I met David Carradine several years ago at ABA, the year before
Spirit of Shaolin was released (the web says that was '91, and I was at ABA in '90, so that seems about right). He signed a blad for me. I still have that somewhere.
Last summer, I did an phone interview with Carradine for
David Carradine in Spike TV's KUNG FU KILLER. I called him at home and I could tell he was doing a lot of interviews that day. He sounded pretty relaxed and I could hear his dog barking in the background. At one point, we had to stop for him to quiet his dog down. We spoke for 45 minutes or so. After the interview, I went to lunch. When I got back, Carradine had left a message on my answering machine. He had become confused with his interview schedule and was calling to ask why I hadn't called. For some curious reason, I saved that message in my voicemail. It's still there. I'll listen to it later today and remember him.
I've had my personal issues with Carradine's work for years. Being Amerasian, Caine was like a minstrel show for me. However, I still will cite
Kung Fu sometimes when I'm explaining Shaolin to people of my generation who know nothing about martial arts. There really wasn't any show ever quite like that original series - not just in the sense of timing (when Nixon helped open China) but also in the sense of how to move a story arc for television (the flashback motif). Love him or hate him, he is one of our pop icons and no matter how much you feel the need to speak ill of the dead, Carradine will be remembered by pop culture as one of the American pioneers in martial arts.