The Green Hornet
 Everyone remembers that Bruce Lee (real name Lee Jun Fan) played the
trusty sidekick Kato in the 1966 Batman knockoff The Green
Hornet, but few recall that the fleet-fisted Van Williams starred as
the title-hero.
Lee's skills and tragic death unleashed a cultural wave
and a following which still exists today. Williams, for his part, was
fortunate enough to outlive his career.
Winning the role of Kato on the ABC show (which was based on the
radio classic of the same name, created in 1936 by Lone Ranger
inventor George W. Trendle), Lee experienced a small taste of success
and signed on celebrity students like James Coburn and Steve McQueen for
his Jeet Kune Do classes.
Lee maintained he won the Kato role because he was the only Chinese
guy in all of California who could pronounce the Hornet's secret
identity, Brit Reid.
Later, when Hollywood proved unreceptive, he went
back to Hong Kong to make films. Lee's movies did well in Hong Kong, and
the US-produced Enter The Dragon went on to earn more than $200
million. Unfortunately its star died before its release.
 The TV series brought the Green Hornet story up to date by
having Brit Reid as the owner of a newspaper (The Daily Sentinel) and a
TV station.
His identity was known only to his faithful servant, Kato,
his secretary, Casey (Wende Wagner) and District Attorney Scanlon
(Walter Brooke).
The Green Hornet fought "real" organised crime and not the
comic-strip style villains of Gotham City.
He did however have his own
gimmicks, such as a non-lethal gas gun and a sting gun, which was
capable of penetrating steel.
His most impressive piece of hardware though was 'Black Beauty', a
1966 Chrysler Imperial that was customized by Hollywood conversion
wizard Dean Jeffries at a cost of $50,000.
The car's new features
included a remote control spy camera with a four-mile range, and an
adapted exhaust that emitted ice from its pipe in order to foil
attackers.
The Green Hornet failed to capture the imagination of the
public in the same way that Batman did and only lasted the one
season.
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