Fifty Years After Its Final Episode, ‘Kung Fu’ Has a Powerful Legacy

Kung Fu TV Show composite image — Everett Collection

For five decades, “patience, grasshopper” has been the informal tagline for Kung Fu, the classic “Eastern Western” television show that began on February 22, 1972, with a 90-minute ABC TV-movie pilot. Originally titled Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, The Sign of the Dragon, the film was followed by a monthly-then-weekly series that ran until March 8, 1975. Each episode featured David Carradine (son of screen icon John Carradine, who later guest-stars on the show with Robert Carradine, David’s brother) as Kwai Chang Caine, the half-Asian/half-American Shaolin fugitive monk of the Old West on the run from the Far East.

Kung Fu was created in the mid-1960s by Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander — and not, as urban myth sometimes claimed, Bruce Lee, who had instead conceived another idea in the early 1970s. Lee had, however, auditioned for but failed to win the role of Caine. Subsequently, the former star of Green Hornet and Longstreet returned to his homeland of China, where he ignited what became his mammoth martial arts career on the big screen.

KUNG FU, from left: David Carradine, John Carradine on set, 1972-1975

Everett Collection

The beginning of Kung Fu

In the Kung Fu pilot, we met a young Caine, played by Radames Pera, as a pre-teen, pre-disciple of kung-fu, at a Shaolin Temple in China of the 1800s. He’s interacting with the revered Keye Luke as the blind Master Po, who becomes Caine’s favorite mentor.

Young Caine (also played in the pilot by Keith Carradine, David’s other sibling) pities the visually impaired Po, who responds by sensing a grasshopper at the feet of an oblivious Caine.

“Old man,” Young Caine begins to wonder in awe, “… how is it that you hear these things?”

“Young man,” Po closes in to respond, “… how is it that you do not?

Young Caine’s nickname then became Grasshopper which, along with “Snatch the pebble from my hand,” was soon a signature line. The latter refers to a pilot sequence involving Caine and his other principal teacher, Master Kan, played by Philip Ahn.

Master Kan is the Grand Master of Martial Arts, an imposing yet kind figure. In the now-famous scene, Kan is interviewing the orphaned Young Caine for acceptance into the Shaolin sanctuary. At one point, Kan points to a pebble in his open palm. “As quickly as you can,” he instructs Caine, “… snatch the pebble from my hand.”

Caine tries, but Kan’s hand closes before the young boy can get to the pebble.

Impressed nonetheless, Kan then tells Caine, “When you can take that pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave.”

According to Spielman, who has had numerous films and TV shows produced of his work, “Out of everything I have ever been associated with professionally, I’ll be remembered as the guy who created Grasshopper.”

But it’s Kung Fu’s ability to popularize the ineffable, to translate Eastern philosophy into a Western medium, that remains the key to its success.

As Carradine once observed, Kung Fu was the most unusual of things, a commercial television series about a man trying to atone for his sins. “We had a good story, maybe a great story,” Carradine said, explaining the show’s popularity. “And one of the things that I figured out for myself was that the story was not about truth, it was about love.”

The pilot continued to shape the show’s essential esoteric dilemma

After the now-adult Caine snatches the pebble from Master Kan’s hand and readies to leave the Temple, he must walk a path of obstacles and then lift an urn of hot coals. In doing so, he brands himself with the mark of the tiger and the dragon, signifying his Shaolin status.

Years later, Caine reunites with Master Po near the Temple of Heaven in the Forbidden City. It had long been Po’s ambition to attend a festival there, which he once told a Young Caine.

But the two masters are soon jostled on the road by the Imperial guards of the Royal Nephew. An altercation ensues, and His Highness draws a pistol and shoots Po. In a moment of rage, Caine hurls a spear at the Royal Nephew, kills him, and then cradles Po who lies dying in his arms.

An ashamed Caine has gone against everything he was taught. Po forgives but warns Caine, “There will be a price on your head … you must leave the country.”

Po gives Caine his sack, containing all his worldly belongings, and dies. Caine flees for the American Old West, where he’s hunted by China’s royal guards. Greedy Americans also seek to apprehend Caine, who now has a $10,000 price on his head.

All the while, Caine searches for his American half-brother (Danny Caine, played by Tim McIntire, who he finds in the last four episodes), utilizing his martial arts and wisdom (aided by flashbacks to Masters Po and Kan) to battle anti-Asian bigotry and defend the underdog (guest stars like Don Johnson, Hal Williams, Dean Jagger) and those who threaten their and his existence (villains played by Leslie Nielsen, among others).

KUNG FU: THE MOVIE, (from left): David Carradine, Brandon Lee, 1986.

Warner Bros./Courtesy: Everett Collection

In 1986, David Carradine and Keye Luke reprised their most famous roles (alongside Brandon Lee, son of Bruce) in Kung Fu: The Return of Caine, a failed pilot to reboot the series, this time on CBS.

CBS tried again and failed in 1987 with Kung Fu: The Next Generation, which brought Brandon back as the son of a modern-day Caine, now played by David Darlow.

From 1993 to 1997, Carradine came back to the franchise, now with Chris Potter, in the syndicated series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, another contemporary take.

Between 2021 and 2023, The CW aired yet another modern reboot, simply called, Kung Fu, which featured Caine’s female descent played by Olivia Liang.

Meanwhile, Fu fans eagerly await a new feature film, which has been in development for years.

Click here for more information about actor/writer/producer Herbie J Pilato, the author of several acclaimed pop-culture/media tie-in books, including The Kung Fu Book of Caine and The Kung Fu Book of Wisdom.