David Carradine's Kung Fu TV series

chrisisall

Any fans of that old series hereabouts? I think you'd have to be of a certain age to have seen it...
I was a little kid when it was on, but I have super-fond memories of the show, it was right at the beginning of the martial arts craze in America.
Anyway, a couple of years back I bought the entire series on DVD and ploughed my way through it, and I was genuinely surprised by something; the first & second seasons of the show were WAY better than I remembered (I remember them being slow, with not-so-amazing fight scenes- this was my kid memory- in reality the shows were well written, and the kung fu was REAL, not flashy nonsense), and the third & final season was WAY worse than I remembered (I remember them being fun- in reality, they were pretty dopey as a rule, lots of supernatural junk & flashy martial moves).

Interesting facts: Ed Spielman (the series' creator) had friends in New York's Chinatown, some taking Kung Fu from teachers straight from China, and they related the stories of the Shaolin Temple to him, which fascinated him, so he researched it and wrote a screenplay, and about that time was when Bruce Lee was pushing his western "Warrior" idea. Warner, I take it, liked Lee's idea enough to bandy it about, but Lee was not yet a superstar, so it stalled long enough for the execs to spot Spielman's script, and saw it as the way to go on such a project. So Lee deserves credit for getting the general idea of a 'kung fu western' noticed. Also, In China, the kung fu craze was gaining momentum, and Warner wanted to cash in on this coming trend somehow.
When Lee got the 'no' on his Warrior idea (1970-71) he bolted for China to make movies. In late '71 The Big Boss was released in China as Carradine was filming the Kung Fu TV movie/pilot.


Thoughts on this classic series?

MANDY1

I was fan of this series(and still am) around mid 80's when local TV re-aired (not sure if this was actually the first releasing here) the seasons here in Scandinavia. Great series of the early 70's, was called here "Western Kung Fu" -{

chrisisall

Hey Teppo, do you remember how the show ended?

MANDY1

Chris, I can't recall how series ended and i'm not sure if i've seen all the episodes

I remember seeing TV movie which starred Brandon Lee as Caine's son.

EDIT: I might look for the Kung Fu DVD boxset in near future to re-watch all the episodes

chrisisall

Teppo wrote:

Chris, I can't recall how series ended and i'm not sure if i've seen all the episodes

I saw every single one when I was a kid, but even so many of them seemed totally new to me when I got the DVD's.

I remember seeing TV movie which starred Brandon Lee as Caine's son.

That wasn't bad, I did like it, although it was a little too metaphysical like the last season was in spots.

EDIT: I might look for the Kung Fu DVD boxset in near future to re-watch all the episodes

I need to re-watch them all myself! B-)

Barbel

I loved the original series, and even bought the books- but didn't keep them, much to my regret. The fairly recent revival series was terrible, though!

chrisisall

Barbel wrote:

I loved the original series, and even bought the books- but didn't keep them, much to my regret. The fairly recent revival series was terrible, though!

It was basically unwatchable.

I still have the novelization of the first TV movie/pilot! I love the cover.
One strange thing about the DVD's though, the entire first season was cropped to make it anamorphic 16X9 (missing a small bit on top & bottom doesn't seem to change the picture much IMO though); the rest is presented as it was on TV. In America, at any rate.