The "CBS Summer Playhouse" was an anthology program that instead of showing the same actors each week, it aired unsold television pilots. Perhaps they wanted to see the public's reactions...if they liked the show then they might reconsider. Or, more likely, they just wanted to recoup some of the money spent to make these one-off shows. One of these failed pilots was "Kung Fu: The Next Generation".
The show is set in modern days instead of the old west like the original show. It concerns descendants of Kwai Chang Caine ...and they even have a ghost Kwai Chang Caine visit one of them! The show finds a father who is into martial arts and niceness and his son (Brandon Lee) who is a screw-up who is in trouble with the law. Can Daddy instill goodness and niceness in his ne'er-do-well offspring?
So is it any good? It's just okay...at best..perhaps a bit flat actually. I think part of the problem was Brandon Lee's character....he was just too much of a little jerk and it was easy to dislike him. Plus, there was no David Carradine! While this show ultimately failed, there was a reboot in 1993 that was accepted by the networks. I assume much of this was because in the reboot, David Carradine was cast in the lead...something fans of the original series likely loved.
The show is set in modern days instead of the old west like the original show. It concerns descendants of Kwai Chang Caine ...and they even have a ghost Kwai Chang Caine visit one of them! The show finds a father who is into martial arts and niceness and his son (Brandon Lee) who is a screw-up who is in trouble with the law. Can Daddy instill goodness and niceness in his ne'er-do-well offspring?
So is it any good? It's just okay...at best..perhaps a bit flat actually. I think part of the problem was Brandon Lee's character....he was just too much of a little jerk and it was easy to dislike him. Plus, there was no David Carradine! While this show ultimately failed, there was a reboot in 1993 that was accepted by the networks. I assume much of this was because in the reboot, David Carradine was cast in the lead...something fans of the original series likely loved.