The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan

The first American television show to feature an Asian American lead was The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong starring Anna May Wong, which debuted on the Dumont Television Network in 1951. It would be twenty one years before another American television show would debut with an Asian lead, and even then it would be a Saturday morning cartoon. The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan debuted on CBS on September 9 1972. It starred Keye Luke as detective Charlie Chan. Not only was Keye Luke the first male Asian lead on an American television show, but he was also the first and only person of Chinese ancestry to play the role in an American production. In the Charlie Chan movies, Keye Luke had played Chan's Number One son, Lee.

Well before the Seventies Charlie Chan was a source of controversy in the Chinese American community. The character has often been viewed as a stereotype, something that still holds true. It is perhaps for this reason that Charlie Chan as portrayed by Keye Luke on The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan differed a bit from the way the character was portrayed in the movies of the Thirties and Forties by Warner Oland and Sidney Toler. The broken English in which Chan spoke in the movies is gone in the animated cartoon. In The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan he speaks fluent, if somewhat formal, English. Similarly, the "Confucius say" type aphorisms Charlie Chan often quoted in the movies are also gone. An argument can be made that Charlie Chan is less of a stereotype in the cartoon than he is in the movies of the 1930s and 1940s.

Aside from the changes to Charlie Chan himself, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan also departs from the movies with regards to Charlie Chan's family. While in the movies Charlie Chan is portrayed as having a large family, only his first three sons are ever portrayed as helping out on cases. Those sons were Number One Son Lee (Keye Luke), Number Two Son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung), and Number Three Son Tommy (Benson Fong). In contrast, all ten of Charlie Chan's children are on hand in The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Furthermore, none of them are named "Lee" or "Jimmy" and the one named "Tom" would be the Number Four Son (Alan was Number Three).

The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan was one of a number of Scooby-Doo Where Are You! imitators that Hanna-Barbera churned out in the early Seventies. The series centred on  an apparently widowed Charlie Chan and his children, who travelled the world in the Chan Van solving mysteries. The kids were the serious eldest son Henry; the mischievous second oldest son and disguise artist Stanley; oldest daughter Suzie; third oldest son Alan, a mechanical genius who invented the Chan Van; second oldest daughter Anne, who is a bit of a tomboy; Tom, the fifth oldest son, who is an intellectual; Flip, the sixth oldest son, who tends to say whatever comes into his head; Nancy, the third oldest daughter, who is a bit of a klutz; Mimi, the youngest daughter who tends to be a bit forward; and Scooter, the youngest of the children, who tends to be impulsive. The Chan Van was one of many vehicles in Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the era that could change into yet other vehicles. For example, it could switch from the van it usually was to, say, dump truck. The family also had a dog named Choo-Choo, While Keye Luke as Charlie Chan was top billed, the episodes usually centred on the children.

Like many cartoons in the early Seventies, the oldest children on The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan had their own band and every episode would usually close with them performing some bubblegum pop song. The music for the show was produced by Don Kirshner, who had earlier produced the music for The Archie Show. Amazingly enough, no singles, let alone an album, of music from the album was ever released.

When The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan debuted, its voice cast was entirely Asian in ancestry. Robert Ito, best known as Sam Fujiyama on Quincy, M.E., was the voice of Henry. Brian Tochi, who would go onto play Tomoko Nogata in the Police Academy, was the voice of Alan. The voices of the other kids were as follows: Stephen Wong as Stanley; Virginia Ann Lee as Suzie; Leslie Kumamota as Anne; Michael Takamoto as Tom; Jay Jay Jue as Flip; Debbie Jue as Nancy; Leslie Juwai as Mimi; and Robin Toma as Scooter. After the first few episodes it was decided that the accents of the Asian American actors were too hard to understand, so many of the roles were recast, some with actors who were not Asian Amerian. Robert Ito and Brian Tochi were the only voices of the children who remained. Three of the roles were recast with Asian American actors. Cherylene Lee (who had guest starred as a child on such shows as Bachelor Father and Ben Casey), voiced both Suzie and Mimi. Beverly Kushida (who would go onto guest star on such shows as Kung Fu and The Six Million Dollar Man) was cast as the voice of Nancy. The other roles were cast with white actors: Lennie Weinrib (who had played H. R. Pufnstuf) as Stanley; Jodie Foster (yes, that Jodie Foster) as Anne; John Gunn as Tom; and Gene Andrusco as Flip.

As might be expected, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan produced the usual merchandise associated with Saturday morning cartoons. There was a lunchbox from Thermos. Whitman produced an Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan jigsaw puzzle and a board game. Gold Key Comics published a comic book that lasted for four issues.

The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan did not prove to be overly successful. It ran only one season on Saturday mornings on CBS. Reruns of the show aired the following season on CBS on Sunday morning.

Although it is largely forgotten now, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan was historic. It was only the second American television series to feature a lead of Asian descent. It was also the first American series in which the majority of characters were played by Asian Americans. What is more, the Chan kids each had their own distinct personalities and none of them could be considered stereotypes. The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan may have only been a Saturday morning cartoon, but it went well beyond many primetime shows of the time.