celestekent This is definitely not for people who are Trump supporters. Any character who rejects gold and seeks no control or power over others is just the spiritual sort who puts the Kibosh on everything Trump.More over the spiritual values demonstrated in this series show the emptiness of the Evangelicals, and the NRA. All the previous reviews are all agreed and I need to add nothing. The only lasting question for me is how is it possible that Bruce Lee would improve this. Lee would need to be a far better actor than I think of him to pull this off and offer the same quality experience. Having the Kung Fu sections be "more precise" would simply not add anything, since only an expert like Lee would even notice.

A_Different_Drummer Maybe you had to be there. And maybe the series speaks for itself. Hard to say. At a time when N.A. was just beginning to show interest in eastern martial arts -- mainly as a result of the spy films which invariably featured some sloppy form of judo or karate -- a story circulated in Hollywood about a husband and wife writing team. He was a black belt in Karate. She had been taught Kung Fu by her father. He was terrified of her. Ergo, let's do a series. They auditioned Bruce Lee for the pilot but found him too Asian. So they went with a westerner, Carradine. Bios of Lee make it clear that this event, more than any other, traumatized him and made him bitter. That was Hollywood. Some (not all) of the series' scripts were amazing. Some were junk. The movie/pilot remains one of the tightest pieces of writing of the era. And there is so much Bhuddist philosophy in the flashbacks that you wonder if they actually had monks on hand as consultants? Trivia fact: understanding that to the western eye, most Asians looked alike, they "recycled" the very same Asian character actors through all the Asian parts in the series and, sure enough, nobody noticed. The series ended not so much because of a lack of interest but because Carradine's image was badly tarnished by a series of public binges. Still, one of the most unique works to ever leave Tinseltown.

rcj5365 This series was a phenomenon when it premiered in fall of 1972......Taking the martial arts craze with the elements of a western,and from there you have one of the biggest cult hits that ever grace the early 1970's......KUNG-FUThe series was filmed on location(with most of the scenes filmed on the backlot of the Warner Bors. Studios Lot in Burbank,California),this was a series that became ABC-TV's biggest hits. From the premiere episode on October 14,1972 until the final episode of the series on April 26,1975,the series KUNG-FU ran for three seasons on ABC,producing 91 episodes all in full color.While the show itself had some clever action and martial arts scenes(brilliantly executed and choreographed),it was the integration of the western and eastern culture that made this show a surprise hit. The pilot episode was especially brilliant along with the cinematography,blazing action(the character uses his hands and feet as a weapon as a means of self-defense)along with David Carradine's astounding acting and dialogue made it worthy of being a full length theatrical feature. Carradine's character of Caine actually appeared to be more of an honest biblical wanderer than a half-Chinese American mystic that made this series not only stand out,but made it a cult favorite,due to its star David Carradine. As far as the series goes,some of the episodes were brilliant,but some of them were a bit too repetitive. The best episodes from this series were "The Sign Of The Dragon","The Way Of The Tiger"(the pilot episode),"King Of The Mountain","The Well"(one of the few hour long dramas to authentically depict the plight of blacks in frontier America), and "The Squaw Man"(another one of the hour long dramas to depict the struggles of the Native American Indian). This was a series that had some great guest stars in some of the episodes especially from some of the great actors: Don Johnson, Bruce Dern, Harrison Ford, William Shatner, Jack Elam, and Jodie Foster.

Stoney Martial arts movies are full of great action and well choreographed fights, from the days of Bruce Lee to the stunning visuals we have with todays wire work and cgi. But Kung Fu is not a martial arts movie/series.....Kung Fu is about a shaolin monk; Kwai Chang Caine. He travels around the wild west, seeking to help others and avoiding bounty hunters. The amazing thing about kung fu is that the flashbacks show Caine's past, we see that he has been trained to use kung fu, but he is a monk and would not harm a fly if it wasn't necessary. Caine chooses not to fight but when he has no other choice he proves that he can take anyone. The character is really brought to life by David Carradine, it would have been great to use Bruce Lee (Another of my idols) but I don't think the energetic Bruce would have been able to pull of the calmness of Caine.I was expecting to see a martial arts series in the wild west but kung fu is its own genre. The teachings of Masters Po and Khan are wonderful and make you think about life. Apparently after seeing the series people seeked more information because they wanted to raise their children under the same morals. It doesn't matter if you don't like martial arts or westerns, you need to see this. It has changed my life and the way I think about life.