Did anyone used to watch "Samurai Sunday" on Philly 57?

[Sandpalm79]

I know a lot of people used to watch kung fu theatre ( or black belt theatre cant remember name) but i never saw this show. In 1985 my family lived in New Jersey and on the Channell "Philly 57"I used to watch "Samurai Sunday" every Sunday at noon i believe. i was only 6-7 years old but was hooked!! This is where i was introduced to Martial Arts Movies ( Specifically Shaw Brothers) Anyone else watch this show? I also remember they would play the sunday movie at midnight the night before. And i would wake up and see fragments of classics. like the tree uprooting scene in Two Champions of Shaolin etc. Be cool if others also remembered this show! If so what movies do you remember? I recall Destroyers, street gangs of hong kong. monkey kung fu. 3 evil masters. Super Ninjas. kid with the golden arm.Master Killer. masked avengers!! :-) Changed my life..

[Yu_Xihong]

Yeah I remember, but I was younger (4-5). Things I remember about Samurai Sunday is that GLOW (Glorious Ladies of Wrestling) was on at the same time on another channel or it came on right before. Most of the commercials were about Lincoln Technical Institute, Trucking School, and Craftmatic Adjustable beds. I liked the 5 sec transitions with the film rolling down... "We now return you to Instructors of Death."

I remember the blue globe intro and how all the intros were squshed to fit credits. I think the last credit was always Larry Bensky (where the screen switched to letterbox). My dad was really bad at VHS taping he was too lazy to pause for commercials, but my mom always did it right. I still have about 20 VHS tapes with SB movies.

The funniest thing I remember is having "Iron Fingers of Death" cut off on 2 different tapes. It was a long time before I found out what happened after Wang Zitai killed the ghost and before the monks tried to keep him out of the temple only to find out it was just a few minute gap.

There's still one film I haven't figured out. It's not SB, but it had Dorian Tan fighting an old dude who wore metal body armor under his clothes that he took off and threw like it was a boomerang. It made a cool sound lol. Tan fought with some kind of special umbrella (I think). I only have the last 15 mins of the movie... whatever it is.

[Sandpalm79]

Yeah I remember, but I was younger (4-5). Things I remember about Samurai Sunday is that GLOW (Glorious Ladies of Wrestling) was on at the same time on another channel or it came on right before. Most of the commercials were about Lincoln Technical Institute, Trucking School, and Craftmatic Adjustable beds. I liked the 5 sec transitions with the film rolling down... "We now return you to Instructors of Death."

I remember the blue globe intro and how all the intros were squshed to fit credits. I think the last credit was always Larry Bensky (where the screen switched to letterbox). My dad was really bad at VHS taping he was too lazy to pause for commercials, but my mom always did it right. I still have about 20 VHS tapes with SB movies.

The funniest thing I remember is having "Iron Fingers of Death" cut off on 2 different tapes. It was a long time before I found out what happened after Wang Zitai killed the ghost and before the monks tried to keep him out of the temple only to find out it was just a few minute gap.

There's still one film I haven't figured out. It's not SB, but it had Dorian Tan fighting an old dude who wore metal body armor under his clothes that he took off and threw like it was a boomerang. It made a cool sound lol. Tan fought with some kind of special umbrella (I think). I only have the last 15 mins of the movie... whatever it is.

Awesome man! thanks so much for the details. yes i remember Glow! think it was on before or after like you said. I remember all the things you mentioned. i didnt recall the fil rolling down ' and now returning to" but it sounds familar.

I remember they all started with the World Northal logo. and that lil song that still gives me chills when i think about it as you never knew what was coming next! And of course the edited by larry bensky! it would appear like 30 seconds after the directors credits

Sorry cant help you with that film but ill check tonight in my enxclopedia of martial arrts movies under that actors names. that sounds ridiclous ( metal armor boomerang) but dont they all when verbalized?

This forum helped me figure out what movie had the two guys in blue fighitng over a manual. turned out to be monkey kungfu. im sure someone will let you know yours. and thats funny about the vhs! i had similar issues. i would try to not tape the commericals but if i started to tape one. i didnt have the wherewithal to rewind a little and tape over the accidently recorded commerical. every time i accidently left one in i just ended up leaving them all in.

After seeing these movies from 1985-1988. i didnt see them again until 1993 when i found advantage video in the back of black belt magazine. it was like a dream come true. ordered masked avengers and crippled avengers ( knew it as mortal combat) and was in heaven!!!

[Yu_Xihong]

I had the same problem with Monkey Kungfu it was also cut off (after Super Ninjas with 2 endings... my dad was really bad at recording... and before Daredevils). I only had the end fight from the part where the guy stole the book while other was sleep. I didn't see the whole thing until about 2000.

We actually used to play fight while Samurai Sunday was on... playing 5 Venoms. My dad would always be the snake or the toad and I would be the scorpion. I was so short all I could do was kick him. He would pinch the hell outta me with his snake claw (we know snakes dont have claws but thats what he did). He would tell me to punch him as hard as I could in his stomach and he didn't flinch (of course). He was into heavy weight lifting and I was just a kid. He really had me convinced that he knew the toad style. I bragged to my friends and all. So one day they asked him if he could "do the style do the style" and he said okay everybody hit me at the same time as hard as you can and then they were convinced. They asked me if I was gonna learn it too. I said nah I'm still the scorpion. One day I'm gonna kick him and he's gonna fall. (just like "I will finally knock you down, Dad" lol) This really brings back memories.

I also tried my first beer watching Samurai Sunday. It was terrible. I think that was back in 89.

[spearman lo tat]

There's still one film I haven't figured out. It's not SB, but it had Dorian Tan fighting an old dude who wore metal body armor under his clothes that he took off and threw like it was a boomerang. It made a cool sound lol. Tan fought with some kind of special umbrella (I think). I only have the last 15 mins of the movie... whatever it is.

i think that movie was in 3-D and was called "Dynasty". it also featured Pai Ying as the dreaded eunuch with the armor with multiple uses.

[Yu_Xihong]

i think that movie was in 3-D and was called "Dynasty". it also featured Pai Ying as the dreaded eunuch with the armor with multiple uses.

Wow you're right on the money.

PUQGqZKfbsU

[bearpower]

I think this is it in US release it's call Dynasty of Kung Fu

[Sandpalm79]

Wow you're right on the money.

PUQGqZKfbsU

wow that looks ridiculous! haha is it shaws and was it remastered by celestial?

[mr HKmovie]

Samurai Sunday started airing a couple of years after Black Belt Theater went off the air. Philly 57 was a new station and I can't tell you how happy I was when I discovered they were airing Shaw Brothers movies. They showed the old Shaw Brother Black Belt Theater package and added newer ones like Super Ninjas. I would record it and watch it when I got home from church. But all those tapes are long gone.

[Sandpalm79]

Samurai Sunday started airing a couple of years after Black Belt Theater went off the air. Philly 57 was a new station and I can't tell you how happy I was when I discovered they were airing Shaw Brothers movies. They showed the old Shaw Brother Black Belt Theater package and added newer ones like Super Ninjas. I would record it and watch it when I got home from church. But all those tapes are long gone.

thanks a lot for sharing man! i remember being in Church and could not wait to get home to see what movie would be blowing my young mind. i was reading the book " Martial arts movies: from bruce lee to the ninjas" at the time, which i picked up after getting hooked and it was so cool being able to read about the ones i saw on tv!

[BaronK]

3-D Dynasty came on channel 65. You could get 3-D glasses from Burger King.

Black Belt Theather was first. Then became Kung Fu Theater. Came on at 1 in the morning. Both on channel 29. 57 had some of the same but many other movies channel 29 didn't have in their package. It was weird. 29 showed 5DV with the really cut ending. That's all we saw and knew for years. Then here comes 57 showing the ending at length. We could never understand why 1 station would cut the last and extremely important fight to about 1 minute and another would show the whole thing.

57 showed at 2 in the morning during the week!, Saturday nights at 8 and 12 noon Sundays at various times during their rights to those movies. Had to do some serious vcr setting back in those 2 am days. I could cut the commercials during the 8 pm and noon times but had to tape the whole thing at 2 am.