Herbie J Pilato
Feb 22
·
14 min read
Happy 50th Anniversary to “Kung Fu”
The Groundbreaking “Eastern Western” That Mainstreamed Asian Culture in America and Asian Actors in Hollywood
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Grasshopper springs eternal.
With the new Kung Fu martial arts TV series enjoying its second season on The CW, the past and present merge with a reminder of the familiar phrase, “Take the pebble from my hand.”
That line was first heard five decades ago on February 22, 1972, when the original Kung Fu debuted as a 90-minute TV-movie and back-door pilot on ABC. While President Nixon held historic meetings in China with Chairman Mao, TV’s first “Eastern Western” was being defined by critics, industry professionals, and pop-culture fans alike as a Fugitive/Shane fusion, with a compound of corporal, cerebral and ethereal creeds imported from the Orient. Ancient Shaolin wisdom and martial arts moves would be exampled by the adult half-Chinese/half-American monk Kwai Chang Caine, portrayed by David Carradine (who died in 2009), and his adolescent self, Young Grasshopper, portrayed by Radames Pera (who turns 62 this year).
The adult Caine was confronted with the ignorance and deception of Western America in the 1870s. Key lessons from his past, sometimes in the form of the show’s trademark flashback sequences, would inform the reality of his present — and ours. Both Carradine and Pera’s Caine introduced Asian thought to the American mainstream on a weekly basis. As Caine roamed the Old West, in search of himself (and his American half-brother), the message of holistic health for the mind, body, and spirit increased in modern culture at the same time.
During the somewhat murky social norms of the 1970s, people of all ages, creeds, colors, and religions were comforted by Caine’s wise words, kind manner, and respect for other people’s truths. Both the young and adult Grasshopper would learn from Master Po, played by the legendary Keye Luke, and Master Kan, portrayed by the late Philip Ahn, while several Old Western souls gained insight from Caine in America. In the process, two generations of contemporary TV viewers around the world were enlightened as well.
With near-mosaic screen imagery, through popular TV, the viewer was inspired by and inspirited with a strong message; memorandum derived from several different sources. Kung Fu creators Ed Spielman (The Young Riders, Dead Man’s Gun), and Howard Friedlander gathered information from Confucius, La Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Zen Buddhism, and the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Spielman, in particular, was a fan of the classic 1954 Japanese epic drama, Seven Samurai, co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa (which gave birth to The Magnificent Seven western directed by John Sturges in 1960).
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Radames Pera as “Young Grasshopper”
With Kung Fu, the common themes involved gentleness, peace, and compassion and how such are to be the priorities if one is to have a spiritually sound and happy existence.
It was Master Po who first referred to Caine as “Grasshopper” because the elder, who happened to be visually impaired, had once sensed the insect at the young boy’s feet. As such, the affectionate term stuck, and Caine and Po bonded. Unfortunately, a short time after Caine graduated from the Shaolin Temple, he, in a fit of anger, murdered the Royal Nephew of the Emperor, who had killed Po for obstructing his path in the street.
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Keye Luke as Master Po counsels the adult Kwai Chang Caine, played by David Carradine
Thus, Po urges Caine to flee to freedom in America, while the Chinese Emperor sends frequent bounty hunters there in pursuit.
Beyond this original Kung Fu premise, and The CW contemporary re-do, there also sprung the 1990s sequel, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, in which Carradine portrayed Caine’s grandson; the 1986 TV-reunion-film, Kung Fu: The Movie, with Carradine co-starring with Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee (who did not create Kung Fu, as has been erroneously reported in the past). There is also the 1987 one-hour pilot, Kung Fu: The Next Generation (also starring Lee), which has become a cult classic.
Certainly, with regard to Kung Fu, parody has also proven to be the sincerest form of flattery. Over the years, The Original Series has been satirized in MAD Magazine and at the movies (1996’s Beverly Hills Ninja and 1989’s Lethal Weapon II), on TV (The Tonight Show, 7-Up commercials, In Living Color, Saturday Night Live, with Carradine, as host, no less), and in music (“…everybody was kung-fu fighting” from the 1970s).
On a more serious note, Kung Fu also inspired Pat (Happy Days) Morita’s Mr. Miyagi and Ralph Macchio’s Young Daniel (from the 1984, 1986, and 1986 Karate Kid films, as well as 1994’s The Next Karate Kid, with the pre-Oscar-winning Hilary Boys Don’t Cry Swank subbing for Macchio), and the new Cobra Kai streaming series (starring Macchio).
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Philip Ahn was the wise, leading Master Kahn
The original Kung Fu also inspired the Obi-Wan/Yoda/Luke Skywalker characters (from any version of Star Wars, originally released in 1977, only two years after Kung Fu left the airwaves), Michaelangelo, Splinter, et al, in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchises in time.
Each of these characters and concepts, in one way or the other, were influenced by the core Caine/Po relationship. Some even credit the moody feel of Clint Eastwood’s big-screen Unforgiven (1992) to Kung Fu’s groundbreaking, non-MGM-Technicolor cinematic style.
In 2000, it is evident just how much Jackie Chan’s big-screen hit Shanghai Noon was inspired by Kung Fu (e.g. fugitive from China flees to the American Old West), as was 2001’s multi-Oscar-nominated blockbuster feature film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s sleek, mammal-martial-arts-moves.
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Philip Ahn with Radames Pera in “Kung Fu’s” famous “take the pebble from my hand” scene
In fact, Spielman and Friedlander had completed their original script for Kung Fu in 1966, when they had first envisioned their story as a theatrical release with the title, The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon. But the concept eventually found its way to television, through the valiant combined efforts of studio executives and agents, and a lot of hard work and talent on the part of Spielman and Friedlander. And to clarify, once and for all: these two gentlemen are the creators of Kung Fu. Any claims to the contrary are incorrect, and an injustice, including false claims in the past that director Jerry Thorpe, created Kung Fu.
Thorpe was the visual genius behind the show’s muted cinematic colors, and the slow-motion technique (which helped tone down the violence — and was later replicated on shows like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman). But like Bruce Lee, Thorpe did not create Kung Fu (all of which is further explained in Matthew Polly’s acclaimed biography, Bruce Lee: A Life).
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