Even Fred Weintraub, who had lobbied for Lee since the beginning, noted that they needed an actor "to portray the sense of quiet serenity that Caine possessed, a quality that driven and intense Bruce was not known for." [5]:4344, Actors appearing in three or more episodes, David Chow[27] acted as the technical and kung fu advisor, and guest-starred in the Pilot as the Little Monk, Caine's enemy at the climactic fight scene. The result was mostly atmospheric instead of melodic, with a koto as the predominant instrument. [9] After his maternal grandfather's death he is accepted for training at a Shaolin Monastery, where he grows up to become a Shaolin priest and martial arts expert. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there. The series was excellent too, but a bit repetitive. [89], Most of the controversy lies in the notion that the series' idea was "stolen" from Bruce Lee, but also in the fact that he wasn't cast for the leading role, and that decision had racial connotations. Furthermore, because the story involves an ethnic group, and the tempers of our time do not tolerate ignorance and bigotry, he must not only make sure that the historical information regarding the group is accurate, but that these people are presented with dignity and respect. Tom Kuhn, besides claiming that Lee's speech was hard to understand, said: "It did occur to me that this part was rather cerebral, a guy who only fights when he's absolutely cornered." It was inexpensively and effectively converted for the setting in China, by the Academy Award nominee Eugne Louri as art director;[51] the set decorator was the Academy Award nominee Ralph S. I'm 23 years old and I live in Iowa. From late 1972 to early 1975, it became again a Shaolin temple while the Kung Fu episodes were in production, with the Emmy Award winner Antony Mondello[59] and John Lamphear[60] as set decorators. At the minute 6:39 of the Kung Fu DVD documentary The Tao of Caine: Production and Beyond, Herbie J. Pilato says: "One of the great things about Kung Fu is that it had this incredible A-list of guest stars. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. The LP was re-released in CD format in 2010, accompanied by the Man in the Wilderness movie soundtrack. In addition to elements of spirituality and mysticism, we decided to incorporate a hint or two of the supernatural which is evidenced in the ancient sword. The temple was destroyed and father and son each thought the other had perished in the fire. Now he wanders the Old West of America,. Even if Professor Chung states on page 177 that "Kung Fu was a groundbreaking series produced by Warner Bros. that intermixed the martial arts genre with Wild West iconography, expanding the syntax of the television western to accommodate "foreign" elements at the scenographic and narrative levels," her analysis decries the way the Kan character is depicted as "emasculated," stereotyped in various ways, and she mentions that Bruce Lee was not cast in the leading role.[101]. The role of his son, Chung Wang, is portrayed by Brandon Lee in his acting debut. Kung Fu: The Movie is a 1986 made-for-television film and the first in a series of sequels which continued the story of the Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine, first introduced in the 1972-1975 television series Kung Fu. He hopes to honor Kung Fu's 50th anniversary next year with an event in Los Angeles. Starring David Carradine, it aired on ABC from 1972-75 and for many years after that in syndication. When Japanese elements appear, they are unlikely to be known or happen at the said time: in s3e12, the boy Caine watches a Noh performance in a mandarin's mansion, when Japan was still an isolationist country. In early October 1971, a month before Warner Brothers officially designated David Carradine for the role of Caine, Warner Brothers executive Ted Ashley, who saw Bruce Lee's potential and didn't want to lose him to Paramount, offered him an exclusive development deal to create his own TV program, which included an advance of "$25,000 (or $152,000 in 2017 dollars) - enough money to pay off most of his mortgage." Kung Fu, a martial arts series starring David Carradine, Keye Luke, and Philip Ahn is available to stream now. "Men Behind the Kung-Fu TV Series [Reprinted from John Shirota, The Men Behind TV's "Kung-Fu", "Independent Lens . "David did a really beautiful job in portraying the character, and the stories hold up," says Pera. Pera recognizes the legacy of the original Kung Fu is tarnished by the fact that he and Carradine were cast as mixed-race characters. () One critic wrote that the success of Kung-Fu may be attributed to the very thing the producers were afraid of: the public's not knowing what the series was about. (Linda Lee, The Man Only I Knew, pp. Season-only. "In creating a Kung Fu for a new audience and a new generation, and creating the first network drama with a predominantly Asian cast, it was important for me and my co-showrunner Robert Berens, to craft a serialized story with a range of narrative elements action, adventure, soap, romance, and family drama. Then in winter, Kung Fus time slot changed to Saturdays at 8 p.m., which placed it against CBS's All in the Family, The Jeffersons (sitcoms rated in the season's top 10), and NBC's Emergency!, a series rated in the top 30 of that season, all of which were at the same time slot. The potential to make new deals out of old intellectual property, for one. The temple was destroyed and father and son each thought the other had perished in the fire. Book excerpt from, "The Lowell Ledger's TV Listing Magazine", "El martes vuelve la serie Kung Fu, por TCM", "Stevie TV: David Carradine predicts his own grisly death in hallucinatory 'Eastern Western' Kung Fu", "Camelot [Photos of its construction and as a lamasery]", "Lost Horizon (1973) Filming & Production. According to Howard Friedlander, the film was to be filmed in Durango, Mexico, for the Western scenes, and Taiwan for the Chinese scenes. It was John Furia's job to write them and make them relevant to the episode's plot, based on the research material the production had collected. NCIS: 4 Season 1, Episode 4 An Eye For An Eye. ""You ask me to subject my family to shame? For other Chinese sets, he used carved wooden partitions to enhance plain walls, or giant sculptured lions to give simple gardens an aura of grandeur. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. Also, the series itself lacks historical and cultural accuracy in this matter. "Despite that, he always tried to do the least amount of harm," he adds. The series has been considered a commentary on race relations in the 70s, both for its casting as for the depiction of discrimination against minorities. Where to Watch. TV URBAN LEGEND: Bruce Lee came up with the idea for a TV series that became the hit show, Kung Fu.. In June 2006, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander announced that a feature film (which would serve as a prequel to the original Kung Fu series and take place in China) was in development. With a price on his head, Caine flees China to the western United States, where he seeks to find his family roots, and ultimately, his half-brother, Danny Caine. Shaolin Mantis (Orig. 17. Kwai Chang Caine was a priest at a Shaolin temple, where his son Peter also lived and studied. Even if half of them were string players, woodwinds, keyboard, and percussion were always more prominent. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action Little Mermaid with a new generation's Ariel. [36], The series' story editor was John Furia Jr. At the time a freelance writer for TV and movies who also worked in production, he had declined offers as story editor before until Jerry Thorpe approached him with Kung Fu. Amy: Lara Parker. My favorite shows are Gravity Falls, Star Vs The Forces Of Evil . In an attempt to connect with his son, Caine Sr. takes him to Silver Creek, a ghost town, the place where their ancestor spent his last years. "[106], "'That guy is me,' Spielman says. Spielman first wrote a treatment about a samurai who travels to China and learns kung fu. When treasure-hunting criminal descend on Daisys new . Pilot episode shows a telegram (59 min. It is unlike most of the western heroes whose faces are like the book you've already read.' The new Kung Fu airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. According to John Furia Jr. in a May 1973 interview, this happened because "one of the problems we're faced with is that Oriental actors did not have much opportunity to act in TV or movies before, and so there is no great pool to draw from. Louri's solution of the temple and the other sets both in budgetary and visual terms was key in getting the go-ahead for the movie pilot from the production department, and for the subsequent series. Radames Pera, who played young Caine, a.k.a. The 50 greatest TV and movie detectives of all time. The pilot was especially brilliant, the cinematography, action and David Carridine's amazing acting and dialogue made it worthy of being a full length cinema feature. The extras include audio commentary by David Carradine on four episodes of the series (s2e1 The Well, s2e14 A Dream Within a Dream, s3e2 Blood of the Dragon - 2, s3e21 Full Circle), Zen & Now: A Dinner With David Carradine And Friends (Guests: Hal Sparks, Sifu Rob Moses, Vivica A. It was amazing to watch. Caine actually appeared to be more of an honest biblical wanderer than a half chinese-half american mystic. The absence of Native actors and the cultural misrepresentation issue wasn't unique to this series nor to its time; it has led the National Congress of American Indians to pass a resolution on the subject as recently as 2017.[97]. The practical need for making the project monetarily viable meant style compromises. And if that failed, kicking serious cowboy butt with nothing but his hands and feet. Around the same time, Bruce Lee's Hollywood debut Enter the Dragon was being completed. That visual conception made it unnecessary to build long and high stone walls for those sets, especially because the studio offered Kung Fu a large stage on which there was a standing set of the big hall from Camelot. The music for the opening and closing titles, as well as the incidental music, was composed by Jim Helms.[64]. A recent tombstone dated 1874 in a season 3 episode places the stories approximately between 1871 and 1875.[10]. Kwai Chang Caine was a priest at a Shaolin temple, where his son Peter also lived and studied. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. "Bruce himself had been working on the idea of a Shaolin priest, a master of kung fu, who would roam America and find himself involved in various exploits. In 1969 the William Morris agent Peter Lampack put the treatment into the knowledge of Fred Weintraub, at the time an executive at Warner Brothers and later the producer of Enter the Dragon: "As a New York-based production executive at Warner Bros. Pictures, it was my job to develop projects to appeal to the youth market. Fox, Kam Yuen, Cynthia Rothrock, Radames Pera, Michael Madsen), two documentaries on the series' development and production (From Grasshopper to Caine: the Making of Kung Fu, The Tao of Caine: Production and Beyond), and David Carradine's Shaolin Diary, a visit to China's Shaolin Monastery and the Great Wall.[135]. ( 1972-10-14) 166141. [96] It is noteworthy that race issues also affected the casting of secondary characters whereas gender inequality showed in their stories. Radames Pera, who played young Caine, or Grasshopper, in the original show that aired from 1972 to 1975, said Kwai Chang Caine (Carradine) used his training from a Shaolin Monastery only when necessary as he searched for his half-brother in the American old west. Both are white. He had seen the pilot and was fascinated by it, so he accepted. The "steal" conspiracy theory has become widespread, both in academia[90][91] and in the media, even internationally. The series associate producer (later producer) Alex Beaton selected him after listening to several composer demos when the pilot was in development. Starring David Chiang and Liu Chia Hui. As for David Carradine playing the part of a half-American half-Chinese, I can honestly say that we haven't found anyone, before or since the series began, who can play the part better. Grasshopper, on the original TV show shares his one criticism of the new version with EW. I don't blame them. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. The Asian acting community was displeased, but with so few opportunities for Asian actors it was better to have a show that would be a source of work for them in secondary roles than not having it at all. Kung Fu is an American period drama about a Shaolin monk who travels across the Old West of the United States in search of his half-brother. "David Carradine once said that Kung Fu was an anti-revenge series. Males are now focused on online entertainment (gaming, etc). This list comprises a selection of actors billed in the opening credits, and some actors whose characters were decisive in the episode plot's development or who later became widely recognized for other productions. [38] It was part of what became known as the "chopsocky" or "kung fu craze" after Hong Kong martial arts films such as Five Fingers of Death (King Boxer) and Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury (The Big Boss) topped the US box office in early 1973. There continues to be a persistent legend that the concept for the series was stolen by Warne Bros. Television . [32][33][34] (For the series concept's history, see Bruce Lee's involvement), Spielman-Friedlander's 160 page movie script was transformed by Jerry Thorpe and writer Herman Miller into a 90-minute TV movie (with commercial breaks, so it actually amounted to about 75 minutes of screen time). Also, the show was clear in denouncing anti-Chinese racism, including hate crimes (s1e3), and pointed at historical events ignored in popular culture, like the Page Act of 1875 that basically forbade the immigration of East Asian women (s1e8), or the harsh labor conditions of the Chinese immigrants who built the Transcontinental railroad (Pilot, s3e9). With that in mind, the castle's nonspecific architectural style was perfect to give it a Chinese look for Western eyes, by adding characteristic roofs, a front wall with a massive wood-carved door, and brick walls with ceramic-grilled windows, while its terraces and stairs were fit for the stagings of the kung fu training sequences. [34]:min.23:58, Kung Fu started to broadcast in syndication on September 1, 1979, on 23 local channels. We do. 16 Apr 2023 20:34:44 The series follows the adventures of Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk who travels through the American Old West, armed only with his spiritual training and his skill in martial arts, as he seeks Danny Caine, his half-brother. ""You are new to this country. For what reason? Toward the end of the film, Chung Wang asks Caine if he is his father. Travels to China and learns Kung Fu is tarnished by the Man Only I Knew,.. 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