I became aware of the Green Hornet, masked crimefighter with a cool car and an even cooler sidekick, at the time of the 1966 TV series featuring Van Williams and Bruce Lee. The show ran only a season but the two also appeared in a high-profile, two-part guest-starring shot on ABC’s campy hit “Batman” series.

While they’re enjoyable to watch to this day, the two “Batman” episodes featuring the Green Hornet and Kato squaring off against and pairing up with Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward, of course) seem like an odd fit. “Batman” was goofy but the “Green Hornet” series was played absolutely straight.

That’s because the series, with Williams playing crime-busting newspaper publisher Britt Reid and Lee as his valet/sidekick Kato, followed the custom of the radio show that introduced the character in 1936.

Reid and Kato, while conducting normal, upstanding lives during the daylight hours, put on masks, arm themselves with Hornet “stings” and other non-lethal weapons and cruise through big-city back alleys at night, fighting crime and righting wrongs.

Not unlike some versions of Batman, the Green Hornet and Kato are considered criminals themselves. Their status as lawbreakers lets them fit right into the criminal underworld in their efforts to destroy it.

The 1960s “Green Hornet” series was played for drama and some ironic humor, particularly when Reid’s newspaper staff vowed to expose the Hornet’s crimes. But unlike the “Batman” series, the “Green Hornet” series featured gritty settings, straightforward stories and criminals who were less flamboyant and more murderous.

I didn’t see the Seth Rogen “Green Hornet” movie and I’m not sure I will. The reviews were pretty awful and I don’t think there was much to gain by turning “The Green Hornet” into a comedy at this point in the character’s history.

Fun fact: The Green Hornet is related to another great radio/serial/TV/comic book hero, the Lone Ranger. The producers of the radio show also produced the popular “Lone Ranger” series and noted that Britt Reid was the great-nephew of John Reid, the Texas Ranger who became the Lone Ranger after the rest of his posse were ambushed by outlaws.