The New Adventures of Charlie Chan

The New Adventures of Charlie Chan is a crime drama series that aired in the United States in syndicated television from June 1957 to 1958.^[1] The first five episodes were made by Vision Productions in the United States, before production switched to the United Kingdom under ITC Entertainment and Television Programs of America.

The New Adventures of Charlie Chan
Genre	Crime drama
Directed by	Leslie Arliss Charles Bennett Don Chaffey Charles F. Haas Alvin Rakoff
Starring	J. Carrol Naish James Hong
Composer	Emil Newman
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	39
Production
Executive producer	Leon Fromkess
Producers	Rudolph C. Flothow Sidney Marshall
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	25 mins.
Production companies	Vision Productions (episodes 1-5) ITC Entertainment Television Programs of America
Original release
Network	Syndication
Release	June 1957 (1957-06) – 1958 (1958)
Related
The Sky Dragon The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan The Return of Charlie Chan

Overview

The series, consisting of 39 half-hour monochrome episodes, follows the investigations of the fictional detective Charlie Chan, created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1925. The series follows the convention, established in the Charlie Chan films, of having the Asian character Chan played by a Western actor while his son(s) were played by actual Asians.

James Hong, who played Number One Son, said J. Carrol Naish had Hong fired from the show after Naish took against him for missing a line in rehearsal and said "What do you think this is? A school for Chinese actors?", which Hong ascribed to Naish having a 'deep prejudice'.^[2][3][4]

Cast

Main

• J. Carrol Naish as Charlie Chan
• James Hong as Barry Chan, "Number One Son"

Guest stars

Guest stars, most notably under ITC, include:

• Honor Blackman
• Southern Television chief announcer Brian Nissen
• Patrick Troughton

Episode list

Season 1

This list appears to be in production order. The first five episodes were filmed in the US by Vision, the remaining episodes in the UK by ITC.

1. "Your Money or Your Wife"
2. "Secret of the Sea"
3. "The Lost Face"
4. "Blind Man's Buff"
5. "The Great Salvos"
6. "The Counterfeiters"
7. "The Death of a Don"
8. "Charlie's Highland Fling"
9. "The Patient in Room 21"
10. "The Rajput Ruby"
11. "The Final Curtain"
12. "Death at High Tide"
13. "The Circle of Fear"
14. "An Exhibit in Wax"
15. "Backfire"
16. "Patron of the Arts"
17. "A Hamlet in Flames"
18. "Dateline: Execution"
19. "The Sweater"
20. "The Noble Art of Murder"
21. "Three Men on a Raft"
22. "No Holiday for Murder"
23. "No Future for Frederick"
24. "Safe Deposit"
25. "Voodoo Death"
26. "The Expatriate" (aka "Ex-Patriot")
27. "The Airport Murder Case"
28. "The Hand of Hera Dass"
29. "The Chippendale Racket"
30. "The Invalid"
31. "The Man in the Wall"
32. "Something Old, Something New"
33. "The Man with 100 Faces"
34. "The Point of No Return"
35. "A Bowl By Cellini"
36. "Without Fear"
37. "Kidnap"
38. "Rhyme or Treason"
39. "Three for One"

Comic book

DC Comics published a six-issue comic adaptation from June 1958 to April 1959, written by John Broome and drawn by Sid Greene.^[5]

References

1. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (17 October 2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (9 ed.). Ballantine Books. p. 969. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
2. CBS Sunday Morning, August 31, 2022
3. "James Hong: An actor's guide to longevity". CBS News. 22 January 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
4. Lee, Ann (6 March 2023). "'This is my chance!' Everything Everywhere's James Hong on bullying, 'yellowface' and his big break – at 94". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
5. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.

External links

• The New Adventures of Charlie Chan at IMDb