LET’S ROLL: A birthday tribute to the late Van Williams, who was born 90 years ago…
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UPDATED 2/27/24: The late Van Williams was born 90 years ago on Feb. 27, 1934. Perfect time to re-present this piece by animator J.J. Sedelmaier that first ran during 2014’s GREEN HORNET WEEK. Dig it. — Dan
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By J.J. SEDELMAIER
With all the chatter surrounding the much-awaited release of the 1966-68 ABC-TV Batman show on Blu-ray/DVD, it seems like such a shame that we can’t be anticipating the equivalent with its short-lived sister show, The Green Hornet, starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee.
I was personally hoping that the there would have been a double boxed set, thinking perhaps the pairing could justify bringing the show out of corporate mothballs.
No such luck. I think the Black Beauty is on blocks in the garage . . .
It’s a shame because this was one of my favorite TV shows as a kid, and it’s been a thread of one kind or another for me from its original airing up until the present. Now, I could attempt to justify my “time to get a life” behavior by explaining how I’ve dovetailed this (for close to half a century) interest into a legitimate professional endeavor. But real being real, what I do professionally is wrought with “time to get a life-ness,” so what’s to justify? Everyone should be so lucky !
When Batmania engulfed America in 1966, kids and adults alike were following the show and it defined the word “camp.” I was psyched to see the show (twice a week, mind you) but I always wished it could’ve been less silly than it was. I grew up reading my dad’s Batman comics, (and yes, he still has them) starting with Batman #1!
The early issues were so much darker than what the character had become, and certainly more serious than the William Dozier spin. But whatever apprehensions I may have had about the show, that Batmobile totally rocked!
Then my dad later told me that the Green Hornet was also going to be a TV show. My first question was, “Does he have a cool car, too ?” My dad proceeded to tell me about how the Green Hornet and his Asian sidekick Kato worked and traveled together in their special Black Beauty automobile. He also told me that the same folks who created the Lone Ranger had done the Green Hornet, but that’s another article . . .
So The Green Hornet hits the TV screen and I’m getting off on the fact that it’s more serious than Batman.
But what really got me riveted to the tube was this Kato dude! I’d never seen anyone fight like him before, and what’s with the sounds emanating out of him – he was like an angry, possessed alley cat! Even though I’m not yet conscious of it in 1967, as of this moment I was destined to become a lifelong Bruce Lee fan. . .
The Green Hornet lasted just one season and I didn’t think of it much until the early 1970s when two aspects of the show resurrected.
First, was the release of Bruce Lee’s martial arts films. Once I heard those distinctive sounds, I knew it was Kato all over again! I had missed his other TV appearances (“Longstreet”, “Ironside”, “Here Come The Brides”, and the rarely seen “Blondie” episode, etc.) before he left the U.S. for Hong Kong, so I hadn’t been following his career after his role as Kato.
But my high-school friends and I followed his films and subjected ourselves to multiple visits to his 4 1/2 (Game Of Death was a post-mortem edit job) feature length movies. When the news of his death came in July of 1973, we were devastated. . .
My Bruce Lee library
The second aspect involved J.J. Born’s “Historical Antique Automobile Museum” that had opened in Highland Park, Ill., in the early 1970s. I lived in nearby Evanston and it was a 30-minute drive away – AND they had obtained an original Black Beauty used in the TV show!
Unfortunately, it had been modified like crazy with a lot of added gadgetry that wasn’t originally a part of the vehicle. They also had one of the original Barris Batmobiles, but it too had unfortunately been “remodeled” with what they called “Bat-Fur”: It looked like the entire surface had been covered with “G.I. Joe Life-Like Hair” . . . ugh. The museum closed after I left for school in Wisconsin, but having access to these two favorite TV cars of mine was still awesome!
Fast forward to the early 2000s. I now had a thriving career in film production and design and was always looking for interesting projects to explore outside the realm of what I was known for.
Danbury and Franklin Mint were producing die-cast 1:25 scale models of famous cars from films and TV shows, and I grabbed several of them up to display in my studio. It got me thinking about the Black Beauty again, but after inquiring around, it was apparent that it was too obscure for any company to invest in producing.
After investigating all the available options in terms of “garage kits”, etc., I realized that none of them did justice to the prototype, so I decided I’d try and build my own — and even considered recreating the Green Hornet’s special garage with the platform that flips Britt Reid’s ragtop Chrysler 300 upside down to reveal the Black Beauty.
TV model set
But first I had to research the car and see what I could find out about it. The Internet is a wonderful thing. I was able to determine that there were two Black Beauties created for the TV show, both designed and built by the legendary car designer Dean Jeffries.
I started pulling visual reference and grabbing up vintage 1966 Chrysler Imperial plastic models produced in the 1960s. It was the ’66 Crown Imperial that Jeffries used as the basic source for the two cars.
Vintage kits
The #1 car, and the one primarily used for filming, had been restored and was in the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. But the #2 car, which had also starred in several episodes of the show and was the car that travelled around to promote The Green Hornet and Jeffries’ involvement, was in private hands.
I reached out to Karl Kirchner, the owner of the #2 BB – AND the one that was in J.J. Born’s Highland Park Museum! We discovered that we not only were in synch with our interest in the Black Beauty, but we also shared a passion for film cartoon music tracks!
We struck up a friendship and we even worked together on designing and recreating some fun elements for his awesomely restored #2 Black Beauty!
How’s that for a full-circle journey?!
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MORE
— 13 COVERS: A VAN WILLIAMS GREEN HORNET Tribute. Click here.
— The BATMAN ’66 Top 13 Countdown: A Piece of the Action/Batman’s Satisfaction. Click here.
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From SNL’s Ambiguously Gay Duo, to Adult Swim’s Harvey Birdman, to The Colbert Report’s Tek Jansen, J.J. Sedelmaier has carved out a unique niche running an independent studio that’s done some of the most outrageous superhero cartoons around.
July 31, 2014
My life too has been connected to the Green Hornet TV since I first saw it in ’66. I’ve done a lot Green Hornet fan fics and even got two stories published in the Moonstone anthologies. I never much cared for the Batman TV series because, like you, I thought it was far too silly and an insult to the original comics. I wasn’t a big fan of Bruce Lee but thought that Van Williams was the Hottest man ever. 😀
July 31, 2014
Nice article. My Dad took me to the Customer Car Cycle and Van Show at the Baltimore Civic Center, probably around 72-73. Burt Ward was there as Robin (still looking like Robin) and so was that fuzzy Batmobile. I don’t know if was the one you saw (how many were there), but this had fuzz on it, and I knew something wasn’t right, even then.
February 27, 2021
As a high school freshman, I attended St. Lawrence Seminary in Wisconsin. For vacations, they’d bus us students from Michigan home but we’d also drop off some students who lived in Illinois. One of our stops took us past the Highland museum and I used to pray that the bus would break down so we could hike over to see the cars. That being said, I, too, liked the Green Hornet growing up and hope that we someday see a physical media release of the series.
February 27, 2021
I guess once the Batman series made it to DVD (“We were too late hitting the market on that one,” confided a DC/WB exec to me, “no one was buying DVDs anymore.”), that brought “The Green Hornet” up in the rotation as the most desired series yet to be released to home entertainment. Anyone know why it hasn’t be released? I doubt Bruce Lee signed any contracts back then that would have precluded home release….
February 27, 2021
Cool article. Even as a 5 year old watching Batman, I knew the Green Hornet had a different vibe. I’ve always catered to the more serious story telling. Even in the comics, I knew Marvel was more “adultish” than DC, at least then. We’re kids but we know things, intuitively if not consciously. Bruce Lee became a large part of my life as a young adult and is still a very conscious entity. The cars have always impressed upon young male minds. May the Batman, Batmobile. Green Hornet and the Black Beauty live in the hearts of children for generations to come.
February 27, 2021
But there is a 1/18 scale metal Black beauty, car all over ebay, sold x $180.
February 28, 2021
the UK sadly never got the the Green Hornet tv show. Always wanted to see it after the crossover Batman episode.
February 28, 2024
I loved this when I saw it first-run when I was about seven! I always thought it was cool that the Green Hornet was pretending to be a crook! (And that nobody got it that the Hornet and Brit Ried both hung around someone named “Kato!”)