Ah, Grasshopper, Let Us Enlighten You with Facts About ‘Kung Fu’

For several decades, David Carradine was the pre-eminent martial artist on television. As the half-Chinese-half-American orphan raised in a Shaolin monastery, Caine became a symbol for justice on the TV landscape during the mid-seventies as he traversed the Old West in search of his half-brother, righting wrongs and defending the little guy along the way. For three seasons, Kung Fu enamored its audience and did more than its share to create a market for martial arts that hasn’t dried up more than forty years later. Here are some things you need to know about the show.

1. It Might Have Been Bruce Lee’s Idea

In addition to a claim made by Lee’s wife in her memoirs, there’s evidence to suggest that Bruce Lee, the most famous martial arts film star in history, was the one who actually came up with the idea for TV’s Kung Fu. In 1971 (one year before Kung Fu went on the air), Bruce Lee publicly pitched a show to Warner Bros and Paramount called The Warrior, about a martial artist traveling through the Old West. Sound familiar?