David Carradine and Kung Fu

[CrushingFist]

Use to love that show when I was younger, was eager to see tv everyday lol.

 

[shaolin_al]

I loved Carradine shows and movies so I am not trying to discredit him. I have however been told about one of the styles he was exposed to being beishaolin quanmen. He spent a lot of time on the sidelines watching others train and drinking coffee. Also I have heard some of his kung fu dvd's are laughable.

 

[Fing Fang Foom]

Are you all kidding me?

"Kung Fu" was the ***** LOL... as you can tell by the bottom of my 'signature', that TV showed influenced me a lot in my love for MA's in general. Who can forget these immortal TV Lines?:

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?

That was some of the best "hippie kung fu talk" in the world! I grew up in the late 60s and all the 70's. I had three shows I could not miss in the evening times; The six million dollar man, Wild wild West, and Kung Fu! Kids at school would talk about the show each day at school after an episode had aired the night before. In the midwest where I was raised the TV Show had more influence on kids wanting to learn MA's then Bruce Lee did. We all knew who Bruce was, but only a hand full of us ever saw the movies at the theatre. I never saw a single Bruce Lee movie until the 80's.... For you younger folks you have to remember we had only 3 channels of stuff to watch; ABC, NBC, and CBS...No Cable, No 'good' movies on TV, No DVDs, No VCR's, nothing! And some of Bruce's movies were 'more mature', so even if your parents had a little extra money to take you to the movies you probably didn't get to go to a late show to see a Bruce Lee movie. Back in the day, the more 'adult' movies were always in the evening time after 7pm. All the shows in the day time, even on the weekends were shows like; Bambi, escape to witch mountain, or 1 of a hundred movies with a young kurt russel, or a herbie the lovebug move, etc etc lol.


Also, if you watch or buy the Kung Fu TV box set from warner bro's. (I believe it is on Season 2), there was an extra feature called; "A dinner with David Carradine and friends". It was a discussion with David, Cynthia Rothrock, Rob Moses, Wu Shu stylist Hal Sparks, Vivica Fox, Micheal Madsen, and the shows tech advisor Kam Yuen. It also has (an older) Radames Para! (the man, who when he was little played the young Caine). I believe it talks about how David got the part of Kung Fu, and also explains how he did study MA's later in life. I enjoyed watching it. (way better then billy jack LOL).

So like it or hate it.... I will let you know the fact. Kung Fu, the TV show influenced thousands of people...and it will forever be apart of TV/Americana/and Kung Fu lore.:ultracool

 

[stickarts]

For more info on David Carradine, he wrote a book " Spirit of Shaolin ". I recall getting it on amazon.com. Not very expensive and i found it to be an interesting read. He describes his training as well as his career.