While you might be excited about the prospect of watching Jay Chou and Seth Rogen on the big screen starring as Kato and the Green Hornet respectively, younger readers may not be aware that the Green Hornet is in fact a very old superhero – older than even Batman! However, most Singaporeans would probably remember the popular Batman-esque TV series that used to screen on local TV starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee.


The original TV series first ran on TV in America between 1966-1967, and it was also aired here on local TV. Derek remembers his childhood reenacting their favourite scenes from the shows:

Alan and me used to re-enact the programme in the garden at Jalan Wijaya. I was always the sidekick so would have been Kato, which doesn’t seem so bad nowadays. We probably had masks but I can’t remember. I remember our Green Hornet playing cards though. I think that the only game I knew back then was ‘Snap!’.

Playing the Green Hornet we never got up to anything on the estate and we certainly didn’t do any Kung Fu. I wouldn’t have even known what it was back then! It’s amazing the imagination that you have when you’re a kid. One week we were characters from Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea or Lost in Space and the next week, we’d be Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin or Batman and Robin.

You can read Derek’s memories of The Green Hornet here. In my childhood, I enjoyed watching the Green Hornet too. Two things I remember about the show: Kato, played by Bruce Lee, was the more bada** fighter but because he was the sidekick and also because of prevailing Asian stereotypes he invariably fell to the henchman and the Green Hornet alway had to save him. The other memorable thing about the old TV show was the theme song – it was a trumpet version of Flight of the Bumblebee played by Al Hirt and I always thought it was very appropriate to the show. You can see on youtube here.