Kung Fu | |
---|---|
Format | western/drama |
Created by | Ed Spielman Jerry Thorpe Herman Miller |
Starring | David Carradine Keye Luke Philip Ahn Radames Pera |
Country of origin | ![]() |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 60 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Jerry Thorpe |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | ABC |
Original run | 1972 – 1975 |
External links | |
IMDb profile | |
TV.com summary |
Kung Fu (1972-1975) is an American television series which starred David Carradine. It was created by Ed Spielman, directed and produced by Jerry Thorpe, and developed by Herman Miller (who was also a writer for, and co-producer of, the series). David Chow (and later Kam Yuen) was the technical and kung fu advisor. A full length feature TV movie preceded the series.
Kung Fu follows the adventures of a Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine (portrayed by David Carradine as an adult, Keith Carradine as a teenager and Radames Pera as a young boy) who travels through the American Old West (armed only with his skill in martial arts) as he seeks his half-brother, Danny Caine.
Keye Luke (as the blind Master Po) and Philip Ahn (as Master Kan) were also members of the regular cast.
Contents |
In the late 19th century, Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) is the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman. He has been raised in the Shaolin monastery, and trained by the monks to be a Shaolin master.
In the pilot episode, Caine’s mentor and elder, Master Po, is murdered by the Chinese emperor's nephew, and Caine retaliates by killing the nephew. In order to avoid execution for the nephew's killing, Caine then flees from China to western America, where he seeks to find his half-brother, Danny Caine.
Although it is his intention to find Danny while avoiding notice, Caine's training as a priest has instilled in him a sense of social responsibility, forcing him to repeatedly come out into the open to fight for justice. After such encounters, he is compelled to leave to stay ahead of the emperor's assassins.
The frequent use of flashbacks is used to recall specific lessons during Caine's training in the monastery while a child (Radames Pera) by his teachers, the blind Master Po (Keye Luke) and Master Kan (Philip Ahn). Part of the appeal of the series was undoubtedly the emphasis laid, via the flashbacks, on the mental and spiritual power that Caine had gained from his rigorous training. In these flashbacks, Master Po calls his young student "Grasshopper" in reference to their first meeting in which young Caine said that to be blind must be the worst affliction. Master Po drew attention to a grasshopper at his feet which the blind master could hear but to which Caine had been oblivious, showing the pupil how much he still had to learn.
During the concluding four episodes of the third and final season, "Barbary House", "Flight to Orion", "The Brothers Caine", and "Full Circle", Caine not only finds his brother Danny, but also his nephew Zeke as well as his two cousins Joseph and Ezekial.
Kung Fu had many famous guest stars including: Brandon Cruz, Cannonball Adderley, John Drew Barrymore, John Blyth Barrymore, David Chow, José Feliciano, Rhonda Fleming, Benson Fong, Harrison Ford, Rosemary Forsyth, Jodie Foster, Anne Francis, Barbara Hershey (Barbara Seagull), James Hong, Season Hubley, Dan Inosanto, Don Johnson, Nancy Kwan, Carol Lawrence, Tina Louise, Mako (Makoto Iwamatsu), Pat Morita, Diana Muldaur, Leslie Nielsen, William Shatner, Carl Weathers, and Victor Sen Yung.
Additionally several members of David Carradine's family appeared on the show: Bruce Carradine, John Carradine, Keith Carradine, and Robert Carradine.
Bruce Lee's widow's memoirs assert that Lee actually created the concept for the series[1] , which was then stolen by Warner Bros.; however, there is no verifiable documentation of such an incident, and Herbie Pilato, in his 1993 book The Kung Fu Book of Caine: The Complete Guide to TV's First Mystical Eastern Western, commented on the casting history for the series, particularly on the involvement of both David Carradine and Bruce Lee:
The Shaolin Temple which appeared in flashbacks was originally a set used for the 1967 film, Camelot. It was inexpensively and effectively converted for the setting in China.
The original series of Kung Fu lasted for three seasons, beginning on October 14 1972, and finishing on March 15 1975.
In Kung Fu:The Movie (1986) Caine (played by Carradine) is forced to fight his hitherto unknown son, Chung Wang (played by Brandon Lee). Herbie Pilato in The Kung Fu Book of Caine, also comments that Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee, was involved in sequels related to the series:
In Kung Fu:The Next Generation (1987), the story moves to the present day, and centers on the story of Johnny Caine (Brandon Lee), who is the great-grandson of Kwai Chang Caine.
Two decades after the first series ended, a second, related series running in syndication followed the adventures of a descendant of Kwai Chang Caine. Entitled Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, it again starred Carradine, and introduced Chris Potter as his son. The second series ran for four years, from 1993-1997. The series has yet to be released on DVD.
In 1999 the Warner Bros. website introduced a series of animated "webisodes" that continued the adventures of the Kung-Fu series, and which featured the voice of David Carradine. There were roughly nine episodes, each approximately ten minutes in length, briefly archived on the website, but they soon disappeared after a few months. As of April 2007 they still do not appear to have been archived online.
In June 2006, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander announced that a feature film (which will serve as a prequel to the original Kung Fu series and take place in China) is in development.[2] They have also announced that David Carradine "will not be returning to the project, nor will it be an effects-laden movie".[3] In September 2007, it was announced that Max Makowski would direct the movie and that he planned to make the film edgier than the original television series. The movie will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures & Legendary Pictures.[4]
Warner Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
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The Complete First Season | 16 | March 16 2004 |
The Complete Second Season | 23 | January 18 2005 |
The Complete Third Season | 24 | August 23 2005 |