Up until now, the majority of the politically incorrect attitudes of the shows we’ve done have mostly focused on sexism, for which there is a ton, and for which Madison is a natural foil. For “The Green Hornet,” this is our first time taking on the racist attitudes of the era in regard to the character of “Kato.”
Premiering on March 15th, we are releasing a bonus-bonus feature on the the subject of Asian American actors through the years, including a look at the changing attitudes in television, movies and stage. This discussion will be lead by Steve Jun, the voice of our Kato (among many other roles in Madison) and includes Andy Lowe, Kelvin Han Lee and Joy Regullano. It’s an amazing and frank discussion by four professionals in the field and full of humor and insight.
As for “The Green Hornet,” right now I thought I’d talk about the process and the decisions that were made when adapting this episode for Madison. The first thing I definitely knew I DIDN’T want to do was completely rewrite Kato. I didn’t want the way he was originally written, as a “houseboy/man servant” with broken English, to be erased as if it had never happened. If I were writing a new modern take on the Green Hornet franchise, well then, yes, absolutely, I’d strip away all of that. But addressing the world where “No one is PC!” is literally in our show’s tag line. So I wanted to take an approach that would shine a light on how Kato was portrayed, while also giving the audience a chance to hear first hand how he was written/performed.
That’s where I came up with the concept of Madison, as she describes it – “Quantum Leaping”- into the actual character of Britt Reid. And then having Kato being the only one who can see her for who she really is with his comment, “You’ll find everyone around here sees what they want to see.” He explains that the “broken English” is just how they all assume he talks, so that’s what they hear. That device allowed me to make Kato a driving force of the episode, as well as a more well rounded character. While still showcasing the moments in the original where he does speak choppy and in incomplete sentences. In actuality, I gave a lot of Britt Reid/Green Hornet’s lines to Kato and gave Madison Kato’s lines. For Madison, it made sense for her to be the one everything needed to be explained to. That even includes having Madison be hit over the head unconscious by the bad guys, rather than Kato, as the original episode had it. If you really want to hear the differences, you can stream the original Green Hornet “The Corpse that Wasn’t There” HERE
I don’t shake my fist at “The Green Hornet” as needing to be cancelled for the sins of the past. Personally, I feel that if the intent wasn’t meant to hurt someone, and was done in ignorance, we need to acknowledge it, learn from it, and hopefully never repeat it. I believe that for all of the politically incorrect moments that permeate old time radio. And as you’ll hear in our bonus feature, when “The Green Hornet” came to television with Bruce Lee in the role of Kato, his efforts would change the face of Hollywood forever for the Asian American community.
