Kato — The Green Hornet (TV, 1966–1967)

Before Hollywood, Lee's American breakthrough was as Kato on the ABC series The Green Hornet. The show was a mild success in the US — but a phenomenon in Hong Kong, where it was renamed "The Kato Show" because audiences came specifically to watch Bruce Lee fight. The show's 26 episodes are a document of Lee's screen persona crystallizing in real time: the precise strikes, the coiled readiness, the barely contained power. Hollywood mostly ignored it. Hong Kong did not.