I’m currently watching Batman on MeTV and was looking up what else William Dozier produced and I realized I have never seen The Green Hornet show in syndication. It seems like something that would fit in well on the schedule with the Batman series. I’m curious why I have never seen it in syndication.
shareI believe it has been held up all these years from a copyright dispute. I know the show got shown on Starz a few years back, and the only home media copies floating around these days are bootleg recordings of the show made from that broadcast. It's a pity, because I think the show was greatly superior to the campy Batman series that Dozier made. Batman was popular in the 1960s, though the show lasted only three season, and I'm convinced that was because it just had such an overt level of camp and cheesiness that it had novelty value -- and novelties always wear off quickly. The Green Hornet, by contrast, was played straight, like a serious crime drama. I think it holds up far better today, though it didn't get good enough ratings to get more than one season back when it was on prime time.
I really wish we could get a proper, high definition release.
I know I've seen it in syndication at some point, but that could have been any point in the last few decades because it didn't capture my interest.
It's not a good show. The hero is handsome but dull, the scripts were duller, and even Bruce Lee couldn't save that mess. I think it's only remembered because of Lee, but I suspect his fans watch it out of historical interest or duty, rather than because they like the show.