the green hornet

The Green Hornet is a media franchise created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. The Green Hornet follows Britt Reid, the playboy bachelor and media mogul of the Daily Sentinel newspaper, who is actually the Green Hornet, a masked vigilante who the police think is a master criminal when in true he pretends to be a criminal to infiltrate and battle criminal gangs, leaving them and the incriminating evidence for the police. Helping Green Hornet in his fight against crime is his Asian butler/chauffeur Kato, a martial arts expert, his secretary Lenore "Casey" Case and District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon.

Originally began as a radio show that aired from 1936 to 1952, it was later adapted to two movies in the 1940s and a comic book series. The most well known version of the franchise is the 1966–1967 TV series created by William Dozier (the creator of the 1966-1968 Batman tv series which both series had crossovers with each other) that aired on ABC staring Van Williams as the Green Hornet and Bruce Lee as Kato, Lee's first major role on US television. Despite the tv series being cancelled after one season due to falling ratings and creative difference between Dozier and Trendle over the direction of the show, the show had a cult following in the US thanks to Bruce Lee which led to an interest in Martial Arts and was a hit in Hong Kong where it was renamed The Kato Show and started Lee's career as a Kung Fu movie star.

The Green Hornet would later get a 2011 movie staring Seth Rogan and Jay Chou as the Green Hornet and Kato respectively. The movie received negative reviews for focusing too much on comedy.