OH, ME SOO SOLLY!!

Weekend television sucks. No matter what time it is on a Saturday or Sunday, odds are you'll find something growing in the dirt more entertaining than what is on TV. It's times like these that I like to think back to the mid-eighties/early nineties where there would always be something to catch your interest and you could just turn your brain off for a few hours. Whether it was wrestling, B-movies, tractor pulls or anything else you were into, there was a good chance it was being shown somewhere. While it's true that most of these things are still on today, the one thing that's not is old kung-fu movies and the program that aired them, Samurai Sunday.

While not an actual show, Samurai Sunday was the name of a two-hour block on channel 66 (WGBO) in Chicago and every Sunday they would show a badly dubbed kung-fu movie. Unlike the other movie programs shown at the time it had no host, just the title in front of a color changing background accompanied by stereotypical karate music and after about fifteen seconds, the movie would start.

The majority of these titles were pretty obscure so nobody got their hopes up for a Bruce Lee movie although occasionally a Jackie Chan film was shown. Usually the plots involved a Samurai/Karate Student and his companions trying to rescue someone or avenge the death of their teacher while fighting hordes of evil Ninja Warriors/Punk Teenagers, so it was pretty much like watching the same movie every week. But when there's fist and steel flying through the air, nobody really gave a shit about the story.

What I really miss the most from Samurai Sunday are the good times had by all who watched it. Every week while others were going to church or shopping my friends and I had our eyes glued to the screen occasionally taking them away to act out our favorite part of the movies. One would grab a broom and another would take a cardboard tube sometimes with wrapping paper still on it then each would go to a far side of the room. After a moment, they would charge each other and proceed to fight until one of them falls (HINT: BROOM ALWAYS WINS). I guess in retrospect it wasn't a very smart thing to do but who cares, you're only a kid once, so you might as well enjoy it.

Unfortunately, the odds of a program like this coming back are pretty slim as the overall theme may offend people for some reason and the fact that the channel it was on became a Univision (Spanish channel) affiliate back in the mid-nineties doesn't help either. So in loving memory of my favorite kung-fu themed movie program, I ask that you listen to "Kung-Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas.

-Samurai Jesus