How Bruce Lee Changed the World

[Heel n Toe]

This Sunday at 8 on the History Channel - 2 hours

Bruce Lee is universally recognized for prying open the doors of ancient Chinese martial arts to the mass market. The history of Lee's life, and death at the age of only 32, is shrouded in mystery, but his influence on popular culture continues to be felt today. This special pieces together rare family archival footage owned by the Bruce Lee Foundation, together with in-depth interviews with individuals who have cited inspiration from Lee. Viewers will journey across the US, Asia and Europe exploring Lee's influence on popular culture worldwide--even joining Shannon Lee on a trip back to her father's roots in Hong Kong; nearly fifty years after Lee arrived to make his first kung fu film. Also features in-depth interviews with actor Jackie Chan, comedian Eddie Griffin, rappers LL Cool J and RZA, Marvel Comics' Stan Lee, and renowned film directors John Woo and Brett Ratner. Lee's friend and business partner famed Hong Kong film producer, Raymond Chow gives a rare interview.

http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=441008&action=detail

[JavaBrewer]

Definitely on my DVR schedule. Thanks for the heads up!

[masraum]

Cool, is this a new special? I've seen a couple of others. The one thing that seems weird is all of the rappers as guests

[m21sniper]

Black dudes idolize Bruce, even now.

['89cab]

[onlycafe]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Black dudes idolize Bruce, even now.

anyone else here that saw the early seventies bruce lee movies in theaters on forty second street in ny? the response in theaters was amazing. an awful lot of talking back to the screen.
actually, any movies received the interactive audience treatment.

[legion]

Bruce Lee is the only person to defeat Chuck Norris. And then he died a mysterious death.

[Racerbvd]

Black dudes idolize Bruce, even now.

Might have something to do with this

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by legion

Bruce Lee is the only person to defeat Chuck Norris. And then he died a mysterious death.

[Rick Lee]

No question - the coolest man to ever walk the Earth.

[legion]

Clearly the beard is the source of Chuck Norris's power.

The beard did not appear until after Bruce Lee died. Coincidence?

[svandamme]

Bruce Lee ran out of opponents worth his time, so he tried his 1 inch punch onto himself to see what would win, his fist or his ability to dodge and/or take a punch...
After the punch, it wasn't really clear, and the forces of the universe took a couple of weeks to figure it out... and ultimately the punch won, causing his misterious death.

Chuck has nothing to do with it.. he was just lucky Bruce wasn't around anymore to beat him like a gong.

[sammyg2]

Chuck Norris has chunks of guys like Bruce Lee in his stool.

No one defeats Chuck Norris. not even chuck Norris can defeat Chuck Norris.

In the beginning there was nothing. then Chuck Norris round-house kicked the nothing and told it to get a job. That is how the universe was created.

Chuck Norris invented the theory of relativity. When Einstein stole the idea, Chuck Norris round-house kicked him so hard he turned into Steven Hawking.

[J P Stein]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Chuck Norris has chunks of guys like Bruce Lee in his stool.

No one defeats Chuck Norris. not even chuck Norris can defeat Chuck Norris.

In the beginning there was nothing. then Chuck Norris round-house kicked the nothing and told it to get a job. That is how the universe was created.

Chuck Norris invented the theory of relativity. When Einstein stole the idea, Chuck Norris round-house kicked him so hard he turned into Steven Hawking.

Ya still got it, Sammy.

[sammyg2]

Seriously, Bruce lee was an actor. A figure-head, an icon. The only competition I know of that he ever won was a boxing competition between 12 schools in Hong Cong. In the lightweight division. Against a french boy.

Chuck Norris on the other had, was a real fighter.
In 1968, he won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion title, which he held for six consecutive years. In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the Fighter of the Year award by Black Belt Magazine.
That's real, not special effects on a sound stage.
Lee was famous for pretending to fight, Chuck Norris was famous for winning fights.

Besides, Apple pays chuck Norris 99 cents every time he downloads a song.

And can you imagine how silly Bruce Lee would have looked in a cowboy hat?

[The Gaijin]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

anyone else here that saw the early seventies bruce lee movies in theaters on forty second street in ny? the response in theaters was amazing. an awful lot of talking back to the screen.
actually, any movies received the interactive audience treatment.

The interactive part was these knuckleheads I was in school with coming back to class and trying moves out thier classmates. Lots of sparring in 6th grade lunch. Let me just say the school was "ethnically diverse".

As I had actually studied karate, I found their technique was "weak".

[Heel n Toe]

Naptime for Chucky Poo...



Bruce Lee Rules!

[JavaBrewer]

Chuck Norris took a math test and put down "Violence" for every answer and got a perfect score. Chuck Norris solves all of his problems with Violence.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Seriously, Bruce lee was an actor. A figure-head, an icon. The only competition I know of that he ever won was a boxing competition between 12 schools in Hong Cong. In the lightweight division. Against a french boy.

Chuck Norris on the other had, was a real fighter.
In 1968, he won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion title, which he held for six consecutive years. In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the Fighter of the Year award by Black Belt Magazine.
That's real, not special effects on a sound stage.
Lee was famous for pretending to fight, Chuck Norris was famous for winning fights.

This is actually totally wrong.

Bruce lee was a master, and taught some of hollywood and the sports world's elite.

He is well known for taking on any and all challengers anywhere, anytime, even stopping movie filming on set to kick uppity stunt men's asses.

He was as bad as the day is long.

[RoninLB]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

anyone else here that saw the early seventies bruce lee movies in theaters on forty second street in ny? the response in theaters was amazing. an awful lot of talking back to the screen.

early 1970s I was working out at a non-commercial gym on 7st & Ave A

I was only white in class. All others black.

Many times after daytime class we would go downtown to the Chinese theaters and watch any movie as all had some kind of fighting in them. Movies were in Chinese and just everybody there was Chinese, including grandmothers watching their family kids.. I was only white there as well.

Chuck Norris was a good points man in these so called "competitions". Some of the best fighters in the city were bouncers at the Electric Circus and couldn't score points in a meet.

We were somewhat confused when a good points man could bring home a trophy but didn't have the balls to fight anyone for real. This was a common occurrence at some commercial gyms in the city and on LI.

A guy named Frank Ruiz was the teacher all the city and LI heavy duty gyms followed. Another guy named Bobby Green was the instructor many other instructors followed on some of his techniques. Bobby was 5'10" and skinny. He worked as a bartender at a wild bar in Laurelton and would lay out troublemakers by raising his knee to just over bar height and would kick his foot foreword smacking the bully in the head. This usually happened only once per weekend. Bobby set the model for this kind of technique. Bobby called it "triggering" [aiming] the leg before letting out with the kick. Bobby's methods and modest presence kept gunfire to a minimum.