Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animated television series from the 1980s. It originally aired in 1986 as a syndicated five episode mini-series. It was created by and starred
Chuck NorrisCarlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist, actor and media personality. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
as himself, and produced by
Ruby-Spears ProductionsRuby-Spears Productions was a Burbank, California-based entertainment production company that specializes in animation...
. This fictionalized version of Norris is a United States government operative with a team of "radically diverse" warriors. The team includes Pepper, a technology expert and mechanic; Reed, Chuck's young apprentice and Pepper's brother; Kimo, a
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
; Tabe, a sumo champion; and Too Much, a young ward.
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Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animated television series from the 1980s. It originally aired in 1986 as a syndicated five episode mini-series. It was created by and starred
Chuck NorrisCarlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist, actor and media personality. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
as himself, and produced by
Ruby-Spears ProductionsRuby-Spears Productions was a Burbank, California-based entertainment production company that specializes in animation...
. This fictionalized version of Norris is a United States government operative with a team of "radically diverse" warriors. The team includes Pepper, a technology expert and mechanic; Reed, Chuck's young apprentice and Pepper's brother; Kimo, a
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
; Tabe, a sumo champion; and Too Much, a young ward. Together, they fight against The Claw and his right-hand man, Super Ninja.
The series follows the framing device of
Mr. TMr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr...
's
animated seriesMister T was an animated series that aired on NBC from 1983 to 1986, with a total of 30 episodes produced. Created by Ruby-Spears, the cartoon starred Mr...
(also a Ruby-Spears production): At the beginning of each episode, a live action segment with Norris, usually at a gym or martial arts studio, is shown to explain what is going on. At the end of each episode, Norris narrates a moral lesson
for the audienceThe fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The term also applies to the boundary between any fictional setting and its audience...
to learn.
List of episodes
| # |
Episode title |
Description |
| 1 |
"Deadly Dolphin" |
Chuck and his team must protect Sealab, an underwater facility overlooking the world's oceans, from the Claw and his hired gun, a pirate named Angelfish. |
| 2 |
"Target: Chuck Norris" |
Having failed to retrieve a memory core from NATO's computers, Claw puts a bounty out on Chuck Norris and sends the Impostor, a master of disguise, to steal back the memory core and take out Chuck Norris. |
| 3 |
"Terror Train" |
Chuck and his team are in Japan to witness a powerful laser robot used for defense. Their mission is to escort it towards its destination before the Claw can use it for sinister purposes. |
| 4 |
"Menace From Space" |
The space shuttle Invincible is hijacked by Super Ninja, who plans on using the onboard fusion cannon to destroy every world capital on Earth. Chuck and his team must find a way to blast off into space and stop the Claw's latest plan. |
| 5 |
"Island of the Walking Dead" |
A military satellite is "accidentally shot" down and lands in the middle of Voodoo Island. Chuck and his team must retrieve the satellite before Claw can steal it and gain access to the world's military. |
Full cast
- James Avery
James L. Avery, Sr. is an American TV actor best known for his portrayal of the patriarch and attorney Philip Banks in the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, whom Will Smith's character affectionately called "Uncle Phil". This character was ranked #34 in TV Guide's "50 Greatest...
-
- Michael Chain -
- Sam Fontana - Reed
- Kathy Garver
Kathleen Marie Allison "Kathy" Garver is an American television, screen, voice-over and character actress of stage, most widely known for playing Brian Keith's teenaged niece, Catherine "Cissy" Davis, on the popular 1960s sitcom, Family Affair...
- Pepper
- Robert Ito
Robert Ito is a voice, television, and movie actor.Of Japanese descent, Robert Ito was, for many years, a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada before turning to acting in the mid-1960s...
- Tabe
- Rodney Kageyama
Rodney Kageyama is an American stage, film and TV actor. He is a Nisei Japanese American .In 2007, Kageyama was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He underwent chemotherapy and as of spring 2008 was declared cancer-free.-Theatre:...
-
- Mona Marshall
Mona Marshall is an American voice actress. She is often cast in the role of a young boy. Her roles have included parts in not only Japanese anime, but also in American cartoons as well. Mona Marshall has recently lent her voice to the talking bear Koby the Study Buddy...
- Too-Much
- Bill Martin - Claw
- Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist, actor and media personality. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
- Himself
- Alan Oppenheimer
Alan Oppenheimer is an American voice actor who has had an active career in cartoons since the 1970s.-As a character actor:...
- President
- Robert Ridgely
Robert Ridgely was an American actor and vocal artist, known for both on-camera roles and extensive voice-over work. Ridgely started his television career with guest roles in such 1960s series as Maverick, Sea Hunt and Surfside 6. He landed a regular role as Lt. Kimbro in the short-lived World War...
-
- Keone Young
Keone J. Young is an American character actor. His father is Chinese, his mother is Japanese.He has been prolific in his character work and has made numerous guest appearances on such varied television series as Diff'rent Strokes, The Golden Girls, Murphy Brown, Mad About You, Family Matters, The...
- Super Ninja
Comic Book
There was also a
comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
series published by
Star ComicsStar Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and continued to publish comic books until early 1988. Several titles begun under the Star imprint continued under the Marvel brand...
, an imprint of
Marvel ComicsMarvel Publishing, Inc., a company doing business as Marvel Comics, produces American comic books and related media. It forms a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc....
which produced comic books aimed at young children.
Action figures
To coincide with the airing of the show,
Kenner ProductsKenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located....
made a set of action figures based on the main characters of the show. Kenner also made many accessories, including weapons and vehicles, to go along with the figures.
See also
- Animated television series
- Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist, actor and media personality. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
- List of programs broadcast by Adult Swim
External links