Not really a nit, but I just thought I'd mention that during World War II, Kato was changed from being Japanese to being Filipino.
If that's not a nit, I don't know what is!
Could someone please post the opening narrative of the show (the one that sounds suspiciously similar to the opening narrative of The Lone Ranger).
Re: Kato's strange ethnic morph. According to The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, that's an urban legend. It says that as early as 1939, Kato was referred to as "a Filipino of Japanese descent". Of course, after A Certain Sunday, the Japanese bit was downplayed.
ANNOUNCER: The Green Hornet!
SOUND EFFECT: insect buzzing.
ANNOUNCER: He hunts the biggest game of all: public enemies who try to destroy our America.
MUSIC CUE: Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."
ANNOUNCER: With his faithful Filipino valet Kato, Britt Reid, daring young publisher, matches wits with racketeers and saboteurs, risking his life that criminals and enemy spies will feel the weight of the law by the sting of the Green Hornet.
There's a reason why the prologue sounds similar to that of THE LONE RANGER, Lawyer. Both shows had the same creator (writer Fran Striker) and producer (George W. Trendle), and were recorded at the same studio (WXYZ in Detroit, "the last word in radio!")
Sorry you had to wait so long for a response. I'm a newbie on this site, and I'm still exploring.
Though this one is currently sentenced to Development Hell last I heard and may stay there, I came across an item about the possibility of a Green Hornet movie. Very tentatively, the Hornet is to be played by Hugh Jackman (yes, Wolverine) and Kato by Jet Li.
I guess in development Hell it will join that Doc Savage movie that was supposed to star Arnold Schwarzaneger. That reminds me, Doc Savage did have an OTR series which ran for one season. No broadcasts of this have survived, but almost all of the scripts have.
Is that suppose to be an unsubtle hint? If so, I can put up a Doc Savage board. Just say the word.
(laughs) No, that wasn't meant to be a hint, Gordon, just an observation although you are free to put up a Doc board. Just remember that unlike the other shows here there are no surviving broadcasts of this series - however 14 of the 26 scripts survived and here is one of several places on the web they can be found http://home.teleport.com/~jrolsen/savage/index.html
If you've seen the two Black Mask movies Jet Li has done, he's basically dressed as Kato when he's the Black Mask.