The movie pilot for the original series starring David Carradine, "Kung Fu" (1972) is set approximately 100 years before, the American West during the 1870s, and a Shaolin priest trying to atone for the sin of killing a man, the nephew of the Emperor of China's Royal House, in an unfortunate provocation defending his beloved Shaolin Master Po (Keye Luke). An elderly blind man, Po simply defends himself against one of the royal guards, and is callously shot dead by the heartless nephew, with an angrily grieving Caine throwing a spear toward the murderer, which fatally finds its target. The dying Po grants his favorite pupil forgiveness ("sometimes one must cut off a finger to save a hand"), and advises Caine to leave the country. The pilot begins with Caine walking through the Mojave desert, apparently in America only a short time, finding work with a railroad company headed by Dillon (Barry Sullivan). In preventing an accident, Caine's arms bear the signs of the tiger and the dragon, revealing him as a Shaolin priest, treated with much reverence by the all-Chinese laborers. The railway's path is fraught with danger however, and many deaths result from both greed and cowardice. During the course of Caine's Western adventures, we are introduced to flashbacks to his days as a student and disciple at the Shaolin temple in Northern China. Radames Pera was excellent as the student Caine, and an unbilled Keith Carradine appeared as the Middle Caine, a role which he would go on to play just once more in the first season episode "Chains." Roy Jenson plays Fuller, the first opponent to discover how skillful Caine can be when provoked (he would go on to do one first season episode "Superstition," plus the 1986 TV movie sequel, also titled "Kung Fu"). Barry Sullivan returned for the second season episode "Crossties" (another railroad villain), while Albert Salmi appeared in "Nine Lives" the first year, and "Cry of the Night Beast" the third. Among the Asian cast were many veterans of the Charlie Chan movie series spanning 1931-1949: as the blind Master Po, teaching Caine to hear the sound of his own heartbeat, Keye Luke proved most durable (he had played Lee Chan, #1 son, in 8 Chan films opposite Warner Oland, 2 Chans opposite Roland Winters, and one Mr. Moto film opposite Peter Lorre). Doing 6 episodes during all three seasons, Victor Sen Yung had replaced Luke as Jimmy Chan, #2 son, when Sidney Toler took over the role of Chan, doing 13 opposite Toler, and another 5 with Roland Winters. Benson Fong appeared in 3 episodes, one per season, and played Tommy Chan, #3 son, opposite Sidney Toler in 6 Chan features. Philip Ahn, as head Master Chen Ming Kan, was a veteran of two Chans and two Motos, while Richard Loo, who worked with both Karloff and Lugosi during the 1930s, here plays Master Sun, a role he would play again in "Blood Brother" and "Besieged: Cannon at the Gates," doing different characters in 3 others. Robert Ito, later best remembered for his co-starring role opposite Jack Klugman on QUINCY, returned in the second season for "The Assassin" and "The Way of Violence Has No Mind," but the champion guest star from this pilot was James Hong, who played different characters in all 8 of his return episodes, from "The Tide" to "The Thief of Chendo." David Chow, as the monk who does battle with Caine in the climax, served as technical adviser on the subsequent series, and appeared in "The Tong" and "The Soldier." This successful pilot from Feb 1972 was followed by the actual series 7 months later.
