| Kung Fu | |
|---|---|
David Carradine and guest star Sondra Locke, 1974. |
|
| Format | western, drama, Action |
| Created by | Ed Spielman Jerry Thorpe Herman Miller |
| Starring | David Carradine[1] Keye Luke Philip Ahn Radames Pera |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 63 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jerry Thorpe |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | October 14, 1972 – April 16, 1975 |
Kung Fu (1972–1975) is an American television series that 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. The show was preceded by a full-length feature TV pilot, an ABC "Movie of the Week", which was broadcast in 1972.
Kung Fu follows the adventures of a Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine [虔官昌 Qián Guānchāng] (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 spiritual training and his skill in martial arts, as he seeks his half-brother, Danny Caine.[2]
Keye Luke (as the blind Master Po) and Philip Ahn (as Master Kan) were also members of the regular cast. David Chow, who was also a guest star in the series, acted as the technical and kung fu advisor, a role later undertaken by Kam Yuen.
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Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) is the orphaned son of an American man, Thomas Henry Caine, and a Chinese woman in mid-19th century China.[3] 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.
In the pilot episode Caine’s beloved mentor and elder, Master Po, is murdered by the Emperor's nephew; outraged, Caine retaliates by killing the nephew. 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.
Although it is his intention to avoid notice, Caine's training and sense of social responsibility repeatedly force him out into the open, to fight for justice or protect the underdog. After each such encounter he must move on, both to avoid capture and prevent harm from coming to those he has helped. Searching for his family, he meets a preacher (played by real-life Dad John Carradine) and his deaf-mute sidekick Sunny Jim (played by brother Robert Carradine), then his grandfather (played by Dean Jagger).
Flashbacks are often used to recall specific lessons from Caine's childhood training in the monastery from 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 a scene in the pilot episode:
Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?[4]
During four episodes of the third and final season ("Barbary House," "Flight to Orion," "The Brothers Caine," and "Full Circle"), Caine finds his brother Danny, nephew Zeke and two cousins, Joseph and Ezekial.
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 Carradine and Bruce Lee:
The Shaolin Monastery 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 series used slow-motion effects for the "action", which Warner Brothers had previously featured in the 1969 Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch.
In her memoirs, Bruce Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, asserts that Lee created the concept for the series, which was then stolen by Warner Bros.[5]
In a December 8, 1971 television interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Bruce Lee himself makes reference to both Warner Brothers and Paramount wanting him to do a TV series. After Pierre Berton comments, "there's a pretty good chance that you'll get a TV series in the States called "The Warrior", in it, where you use what, the Martial Arts in Western setting?"
Lee responds, "that was the original idea, ...both of them (Warner and Paramount), I think, they want me to be in a modernized type of a thing, and they think that "The Western" type of thing is out. Whereas I want to do the Western. Because, you see, how else can you justify all of the punching and kicking and violence, except in the period of the west?"
Later in the interview, Berton asks Lee about "the problems that you face as a Chinese hero in an American series. Have people come up in the industry and said 'well, we don't know how the audience are going to take a non-American'"?.
Lee responds "Well, such question has been raised, in fact, it is being discussed. That is why "The Warrior" is probably not going to be on." Lee adds, "They think that business wise it is a risk. I don't blame them. 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."[6]
What Lee called "The Warrior" and "Kung Fu" shared the idea of a lead character in a TV series who performs Martial Arts in a Western setting.
Based on Lee's comments to Berton, he was talking to both Warner Brothers and Paramount about "The Warrior" as late as December 1971.
The original series of Kung Fu lasted for three seasons, beginning on October 14, 1972, and finishing on April 26, 1975.[7]
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. It explains the original Caine had married and become a town's medicine man. One night he died of heart failure. He appears as a ghost to his grandson and great-grandson, who later destroy a narcotics operation.
Two decades after the first series ended, a second, related series running in syndication followed the adventures of Kwai Chang Caine's grandson, also named Kwai Chang Caine.[8] Entitled Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, it again starred Carradine, this time as the grandson of the original Caine, and introduced Chris Potter as his son.[9] The second series ran for four years, from 1993–1997. The first season was released in Germany on DVD, in 2009.
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 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. 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. actor-director Bill Paxton is in talks to directed the adaptation of the TV series.[10]
Warner Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season | 16 | March 16, 2004 |
| The Complete Second Season | 23 | January 18, 2005 |
| The Complete Third Season | 24 | August 23, 2005 |
Many of the aphorisms used in the series are adapted from or derived directly from the Tao Te Ching, a book of ancient Taoist philosophy attributed to the sage Laozi.[13]
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