Sunday, March 1, 2020

An honorable detective buys a car (1977)

Four years after a TV-movie in which he portrayed Charlie Chan, Ross Martin (ex-The Wild, Wild West) steps into a white suit again, this time to shill for Chrysler Corporation's Dodge division. The spotlight is on the 1978 Aspen station wagon.



Not sure who the son is. Maybe Brian Tochi?

4 comments:

magicdog said...

I personally have no issue with a non Asian playing an Asian character (it's almost tradition with Charlie Chan since most of his film outings have been played by white actors), but today's PC incels would throw a fit if it happened now!

I don't believe the "Number One Son" is Brian Tochi.

hobbyfan said...

I wasn't sure, either, that's why I asked. Tochi was working for Filmation during 1977 before turning to movies.

Mike Doran said...

This is one I tell on myself:

For a long time, I thought that a logical choice for Charlie Chan would have been Khigh Dhiegh (say Ky Dee), who was better known as Hawaii Five-O's Wo Fat, and before that as the genial Red Chinese brainwasher in the original Manchurian Candidate (the Sinatra version - you know, the good one).

In the '70s, Khigh Dhiegh had a short-lived series, Khan!, in which he played Charlie Chan in all but name.

After his passing, it was revealed that 'Khigh Dhiegh' was in fact Kenneth Dickerson from New Jersey; his ethnicity was Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese.
Make of that whatever you will …

hobbyfan said...

I would love to see Khan!, as I never got to see that series when it ran on CBS. Where was Dhiegh when they cast the commercial?