Radio Comics' The Shadow was canceled as of this issue (#8 [1965]).
Whatever conclusion the anonymous writer had in mind will never be revealed.
In the early 1980s, I worked for JC Comics (which was based at the Archie Comics offices) and also assisted on a couple of the Red Circle superhero comics as needed.
I enquired of editor Victor Gorlick, whose career at Archie spanned decades, from the Golden Age up to his retirement in the early 2010s, if there was any unpublished Shadow material.
He said there once was, but it had "disappeared", and he didn't remember who had written the text pieces!
With the most extensive revamp/reboot to the character since the 1960s Radio Comics version...
...by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (now in bookstores and at Amazon)...
...we hereby present the updated (as of the Silver Age) origin/reboot of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men from Radio Comics The Shadow, beginning with this entry from #1 (1964)...
This ongoing text feature ran through the entire Radio Comics series (1964-1965).
The writer is unknown, but it might have been either Robert Bernstein (who wrote the first couple of issues of the comic, before it became a "campy" costumed superhero title under writer Jerry (Superman) Siegel...
...or Denys Lynds who scripted the updated, superspy-style Shadow novels being published simultaneously by Belmont Books...
Since the videos on the original 2010 post were deleted from YouTube...
...we're re-presenting this incredibly-popular post with updated links!
It's Christmastime, so let's go with the most-demanded Green Hornet vids of all...
When Titans Clash :
BatmanvsThe Green Hornet!
A decade before Superman vs Spider-Man, this was the first inter-company superhero crossover. The Hornet and Kato had already cameoed on Batman, in the episode "The Spell of Tut", where they appeared in a window during a Bat-Climb.
Celebrities ranging from Sammy Davis Jr. to Edward G. Robinson popped up for brief appearances during these sequences. Even characters from other ABC series like Lurch (Ted Cassidy) from the Addams Family and Col. Klink (Werner Klemperer) from Hogan's Heroes showed up!
Curiously, the visiting duo are regarded as heroes, not villains, and Britt introduces Kato by name.
(Metafiction aficionados have been driven nuts by these interludes, trying to fit them into their respective universes...)
And, as we've pointed out before, both Batman and The Green Hornet featured their characters watching each others' show on tv!
All that was basically ignored when it was decided that, to boost Green Hornet's decent (but not Batman-level) ratings, GH and K would appear as "Visiting Heroes" on Batman.
For whatever reason, none of the established Batman villains were used. (And The Green Hornet had no costumed or even ongoing opponents.)
Instead, a new baddie, Colonel Gumm, played by Roger C. Carmel*, was introduced, along with a plotline involving counterfeit stamps which drew The Hornet and Kato to Gotham.
The motif of GH and K being perceived as villains was utilized, resulting in the Dynamic Duo being as eager to capture them as to jail the corny counterfeiter!
In addition, it's shown that the two heroes' millionaire alter-egos, Bruce Wayne and Britt Reid, have known each other since childhood, and constantly competed over almost everything, including women!
So, it was inevitable the two costumed frat-boys would square-off in the climax...
On-set photo of Van Williams and Adam West during the climactic fight scene
Unfortunately, the gambit didn't pay off. The Green Hornet's ratings didn't improve, and the show was cancelled.
(Note: the show's ratings were good enough to make them eligible for renewal, but, since the producers didn't want to implement network-demanded budget cuts, the network axed the series anyway. Batman, OTOH, continued, with a reduced budget and cut from being twice-weekly to weekly, for another year, before being cancelled.)
Without further adieu, here is the legendary two-parter; "A Piece of the Action" and "Batman's Satisfaction"...
*Roger C. Carmel played numerous flamboyant villains on everything from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Hawaii Five-0 to Transformers to Star Trek, where he portrayed Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd on both the classic and animated series!
He's also the answer to the trivia question; "Who's the only actor to play a villain opposite Batman, Captain Kirk, and The Green Hornet?"
Lenore Case sees what's going on, but is powerless to stop it, since she's "only a secretary".
She telegraphs Reid, but the gangsters discover the publisher's on the way back and intercept him...
The Green Hornet serial did so well that Universal rushed a sequel into production within six months.
(It usually took a little longer than that, even for popular chapterplays.
There were two-year gaps between each of the Flash Gordon serials.)
Warren Hull, who had recently played both Mandrake the Magician and The Spider in other serials replaced Gordon Jones as Britt Reid / The Green Hornet. In addition, the use of the voice of radio Green Hornet Al Hodge, when Reid was masked, was dropped.
Most of the first serial's cast returned, including Keye Luke as Kato, Anne Nagel as Lenore Case, and Wade Boteler as Mike Axford. However, Managing Editor Gunnigan is said to be incapacitated by a broken leg.
Following the same format as the first serial, The Hornet and Kato chip away at various rackets run by Crogan, played by Pierre Watkin (Perry White in the Superman serials), until the climactic confrontation in the final episode.
Want to see what happens next?
YouTube provider MedigoCobra has posted the entire serial HERE.
Or you can download it in a variety of formats HERE.
It's time to take a look at the ORIGINAL film Green Hornet in his origin episode from the 1940 Universal Studios serial starring Gordon Jones as Britt Reid/Green Hornet and Key Luke as Kato!
While his full-face disguise looked different from the radio and comic version's surgeon-style mask, the characterization and plots were based on the radio show.
And, when masked, the movie Hornet sounded like the hero of the airwaves...because radio Hornet Al Hodge's distinctive voice was dubbed whenever newspaper publisher Britt Reid was masked! All the supporting characters from the radio show made it to the movie version.
(Serials usually "trimmed" existing characters to keep the plots fast-paced.)
In fact, Kato received more time on screen than he usually got on the radio, as his scientific genius and other talents (including karate) were emphasized.
Oddly, in this incarnation, Kato was now Korean, not Fillipino or Japanese!
Enjoy "Chapter One: Tunnel of Terror"
Want to see what happens next?
YouTube provider LuridPlanet has posted the entire serial HERE.
Or you can download it in a variety of formats HERE.
A joyous surprise birthday party for Britt Reid turns tragic when the publisher guns down an ex-employee in front of two dozen witnesses...or does he?
Reid was holding the gun when it went off, but did he fire it?
And if he didn't...who did? How did they do it? And why?
Even old friend Frank Scanlon, who was at the party, is skeptical...and he's the District Attorney!
Reid knows he's innocent...and he needs his masked alter ego to help him prove it!
Trivia:
Despite the fact he knows Britt Reid is The Green Hornet, Scanlon doesn't use that knowledge to capture the fugitive publisher.
When Reid ducks out the disguised fireplace entrance Scanlon usually uses, the DA doesn't reveal it's existence to the police.
Nor does he show them where the Black Beauty is, fully knowing Britt will use it shortly.
It's only the third time we see an unmasked Reid in a fight.
The same huge soundstage interior used for two different warehouses in "Bad Bet on a 459-Silent" is used here as a dry-cleaning plant Reid hides in.
Van Williams does the same "almost-fall" from scaffolding in this episode he did in that one!
There's no "Produced by" credit on the episode!
The two remaining episodes ("Invasion from Outer Space" Parts 1 and 2) are produced by a new producer.
Here's the 24th filmed and aired episode..."Hornet Save Thyself".
With the new movie opening next week (and a special movie/tv entry planned for next Friday), we're winding up our look at The Green Hornet tv series with the two-part finale.
If you're going out, go out with a bang. And there's no bang bigger than an atomic explosion!
Mad scientist Dr Mabuse has created a citywide panic by faking a flying saucer crash and appearance by "stranded aliens".
Invading Britt Reid's townhouse (and zapping Kato), the spacesuited fiend demands the publisher help him and his fellow "aliens" get out of town without police interference so their mothership can send a rescue craft to pick them up in a remote area...the same "remote area" a secret military convoy transporting atomic weapons is due to pass through!
Though skeptical, Reid complies and Mabuse leaves, taking Lenore Case as a hostage.
Mabuse intercepts the convoy and hijacks an atomic bomb!
Rescue Casey from a leering lunatic and save the city from atomic Armageddon! It's a far cry from the gangsters and thieves the Hornet and Kato usually handle!
With a new producer and a totally-different approach, this ep seems like a last-gasp attempt to boost the ratings by going with a much more sci-fi/ fantasy-oriented storyline.
Thankfully, they didn't go to the campy level of Batman. It's still played straight.
Every last cent in the series budget was thrown in for location shooting and optical fx, including lots of highway stunt driving along with the show's best stunt-piece; The Green Hornet leaping from the back of Black Beauty to Mabuse's truck while both are barreling down a curving highway at 60+ mph.
Side notes:
The villain's last name, Mabuse, is taken from a famous German pulp supervillain. The GH character is not related to the German character, except in his revenge-crazed desire to blow things up. Larry D Mann plays him with all the scenery-chewing panache of a James Bond foe.
Linda Gaye Scott who played the villain's "shocking" sidekick Vama, appeared on numerous '60s genre shows including Batman, Lost in Space, and Man from U.N.C.L.E., usually in a skintight ensemble!
These are the only episodes without an appearance by reporter and (Hornet's nemesis) Mike Axford, but another red-headed reporter named "Bill" does appear!
And, it's the only episode where Kato is actually knocked unconscious (albeit by electric shock)!
NOTE: the clip provider, HornetNest1000, left out the end credits of ep 1 and opening credits of ep 2, to "flow" the two-parter better. The original source, Encore Action, had omitted the "next week" teaser and "last week" recap when they aired the eps, so HornetNest100's choice makes sense.
Here's the series finale of The Green Hornet (and hint of how the show might have proceeded if they had done a second season)...
Since it's New Year's Eve, an episode about "ringing out the old/ringing in the new" seems apropos...
When a local wax museum updates it's displays to include The Green Hornet and Kato, the wax figure of the previous "star" exhibit, The Scarf, apparently comes to life and resumes his murderous ways!
One of the weirder shows in the series, heavy on mood, no fight scenes, and no appearance of The Black Beauty!
Legendary horror film star John Carradine as museum researcher (with an ominous secret) James Rancourt was the only famous guest-star on the series. Unlike Batman, where famous performers from Tallulah Bankhead to Liberace were given villain roles written especially for them, Green Hornet used dependable, but little-known, character actors as villains. Side Notes:
John Carradine had been considered for the role of The Joker on Batman, but his poor health precluded his doing the role.
SPOILER (sorta): The Scarf's statue really should have shown a younger version of Carradine. Since it looks just like the elderly James Rancourt (albeit with a Van Dyke beard) played by Carradine, it's obvious who The Scarfreally is from the very beginning!
The music score written specifically for this episode was never reused! (Most of the music on the series was reedited and reused in at several other episodes besides the ones they were originally written for.)
Background info on a number of the unnamed city's villains from the early 1900s up to the late 1940s, when The Scarf disappeared, is presented during a tour of the museum, but there's no mention of an earlier Green Hornet. So, the mention of gangster Glen Connors framing Britt Reid's father in "Frog is a Deadly Weapon"doesn't refer to Reid Sr being the 1940s Hornet. What the elder Reid had been blamed for is never explained.
Here's the 23rd filmed and aired episode..."Alias the Scarf".
We've updated this post with corrected video links HERE!
Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...
It's Christmastime, so let's go with the most-demanded Green Hornet vids of all...
When Titans Clash :
BatmanvsThe Green Hornet!
A decade before Superman vs Spider-Man, this was the first inter-company superhero crossover. The Hornet and Kato had already cameoed on Batman, in the episode "The Spell of Tut", where they appeared in a window during a Bat-Climb.
Celebrities ranging from Sammy Davis Jr. to Edward G. Robinson popped up for brief appearances during these sequences. Even characters from other ABC series like Lurch (Ted Cassidy) from the Addams Family and Col. Klink (Werner Klemperer) from Hogan's Heroes showed up!
Curiously, the visiting duo are regarded as heroes, not villains, and Britt introduces Kato by name.
(Metafiction aficionados have been driven nuts by these interludes, trying to fit them into their respective universes...)
And, as we've pointed out before, both Batman and The Green Hornet featured their characters watching each others' show on tv!
All that was basically ignored when it was decided that, to boost Green Hornet's decent (but not Batman-level) ratings, GH and K would appear as "Visiting Heroes" on Batman.
For whatever reason, none of the established Batman villains were used. (And The Green Hornet had no costumed or even ongoing opponents.)
Instead, a new baddie, Colonel Gumm, played by Roger C. Carmel*, was introduced, along with a plotline involving counterfeit stamps which drew The Hornet and Kato to Gotham.
The motif of GH and K being perceived as villains was utilized, resulting in the Dynamic Duo being as eager to capture them as to jail the corny counterfeiter!
In addition, it's shown that the two heroes' millionaire alter-egos, Bruce Wayne and Britt Reid, have known each other since childhood, and constantly competed over almost everything, including women!
So, it was inevitable the two costumed frat-boys would square-off in the climax...
On-set photo of Van Williams and Adam West during the climactic fight scene
Unfortunately, the gambit didn't pay off. The Green Hornet's ratings didn't improve, and the show was cancelled.
(Note: the show's ratings were good enough to make them eligible for renewal, but, since the producers didn't want to implement network-demanded budget cuts, the network axed the series anyway. Batman, OTOH, continued, with a reduced budget and cut from being twice-weekly to weekly, for another year, before being cancelled.)
Without further adieu, here is the legendary two-parter; "A Piece of the Action" and "Batman's Satisfaction"...
*Roger C. Carmel played numerous flamboyant villains on everything from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Hawaii Five-0 to Transformers to Star Trek, where he portrayed Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd on both the classic and animated series!
He's also the answer to the trivia question; "Who's the only actor to play a villain opposite Batman, Captain Kirk, and The Green Hornet?"
, this was the first inter-company superhero crossover.
to Hawaii Five-0
to Transformers
to Star Trek
, where he portrayed Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd on both the classic and animated
series!
