Captain's Theatre: Asian Avengers AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN

What was the connection between the animated Amazing Chan and the 1940s Charlie Chan films?

Keye Luke, who was the voice of Charlie in the cartoon also played "Number One Son" Lee Chan in eight films of the 1930a/40s series!

When Warner Oland (seen above with Luke) died, Luke left the series.

His character wasn't recast, but replaced by "Number Two Son" Jimmy Chan and "Number Three Son" Tommy Chan!

Luke returned for the final two films, playing opposite Roland Winters as Charlie...despite the fact Roland was two years younger then Keye!
As for "The Case of the Missing Chan Child": Only Tommy, out of all the named Chan movie siblings is part of the Chan family in the cartoon, and he's a totally-different personality than the movie kid!

In an example of Six Degrees of Pop Culture Separation, Keye was also the original on-screen Kato in the two 1940s Green Hornet movie serials!

A constant guest star on TV of the 1950s and 60s (including Star Trek), he had ongoing voice roles on several other cartoons including Space Ghost (Brak) and Battle of the Planets (Zoltar)!
To Baby Boomers, though, he'll always be remembered as blind monk Master Po who trained Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu and appeared in flashbacks in almost every episode to impart wisdom to his ex-student, who would then use it to kick butt!

What's the connection between Amazing Chan, The Archies and The Amazing Spider-Man?

A singer/musician named Ron Dante!

The kids in Amazing Chan were also musicians, with the older kids performing a song in every episode as the "Chan Clan"!

Ron Dante supplied the lead singer's voice, just as he did on The Archies cartoons!

Dante was also the lead singer on the Amazing Spider-Man lp album/cassette From Beyond the Grave (1972), which we posted HERE!

And, finally, "Who was the Amazing Chan voice performer who won an Academy Award?"

Jodie Foster, who voiced tomboy Anne Chan!

Politically-Correct Note: Initially, the entire Chan family were voiced by Asian-American performers, but most of the youngsters had thick accents and their roles were recast with a mix of more experienced Asian-Americans and a couple of white performers, including Foster.

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The Most Dangerous Man on TV (Conclusion)

When Last We Left Our Villain...

...Roger C Carmel had already shown himself to be TV's most proficent practictioner of evil, with multiple appearances on various series, including a record-setting run as Classic Star Trek's only repeat antagonist!

But his greatest role had yet to be played!

And it would be in a historic setting...the first crossover between super-heroes from two different comic companies!

In the Batman second season two-parter "A Piece of the Action" / "Batman's Satisfaction",  Carmel played Colonel Gumm, a counterfeiter using his employer, Pinky Pinkston's stamp-printing facilities to produce forgeries of rare stamps he sells to collectors as the real thing!

It's also implied he had something to do with the demise of his employer's father, Pincus Pinkston, but that's never made clear.

When The Green Hornet (who is believed to be a criminal, though he's actually a hero) shows up demanding a cut of the counterfeiting operation, Gotham's own Caped Crusaders leap into action...to try to arrest The Green Hornet!

However, while tailing the Hornet, they discover Gumm is really the baddie!

When the Callous Counterfeiter appears to have turned the Hornet and his aide, Kato, into life-size stamps, Batman and Robin attack, but are caught like flies on flypaper as the first episode ends with them also about to be processed into oversize postage stamps!

As is the case with such cliffhangers, Batman and Robin break loose and free the Hornet and Kato who, or course, weren't turned into giant stamps!

Gumm and his men escape, and, without evidence, the Dynamic Duo let Kato and the Hornet walk.

Figuring out the Colonel's next move, both duos go to a major stamp exhibition where the Gumm and his gang (in disguise) are about to make off with oodles of rare stamps when both teams of crimefighters take them down while battling each other (since B&R think GH&K are criminals, remember?)!

Roger plays Gumm as someone who really enjoys being evil, going almost as all-out wacky as Victor Buono did as King Tut!

He gloats and preens, all but devouring the scenery and spitting out toothpicks in an overacting tour-de-force!

But that's not all!

Carmel gets to play not only Gumm, but Gumm in three different disguises...all with different accents!

...as an unnamed British gent who eavesdrops on Pinky Pinkston's lunch with Bruce (Batman) Wayne and Britt (Green Hornet) Reid who then pay a visit to the stamp shop of...

...the Russian-accented "Boris Sevaroff" whom Bruce questions about counterfeit stamps.

When The Green Hornet invades Gumm's lair later that night, he reveals he knows Gumm is Sevaroff, leading the Colonel to conclude The Green Hornet is really...wait for it...Bruce Wayne!

Finally, Gumm appears as "Senor Barbossa", an Argentinian stamp dealer, in order to steal rare stamps at the stamp exhibition.

Despite being a one-shot villain, Colonel Gumm was fondly-remembered by Bat-fans, and, a couple of years ago, when a comic based on the TV version of the Caped Crusader, Batman '66, was finally produced, he was brought back for a sequel to the TV series episodes...with a promotion from "Colonel" to "General Gumm"!

But there was a major problem!

The comic's publishers didn't have the rights to use Roger's likeness!

So, the story's writers concocted Gumm having an accident while trying to improve his glue, resulting in a sheet of it permanently affixed to his face!

Despite that drawback, the script captures the character's speech patterns perfectly, and you can "hear" Roger's voice in your head as you read the story!

Will Gumm return again?

Only time will tell!

At any rate, between Colonel Gumm and Harry Mudd, 

Roger C Carmel's position as

The Most Dangerous Man on TV

is assured!

BTW, this is part of the...

Click
HERE
to see some of the other amazing tales of the video baddies you love to hate!

The Most Dangerous Man on TV!

He faced off against these two guys three times...

...(more than any other antagonist in television history)!
&
he forced the only time these two duos met...

...though they spent as much time fighting each other as they did dealing with his machinations!

Plus, he went up multiple times against other major heroes (though always in different roles), including Solo and Kuryakin: the Men from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy's Kelly and Robinson, and even Transformer Optimus Prime and his Autobots!

Who is the actor who played the Most Dangerous Man on TV?

Roger C Carmel!

A TV fixture in the 1960s (with occasional movie roles), the roly-poly actor's jovial on-screen persona usually concealed deadly intent, which made him a popular guest baddie on genre shows, often appearing as different villains in different seasons!

Roger made three appearances as Harry Mudd, two on Classic Star Trek and one on the Animated series (becoming the only non-Enterprise crew character to do so more than twice)

"Mudd's Women"

The Enterprise crew encounter charming rogue "Leo Walsh" transporting three women, ostensibly to become wives to miners on an isolated planetoid.

What they soon learn is that he's really a wanted con man, Harcourt Fenton Mudd!

Mudd utilizes the women to manipulate the miners into withholding needed dilithium from Kirk unless Harry is granted amnesty.

The plan almost succeeds, but one of the women rebels against Mudd and reveals Harry is using illegal drugs to enhance their femininity and attractiveness!

With the con revealed, the miners (who are now married to the ladies) give Kirk the dilithium and Mudd is taken prisoner!

Roger plays Harry as alternately charming and almost psychotically-menacing, not hesitating to allow the Enterprise and all aboard to be destroyed if it allows his escape!

"I, Mudd"

An android disguised as a Starfleet crewman sabotages the Enterprise and hijacks it to a remote planetoid where Kirk and company discover the android's commander is...Harry Mudd!

Harry explains he escaped from prison, but his ship, damaged by pursuers, crashed on this uncharted world.

A world populated by alien androids whose masters had died out centuries ago, so they willingly agreed to serve Mudd.
Unfortunately, his imagination was insufficient to keep up with their need for projects to do, so he hijacked a starship to get a whole crew of bright, intelligent people for the androids to serve...coincidentally, it was the Enterprise!
But, as Mudd's plans tend to do, this one goes awry when the androids reveal that, after observing Harry, they decide it would be best for the galaxy if they pacified humanity by removing it's desire to do anything by giving all humans whatever they wanted, in essence subjugating humanity with kindness!
It's a much more humorous outing then the previous Mudd adventure, filled with witty repartee between Mudd and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.
But, once Harry ends up trapped like the Enterprise crew, he uses his incessant snarkiness for good instead of evil!
While Harry does help Kirk and company, they leave him with the now-reprogrammed-and-harmless androids...

"Mudd's Passion"

You'd think the least likely returning character to appear on the Saturday morning animated version of Star Trek would be a con man who dealt in drugs and playing with people's sexual drives, yet here he is...dealing drugs and manipulating people's sex drives...but done with delicacy and good taste...sort of...

Having escaped from the androids. Harry is back to his thieving ways, promoting a phony aphrodisiac...which actually works!
Interestingly, it not only inspires romantic love between sexes, but enhances non-romantic affection between same-sex friends, resulting in perhaps the most controversial scene between Kirk and Spock in Star Trek history...

Yes, they're hugging!

Carmel's Harry Mudd is softened considerably here, no longer the callous SOB who would let the Enterprise (and crew) be destroyed, but he's as snarky and snide as ever, getting off a number of zingers before heading for incarceration...yet again!

But that wasn't the end of Mudd!

When DC Comics acquired the rights to Star Trek in 1983, after Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan came out, they created tales to fill the time frames between the movies, often reviving TV series characters in new adventures.

So it was inevitable that you-know-who would return...

...in a couple of pretty good multi-part tales!

...keeping him in sleazy, snarky character throughout!

And now, the prequel series Star Trek: Discovery has cast Rainn (The Office) Wilson as a younger, but still snarky, Harcourt Fenton Mudd...

...adapting some of the style and mannerisms of Roger C Carmel into his characterization!

But, fans, that's not the only legendary nemesis Caramel created!

Sadly, we've come to a point where we must break off our look into video history...until TOMORROW, when we'll bring you Roger's other immortal villain!

BTW, this is part of the...

Click
HERE
to see some of the other amazing tales of the video baddies you love to hate!

Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Freeway to Death"

It's not often someone can take on the captain of the USS Enterprise...and win!

The Green Hornet can!

OK, technically, he's not the captain of the Enterprise here, but Jeffrey Hunter was the first man to sit in the captain's chair during the first Star Trek pilot episode, "The Cage".

When NBC said, "close, but not quite", and ordered a second pilot, Hunter turned down the option to return, preferring to do a pilot for Batman producer William Dozier called Journey into Fear based on a novel by Eric Ambler, previously done as a feature film in the 1940s starring Orson Welles!

Ironically, it was in competition for an NBC schedule slot against, among other shows, a second Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" with William Shatner as the new captain of the Enterprise!

Trek sold. Journey didn't.

Hunter began doing tv guest-star roles, and when offered, took the guest-villain gig on Dozier's Green Hornet series, playing construction magnate Emmett Crown, who's also secretly financing an insurance company which offers "protection" to businesses!

Daily Sentinel reporter Mike Axford is investigating the matter and is told by his boss, Britt Reid, to work with The Green Hornet to expose the still-unknown head of the "insurance" company! Axford intends to do exactly that, and capture The Hornet, as well!

It's cross and double-cross as plans are made and plans go awry, resulting in kool fight scenes, Crown being exposed and captured, and The Hornet and Kato escaping the law again!

SideNotes:

More location shooting, this time at an active construction site outside LA, where Britt Reid is almost "accidentally" killed and, later, The Hornet and Kato face several of Crown's bulldozers trying to crush the Black Beauty.

Since the car's rockets are ineffective against the heavy metal blades of the bulldozers, The Hornet and Kato use the previously-unseen Hornet Mortar (located in the same rear trunk compartment where the flying Hornet Scanner is kept), to loft explosive shells over the blades and disable the dozers' treads (and probably kill the drivers)! The Hornet Mortar is never seen or mentioned again!

From December 16, 1966..."Freeway to Death".

Next Week:

The Green Hornet dabbles in politics!

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Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Secret of the Sally Bell"

The only person who knows where a shipment of illegal drugs is hidden on a salvaged freighter is accidentally rendered comatose before he can tell The Green Hornet and Kato.
They take him to a nearby hospital for treatment, but, after they leave, the man's associates kidnap him...and the attending doctor.
Now our dynamic duo have to a) rescue the doctor, b) keep the comatose guy alive, and c) stop the criminals from acquiring the drugs.
It's cross and double-cross as The Hornet allies himself with the crooks to accomplish his own goals.
But the gangsters have no intention of keeping their side of the deal, either...
Side notes:
For the first time, we see the Black Beauty operated by remote control, including maneuvering and firing it's front-mounted rockets at a sniper trying to kill The Hornet and Kato.
One of the running gags on both Batman and The Green Hornet was showing characters on one series watching the other series on tv! In this ep, the crooks are watching Batman when it's interrupted by a news bulletin about The Green Hornet leaving a wounded man (their drug contact) at a hospital.
More location shooting, this time at a commercial Los Angeles shipyard seen in a number of films and tv series, most notably Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
The show indavertantly poses a question...where is the Green Hornet's unnamed city?
The "Sally Bell" is described as wrecked by a typhoon, and towed to port!
Typhoons only occur in the Pacific Ocean, so the Hornet's city must be on the West Coast, right!
Except, in comics or the radio show, it was described as being one of several midwestern cities; usually Detriot (where the show's home station, WXYZ was located) or Chicago!
And the idea of a character running around in an overcoat in a town where "winter" is usually in the 70-degree range is...odd to say the least!

From December 9th, 1966..."The Secret of the Sally Bell".

Next Week:

The Green Hornet meets the first captain of the USS Enterprise!

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Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Deadline for Death"

A series of wealthy home break-ins has one thing in common...all the victims had recently been profiled by Daily Sentinel reporter Mike Axford!

Has he used his interviews to case the homes?
When Axford is arrested at the site of the latest break-in, The Green Hornet and Kato must uncover evidence to free the hapless newshound.

SideNotes:

The Green Hornet has his first solo fight scene...which he loses! (To be fair, it is against three guys.) When he and Kato catch up to the three crooks in the finale, guess who wins?
When the Hornet is trapped, Kato grabs the Hornet Sting he dropped and blasts the door open. When Van Williams saw how Bruce Lee elegantly-flicked the Sting open in the dailies, he decided to adopt the mannerism himself for the remainder of the series!

Seeking info, The Hornet questions a stolen-goods fence named Tubbs, indicating that he's been allowing the fence to continue operating as long as he served The Hornet when needed. A nice touch, adding credibility to the crimefighter's cover as a criminal.

Later, there's a scene at Reid's home where the duo, in costume, but without masks or hats, review evidence. This happens several times in the series. (You never saw Batman and Robin partially in costume)

More location shooting, this time at a small local airport and aircraft hanger also used in several Batman episodes.

Much more day-for-night photography.

Originally airing December 2, 1966..."Deadline for Death".

Next Week:

The Green Hornet gets involved in drug-running!

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Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Hunters and the Hunted"

The opening narration to the Hornet's radio show was "The Green Hornet; he hunts the biggest of all game..."

In this tv episode, the tables are turned.

Wealthy (and crooked) businessman Quentin Crane and his fellow members of the exclusive Explorers' Club use exotic weaponry (like blowguns and crossbows) to hunt and kill gang leaders.
Ironically, the other members are well-intentioned innocents who believe their "hunts" will end crime in the city, while Crane is using them to eliminate competition as he takes over, one gang at a time!
And...the group's next targets are...The Green Hornet and his masked associate!

SideNotes:
When Crane's gangsters break into Reid's home intending to kill him, Kato (with Reid's aid) take them down.
It's the second time we see Kato in action sans costume, and the first time in the series we see an unmasked Reid in a fight.

Speaking of which, I wonder what do Reid's neighbors think of the constant hubub at the young publisher's townhouse?
If it's not a robbery where a police car gets blown up by a laser beam ("The Ray is for Killing"), or gunshots ("Beautiful Dreamer"), this episode features the first of several noisy brawls in the house.
And then there's the sinister black car constantly prowling the alleys at all hours...
Those neighborhood association meetings must have been interesting!
 (At least the tv Batman's oft-invaded stately Wayne Manor was out in the country. No neighbors to disturb!)


Another thing, the criminals who raid Reid's house are the same baddies he and Kato KOed (while in costume) at a gang-leader's office earlier in the episode.
We don't see them again.
Rather than let the twice-trashed hoods put 2+2 together ("That little guy who helped Reid fights like the Hornet's driver...Hey wait a sec..."), I wonder if Britt and Kato discreetly "disposed" of them?

There's a LOT of day-for-night scenes.
Depending on the quality of the episode's print, I've seen it almost as bright as day, to barely able to make out silhouettes.

From November 25th, 1966..."The Hunters and the Hunted"

Next Week:

The Green Hornet must discover who framed the Daily Sentinel's crime reporter Mike Axford, for burglary!

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Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Preying Mantis"

Did you know The Green Hornet was promoted as "The Kato Show" in Hong Kong?

The spotlight is on Kato, as he and The Green Hornet battle a normally-benevolent Chinese secret society whose younger members are extorting "protection" money from helpless Chinatown business owners.
In addition, the society (or "tong") is being secretly manipulated by white gangsters using one of the tong members, Low Sing, as a cats-paw.
The Hornet wants to end the protection racket by removing Low Sing from his position of power by exposing the gangsters' influence on him.

Side Notes: When people mention The Green Hornet tv series, this is the episode they usually refer to.
It was the featured episode (due to it's emphasis on Chinese martial arts) in a compilation movie released theatrically shortly after Bruce Lee died.

This is the ep for Bruce Lee fans as he finally gets to strut his stuff in solo combat against multiple foes!
Lee choreographed the fights, including the one-on-one finale with Low Sing.
Rumor has it that most of the tong members participating in the climactic fight scene were students from Lee's dojo.

It's the only episode where Kato is defeated in hand-to-hand combat as a masked Low Sing attacks him from behind early in the ep.

Besides blasting a door and a tommy-gun with it, The Hornet uses the Hornet Sting extended to full-length as a fighting staff several times in this episode

There are things in this ep that beg the question; what's Kato's ethnicity in the tv series?
On the radio show he's said to be "Oriental", which became Filipino after World War II began.
In the two 1940s movie serials, he was Korean.
In the 1980s NOW Comics (which took the various Green Hornets and made them into a family legacy much like The Phantom) and the current Dynamite series, he's Japanese.
In this episode, he's familiar with Chinatown and many of it's residents, especially the lovely Mary Chang.
He speaks Chinese, and translates conversations between tong members for the Hornet's benefit.
Plus, he's well aware of social conventions and procedures of the tong itself.
Of course, he's well-versed in the Chinese martial art of gung-fu.
Is he Chinese? It's never specifically stated.

Curiously, at the end of the episode, when Britt Reid, Lenore Case, Mike Axford and the previously-blackmailed businessmen celebrate over dinner at one of the businessmen's restaurant, Kato is nowhere to be seen!

Weird Trivia: the toy company that resurrected the 1960s Captain Action action figure line 20 years ago with both a reissued Green Hornet costume and a never-before done Kato costume was called "Playing Mantis"!
Here's the tenth episode aired on November 18th, 1966..."The Preying Mantis".

And here's a bonus: the feature film combining this episode plus several others!

Next Week:

The Green Hornet, who "hunts the biggest of all game" (as his radio show opening said) finds himself being stalked!

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Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Ray is for Killing"

The Green Hornet and Kato face art thieves armed...with a laser rifle?

Except for the two-part series finale, "Invasion from Outer Space", this was the most scifi-oriented episode of the series.
Usually, the show was a straight "detectives with masks" format, dealing with gangsters, extortionists, etc.
No flashy costumed villains.
No super-weapons (except The Hornet's arsenal, of course).
Curiously, there's no explanation as to how these criminals got their hands on a laser, who taught them how to use it (or who's gonna fix it if it breaks), or why they're not using it for more lucrative crimes.

SideNotes:
We don't know who built the laser.
These guys certainly didn't have the scientific background to do so.
Was there a mad scientist running around the city?

Why didn't The Hornet take the laser and incorporate it into his weaponry?
As it is, leaving it for the police left open the possibility that they could adapt it and use it against him and Kato!

The laser itself is shown to be powered by simply plugging it into an electrical outlet!
(110 or 220 volts?)
It also conveniently fits into a suitcase.

There's location shooting in the Los Angeles storm drain system, both inside the tunnels (where the Black Beauty's green headlights really glow with an eerie effect unseen any other time in the series), and outside using some of the same viaducts seen in Terminator 2 and THEM!

Though it's the ninth episode aired, this was the second episode shot, after "Programmed for Death".

From November 11, 1966..."The Ray is for Killing"!

Next Week:

The most-famous Green Hornet episode of all!

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