Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Frog is a Deadly Weapon"

 The Green Hornet faces off against The Shadow!

Well, sorta...

The villain of this episode, gangster Glen Connors, is played by Victor Jory, who portrayed The Shadow in the 1940 movie serial based on both the pulp magazine and radio show!
Connors is impersonating millionaire recluse Charles Delaclare, and slowly draining the dead millionaire's assets.
Britt Reid wants to expose Connors/Delaclare, not only because Connors evaded the law by faking his own death and replacing Delaclare, but Connors was part of a conspiracy that framed Reid's father years ago!
Side notes:
The frame-up of Reid's father is never pursued beyond this episode.
Was dear old Dad the 1940s Green Hornet? We'll never know...
The concept of the villain replacing a reclusive millionaire and utilizing the the deceased Plutarch's empire for evil is later used in the film version of Diamonds are Forever.
The idea of fighting a flock of frogmen (say that five times fast) was probably inspired by the box-office success of the then-current James Bond flick Thunderball!
You'll also note the Hornet performing gymnastics like swinging on poles for the only time in the series.
(It is more difficult to do that stuff in an overcoat than in leotards...) 
Lenore "Casey" Case, played by the lovely Wende Wagner, finally gets serious screen time in this episode as she does some investigating for Reid, but gets caught by Connors' henchmen. As clever as she is beautiful, she keeps herself alive by bluffing the criminals until The Hornet can rescue her!
For the first time we see The Hornet change from his costume to civilian garb in the back seat of the Black Beauty.
He does this several times during the show's run (or from civilian garb to costume) to appear as both Reid and The Hornet to criminals within a short time-frame.
This is the first appearance of Barbara Babcock (Hill Street Blues) as Elaine Carey, a competitor with Casey for Britt Reid's affections.
Barbara performed on the original Star Trek five times (twice on-screen, three times doing voiceovers), each time as a different character!

From October 7th, 1966...."The Frog is a Deadly Weapon"!

Support Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

The Shadow

starring Victor Jory!

Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Crime Wave"

It's a 1960s version of cybercrime as The Green Hornet faces a computer that can predict his crimes! (A neat trick since The Hornet is just pretending to be a criminal!)

There's double-crossing, a couple of elaborately-planned robberies, and a kool all-out fight scene at the climax as The Hornet and Kato both go hand-to-hand and use the Black Beauty's gas-guns for the first time to take on a group of foes!

Trivia notes:
Despite being computer whizzes, the criminals in this episode can't construct a pistol-sized gas gun like The Hornet, and have to lug a huge canister of knockout gas around with them!
The use (by criminals) of the Green Hornet's stickers (or clever counterfeits) to frame him for crimes dates back to the radio show, where he was constantly leaving them at locations where he had just set up criminals
There's a costume party scene with a number of outfits containing elements (helmets, tunics, sidearms) from various Irwin Allen shows (Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)!

From September 30, 1966..."Crime Wave"!

Enjoy!

Next week: The Green Hornet meets...The Shadow! (No lie!)

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

Frank Miller tries to kill The Green Hornet!

No, not THE Frank Miller, writer-artist of 300, Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns, and other comic classics!
This guy was a criminally-oriented gemologist who tried to freeze the Hornet in today's episode "Programmed for Death", the third show aired on ABC in 1966, but the first episode filmed.
There's a number of differences between what you'll see here and our previous two posts.
It's slower-paced since it had to introduce the various elements of the show to an audience unfamiliar with the character.
The last Green Hornet radio show was 14 years earlier, and an entire generation had grown up with no idea as to who he was!
Unlike Batman, there were no ongoing Green Hornet comic books or licensed products during this period, except a couple of lp record albums of radio shows.

The heroes have different masks (see photo at top) that actually work better to hide their identities, but obstructed peripheral vision. After this episode, molds were taken of their faces and new, form-fitting masks were created and used for the remainder of the show's run.

Note, also, that Kato does all the hand-to-hand fighting in this episode.
From September 23rd, 1966, the first episode filmed, but the third one aired..."Programmed for Death"!

Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Give 'Em Enough Rope"

The second episode aired (on 9/16/66), though the fifth filmed, is still experimenting with exactly how to "structure" the story.
In order to be as different as possible from studio-mate Batman, some episodes had more emphasis on plot elements and surprises than just the "something happens-hero investigates-big fight-something else happens-big fight-end", though, that structure domniates most of the show's run.

The early episodes (like this one) featured a "cold opening" where The Green Hornet and Kato didn't appear.
There's only one big fight scene, and most of Kato's participation in it (though he takes out the majority of criminals) is off-camera!
(That would soon change..)
There's also a one-time use of the Black Beauty's normal (non-green) headlights.
Speaking of those headlights, they were supposed to be "infra-green", which would be invisible to the human eye and their light could only be seen through transparent green sunvisors in the front of the car.
(Since the duo operate at night, they wouldn't need normal sunvisors in the car...)

Kato looks through his sunvisor to see the "infra-green" light, giving him a greenish hue while he's driving, but the visors' use is abandoned shortly after this episode is filmed.

Be here next week when we present the pilot episode!