January 1984 NBC premiered The Master. The master was a one season series star Lee Van Cleef as John Peter McAllister the only occidental ninja and breaks the rules by leaving when he learns he has a daughter who needs help. After a harrowing escape from Japan John Journey's to Ellerston Illinois and meets Max Keller (timothy Van Patten), a guy who drives around the country doing odd jobs in a van with his pet hamster Henry. The two meet when max helps the master in a bar fight.
This series was great it had all the 80's stuff going on from parachute pants to dirt bike races. Plus it stared Sho Kosugi as the masters student Okassa who is determined to kill him for leaving the ninja clan.
Sho was basically in every ninja movie i ever knew. Revenge Of The Ninja being my favorite, with Pray For Death. As i re watched the Master all the way though for the first time in over 35 years there were a few Questions that went though my head. The first one was why is Sho not the lead? He was Great in the ninja film,. I think its the fact nija were more of a fad thing during the 80's that older people were not up to speed on. Us 80's kids were on it instantly from cable and movie stores to G I Joe's Storm Shadow. Ninjas were everywhere.
Another question was who came up with this? Turns out The Master was created by Michael Sloan. Mr. Slone has written for tv since the 70's and created The Equalizer series the same year as the Master. I will tell you if you look Michael Sloan up on imdb you will be blown away trust me on that.
Another question was what was NBC doing with the series? As I watched it the series would change about every 3 episodes. With different side characters and story lines like a trucker girl that went with them for one show to an other then disappeared. In another episode I believe the network told them to make the ninja mystical complete with sound effects and new opening credits. and speaking of the credits that opening song is good, real who good, in fact it so good it was composed by Bill Conti . Whos that you ask well he also wrote Gonna Fly Now for Rocky.
so much other things going on with this show Like the tim Van Patten going on to direct many shows like Game Of Thrones and others listen to my podcast on The Master at
www.shakysubjectmatter.com
to learn more but one more thing I will mention for all those horror fans out there Halloween's Dick Warlock was in the episode Hostages.
shaky approved
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