooding chamber, etc.), a cheaper, simpler cliffhanger would be employed (an explosion, someone knocked unconscious, etc.). The major studios had their own retinues of actors and writers, their own prop departments, existing sets, stock footage, and music libraries. The early independent studios had none of these, but could rent sets from independent producers of western features. The firms saved money by reusing

9016-597: Was now in the hands of three companies – Universal, Columbia, and Republic, with Republic quickly becoming the acknowledged leader in quality serial product. Each company turned out four to five serials per year, of 12 to 15 episodes each, a pace they all kept up until the end of World War II when, in 1946, Universal dropped its serial unit along with its B-picture unit and renamed its production department Universal-International Pictures. Republic and Columbia continued unchallenged, with three serials per year each. Republic's serials ran for 12, 13, 14, or 15 chapters; Columbia's ran

9114-420: Was plotted by Van Williams , star of the 1960s TV series, and scripted by Bob Ingersoll . The follow-ups were written by James Van Hise . Other miniseries included the three-issue The Green Hornet: Solitary Sentinel ; the four-issue Sting of the Green Hornet , set during World War II and Clint McElroy 's three-issue Dark Tomorrow (June–August 1993), featuring a criminal Green Hornet in 2080 being fought by

9212-486: Was posted on the official Lamb4 Productions YouTube channel for public viewing. The serial format was used with stories on the original run of The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–58), with each chapter running about six to ten minutes. The longer-running dramatic serials included "Corky and White Shadow", "The Adventures of Spin and Marty ", " The Hardy Boys : The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure", "The Boys of

9310-402: Was presented, in which the villain and his henchmen commit crimes in various places, fight the hero, and trap someone to make the ending a cliffhanger. Many of the episodes have clues, dialogue, and events leading the viewer to think that any of the candidates were the mastermind. As serials were made by writing the whole script first and then slicing it into portions filmed at various sites, often

9408-549: Was really a criminal. Unlike the "campy" version of Batman , this version of The Green Hornet was played more seriously. In July 2020, Kevin Smith and WildBrain announced plans to develop a Green Hornet animated series set in the present day and focused on a reimagined Green Hornet and female Kato. On February 28, 2023, Smith confirmed in an episode of Fatman Beyond that the series would be 10 episodes. Green Hornet comic books began in December 1940. The series, titled Green Hornet Comics published by Helnit Comics with

9506-570: Was revived in 2005, now following a more standard episode format. The 1960s cartoon show Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle included two serial-style episodes per program. These spoofed the cliffhanger serial form. Within the Rocky and Bullwinke show, the recurring but non-serialized Dudley Do-Right , specifically parodied the damsel in distress (Nell Fenwick) being tied to railroad tracks by arch villain Snidely Whiplash and rescued by

9604-420: Was sometimes a bit longer than most, for its tasks were to unmask the head villain (who usually was someone completely unsuspected), wrap up the loose ends, and end with the victorious principals relieved of their perils. In 1936, Republic standardized the "economy episode" (or "recap chapter") in which the characters summarize or reminisce about their adventures, so as to introduce showing those scenes again (in

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