Kung Fu

Plot

Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) is the orphaned son of an American man, Thomas Henry Caine (Bill Fletcher), and a Chinese woman, Kwai Lin, born in mid-19th-century China. 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 Tongzhi Emperor's nephew with a firearm; outraged, Caine retaliates by killing the emperor's nephew, with everyone unaware that the man was reloading his weapon to attack him again. With a price on his head, Caine flees China to the western United States, where he seeks his family roots, and ultimately, his half-brother, Danny Caine. A recent tombstone dated 1874 in a season-three episode places the stories roughly between 1871 and 1875. In the pilot episode, a telegram dated 21 November 1873 indicates that most of the show's American story begins in November 1873.

Although it is his intention to avoid being noticed, Caine's training and sense of social responsibility repeatedly force him out into the open to fight for justice or protect the innocent. After each encounter, he must move on, both to avoid being captured and to prevent any and all harm from coming to those he has helped. While he's searching for his family, he meets his grandfather (played by Dean Jagger).

Flashbacks are often used to recall specific lessons from Caine's childhood training at the monastery from his teachers, the blind Master Po (Keye Luke) and Master Chen Ming Kan (Philip Ahn). In those flashbacks, Master Po advises his young student, "Patience, Grasshopper", a nickname given from a playful lesson he taught a young Caine about being aware of the world around him—including the grasshopper that happened to be at his feet at that moment.

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 (Tim McIntire) and his nephew Zeke (John Blyth Barrymore).

Cast

Regular cast

David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine (63 episodes)

Radames Pera as Young Caine (48 episodes)

Keye Luke as Master Po (48 episodes)

Philip Ahn as Master Kan (40 episodes)

Guest cast

This list comprises a selection of actors billed in the opening credits, and some actors whose characters were decisive in the episode plot's development or who later became widely recognized for other productions. Among them are nominees and winners of Academy, Emmy, Golden Globe, Tony, and other film and theater awards. At the minute 6:39 of the Kung Fu DVD documentary The Tao of Caine: Production and Beyond, Herbie J. Pilato says: "One of the great things about Kung Fu is that it had this incredible A-list of guest stars. You know, there were stars then, and they became stars later (...) So, it was a breeding ground for A-1 talent and it was also just surrounded by A-1 talent, I mean, in front of and behind the scenes. They didn't settle for less." Jerry Thorpe added: "People wanted to do the show because it was unique, it's as simple as that. Yes, it was fairly easy to cast people who normally wouldn't do a series television."

This list does not reflect the full extent of Asian-American actors' participation, since most of them were billed in the series' closing credits. A group of Asian actors appeared repeatedly in the series; according to John Furia Jr. in a May 1973 interview, this happened because "one of the problems we're faced with is that Oriental actors did not have much opportunity to act in TV or movies before, and so there is no great pool to draw from. So far, availability of martial artists for the training and fighting scenes has been good." Asian actors who returned often to the series were mostly members of the East West Players, brought to the series by Guy Lee, who later took charge of Bessie Loo's Talent Agency when she retired.

David Chow acted as the technical and kung fu advisor, and guest-starred in the pilot as the Little Monk, Caine's enemy at the climactic fight scene. His technical role was later undertaken by Kam Yuen, who guest-starred as Lin Wu in the episode "Blood Brother" and as Wong Ti in the episode "Blood of the Dragon". Part of Chow's job was to add or eliminate fight scenes from the script, "settle differences of opinion" regarding their technical aspects among the martial artists participating in them, and make the scenes believable.

Production

Development

Kung Fu was created by Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander, directed and produced by Jerry Thorpe, and developed by Herman Miller, who was also a writer for, and co-producer of, the series. (For the series concept's history, see Bruce Lee's involvement.)

Spielman and Friedlander's 160-page movie script was transformed by Jerry Thorpe and writer Herman Miller into a 90-minute TV movie (with commercial breaks, so it actually amounted to about 75 minutes of screen time). "Since the rule of thumb on a script is that one page equals one minute, the script was literally cut in half."

Directed by Jerry Thorpe, it was broadcast on February 22, 1972, just after the meeting of President Nixon with Chairman Mao, and rerun the following summer, to great acclaim: "(...) ABC and Warner Bros. were deluged with letters, telephone calls, and telegrams, all praising the show." ABC ordered just four more segments and placed them in what was called the "death row", the Saturday-night slot opposite All in the Family, on a monthly basis. Herman Miller developed the pilot into a series by writing the first three episodes, including in the plotline off Caine's search for his missing brother, and giving it a style to which following writers could adhere. After a very positive reception to the first three segments, in November 1972, the network contracted for 12 more episodes, dropped Alias Smith and Jones and placed Kung Fu in the Thursday night slot at 9:00 pm. The resultant good ratings led to the series' renewal for a second season.

The series' story editor was John Furia Jr. At the time a freelance writer for TV and movies who also worked in production, he had declined offers as story editor before, until Jerry Thorpe approached him with Kung Fu. He had seen the pilot and was fascinated by it, so he accepted. The series did not have a stable team of writers, but freelance writers pitched their stories to the production; they were told not to include temple scenes. John Furia's job was to write them and make them relevant to the episode's plot, based on the research material the production had collected.

Furia's job also included "to maintain and preserve historical accuracy in each script. To complicate matters, there is no single historical source on kung-fu upon which he can rely. He must make extensive research into various sources before he can render a story to be within the realms of truth. Furthermore, because the story involves an ethnic group, and the tempers of our time do not tolerate ignorance and bigotry, he must not only make sure that the historical information regarding the group is accurate, but [also] that these people are presented with dignity and respect."

Broadcast

The series aired on ABC from October 1972 to April 1975 for a total of 63 episodes. The series became one of the most popular television programs of the early 1970s, receiving widespread critical acclaim and commercial success upon its release.

On the week ending May 6, 1973, Kung Fu became the number-one show on American television, drawing a regular audience of 28 million viewers. Around the same time, Bruce Lee's Hollywood debut Enter the Dragon was being completed. It was part of what became known as the "chopsocky" or "kung fu craze" after Hong Kong martial arts films such as Five Fingers of Death (King Boxer) and Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury (The Big Boss) topped the US box office in early 1973.

In its first season, 1972–1973, Kung Fu's pilot was first aired as an ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week, which placed it in the range of the top-20 programs of the season, as determined by Nielsen Media Research. After the pilot's rerun in the summer, during the fall season, three more episodes were aired once a month on Saturday nights, alternating with Alias Smith and Jones, against All in the Family and Bridget Loves Bernie, which were among the top-10 programs of that season. The other 12 episodes ran on Thursday nights, when they ranked among the 30 first-rated shows and tied in ratings with The ABC Monday Night Movie and The F.B.I. during the winter season, losing in ratings to Ironside, which was at the same time slot during the fall and summer seasons.

In its second season, 1973–1974, it ran on Thursday nights, when it remained among the 30 first-rated shows, together with CBS Thursday Night Movie, which was at the same time slot, and tied in ratings with The Carol Burnett Show, which ran on Saturday nights.

In its third and final season, 1974–1975, Kung Fu's time slot changed three times, and it lost its place among the 30 first-rated shows. In the fall, it was moved to Saturdays night at 9:00 pm, against CBS' The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, sitcoms rated in the top 20 of the season. Between the fall and winter seasons, it ran on Fridays at 8:00 pm, which placed it against NBC's sitcoms Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man, both rated in the Nielsen top five for the season. Then in winter, Kung Fu's time slot changed to Saturdays at 8:00 pm, which placed it against CBS's All in the Family, The Jeffersons (sitcoms rated in the season's top 10), and NBC's Emergency!, a series rated in the top 30 of that season, all of which were at the same time slot.

International broadcast

This series was internationally broadcast in its original run, later distributed in DVD format, has been rebroadcast in cable channels specialized on vintage TV shows like TCM Latin America, and it is also available for streaming.

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium – 1974

Brazil – DVD premiere, 2005

Canada – DVD premiere, 2007

Chile – Televisión Nacional de Chile, dubbed version

Costa Rica – Telecentro, dubbed version

Ecuador – Ecuavisa, dubbed version

France – 1974

Greece

Italy – Canale 5, 1983

Japan

Mexico

Netherlands – 1974

New Zealand – Jones!

Peru – Panamericana Televisión, dubbed version

Soviet Union

Spain – Dubbed version

Sri Lanka – with subtitles

Turkey – Dubbed version

United Kingdom

Uruguay – Dubbed version

Sets

The series was filmed at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank (Laramie Street, the Backlot, and several stages), Old Tucson Studios, and on locations like Vasquez Rocks, the 20th Century Fox Ranch (Malibu Creek State Park), and the sand dunes in the Yuma Desert for the opening and closing credits.

The Shaolin Monastery that appeared in flashbacks was originally a set used for the 1967 film Camelot. It was inexpensively and effectively converted for the setting in China, by Academy Award nominee Eugène Lourié as art director; the set decorator was Academy Award nominee Ralph S. Hurst.

Even if Camelot won an Academy Award for its art direction and set decoration, the expensive castle (made with wooden beams, wooden frame structures, and building timber covered with faux stone siding) was criticized for its unspecific style placed in a landscape evidently Californian, which resulted in that castle being the last attempt for a studio to construct a large-scale set that represented a foreign location. By November 1971, when Jerry Thorpe asked Eugène Lourié to design the art for Kung Fu, the castle was derelict to the point that Lourié believed that it still stood only because the cost of demolishing it would be prohibitive.

Working with the reduced budget of a TV production was a challenge, but Lourié had learned in France how to work with little money for sets. He was both interested and intrigued by the story, as the action moved back and forth between the Wild West's present and the memories of the Shaolin temple. Lourié decided to emphasize that contrast visually. The practical need for making the project monetarily viable meant style compromises.

With that in mind, the castle's nonspecific architectural style was perfect to give it a Chinese look for Western eyes, by adding characteristic roofs, a front wall with a massive wood-carved door, and brick walls with ceramic-grilled windows, while its terraces and stairs were fit for the stagings of the kung fu training sequences. For the temple's interiors, Lourié opted for showing only a portion of the set and let the viewers complete it in their minds. He decided on a church-like appearance, with a Buddhist mural on the back wall, multileveled wooden candleholders and burning candles between columns, a constant haze, and the projection of strong rays of light as if coming through high church windows.

Special effects

The series used slow-motion effects for the action sequences, which Warner Bros. had previously used in the 1969 Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch, and were also subsequently used for the action sequences in the science-fiction series The Six Million Dollar Man.

Soundtrack

The music for the opening and closing titles, as well as the incidental music, was composed by Jim Helms.

Series associate producer (later producer) Alex Beaton selected him after listening to several composer demonstration tapes when the pilot was in development. Helms, a guitarist and arranger, scored the pilot with a team of only 11 musicians. The result was mostly atmospheric instead of melodic, with a koto as the predominant instrument. This score did not include "Caine's Theme", which was added when the series began airing in 1972, in the opening and closing titles. That signature theme had two unusual characteristics; through the first season, it was revised and re-recorded several times, and the sound palette comprised about 19 musicians per session only. Even if half of them were string players, the woodwinds, keyboard, and percussion sounds were always more prominent.

The flute themes were performed by Sheridon Stokes on an alto recorder, since the type of bamboo flute featured in the series was not chromatic and was deemed impractical for scoring purposes. The constant presence of a harpsichord played by Mike Lang helped to set the series in the 19th century. The percussion instruments included a waterphone, Chinese tom-toms, Chinese opera bells, woodblocks, and antique Chinese "dharma bells" (Asian nested bells). Percussionist Emil Richards collected over 90 of them and used them often for microtonal glisses. Everything resulted in an Eastern-Western combination that was unique in American television. Variety referred to Helms' work as "especially interesting... sensitive... a decided asset."

Given the success of Kung Fu's first season, Warner Bros. Records released internationally in December 1973 a "concept album" of dialogue and music from the show, based on the pilot and the first nine episodes; "Caine's Theme" was also released as a single. The record used an expanded 45-piece orchestra for the musical selections and a group of eight musicians for the incidental music underscoring dialogue taken from the Shaolin temple sequences. The LP was re-released in CD format in 2010, accompanied by the Man in the Wilderness movie soundtrack.

"Caine's Theme" (with different arrangements) was included in the TV and film music compilations by Jack Hawkins and his Orchestra and Singers (UK, 1974), Jack Parnell and his Orchestra (UK, 1975), and The Film Studio Orchestra (Japan, 1976).

Question of Bruce Lee's involvement

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.: "Even before this [Longstreet], Warner Bros. had suddenly caught on to the fact that kung fu itself had captured the public's imagination and decided to launch a TV series," she writes. "Bruce himself had been working on the idea of a Shaolin priest, a master of kung fu, who would roam America and find himself involved in various exploits. The studio contacted him, and he was soon deeply involved. He gave them numerous ideas, many of which were eventually incorporated in the resulting TV success, Kung Fu, starring actor David Carradine." (Linda Lee, The Man Only I Knew, pp. 130–31.). Some circumstantial evidence exists for this in a December 8, 1971, television interview that Bruce Lee gave on The Pierre Berton Show. In the interview, Lee stated that he had developed a concept for a television series called The Warrior, meant to star himself, about a martial artist in the American Old West (the same concept as Kung Fu, which aired the following year), but that he was having trouble pitching it to Warner Bros. and Paramount.

In the interview, Pierre Berton commented, "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 responded, "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 asked 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 replied, "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."

Casting controversy

Kung Fu has been called an example of yellowface and a prominent case of whitewashing.

Most of the controversy lies in the allegation that the series' idea was stolen from Bruce Lee, but also in the fact that he was not cast for the leading role, and that decision had racial connotations. The "steal" theory has become widespread, both in academia and in the media, even internationally.

The casting for the leading role when the project was still a feature film had considered (among others) James Coburn, who was preferred by Ed Spielman. When the script became an ABC Movie of the Week, the casting process considered (among others) Bruce Lee, Mako, and George Takei. After having "sought every Asian in Hollywood, because you didn't have to be super bright to know what was coming," and found none that could carry the series, they turned to the American side of the character and began auditioning white actors, including William Smith and John Saxon. Just two weeks before the pilot's filming started, David Carradine obtained the role at his second audition.

At the time, George Takei and the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists (AAPAA) filed a formal complaint for unfair hiring practices. They wanted an Asian actor in the leading role and a Chinese historical advisor; only the second demand was conceded. The Asian acting community was initially displeased, but with so few opportunities for Asian actors at the time, many felt it was better to have a successful show that could be a steady source of work for them in secondary roles than having none at all. Actor James Hong (who was the AAPAA's president), said: "As the show went on, we realized it was a great source of employment for the Asian acting community."

Representation of women and ethnic groups

The series has been considered a commentary on race relations in the 1970s, both for its casting as for the depiction of discrimination against minorities. It is noteworthy that race issues also affected the casting of secondary characters whereas gender inequality showed in their stories.

France Nuyen and Nancy Kwan, both Eurasian, played Chinese characters, the first one accepting being given in marriage as payment for service her husband was hired to perform (s3e3), the other one preferring to be a concubine to the emperor rather than the wife of the warlord who had raped her, who was played by Stefan Gierasch, wearing prosthetic makeup (s2e22–23). Barbara Hershey appeared as a Eurasian woman who flees forced marriage to a warlord played by Khigh Dhiegh (born Kenneth Dickerson), and is denied admission to the Shaolin temple as a student because "You are female – You are also of mixed blood" (s3e10–11). On the other hand, American women are sometimes portrayed as dependent upon or even unable to survive without men (s1e14, s2e16, s3e4), but also as independent individuals, like entrepreneurs (s3e23), landowners (s2e14, s3e1–2), ranchers (s2e12, s3e3) or craftswomen (s1e3), according to the feminist currents of the time. Notably, Asian women are portrayed that way on occasion (s1e5, s1e8), and not just in stereotypical or subservient roles.

Given that the series' action happens mostly in the 19th century California, black people appear as important characters in just a few episodes (s1e13, s2e1, s2e16, s3e18, s3e24), as at the time they were a small portion of the state's population, yet all of the episodes have to do with them facing discrimination. Interestingly, when the consequences of the American Civil War are mentioned, they are in the context of defeat and vengeance (s1e4, s2e3, s3e24), not of the abolition of slavery.

Regarding Native Americans, as it was usual at the time, they are mostly portrayed by non-Native actors, usually from the Hispanic community and also by Whites (s2e6), whereas the Hispanics themselves appear mostly when Caine visits towns in New Mexico or Mexico (s2e3, s2e4, s3e14), even if at the time there was an important Hispanic presence in the state. The portrayal of Native Americans varies from the stereotypical faceless villains (s1e1, s1e2), to objects of persecution and discrimination (s2e5, s3e5) to a co-leading character in the s1e15 episode "The Ancient Warrior," the only one with a Native actor billed in the opening credits, which precisely deals with the extermination of a whole tribe. The absence of Native actors and the cultural misrepresentation issue wasn't unique to this series nor to its time; it has led the National Congress of American Indians to pass a resolution on the subject as recently as 2017.

Representation of Asians

East Asian, or rather Chinese portrayal in the series remains a topic of discussion. Academic studies tend to mention the show in the context of discrimination against Asians in American society and entertainment.

Professor Jun Xing (Chun Hsing in Library of Congress' cataloging) states that segregating actors by roles seems reasonable when ethnic characters are cast, but there is a double standard in which Asians cannot play roles designated as White, whereas Caucasian actors cross into ones representing every other race, showing that in movies American people are not every color, but Black and White. Also, as there is an East–West dichotomy; Asians are not seen as Americans. With that in mind, to maintain the double standard, "Eurasian characters have become Hollywood's favorite creations. These mixed-race characters obviously allow white actors and actresses, with minimum makeup, to steal major roles from Asians." And puts Kung Fu as the "best example" of that, noting Bruce Lee's involvement.

Professor Hye Seung Chung exemplifies Asian representation in American film and television, and the roles Asian actors were allowed to play, with the case of Philip Ahn, who, being the son of a Korean national hero, spent his career playing minor and secondary characters, usually Japanese and Chinese. On page 31, she compares a letter from an admirer of Ahn's work as Master Kan with playwright Frank Chin's attack on the series in a 1974 The New York Times article, when he states that apes' roles in movies had evolved better than Chinese images in media. Even if Professor Chung states on page 177 that "Kung Fu was a groundbreaking series produced by Warner Bros. that intermixed the martial arts genre with Wild West iconography, expanding the syntax of the television western to accommodate "foreign" elements at the scenographic and narrative levels," her analysis decries the way the Kan character is depicted as "emasculated," stereotyped in various ways, and she mentions that Bruce Lee was not cast in the leading role.

Also, the series itself lacks historical and cultural accuracy in this matter. Through the episodes, the writers made mistakes regarding the order of Chinese names, and about who was the Emperor in China at the series' time period. When Japanese elements appear, they are unlikely to be known or happen at the said time: in s3e12, the boy Caine watches a Noh performance in a mandarin's mansion, when Japan was still an isolationist country. In s2e2, among three Japanese characters, there is a woman who has been married to an Englishman for over 15 years, when British subjects had been allowed to reside in Japan only since 1862–1863; also Caine knows well what a ninja is, just ten years after Japan's opening to international relations. Most importantly, the series' Shaolin priests teach Taoist and Confucian philosophy, whereas the actual Shaolin monks are Buddhist. However, the absence of allusions to Joseon Korea is correct, as immigrants from that kingdom arrived in America after 1884.

Recapitulation

"'That guy is me,' Spielman says. 'That Caine character is me in a way, just like Siegel and Shuster did Superman. He was always Eurasian; he always didn't fit in.'" So, according to its creator, it was not a maneuver that would make it fit for a White actor, even if his first choice for the role had been James Coburn. Regarding the casting process, the production team says they did try to cast an Asian actor but none was adequate for the role, including Bruce Lee. John Furia Jr. asserted that "the concept of the series was a man who was not involved, a man who avoided action at almost any cost, a very quiet, seemingly passive man." Tom Kuhn, besides claiming that Lee's speech was hard to understand, said: "It did occur to me that this part was rather cerebral, a guy who only fights when he's absolutely cornered." Even Fred Weintraub, who had lobbied for Lee since the beginning, noted that they needed an actor "to portray the sense of quiet serenity that Caine possessed, a quality that driven and intense Bruce was not known for." Still, both Kuhn and Weintraub admitted that "the powers that be" were unwilling to hire an Asian actor per se.

Academic studies about Asian representation in American entertainment claim that the casting of the leading role and even the portrayal of the Chinese characters by Asian actors followed generalized discriminatory patterns. Put in a historical context in which White actors were free to play Asian, Eurasian and other ethnicities' roles, whereas Asian, Eurasian and mixed-race actors played the stereotypical Asian roles left but never White roles, anti-miscegenation laws had been repealed just in 1967, the Hays Code finally abandoned in 1968, and whitewashing has continued into the 21st century, their authors simply can't believe that the casting of a White actor for a Eurasian role in 1971 could have had any other cause than inveterate racism, much less when Bruce Lee was involved.

The media continues to list this show as racist, not for its contents but because future star Bruce Lee wasn't cast in a role that perhaps wasn't suited for him, as an actor, in November–December 1971, and because of the rooted belief that the idea for the series was "stolen" from him.

In consequence, the new show takes the name of the original one while completely separating itself from it, instead of continuing its story or attempting to build upon its legacy, claiming with good reason that their aim is improving Asian community's representation and visibility.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes calls the series "influential", and Metacritic in describing it says: "A man of peace, though trained to defend himself, Caine always made an attempt to address situations in a way that was morally acceptable to his beliefs, and to resolve them through [the] least violent means possible. His journey is not only one across the frontier of America but one through the light and dark areas of the soul as well."

In a May 1973 Black Belt magazine interview with John Furia Jr., the author Jon Shirota speaks about the critical response in these terms: "Even the TV critics, customarily very reserved and cautious with their appraisals, acclaimed the show [the first segment] as one of the year's best. (...) One critic wrote that the success of Kung-Fu may be attributed to the very thing the producers were afraid of: the public's not knowing what the series was about. 'Actually,' said the critic, 'it adds a certain amount of unpredictability and suspense to the plot. It is unlike most of the western heroes whose faces are like the book you've already read.' Another critic said that a story like Kung-Fu could never have been made into a movie 10 years ago because no one would have cared about a bunch of coolies. 'It is only now,' he quipped, 'that we are giving true credit to history.'"

Home media

Warner Home Video released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 between 2004 and 2005.

On November 14, 2017, Warner Home Video re-released all three seasons, as well as the complete series set on DVD in Region 1.

The extras include audio commentary by David Carradine on four episodes of the series (s2e1 The Well, s2e14 A Dream Within a Dream, s3e2 Blood of the Dragon - 2, s3e21 Full Circle), Zen & Now: A Dinner With David Carradine And Friends (Guests: Hal Sparks, Sifu Rob Moses, Vivica A. Fox, Kam Yuen, Cynthia Rothrock, Radames Pera, Michael Madsen), two documentaries on the series' development and production (From Grasshopper to Caine: the Making of Kung Fu, The Tao of Caine: Production and Beyond), and David Carradine's Shaolin Diary, a visit to China's Shaolin Monastery and the Great Wall.

The series is also available online on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes (including pilot), and on Google TV.

Revivals

Kung Fu: The Movie

In Kung Fu: The Movie (1986) Caine (again 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 (page 157) also comments that Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee, was involved in sequels related to the series:

The late Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, played Caine's son, Chung Wang. Toward the end of the film, Chung Wang asks Caine if he is his father. The question seems somewhat ironic since—in real life—Brandon's father was a contender for the role of Caine in the series. After Bruce Lee lost the part to Carradine, he went back to Hong Kong, where he made The Big Boss, the film that began his legendary career in martial arts movies.

Kung Fu: The Next Generation

In Kung Fu: The Next Generation (1987), the story moves to the present day and centers on the story of Kwai Chang "Johnny" Caine (Brandon Lee), who is the great-great-grandson of Kwai Chang Caine, and the difficult relationship he has with his father, also named Kwai Chang (David Darlow). In an attempt to connect with his son, Caine Sr. takes him to Silver Creek, a ghost town, the place where their ancestor spent his last years. They talk about how Caine arrived there, became the "wise man of the town", and how he died.

"So I guess he died here, right?""That's the strange thing. One evening in his garden his heart failed him. His wife went to fetch the doctor. When she returned, Kwai Chang was gone.""Where did he go?""No one really knows."

As Johnny has involved himself with an operation of burglary and arms trafficking, the perfectionist father and the rebellious son need to put their differences aside to fight the criminals and save Johnny from prison.

Kung Fu: The Legend Continues

Two decades after the first series ended, a second, related series titled Kung Fu: The Legend Continues running in syndication followed the adventures of Kwai Chang Caine's grandson, also named Kwai Chang Caine. It again starred Carradine, this time as the grandson of the original Caine, and introduced Chris Potter as his son. Caine's mentor was played by Kim Chan as Lo Si (The Ancient) / Ping Hai. The second series ran for four years, from 1993 to 1997.

Feature film

In June 2006, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander announced that a feature film (which would serve as a prequel to the original Kung Fu series and take place in China) was in development. In 2007, Max Makowski planned to make the film edgier than the original television series. Actor-director Bill Paxton was in talks to direct the adaptation of the TV series. Baz Luhrmann was in talks to direct the film in 2014, and if the deal was made, Luhrmann was to rewrite the film's script. In 2020, 87North Productions announced development of a contemporary feature film version of the series with creator Spielman and Stephen L'Hereaux producing through his Solipsist Film company and David Leitch directing.

2021 reboot

A re-imagining of the original series, simply titled Kung Fu, aired on The CW in April 2021. The show is produced by Greg Berlanti.

The series is written by Christina M. Kim and Martin Gero and sees a quarter-life crisis causing a young Chinese-American woman named Nicky, played by Olivia Liang, to drop out of college and take up residence in an isolated monastery in China. When she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice, all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and now is targeting her.

The show stars Olivia Liang as Nicky; Tzi Ma and Kheng Hua Tan as Jin Chen and Mei-Li, her restaurateur parents whose secrets threaten to destroy their lives; Jon Prasida as Ryan Chen, a quick-witted medical student and Nicky's younger brother; Shannon Dang as Althea Chen, Nicky's larger-than-life older sister who is newly engaged and on her way to planning her dream Chinese wedding; and Eddie Liu as Henry Chu, a martial arts instructor and Chinese art history buff who has instant chemistry with Nicky. Gavin Stenhouse was cast as Evan Hartley, a highly successful assistant district attorney who still has a soft spot for his first love, Nicky; and Yvonne Chapman was cast as Zhilan, a cryptic woman with deep criminal ties and a mysterious connection to the Shaolin monastery where Nicky trained in kung fu.