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MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

I was counting her...more than one outside of Kato being Case and the D.A. The only regular supporting character who doesn't know is Mike Axford, the reporter who's vocally anti-Hornet.
 
Batman: "Pop Goes the Joker"/"Flop Goes the Joker": This one's a mixed bag for me. The first half gets a little too sitcommy, though the satire of modern art and the pretention of the art community is kind of fun. The Joker comes off as kind of dimwitted and silly here, not as much of a threat as he used to be -- a characterization that will continue in season 3. It is fun to see Bruce insulting the Joker in the art class scene, though.

The actress playing Baby Jane Towser is terrible, one of the worst parts of the episodes. Her acting is like she's trying to get the attention of someone in the next room.

But it has a strong finish. Batman sneaking up behind the Joker to taunt him over the phone is a lot of fun, even if it does make the Joker look rather inane. And Alfred is awesome in the climax, not only outfencing the Joker, but out-quipping him at the same time. That's a classic.

Oh, and this confirms that the Batpole costume change is automatic -- which was pretty clearly implied before, but I don't know if it was entirely clear.


Wonder Woman: "The Deadly Dolphin": Hey, this is by Jackson Gillis, the veteran TV author who wrote the Adventures of Superman classic "Panic in the Sky." This is nowhere near that level, though. Kind of unfocused, and it has too much stilted expository dialogue.

I see that Diana no longer has to change into her default Wonder Woman costume first before changing into her wetsuit But what the hell were those bursts of light she gave off to scare off the shark? Is she shopping at the same Random Powers Emporium that Superman used in the later Reeve movies? (Also, she has flippers that only appear after she dives into the water.)

Trek guest alert: The kid taking care of the dolphins is Brian Tochi from "And the Children Shall Lead." He would also star in Filmation's Space Academy and would be the voice of Leonardo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film trilogy.


Interesting that more than one character outside of Kato is in on Reid's secret...all but one of the regular supporting cast. That sort of "Team Hornet" approach seems unusual for the time...a carryover from previous media incarnations?

Basically. In the later years of the radio series, the Hornet's identity was known to the police commissioner (replaced by DA Scanlon in the show) and to Lenore Case. But I think Casey was the only one in the serials who was in on the secret.


How does the Green Hornet maintain a reputation as a criminal when he's never involved in a successful criminal operation? If anything, you'd think the underworld would either catch onto him or consider him to be bad luck when every operation that he expresses an interest in quickly gets busted.

I've wondered that myself. I don't think it was ever adequately explained.


I have to wonder how good it is for a car to keep it stored upside-down.

The Black Beauty is no ordinary car... ;)

I do like the BB, though. It makes sense as a secret crimefighter's car, because it's the sort of thing that could blend in with normal cars at night, if you didn't look too closely. It's subtler and more naturalistic than the Batmobile, as befits the respective characters of the shows. (Which is one reason the recent movie remake made a mistake recreating the BB so authentically. It wasn't supposed to be a vintage car, it was supposed to be on the cutting edge of high technology.)


One episode involved modern criminals running a "1920s style" bootlegging operation...illegally distilling and smuggling alcohol. Has there been a market for that sort of thing in major cities since the end of Prohibition?

I don't know much about liquor sales, but aren't they generally closely regulated, only allowed with proper licenses? These guys were probably trying to get out of paying taxes/license fees to the government.
 
The Black Beauty is no ordinary car... ;)
It's not just the BB, though...it's also Reid's sedan that takes its place in the upside-down position.

Speaking of Carrs, Paul's one of the crooks in the current episode. Driving a tank no less.

And he gets shot...he always dies, doesn't he?

I assume that portrait on the wall of Reid's office is supposed to be his father. At a distance, he bears a distracting resemblance to Andrew Jackson.
 
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The Black Beauty is no ordinary car... ;)
It's not just the BB, though...it's also Reid's sedan that takes its place in the upside-down position.

Yeah, Reid's sedan would not do well being flipped over every day. Let's just hope he did not have loose change in the arm rest.

Speaking of Carrs, Paul's one of the crooks in the current episode. Driving a tank no less.

I forgot about Carr. So the Hornet faced actors from both Star Trek pilots.
 
^Or loose anything...it's a convertible with the top down!

Why do they introduce Britt Reid as "former publisher of the Daily Sentinel"? He still seems to be running the place.
 
That makes a bit more sense, I'll have to listen for that. It sure sounded like "former" to me, and a quick google showed that I wasn't the only one.
 
The hornet symbol in the credits has little Pac-Mans in its eyes...surely not the intent back in 1966, but I can't not see them.
 
After I actually woke up, I realized that I had already missed "color day" before I even knew aboout it.

It was bad enough when greed-motivated ideas actually ended up as series, evident in Happy Days giving birth to the mind-killing Mork and Mindy,
The first season of Mork & Mindy was fantastic, and there were occasional high points thereafter (most notably the "Pure Power" episode in season two).

I have to wonder how good it is for a car to keep it stored upside-down.
You've got to rotate the tires.
 
^And the rest of the car with them?

Something they could have done without cars hanging upside-down would have been a turntable split by a trick section of wall, so that the BB rotated in from an adjacent hidden room.

I imagine that this is something that Christopher would have mentioned at an appropriate point upthread, but one episode has a hood watching Batman. Hearing that theme song certainly made me look up.

Why does the Hornet use a device to disguise his voice to talk to Mike on the phone, when he also talks to him face-to-face? Maybe in case he's being recorded....
 
^Yeah, one or two GH episodes had people watching Batman, and a Batman episode had people watching The Green Hornet. Even though they later had the GH and Kato appear on Batman. They weren't overmuch concerned with continuity, just with cross-promotion.
 
Something they could have done without cars hanging upside-down would have been a turntable split by a trick section of wall, so that the BB rotated in from an adjacent hidden room.

It was probably more visually and technologically dynamic for the period (of Bond and Batman) to have the rotating platform.

but one episode has a hood watching Batman. Hearing that theme song certainly made me look up.
The relationship and inclusion of characters in series continuity had to go through a natural progression. The first was TGH and Kato in the window cameo, which--like most of their cameos--were promotion and not meant to be a hard part of continuity. For example, no one would think Lurch from The Addams Family or Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes (consider the period of time that series was set) both window cameos, were a part of the actual continuity of the episode.

Next, on The Green Hornet, the episode you refer to, "The Secret of the Sally Bell" has villains watching Batman, while on an episode of Batman, Bruce & Dick are watching The Green Hornet. At that point, the characters were just used as pure cross promotion for what they were: two TV series.

However, the third and final use of characters had TGH being an official part of Batman's "living" continuity / world, with Wayne & Reid now being childhood friends & rivals. Since the crossover stands as the final, and biggest relationship between the characters, "A Piece of the action" / "Batman's Satisfaction" locks TGH and Batman into a single continuity, with the earlier appearances being historic, but unofficial.

Why does the Hornet use a device to disguise his voice to talk to Mike on the phone, when he also talks to him face-to-face? Maybe in case he's being recorded....
Isn't that the great question? Mike has heard TGH and Britt who, naturally, sound the same, but he cannot figure it out. Other than upping the "fantastic gadget" element of the series, GH had no reason to use such a device, since Mike is clueless where voice recognition is concerned. This also applies to Batman's Gordon and O'Hara, who know Wayne and Grayson socially, yet see no voice or physical resemblance between the civilians and the Caped Crusaders.
 
Yeah, as it was following in the tradition of The Adventures of Superman and Batman, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief when people don't recognize the Hornet's voice...but pulling out the phone gadget for no reason draws too much attention to the issue.
 
In the first movie serial in 1940, Britt Reid was played by Gordon Jones, but when he put on the costume, his voice was dubbed by Al Hodge, the voice of the Hornet on radio. So he didn't have to worry about his voice being recognized there. ;) Though in the second serial, Warren Hull played Reid/Hornet with his voice undubbed.
 
I see in a Wiki that the series used two Black Beauties. Did they have different paint jobs? It seems like sometimes the car is dark and shiny, while in other scenes it's dull and grayish.
 
The difference seems too distinct for that...like one of them is a substantially lighter color.

I think I was only seeing it in day-for-night scenes...maybe they gave it a duller paint job so it wouldn't reflect the sun?
 
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Interesting site, but nothing about a different paint job...in fact, it says that the two cars are difficult to distinguish onscreen.

I think the shots in question were out in the desert...maybe a layer of dust contributed?
 
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