Kung Fu (Seasons 1–3)

Kung Fu (1972) — watch online the ABC series that made the American West strange and meditative, streaming now on iFILM. David Carradine plays Kwai Chang Caine, a half-Chinese Shaolin monk who flees China after killing a member of the imperial family and ends up walking the frontier in search of his half-brother.

Caine travels light. No horse, no gun, barely any money. Each town he passes through brings a new injustice — a rancher running roughshod over settlers, a debt that can't be paid, someone taken from their family. The flashbacks to the monastery, where the blind Master Po and stern Master Kan drilled patience and discipline into young Caine, thread through every episode as a counterweight to the violence outside. Carradine played the role with an unhurried stillness that felt unlike anything else on network television at the time.

Three seasons ran from 1972 to 1975. The show helped open the door for martial arts in American popular culture well before Bruce Lee's Hollywood films reached wide release. Stream all seasons of Kung Fu online on iFILM.