Member shaolinkng7 Posted January 22, 2008 Member Share Posted January 22, 2008 I know everyone's favorite was World Northal's "Black Belt Theater" which had the Shaw Brothers, but there were at least two other companies syndicating old school martial arts movies to television in the early 80's. Depending on where you lived they may have all ended up on the same channel as a combined weekly martial arts movie show, or in other areas ended up on three different channels. In New York City local station WNEW 5 had two syndicated martial arts movie packages while WPIX 11 had the third and competed against BBT. One of the other two syndicated shows was through Paragon in behalf of Golden Harvest (HK). I am not sure if the show had a name as Black Belt Theater did. These are the films they had in their package that I know of: "Fists Of Fury" ( "The Big Boss" ) "The Chinese Connection" ( "Fist Of Fury" ) "Return of the Dragon" ( "Way Of The Dragon" ) "Game of Death ( U.S. edit )" "Game of Death II ( U.S. edit )" ( "Tower Of Death" ) "Bruce Lee: The Man, The Legend" "Young Master" "Winners & Sinners" I heard rumors that Paragon also syndicated "Dragon Lord", "Project A", "Spartan X" ( "Wheels On Meals" ) "Duel To The Death" and "Zu: Time Warriors" ( U.S. longer edit of "Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain" with modern time travel sequence ). I do not recall ever seeing these on any local television stations but then again it is possible Channel 5 simply chose not to air them. The other rival of BBT was shown on Channel 11 WPIX and went up against BBT at 1:00pm on Saturdays. ( WNEW Channel 5 lengthened BBT as a double feature. WPIX did not bother to air any movies at 3:00pm which WNEW had all to themselves. ) I am not sure what the official name of the package was but WPIX called it "Fist Of Fury Theater" The following films I remember shown as part of that package: "True Game Of Death" "Bruce Lee, We Miss You" "Kung Fu Commandos" "Cantonen Iron Kung Fu" "Northern Kicks/Southern Fist" "Struggle Through Death" My memories of the movies shown as part of this package was that many of them sucked, that the transfer from film to video was terrible as was the Pan & Scan editing. And whoever syndicated the movies butchered many of them to edit in footage of Bruce Lee so they could claim that they were Bruce Lee movies. For instance "True Game Of Death" which was edited down to an hour running time was then lengthened to 90 minutes courtesy of a scene lifted from a completely different movie as well as newsreel footage of Bruce Lee signing a contract with Golden Harvest and more newsreel footage of his funeral at the beginning of the movie, and at the end of the movie footage of Bruce Li working out at a gym while a voice over claims that he is the new Bruce Lee. With the slowed down news reel footage they not only claimed that Bruce Lee was in the movie but gave him star billing. They did the same with "Bruce Lee, We Miss You" ( which I remember them lengthening the title to "Goodbye Bruce Lee, We Miss You" for the television version. ). I have the original movie on VHS and the television syndication edited in footage of Bruce Lee from "Fist of Fury" and stuck it in a split screen with Bruce Li during the scene where Li meets Bruce Lee's ghost. ( In the original you just saw someone in the shadows who was suppose to look like Bruce Lee. ) Once again they claimed that Bruce Lee was the star of the movie. Does anyone know any other details of these syndicated martial arts movie shows such as any additional movie titles ( with accompanying plot outline if possible ) or what the name of the company who syndicated the movies was? And does anyone know if Paragon syndicated any other martial arts movies other than the 8 that aired on WNEW-5 Also, is there still a link to a complete list of all the movies in the "Black Belt Theater" package or was that lost with the old site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted January 22, 2008 Member Share Posted January 22, 2008 You may want to check out this site: http://www.projectaka.com They have a full listing of alternate titles as well as info on the WPIX and WNEW syndicated showings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member greenbamboo Posted January 24, 2008 Member Share Posted January 24, 2008 True GOD sounds like an interesting version. How much footage of the real BL was shown? You mention footage of him signing a contract. Never seen that footage. Is that the footage where Bruce wears a red top and is shown with Unicorn Chan, Nora Miao and other co-stars. There footage was to promote Fist of Unicorn. Bruce is seated at a table with actresses etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shaolinkng7 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Member Share Posted January 24, 2008 True GOD sounds like an interesting version. How much footage of the real BL was shown? You mention footage of him signing a contract. Never seen that footage. Is that the footage where Bruce wears a red top and is shown with Unicorn Chan, Nora Miao and other co-stars. There footage was to promote Fist of Unicorn. Bruce is seated at a table with actresses etc. "True Game Of Death" was tasteless to begin with. The movie was basically a remake of the Golden Harvest release version of "Game of Death" but claimed it was about the actual events of Bruce Lee's death. In the movie Bruce Lee's wife Linda is forced to poison him by an organized crime organization because he would not sign a contract with them. Lee somehow survives his poisoning but allows the world to believe he died so he can investigate his own murder. Disguised as an old man he winds up as his wife's new butler. Out of guilt she confesses to the Butler that she was tricked into poisoning her husband ( she was told it was a sleeping drug ) and then the butler reveals to her that he is Bruce Lee. When he refuses to forgive his wife she drives off in anger and is immediately kidnapped by the organized crime gang, and the rest is a remake of the scenes from "Game of Death" with exception to the final scene where Bruce Lee confronts the Godfather of the gang and just before he is about to beat him up Lee hears the police and runs away. As shameless a movie as it already was, the version they edited together for television claimed to star Bruce Lee. Here is allthe Bruce Lee footage from that version. First all the footage in the opening... Wvvz5YTEq2E And some more ( taken from the"Return of the Dragon" trailer I believe ) at the end of the movie. Also notice how ate the end they pad it out by showing an unnecessary highlight montage. After the montage they show footage of a Bruce Lee imitator and inter cut some footage of Bruce Lee. You can tell it was all edited on videotape and not part of the original theatrical movie. hpKQPFOnAjk And speaking of padding and not being part of the original movie, I am pretty sure that this scene was edited in from a completely different movie. r1K2xhe63mU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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