Kung Fu -- the old TV show

[Wolfgang]

So, I've been watching a lot of old TV shows on DVD lately. A little too much time on my hands, you could say. I started on "Kung Fu," the saga of Kwai Chang Caine in the American Old West, starring David Carradine. Overall, I think it's extremely well made and has nice flashback scenes to the temple during the Grasshopper days. But one thing that really gnaws at me is the constant use of aphoristic dialogue by the Shaolin priests and Caine himself. I don't know how Asians felt about the show at the time, but I gotta think all the "fortune cookie" way of speaking set them back quite a bit. "Oh, young grasshopper, the willow survives without contending with the savage winds."

I just never got all that sort of talk. I know a lot of Asians -- from college to now as a real live person in a community full of real live Asians -- and I've never heard them talk like a fortune cookie.

[TheSantaBarbarian]

Ah, but how many Shaolin priests from the 1800's have you heard speak? Someone had to invent the fortune cookie.

[mikegarrison]

Most of the Asians I know talk like this:

"The VTEC just kicked in, yo!"

[VBCOACH]

All things considered, still one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

[romeo]

Yes, Kung Fu. Watched it. Liked it. But I also liked Wild Wild West, which wasn't nearly as well done or plot-oriented. But James could fight. Yes he could. I would have liked to see Kwai Chang Caine fight James West.

[Wolfgang]

Wild Wild West = one of the greatest title sequence theme in the history of TV. Certainly Top Five, along with Mission: Impossible, Hawaii 5-0, Mannix, and maybe The Love Boat. Yes, The Love Boat.

[mikegarrison]

Sept 9, 2009 19:42:51 GMT -5 Wolfgang said:

Wild Wild West = one of the greatest title sequence theme in the history of TV. Certainly Top Five, along with Mission: Impossible, Hawaii 5-0, Mannix, and maybe The Love Boat. Yes, The Love Boat.

Peter Gunn:


Rockford Files:


And for something from a different genre: