Saturday Kung Fu Theater

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slater_just_slater@reddit

Black belt theater in the Midwest (Indiana) i would stay up until 2 am watching this.

I had 4 channels.

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imaim3@reddit

Hoosier Fam - was it also channel 4 that had all of the monster movies (creature features) and Godzilla/King Kong flicks? Abbot and Costello were also in rotation.

I remember one of the networks playing them either after cartoons on Saturday - or maybe Sunday afternoons.

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Fishboney@reddit

I remember after school movies on NBC I think. There was Godzilla week, Planet of the Apes week, good times.

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Fishboney@reddit

I think it was Friday, if I recall. WTTV channel 4. Great movies, not so great lip syncing.

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AbsolutesDealer@reddit

Shaolin Shadowboxing, and the Wu-Tang sword style…. If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous.

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biffbobfred@reddit

A local WiFi SSID is “WuTangLAN”. I’d try to log in, but I’m guessing WuTangLAN ain’t nothing to fuck with

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AbsolutesDealer@reddit

Just make sure you protect your neck.

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Most-Confusion-417@reddit

The shit we lived sounds fake now. 😫😂

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I remember these!!! Where we grew up it was Called Samurai Sundays!! And they would show all these amazing kung-fu flicks!! If i remember correctly, it was on wfld-32 or maybe channel 50, i dont remember the broadcast letters for that one lol. My Pops used to make me sit and watch em with him, if he was off of work that weekend. It was either that, or we would drive up to visit our family on the Soutside of Chicago and while were were driving, we would be listening to Breakfast with the Beatles!! Miss my Pops.

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bene_gesserit_mitch@reddit

Fuck yeah. USA network’s Kung Fu Theatre. It was on Sundays. Watched at least two a week.

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jhrdrmmr@reddit

Right after WWF All-American Wrestling! Must see TV back in the day.

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oldschoolhc@reddit

5 deadly venoms

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Fishboney@reddit

And Master Killer!

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JustAboutAlright@reddit

Hell yes.

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tutai31@reddit

I still to this day carry a bias against the Manchus for their beef with the Shaolin temple.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

😂

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crs1904@reddit

https://i.redd.it/q4083yirbxtg1.gif

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Classic!

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FluxusFlotsam@reddit

the best

no irony or camp- this is a masterpiece and well-made filn

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Naked_in_Maine@reddit

That picture looks like “Drunken Bum Technique “

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Cazmonster@reddit

I only saw these a few times. I think they ran on channel 44 out of Chicago in the late 70's.

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FluxusFlotsam@reddit

I grew up in Atlanta where we had WTBS over broadcast signal.

We sadly didn’t have Saturday Kung-Fu Theater but the consolation prize was many, many Godzilla/Toho films. Deep cuts like War of the Gargantuans and The Mysterians.

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openwheelr@reddit

Good stuff. I'd program our new vcr to record Kung Fu Theater at 4:00 AM or whatever time it was and check the tape Sunday morning. Learning to program the vcr clock became a vital skill.

Bigfoot movies were another staple. I watched Legend of Boggy Creek when they ran that instead of Kung Fu.

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typhoidtimmy@reddit

12 Chambers of Shaolin was my Kryptonite. The first real ‘hardcore training’ meme.

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MarcusAurelius68@reddit

Do you mean 36th chamber of shaolin?

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typhoidtimmy@reddit

Whoa yep…autocorrection for some reason

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MarcusAurelius68@reddit

My favorite Kung Fu movie. So many great Shaw Brothers films in the 70’s.

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hotbutteredsole@reddit

It's between this & Eight Diagram Pole Fighter for me. Gordon Liu FTW

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MarcusAurelius68@reddit

I also like Executioners from Shaolin and of course Five Deadly Venoms…

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biffbobfred@reddit

Super Samurai Sunday!!

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Plastic-Ad-5171@reddit

Samurai Sunday on Channel 66!!! I loved all the bad dubs, great moves and trying to practice on my friends brothers. 🤣🤣

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biffbobfred@reddit

66? You sound local then.

Berrrrwwyynnnnn

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Plastic-Ad-5171@reddit

Oak park! Your northern neighbor, lol!

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ExactReport691@reddit

Some funny shit!

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Old-Introduction-337@reddit

David Carradine: Kung Fu.

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TC_Stock@reddit

Loved this as a kid! As an adult I find it just comical that the show seems to be about this man traveling around and people trying to start fights with him for being chinese. David Carrodine is clearly not even a little chinese though lol.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Used to watch this one too.

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CityDweller26@reddit

My dad would watch these all the time and I’d get so mad lol.

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Disastrous_Cat3912@reddit

Why you heff to be mad? It's only movie.

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CityDweller26@reddit

My dad would watch these all the time and I’d get so mad lol.

Because I either wanted to watch the Brady Bunch or cartoons! Hahaha

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BathtubPooper@reddit

I'm putting together a Kung Fu Theater streaming channel on my Plex server. Of course I have The Flying Guillotine.

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imtoowhiteandnerdy@reddit

I remember in San Jose (don't know about other cities) in the '70s, on Saturday Evenings they used to have the "Creature Feature".

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Open_Mortgage_4645@reddit

My friends and I watched this every weekend. Channel 11 WPIX NY

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ChickPeaClwn@reddit

Our UHF station - Chicago area - called it “Samurai Sunday”

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WordleFan88@reddit

My local independent TV station played this, followed by a Godzilla movie every Saturday afternoon. Me and my best friend didn't miss any of them no matter what.

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emtdavis@reddit

Thank god for Dracula's Kung Fu Theatre!

https://draculaskungfutheatre.com/

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phast_man@reddit

Used to wake my little brother at 4 am to sneak downstairs and watch these movies with the volume turned way down so our parents couldn’t hear us. Good times

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viewering@reddit

Boys always msking weird kung fu sounds

🙄

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kahllerdady@reddit

It was on sometimes after Creature Double Feature in New England. When it was I watched it! I STILL love those and watch them surprisingly often.

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jenn1d@reddit

I want to say it was either channel 38 or channel 56 that they were on. Great memories!!

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rainbikr@reddit

WLVI 56 seems right especially if it was after Creature.

38 was doing all those highbrow films on the weekend.

TV was so good then.

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kahllerdady@reddit

38 was always Bruins games... seemed like it didn't matter if hockey was in season or not. The Movie Loft on 38 was fucking great and gave me access to the first run of REALLY good movies to balance out some of the other trash I watched. I think Movie Loft was the first place I saw Fistful of Dollars, and maybe Citizen Kane.

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rainbikr@reddit

Bruins and Sox all the time. Before Sox moved to 25.

Thought it would be like this forever. It was great.

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kahllerdady@reddit

Alas our lot is to watch all the things we loved change....

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rainbikr@reddit

Right! I get it now, why the older folks grumble.

But can't I at least have the Sox on the tv while I read the paper and grumble like my grandfather did?

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Senior-Assumption218@reddit

USA network in the 80s. I liked the flying guillotine movies

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postprandialrepose@reddit

gif

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c0pp3rdrag0n@reddit

Beat me to it. Like a master.

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unloosedcoin@reddit

gif

I have one of those Kung Fu beards now

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

🤣

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redbeardscrazy@reddit

Used to watch on mute with my old man and we'd make up dialog.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

That sounds like so much fun.😂

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redbeardscrazy@reddit

Peak father son bonding for sure. We still talk about it. Shit, we still do it sometimes.

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JollyContribution950@reddit

I live in the middle of Nowhere Texas and my dad bought a satellite dish when they first started making them. It’s one of the huge 18 foot styles. It’s still in their yard and still works, but we would watch the Saturday night Kung Fu on the east coast and then rotate it to pickup the west coast Kung Fu movies. There was a show from Chicago that had the because the dubs were done by a deaf drunk person who didn’t speak either language.

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Fostbitten27@reddit

We had one Karate movie on Saturday afternoons with a Godzilla movie. My dad called it Oriental afternoon.

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invertedsaint_666@reddit

My 79-year-old dad still says Oriental 😐

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Fostbitten27@reddit

My 82 year old mom says the same thing.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

🤣

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funkympc@reddit

Saturday morning on channel 43 after cartoons. After the Kung Fu Theater we all got sent outside and would beat the shit out of each other til dinnertime. That was til shit bag Gary(who lived like 20 blocks away) beat Wesley(my next door neighbor)with a stick.

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Humbuckerluvr@reddit

Channel 43 plays favorites?

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funkympc@reddit

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Humbuckerluvr@reddit

ALL the shows man, Star Trek, Space 1999, Mavrick, Wild Wild West, Hogans Heros, John Lanagon Prize Movie, Superhost, Godz I was totally raised by that channel.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Yeah. We had a Gary, but his name was Steve and he was a puuunk.

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sheaballs@reddit

shao lin vs lama. the absolute best

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ThatHorsesAss@reddit

“Go for the armpit!”

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18ekko@reddit

As much as I enjoyed kung fu movies as a kid in the 70s and 80s, when I got to college all the film students got assignments to take any old movie and completely redub it for an entirely different story, and the best ones were kung fu movies.

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ThatHorsesAss@reddit

https://youtu.be/-CWUiAGdg6Q?si=RTw3WEd84dj69woG

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MetalTrek1@reddit

It was Black Belt Theater here in NJ.

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stompinstinker@reddit

Here in Canada it was a Sunday morning thing. They showed Godzilla , Samurai, and Kung Fu movies. Saturday morning you watched cartoons. Sunday you watched Japanese and Chinese movies. It was awesome.

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Few-Artichoke-2531@reddit

I remember going to some really run down old theatres to watch Kung Fu movies back in the day. There's still one last old grind house where I live that runs them in the summer.

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Rundle1999@reddit

Fuck do I ever miss these gems

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kahllerdady@reddit

There are a shitload of them on Tubi. Go to the Martial Arts heading.

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SweetHayHathNoFellow@reddit

Those cats was fast as lightnin’

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Educational_Fox2212@reddit

In fact, it was a little bit frightenin’

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obishawn67@reddit

The Kid with the golden arm was a great one

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RightSideBlind@reddit

One of my favorite memories is of watching that with my mom every weekend.

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wiserolderelf@reddit

I don’t know the title, but I remember one with an old dude like that who had a long white ponytail and he was tending his garden with a hoe as a whole legion of fighters came upon him and a few others, and the old guy whipped all of their asses. His ponytail alone took out half of them. Never underestimate seemingly elderly kung fu masters.

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Anathama@reddit

Challenge of the Lady Ninja

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tangcameo@reddit

USA Network on my Canadian small towns pirate UHF station. Those were the glory days

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One-Sock7417@reddit

I used to watch Kung Fu Theater movies with the volume all the way down while blasting music from Anthrax and Iron Maiden. It just seemed to fit.

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GorillasonTurtles@reddit

Kung Fu Theater was my absolute jam!

Still love watching Kung Fu films 40 plus years later!

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burtenotbert@reddit

And then afterwards going out with your friends and beating the-I mean reenacting the movies

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Absolutely. We were evil little monsters that were throwing dad's miter saw blades at each other. My god, its amazing we still have all our limbs.😂

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

How the fuck else are you supposed to play "Flying Guillotine"?

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Right?

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iam_iana@reddit

Never did Flying Guillotines, but my friends and I all shot BB guns at each other. I had several scars from it that finally faded after a decade or so.

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requiemguy@reddit

It sucks AZ didn't have this kind of thing on over the air TV when I was growing up.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

🙁

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requiemguy@reddit

It's cool you did, I dig it.

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Savings-Delay-1075@reddit

Seems I would watch these after the cartoons were done...but only if the weather were bad enough that I was stuck inside. Did they come on early afternoon or later?

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Depended on the market I guess. Ours were 1pm or 3pm Saturdays on UHF channels.

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MikeyRocks757@reddit

I feel like right after the cartoons was either the after school special or souls train and then the king fu flicks came on after that

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ST0IC_@reddit

I never got into the king fu shows and movies. But the Godzilla movies on Sunday afternoons were definitely my favorite.

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iam_iana@reddit

I watched Kung Fu Theater, Creature Features on Fridays and every week on Channel 5 (West Coast) they would have a themed set of movies like Revenge of Nature Week and the like. I saw so many goofy but fun movies back in the day.

Loved Five Deadly Venoms and Master of the Flying Guillotine!

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Weak_Employment_5260@reddit

I have 5 deadly venoms on disc because of saturdays

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

gif

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iam_iana@reddit

Between Kung Fu Theater and Creature Features I developed a lifelong love of martial arts and Kaiju movies!

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josefkeigh@reddit

I remember this was on practically every other weekend. I maintain that Shaolin Kung Fu Mystagogue is one of the greatest film titles ever. I found it on DVD by complete accident in San Francisco’s Chinatown a few years back. I may have let out a little yelp of joy.

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someguy444444@reddit

This was how we spent our afternoons in the winter. I love these movies. I believe the image is from The Invincible Armour which is fantastic & cheesy. A must see. Along with Shaolin vs Lama, Iron Monkey & 5 Deadly Venoms.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

5 Deadly Venoms was a classic! I relentlessly terrorized friends and family with the Snake technique.🐍

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tkingsbu@reddit

The 5 deadly venoms!!!!

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Double_Fisherman6817@reddit

Loved king fu theater!! Now I’ll watch the Hi-ya channel on Roku when I want a quick fix

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

😎Will have to check that out.

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TTALC23@reddit

I keep it alive to this day

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Quirky_Operation2885@reddit

Channel 48

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CBTprovider@reddit

Growing up in LA, this was my tradition.

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iam_iana@reddit

Yeah I lived in SoCal too. The LA channels had good stuff! Go See Cal!

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requiemguy@reddit

I still am amazed how many over the air channels y'all have in LA, my buddy said there was basically a channel for everyone.

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cakevictim@reddit

And the suburbs of Nashville too

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justboozer@reddit

Right behind the post Saturday morning cartoons monster movie. 😎

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SplitEights@reddit

Some fun times watching these - fun times!

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TeaMugPatina@reddit

Commander USA's Groovy Movies!

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NitenDoraku168@reddit

I seem to remember is being on the USA Network. My parents would go to the store that morning and they’d bring back fried chicken from the deli and I’d eat chicken and watch King Fu Theater

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Mistermxylplyx@reddit

WGGT 48 Blackbelt Theatre Sundays at 6:00 pm in Triad NC.

Sometimes moms wouldn’t release control on the idiot box and I’d peel out on my bike like Lance to get to my boy’s house. His family had two TVs, guaranteed Shaw Bros that way.

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DiamondContent2011@reddit

Came on right after Soul Train on Channel 5 here in the Tri-State area back in the late-70's/early-80's

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technicallysupportiv@reddit

Yes!

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CML72@reddit

Mad monkey kung fu

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Active_Unit_9498@reddit

Amazing movie! It starts out pretty chill, then gets brutal, then has the ultimate training sequence and final fight.

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NoCoGuy1620@reddit

Miss it!! My brother and I doing it along with the movies in real time. 🤣

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JJDiet76@reddit

Mine came on at noon after rasslin

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

Ha! We had the old school Vince McMahon on UHF wrestling show (Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund-my personal fav, SuperStar Billy Graham, etc.). So many good memories diving off the "top rope"-top bunk bed nailing my brother.

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docdeathray@reddit (OP)

That is AWESOME! I've never seen one in theaters but would love too.

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