I recently heard his wife, Linda, on television recollect that the producers were definitely impressed by Lee’s talents–and initially considered him–but decided an Asian man couldn’t pull if off.
Can’t verify if Lee was the inspiration behind Kato, in the Pink Panther series, but Blake Edwards, too, thought Lee was extraordinary.
Okay, here’s the poop on Bruce Lee and Kung Fu:
Source: Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture, “Bruce Lee,” page 96
Kato was the Green Hornet not Pink Panther. Pink Panther movie features Ed Parker, the founder and proponent of modern American Kenpo Karate. Ed Parker had a studio in IIRC Pasedena, and through that got hooked up with Hollywood people. Bruce Lee also stayed with Ed Parker for roughly 6 months when he first came to the US. Story I heard was Ed introduced Bruce to said same hollywood people.
A former Kenpo instructor of mine told this tale: Bruce Lee trained a lot of hollywood stars including steve McQueen and the white guy in Enter the Dragon. These guys all bought Bruce a kicking bag and filled it with ball bearings. Invited Bruce to try it out in the dojo, and Bruce almost broke his leg. That said, within a short period of time, Bruce figured out how to kick the shit out of that bag. Take it with a grain of salt but that was what was told to me.
My friends call this the “Alf Effect”.
I saw the pilot a few months ago, and your right, it’s suprisingly good. Given how derivitive the concept of the shows seems (“what show are popular now”. “westerns and kung-fu shows” “I know, lets make a western-kung-fu show”) it is impressive someone was able to make something interesting out of it.
But there was a chop-socky character named “Cato” in several of the Pink Panther movies.
pushes back his cowboy hat and says to the assembled cowboys
Well lookie what we got ourselves here, a thread about Kung fu.
trouble ensues
FWIW TV Tome credits Bruce Lee with being a co-creator of the show – along the lines rjung posted, less along the lines of producers of a preplanned show not finding him suitable.
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-2162/Kung_Fu/
No, no, no.
“Kato” was in both the Green Hornet AND Pink Panther–different characters, different actors, same name, same martial arts theme. In the former, Bruce Lee was the sidekick of the Green Hornet. Whenever Kato got in over his head with the bad guys, GH would come to his rescue. :rolleyes: Bruce Lee inspired the role of Kato in the Pink Panther series.
Where does Ed Parker appear in the Pink Panther? I totally missed that.
One story re: Bruce Lee and a kicking bag found a dubious Ryan O’Neal (IIRC) at the estate of Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, watching Lee workout and saying he was impressed with his speed, but doubted Lee had much power behind his moves. Lee asked O’Neal to hold a kickbag and then gave it a wicked sidekick and sent him flying into Edwards’ swimming pool. O’Neal emerged and said he had never felt such power in his life. That said, it might have been Lee’s demonstration of his one-inch punch. Can’t recall.
In one of the Pink Panther movies, Clouseau tells Cato, “Bring out the Silver Hornet!” This turns out to be a huge, wallowing tub of a car, with body styling of 1940s vintage but on steroids, which for no apparent reason falls to pieces the moment Clouseau pulls out of the driveway. Homage, anybody? 
According to the imdb, the actor who played Cato (not Kato) in Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), and even the regrettable, Sellers-deprived Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), was Burt Kwouk.
However, Ed Parker did play “Mr. Chong,” a character I can’t even remember, in Revenge and Curse..
IIRC, Big Ed was in Revenge of the Pink Panther. a very short ass kicking role.
was to attend the festival of the blank on the blank day of the blank moon of the year of the blank. He tells the young student Caine this early on in the movie. Caine makes a point of attending this festival in the hopes of seeing his old master again, once he (Caine) has left the temple.
I’m thinking May 13th is the observation of the Buddha’s birthday…?
As regards Ed Parker in Revenge Of The Pink Panther, I think he was the guy who was the front door man/bodyguard at what had been Clouseau’s apartment and had just become the house of ill repute. The password was “Inspector Clouseau.”