Original subtitles

It's one of the greatest

underdog stories of all time.

Hey, uh, there's Miyagi. Who is that?

And a cornerstone of 1980s pop culture.

The Karate Kid.

One of the feel good films of forever.

The Karate Kid was full of heart,

captivating an entire generation.

It was such a great story of survival

and believing in yourself.

It just blew everybody out of the water.

From those legendary quotable lines...

- Sweep the leg. - Wax on, wax off.

To one of the most iconic moments

in cinema history.

Who didn't try to do the crane kick?

You kidding me?

The franchise has permeated

pop culture forever.

I quite didn't know it was gonna work out that well

but it's kinda nice.

And spotlighted martial arts in totally new way.

Forget football, tennis, golf.

Karate was now the sport of America.

Hear behind th scenes tales.

He rolls a sock up and he shoves it

down into his crotch, zips up the costume.

Get the scoop on casting drama.

The producer said this is not a comic's role.

I want an actor. Get me an actor.

And find out wh really knew karate

and who didn't.

He couldn't do a damn thing. I said this kid is perfect.

He's absolutely perfect.

I faked it kinda well.

The Karate Kid helped define a decade.

And the Cobra Kai series ha reinvented it

for a whole new generation.

This is a global phenomenon.

It is a fun ride. We are very proud of the show.

Now, find out how it all began.

We didn't really know if this thing was gonna go anywhere.

And why we're still obsessed

with these characters four decades later.

When the Karate Kid stormed into theaters

in the summer of 1984 audiences young and old

embraced the underdog story of Daniel LaRusso,

who, with his mentor, Mr. Miyagi, formed

one of Hollywood's greatest teacher student pairings ever.

Sequels and more followed as the legacy

of this inspirational franchise continued to grow

throughout the decades.

Culminating with the wildly popular Cobra Kai series

starting in 2018.

But none of this vast karate kicking universe

would even exist if it weren't for a man

named Robert Mark Kamen an this fateful night

back in 1964.

I was at the World's Fair in New York

and I was 17-years-old.

I got jumped by this bunch of guys.

They chased me around th World's Fair.

Then I ran into the New York State Pavillion,

where a man named Ed McGrath

was doing a karate demonstration

and I thought this was the cat's meow

and the next Monday I signed up.

I was a, you know, skinny little Jewish kid from New York

and he taught me how to be a skinny little Jewish kid

from New York who could beat the [bleep] out of people.

But Kamen soon realizes

something is missing from his training.

The further I got into his style,

the deeper I wanted to get into what it really was.

The deeper aspects of the art.

So, I went to Okinawa and started training

in traditional Okinawan Goju Karate.

While in Japan in 1971,

Kamen connects with two men

who had been students of Okinawan Karate legend,

Chojun Miyagi.

That's right, Miyagi.

Chojun Miyagi, he was one of the great

Okinawan karate masters.

He died in 1953.

And he is still revered to this day as one of the luminaries

of Okinawan Karate.

That's where Miyagi comes from.

Jump ahead to 1982.

Kamen, now an up and coming Hollywood screenwriter,

receives a phone call from the chairman of Columbia Pictures

who was looking to develop a new project.

Frank Price was my mentor.

He called me up and said he had bought an article

from Jerry Weintraub th producer

and it was about a nine year old kid

who, who was bullied and got a black belt in Taekwondo.

Then I said that story doesn't interest me but I have a story

about myself and my teacher and how I came to martial arts.

That story from Kamen's youth

will become the basis of the original Karate Kid film

and that June Kamen puts pen to paper.

The writer was an authentic karate practioner

and mirrored some of the elements in his life

in this story.

I think that helped a lot.

It was really genuine in terms of martial arts in America.

When it comes to naming

the other main characters, aside from Mr. Miyagi,

Kamen doesn't have to look far for inspiration.

My daughter's name is Alessandra

and we call her Ali with an i.

Hey, you got a name?

Ali, with an i.

I took her name and used it as that.

Daniel and Johnny were my nephews.

Lucille was their mother.

Her maiden name was Lorenzo.

So, I named Daniel, Daniel LaRusso.

And Johnny, Johnny Lawrence because Johnny's name

was John Lawrence Weber.

The script, tentatively titled

The Karate Kid Project is greenlit by Columbia Pictures

and tells a familiar tale that focuses on the underdog.

It's a classic outsider in high school trying to fit in

and, and failing miserably.

Crushing on the most popular girl.

Being bullied.

And then finding a mentor wh has also had his own

strange form of bullying.

And they find this connection which is very magical.

It's not a karate movie.

Karate just happens to be, yo know, the backdrop.

It's really a coming of age story

about a relationship between a young boy

and this father figure of Mr. Miyagi.

Daniel LaRusso moves from Newark, New Jersey,

3,000 miles away to Reseda, California.

He didn't have a dad.

He biked to school and he was bullied, constantly bullied.

- Yes, Johnny, give it to him. - You want it, you got it.

Who hasn't been bullied? Right?

And so, you put it all together

and you're like wow, this guy is very relatable.

And that's why it works.

Because we all see ourselves in him.

And who better to direct

a sports based underdog story than Oscar winning

John G. Avildsen,

whose resume includes a little movie called Rocky.

We joked about it.

We used to call it the Karocky Kid.

And Sly is convinced that I ripped him off.

So, fine, whatever.

It wasn't supposed to be Rockyesque at all.

Except that it has the same elements.

The little Italian kid meets a mentor,

trains hard, there's a montage.

It doesn't bother me that, uh, there are Rocky parallels.

Uh, how bad can that be?

John had such a pure love for the story

And I said, "Aren't you worried people are gonna say

you're just ripping yourself off?"

He said, "No, these characters are completely different.

This is new and fresh to me."

It was an underdog movie.

And underdog movies were very popular back then

and they still are really.

You know, everybody likes to root for the underdog.

What a great st-- it's just a great story.

With the Karate Kid Project

now in pre-production it's time to begin casting.

But the film makers are about to clash hard

over who's going to play th most critical role.

It's the spring of 1983.

And casting is underway fo Columbia Pictures'

loosely titled The Karate Kid Project

with Oscar winning director John G. Avildsen at the helm.

Writer Robert Mark Kamen created these unique,

soon to be very memorable characters.

Now, it's time to figure out just who's going to play them

on screen and who will land the role

of the actual Karate Kid.

Daniel LaRusso, I mean, granted,

we can't see it now as him being anything other than

being played by Ralph Macchio.

I mean, that is, that is who it is.

But other contenders at the time, Robert Downey Jr.,

Charlie Sheen, Emilo Estevez,

these type of guys were on the list.

Nicholas Cage and Sean Penn and Eric Stoltz.

A lot of great young actors of that time.

But none of them quite resonate with Avildsen.

Until one day...

I was living on 77th street.

And John was living on 89th street.

And he called me up and said, "I'm gonna send this kid down.

I think he's exactly who yo wrote about."

And I opened the door an there's Ralph.

Avildsen had just finished recording

a screen test in his office with a young actor named

Ralph Macchio and is impressed.

You know, I, I woulda been better off

if you'd just let them beat me. It woulda been done with.

It woulda been all gone once and for all.

Now, I gotta carry your weight around too? Thanks a lot.

I appreciate it.

Good, very good.

Ralph Macchio, at that point, had been in a Mad Magazine

movie called Up the Academy.

And then had been on, uh, a couple of TV shows.

Such as ABC's hit drama, comedy Eight is Enough

where in it's final 1980-81 season

Macchio played Jeremy Andretti.

A relative who lived with th Bradford family.

Jeremy, can I talk to you a second?

- Sure, talk. - Well, I think I made--

Nice talking to you Nicholas, gotta run,

but we'll have to do it again sometime.

Macchio's most notable role to date

was playing Johnny Cade in the film adaptation

of S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders.

Bonnie Timmerman, one of the casting directors,

saw Ralph in the Outsiders, a little bit of a darker movie

but a little bit of an outcasty kind of type of role,

more sensitive, and thought he would be the perfect person

to play the Karate Kid.

First of all, he's a talented actor.

Second of all, he's not muscular but he's also got

that Italian, sort of Jersey, sort of New York toughness

but in a quiet way.

He was 22 at the time but he looked like

a scrawny 17-year-old.

I asked him to do some karate moves.

He couldn't do a damn thing.

And I called John up, I said, "This kid is perfect,

he's absolutely perfect."

Um, I faked it kinda well.

As far as defense, I still run to the next street corner,

you know.

Although, plenty of actresses

will read for the role of Daniel's love interest, Ali,

such as Demi Moore and Helen Hunt,

only one stands out.

Elisabeth Shue was a student at Wellesley College

in Massachusetts.

She seems incredibly assured as an actress

in this movie, even though the Karate Kid was her first one.

Shue has few bi parts under her belt.

But it's a series of recent Burger King

fast food commercials in early 1983,

where she is truly front and center.

Buy a Whopper and get on free at Burger King

this Saturday and Sunday only. Just say--

The Whooper beat the Big Mac.

She's sort of this fresh, sort of California girl

that was very appealing.

She was not a push over.

And I think that's what really resonated

for young girls, especially.

The guys may have had a crush on her

but I think girls wanted to be her.

I think that if Elisabeth Shue is supposed to be

the embodiment of the California girl

you fall in love with then William Zabka's job there

is to be the embodiment of the California jerk who you hate.

He was so good at being bad.

It's incredible what a great job he did

because this was Billy Zabka's first film.

He was only 18 at the time.

What a perfect face for a horrible guy.

He's mean and he's just so, like, ugh.

It's so funny.

He's so not like that in real life.

He's just the sweetest, nicest guy.

But not at West Valley High,

where Zabka's Johnny is the main bully of Cobra Kai,

the karate crew who torment LaRusso

every chance they get.

Johnny, Bobby, Tommy, Dutch and Jimmy,

rich kids from the Valley wh all ride motorcycles

because they can afford too.

They're just rich, spoiled brats.

21-year-old actor, Ron Thomas

is cast in the role of Bobby Brown.

The thing about Bobby that I really loved

is that he knew where to draw the line

and he wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right.

For Thomas, unlike Zabka, and of course,

Macchio, little if any karate training will be required.

I was a second degree black belt at the time of my audition

and my agent said don't say that you're a black belt.

They wanna focus on your acting

and they're gonna train you anyway.

I said okay, that's kinda weird.

The movie's all about karate. You don't want me to tell 'em.

Not yet. Don't say anything.

During rehersals Robert Mark Kamen came up to me

and said you know out of all the guys here

you're the only one who looks like he belongs in a Gi.

And that's kinda when the cat started getting out of the bag,

that I actually, you know, was a martial artist.

And the ruthless teacher

who trains the Cobra Kais in their evil ways?

John Kreese will be played by character actor Martin Kove.

Marty Kove is the perfect gu to have played Kreese.

And he just brought such hatred

from the audience toward this guy.

He had that, that square jawline.

He had the, the muscles that, and the tattoos

and the characteristics you would expect

of a California sensei teaching these teenage boys

to strike first, to strike hard, to show no mercy.

There was karate school near where I lived in Queens.

The teacher was like Kreese.

He was nuts, he believed that karate

was only for punching you in the face.

And that's who I based Kreese on.

The biggest casting challenge

is to find the ideal actor wh will become Mr. Miyagi.

Daniel's mentor and the true heart of the story.

Producer Jerry Weintraub and the studio execs at Columbia

initially had their sights set on

Japanese acting legend, Toshiro Mifune

who had appeared in more than 100 films

and played one of the leads in the 1980 TV miniseries Shogun.

Toshiro Mifune was, was originally the first choice

for Mr. Miyagi and then they realized

that he did not speak a word of English.

And it was gonna take to long

to get him up to speed for the role.

But Toshiro Mifune plays a samuari,

very strong and stark and upright and it was so wrong.

And so, director Avildsen pushes

for a less obvious and far less serious option,

Pat Morita, aka, Arnold from ABC's iconic hit show

Happy Days.

See, I speak Japanese, Chinese, Korean,

a little Hungarian.

Well, tell me something. What do you consider yourself?

Good looking.

John went to Jerry Weintraub

and said I think I found Mr. Miyagi.

And he said, well, who is it? It's Pat Morita.

He's on Happy Days. He's not our Mr. Miyagi.

Whenever my name came up from casting people

and, and, whatever Jerry Weintraub,

the, the producer, said no, no no, I don't want a comic.

This is not a comic's role.

I want an actor. Find me an actor. We gotta get it.

There must be in all of America. Get me an actor.

Pat Morita's showbiz DNA is as a stand up comedian.

And he was mostly known on the West Coast.

Pat Morita as they say in polite language worked blue.

He did a lot of raunchy outrageous stuff.

I think there some hesitancy to bring him in as Mr. Miyagi

because of the fear that the audience

might see him only as Arnold from Happy Days

and not be able to accept hi as this wise old man

who is about to teach Daniel the, the secrets

of his family's karate.

During this screentest filmed by Avildsen

in California late that spring, Morita reads for the part.

You see, in Okinawa, a belt mean, uh,

don't need rope to hold up pants.

Uh, karate is, uh, here.

And that's all the ammunition the director needs.

Several days later, he and Jerry Weintraub

were in a conversation an suddenly his assistant

turns on the monitor and he had plugged the monitor

with my audition tape.

And now, um, Jerry looks and he goes, this is,

hey, there's Miyagi. Who is that?

That's, that's him. We don't need to look anymore.

Who is that?

John says, that's the Pat Morita

you didn't want to consider for the role.

But the studio is still not fully convinced.

So, they had Ralph and I meet and they do a screentest.

So, Ralph and I worked, really worked, I mean,

we had to do a physical and, and find the characters

and the relationship.

After Columbia brass witness

the undeniable chemistry between Morita and Macchio,

any qualms about whether they have found

the right Miyagi are officially dashed.

I looked at that with him and Pat

and I said there's nothing better than this.

It happens very rarely but when you get casting

that just feels so right like that, it's magic.

And these two together from the very beginning were magic.

They just fit.

John Avildsen convinced Jerry Weintraub to hire Pat Morita.

And the rest is history.

To Jerry's credit, he's gets on the horn

and says Pat, I almost made the worst mistake of my life.

I just want to be the first to congratulate you.

You got the part of Miyagi.

That's why Miyagi talk like this because he run out of energy.

Thank God, he chose Pat Morita.

I can never think of anybody on the planet

that could've done Mr. Miyagi the way he did.

It was just perfection.

With this crucial piece of the puzzle in place,

casting for the film is finally complete.

Now, it's time for the main players to begin rehearsing

and training together.

All while gearing up to shoot a movie

that will change their lives forever.

It's the end of summer 1983

and the cast and crew of Th Karate Kid Project

are prepping to begin shooting

in Southern California in the fall.

And the first order of business is to gather the troops.

We got shuttled up to, um, Jerry Weintraub's house

in the Hollywood Hills and we got together

and had this big table read

in his living room.

And you know some of these people and who they are

and what they've done and there you are sitting with them.

It's surreal.

You know, like, is this really, is this really happening?

Hello.

Weeks of thorough rehearsals

are also accompanied by intense karate training,

since the main cast members

are far from being martial arts experts.

None of the primary actors in The Karate Kid

had any karate training at all.

So, that was a crucial part of pre-production.

We worked for about five weeks on,

on the training for the movie but, uh, you know,

I just did what was necessary.

And who better to teach these novices?

Martial arts master Pat E. Johnson

who was a peer and colleague of Chuck Norris.

And performed stunt work in Bruce Lee's classic

Enter the Dragon.

It was hard.

We trained probably an hour to two hours everyday.

And Pat Johnson's a serious guy.

He doesn't play.

He does not mess around.

And so the training was intense and serious.

A lot of work. We, we, we worked, uh, very hard

to physically prepare for these roles.

All the actors did.

And that training would continue

right through principal photography which begins

on October 31st, 1983.

Scene one, on the beach in Malibu

where Daniel first meets Ali.

Hey, did you lose something?

Yeah, I hope we're no bothering you.

Hey, how do you, um, how do you juggle?

While also getting his first taste of the Cobra Kai gang.

Avildsen wants to preserve the tension

between the Cobra Kais and Daniel even between takes

so he employs a certain strategy.

John Avildsen's, sort of, ploy is to keep the Cobras

separate from Ali and from Daniel

and not let us intermingle 'cause they wanted

that to come across on film.

And we were friends, you know, and we snuck around

behind John's back.

And you know Ralph would invite me into his trailer

and and hang out but he wanted to keep us separate

so that we could bring that kind of energy

into those scenes and, and beat the crap out of him.

And not feel bad.

Daniel's first real confrontation

with the Cobra's comes just after the Halloween dance.

I remember just watching Daniel,

like, dressed as a shower, like,

running down the street away from these guys.

Get out of my way.

That was fun to film.

After running across that field in November in the cold,

like, I don't know, 20 times, we needed oxygen, no joke.

And then we had to do this fight scene and get beat up.

Mr. Miyagi hops over the fence.

Here's this little Japanese guy who's gotta be, what, like,

in his early fifties at that point,

who comes in and takes ou every single Cobra Kai

just like one by one.

But was it really Pat Morita

single handedly taking out all those Cobra Kais?

Pat Morita was body doubled by Fumio Demura

who is a very established master.

And Demura had a very similar build to Pat Morita

which works very well.

But you can see how his body posture

totally changes in that fight scene.

You can totally spot that it's a ringer.

Fumio Demura, he's the real deal.

And he tossed us around, hit us a few times

and some of the actors are like, uh,

okay, I think we need some stunt guys.

We cut that night and Fumio came back the next night

with his karate people.

I was relieved at any point to, you know, sit it out

and let the stunt guys put on the makeup

for the skeleton costume an let them take the falls.

Those skeleton costumes alone

have become iconic.

Though, there's something else audiences never knew

when it comes to the outfit worn by Dutch

played by Chad McQueen.

We're all getting ready to shoot

and we're all in these cool skeleton costumes.

It's cold out and Chad says, uh, "Hey guys just watch this."

And he grabs a sock out his bag and he rolls the sock up

and he shoves it down into his crotch,

zips up the costume and he goes, "Yep."

And we're like, "are you really gonna do that?"

"Hell yeah."

So, he actually filmed with this, uh, sock

to enhance the costume effect.

I didn't need a sock personally.

But, uh, you know, that was Chad.

Sock enhancements aside,

once Mr. Miyagi comes to Daniel's rescue

that fateful night it sets the tone

for their mentor student relationship.

Which then becomes the true core of the film.

Mr. Miyagi takes him under his wing

and he has so much wisdom, so much grace, so much reserve,

and he's transfering that to Daniel

without him even knowing it.

Daniel doesn't think that he's being taught karate.

But oh, it proves to be karate.

He's like you're gonna paint the fence.

He's like, paint the, what? Paint the fence?

Up, down.

And of course, who knew that wax on, was a right block

and wax off was a left block?

What?

Wax on right hand.

Wax off left hand.

My favorite scene in the entire movie

is when he's like I've been painting your house,

I've been sanding the floors, waxing your cars,

I haven't learned a [bleep] thing.

And Miyagi says--

- Eh, you learn plenty. - I learned plenty.

I learned how to sand your decks maybe,

I've waxed your car, painted your house,

painted your fence, I learned plenty, right.

And then he attacks him with all of this barages

of punches and kicks an Daniel's like--

Agh!

Suddenly, we see what it all means.

And like, oh, he's been teaching him karate the whole time.

It was just freaking magical. I just loved that scene.

We all want somebody who ca protect emotionally,

psychologically and physically,

who is kind, gentle, loving

and can solve any problem you have

and beat up any body who gives you a hard time.

There's a lot of different moments in the movie that,

that stick out. Iconic moments.

Um, the chopsticks, you know.

Everybody's tried to catch a fly with a chop stick

at some point in their life.

What stands out for me is th scene where Mr. Miyagi

gives Daniel the car.

I can't believe it.

Oh.

Oh, wow.

And it's the culmination of what he has given Daniel

and when Daniel said you're my best friend.

You're the best friend I ever had.

And Mr. Miyagi says--

Ah, you pretty okay, too.

That was a moment. That was just a golden moment.

With Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio

you can feel a palpable connection

that comes over as very genuine in the film.

It's one of the greatest pairings

I think that Hollywood has ever really produced.

As shooting continues Columbia Pictures

officially locked in the Karate Kid title

thanks to permission from DC Comics

who owns the rights to a character bearing the same name.

But there's one small lingering problem.

Everybody from Ralph Macchio to William Zabka on down

hated the title Karate Kid an thought that

this was going to be a kids movie you show

on Saturday afternoon after cartoons.

Yeah, Ralph hated it.

He thought it was just so cheesy.

Um, and a lot of people said that.

Even my own manager sai there is no audience

for this movie. It's not going to go anywhere.

But John Avildsen said you don't know

what you guys are making here. You guys are making history.

They tried all different titles and none of them

worked and so they settled on the Karate Kid.

And as it turned out, it worked.

But far more important

than fighting over the film's title

is the movie's grand finale where Daniel fights

for the championship title.

A Classic Hollywood ending that is eternally etched

in pop culture.

It's late in the fall of 1983 and shooting for the Karate Kid

is almost complete.

Daniel Larusso has been training intensely with Mr. Miyagi

for the big finale showdown against the Cobra Kai.

But, will his hard work and diligence pays off?

Spoiler alert, after almost four decades, absolutely.

So, the All Valley tournament is this culmination

of everything that we've been waiting for.

It's good versus evil.

It's the nice boy versus the bad boy.

They built this arena in the gymnasium

of Cal State Northridge.

And they'd gone to a lot of the karate schools

around the LA area and had the senseis

bring in real black belts

an real martial artists

who fight regularly in point karate tournaments

as extras to fill this tournament.

Before filming the iconic scene

Macchio does his own research

to better understand the culture.

John Avildsen, the director of the film

had us go to several tournaments

around the Los Angeles area.

And I watched the kids that really weren't as,

as, uh, as trained, well trained as the guy,

of the other opponents.

And they had that nervousness quality about them.

and they, you know, and when they went forward

they felt confident and then they stepped back.

So, I used a lot of that with Daniel in,

in the final fight scene.

Daniel's first opponent in the semi finals,

Bobby.

In Bobby's mind he could've won

and he should've won.

And when Kreese says I want him out of commission--

I want him out of commission.

Bobby, regrettably does it.

You know, goes out there and hurts him.

Ow!

Daniel, Daniel I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. - My leg.

Despite being in serious pain,

Daniel musters up the courage to face Johnny

in the final round.

Which yields one of the films most famous lines,

if not one of the most famous in all of 80s cinema.

Kreese has the spectacular line, "sweep the leg".

Sweep the leg.

Come on. That is about as good a bad guy line as you get.

That is wicked.

We are meant to believe the entire movie

that Johnny Lawrence and Cobra Kai are the villains

and when Martin Kove said--

You have a problem with that?

No, sensei.

And you see the absolute look of terror

in Johnny Lawrence's eyes yo realize that John Kreese

is the villain in this movie.

No mercy.

Johnny does the deed.

Let him have it, Johnny.

Which helps set up

the now iconic finale of the film.

It's over for Daniel San, but somehow he reaches

inside of himself and he finds something

that he doesn't even know is there.

And in the last second he centers himself

and the hands go up.

You're like, no, he's gonna do it? What?

Winner.

The crane kick ma have been inspirational

but is it even real?

I made it up and, um, Darryl Vidal,

who is a brillant martial artist, executed it.

It was the first time I met Darryl Vidal

and he was rehearsing it on a stump.

They brought him in to develop it.

And, and Darryl Vidal was very agile at the time.

In fact, that's actually Vidal

not Morita practicing the crane kick on the beach

in yet another iconic visual from the film.

He made the impossible, possible.

I didn't know anybody could do that.

But he did and looked great.

Shooting for the Karate Kid

wrapped in mid December but it won't be until

the following June when th movie is released

that the film makers and cast will get to witness

first hand with an audience, the magic they created.

We went down to Westwood to watch the premiere.

And then, I can remember Ralph kicks Johnny in the face,

the whole audience went crazy.

And a few guys down in the front row,

they actually jumped up out of their seats

and they just threw their hands in victory like this.

Like, they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then, John Avildsen leans over to me

and whispers in my ear. He goes, "We got a hit."

John and I went to a preview in New York.

And we're standing outside the theater

and these two guys in suits and ties come out

with attache cases and they ar holding their attache cases

and trying to do this and we knew we had something.

Who didn't try to do the crane kick after Karate Kid?

You kidding me?

If I weren't as old as I am right now with bad knees,

I'd get up right now and tr and do a crane kick.

Every single kid on their wa to the parking lot

was doing the crane kick.

And like, just pretending to do karate in any form

or waxing on and waxing off.

I mean, it's so rare that a movie hits

like that in that way.

We didn't quite know it would become

as iconic as it became.

But we knew we were touching people.

The film was a huge hit.

And it was a huge hit among demographic.

Everyone was going to go see Karate Kid.

The film rakes in more than 90 million dollars

at the U.S. box office

against just an 8 million dollar budget

and becomes the fifth highest grossing film of the year.

I quite didn't know it was gonna work out that well

but it's kinda nice.

This movie made karate really, really hot.

Forget football, soccer, tennis, golf.

Karate was now the sport of America.

There was subsequently an explosion

of martial arts students

and suddenly you were seeing karate schools

on every corner.

They wanna learn Miyagi-Do which is a, a term I made up.

You know, there's no such thing as Miyagi-Do.

The impact it had on the martial arts

community was astounding.

People, I think saw the success that Daniel had

in changing his life, thanks to Mr. Miyagi

and they thought well, if Daniel can do that as,

as a kid coming from New Jersey, why can't I do that.

The wild success of the film

reverberates especially loudly when Pat Morita

earns a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination

for his portrayal of the wise sensei.

Totally unexpected, surprise to say the least.

And uh, it just blew everybody out of the water.

Um, my entire family, all my friends.

My phones rang off the hook for about two weeks.

It is a performance that stands the test of time.

Because the movie without Pa Morita does not exist.

We would not be talking about it today.

We would not have had sequels. We would not have had a remake.

We would not have had Cobra Kai.

Pat Morita is that movie.

And sequels there will be

as the pop culture legacy of the Karate Kid brand

grows throughout the rest of the decade

and beyond, culminating with the reinvention

of the franchise that no one could have ever predicted.

Summer 1986, it's been two years

since Daniel San, an Mr. Miyagi

became household names when the first Karate Kid film

captivated and inspired audiences from coast to coast.

With Robert Mark Kamen returning to write the script

and director John G. Avildsen behind the camera once again,

The Karate Kid Part 2 hit theaters in late June.

As moviegoers gear up for another dose

of karate fever.

This time in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Karate student, huh?

- Yeah. - Well, welcome to Okinawa.

Choosing to go back to Okinawa and explore

Mr. Miyagi's roots, I think wa a great choice.

People love Mr. Miyagi.

And they wanted to see more about him.

And then the big fight happens between Chozen

who is, is Daniel's, uh, rival in this movie.

It's a fight to the death this time.

It's a whole different culture.

Hopefully, we kept the charm that the first one had.

They knew enough to bring it to this new environment

and let that really inform the story.

It worked beautifully.

Fans feel the same way

with the sequel raking in more than 115 million dollars

at the U.S. box office.

Making it even more successful than its predecessor.

I think it's wonderful that a, that a picture

about relationships and about people

and about this father son kind of relationship could work.

A third Karate Kid installment

lands in summer 1989.

Which sees John Kreese and his villainous partner

Terry Silver at odds with Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.

Although ticket sales this time are disappointing.

Still, the franchise even gets its own

Saturday morning cartoon series that fall.

Uh, Mr. Miyagi's in trouble.

Mr. Miyagi.

Go, Miyagi be home fo supper.

But Mr. Miyagi.

Go, Daniel San.

Proof that this story an that these characters

were so universal and timeless

is the fact that after Ralph Macchio

leaves the franchise after Karate Kid 3

we're still seeing the story be told in The Next Karate Kid.

For the 1994 film, producers put a new twist

on a familiar tale.

Except this time, Miyagi's protege is a teenage girl.

Played by a 19-year-old, Hilary Swank.

Okay, let me tell yo something.

No one thinks that Hilary Swank was a good karate kid?

That's my favorite of th franchise okay.

The Next Karate Kid, very underrated.

It's a very young Hilary Swank.

And she's astounding.

You can see her spark in that film

despite having incredibly tepid strip.

She really works and shines in it.

Maybe do tonight?

Don't order me around.

It's not order. It's very small request.

I told you this morning, I know where I'm going

in my life and I don't need an math problems to get there.

I mean, kudos to the producers

for trying to include women into the story.

With a worldwide box office gross

that barely limps past the 15 million dollar mark

the Karate Kid franchise seems all but over.

Each of the main original actors continue to work in film

and television over the years to varying degrees of success

while Elisabeth Shue's post karate career

proves to be the strongest.

But then, in 2005--

Actor Pat Morita, who became well known

for his role in Happy Days an later starred in

the Karate Kid movies has died.

Morita passes away at age 73 due to kidney failure

which begs the question, without Mr. Miyagi,

could the franchise ever breathe life again.

The answer comes in 2010 in the form of a remake

co-produced by Will Smith an Jada Pinkett Smith.

And starring their son Jayden.

The reboot of the Karate Kid, um, essentially is, is again,

this is the same storyline just instead of Ralph Macchio

you have Jayden Smith, instead of Pat Morita

you have Jackie Chan.

Jackie Chan is always fun to watch.

And I even had a little conversation with Will Smith

about you know how he wanted to pay respect

and homage to the original movie and the characters.

The film rakes in a whopping 359 million dollars

at the world wide box office.

Which is more than the original four films combined.

If that's not evidence of a timeless set of characters

and a plot and a conflict and a resolution

that really resonates with people, I don't know what is.

Fast forward to 2018 when the Karate Kid franchise

gets truly reinvented.

This time on a smaller screen with these two simple words,

Cobra Kai.

Cobra Kai brings us back to the universe of the Karate Kid.

Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence are grown adults.

Because of streaming

it became the hottest thing all over again.

From the very first episode

which premieres on YouTube Red

fans learn where life has taken Johnny 34 years later.

Bonsai.

Daniel LaRusso here, from LaRusso Auto

bringing you specials on all of our inventory.

We have an excess of Jeep Grand Cherokees priced to go.

Cobra Kai is about their remeeting.

Johnny Lawrence. I, I, I, I knew it was you.

Holy, how the hell are you?

Hey, man.

Johnny Lawrence reforming th Cobra Kai dojo.

And how this conflict between Daniel LaRusso

and Johnny Lawrence boils over to their kids.

They found a smart angle in by entering this universe

through the Johnny Lawrence whatever happened to this bully

at that time and made him a human character.

I thought that was brilliant.

Because why do you want to make it from Daniel's POV?

He's rich, he's successful, he has everything.

And so you have to tell the story

from Johnny's point of view.

And then have Daniel react to that.

It was amazing to step back into the character

and the guys, they really found a great entry point into him

and showing him broken down after all these years.

And so as you see these two characters redevelop

you feel some pity for, for Johnny

and the direction his life has taken.

I mean, no one was rooting for Johnny 30 years ago

but now all of a sudden we find ourselves as audience

being like, well, he's got a sensitive side to him

and I kinda want to see him succeed.

So, he becomes this anti-hero.

When I saw it, Billy and Ralph's performance

and where this was headed, there was a lot of levels to it,

and I thought it was brilliant.

Starring much of the cast

from the original Karate Kid films,

season two picks up even more steam.

And then in 2020, Cobra Kai, simply explodes.

Leave it to Netflix.

They pick it up and air the seasons

and even before season three aired

they had already ordered a season four.

I mean, this is a global phenomenon.

By the season three premiere in January 2021

more that 73 million households have watched the show

which earns an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series

that summer.

The beautiful thing about Cobra Kai

is that they're actually leaving in, you know,

scenes from the original Karate Kid.

So, we're getting that nostalgia factor,

we're getting that excitement.

And then, they have teenage cast members

that are just cool.

My sensei says I'm the best student in his class.

- Really? - Best in his class.

Yeah.

And that, you know, millenials or gen-zers,

will totally tune in even if they've never seen

the original films.

I'm ready for your lame ass karate this time.

It's not lame ass karate.

It's Cobra Kai.

So, you got the original fan base

which was genius in itself an then you've got you know,

the new generation of kids.

It's very smart what they're doing.

The young generation loves this show

and then their parents pop into the TV room

and say wait, do you know that this is,

that was the movie that we, an then all of a sudden

the couch is packed with the whole family.

As for the character of Bobby Brown, he's back too.

I think Bobby being a pastor now is genius.

This, this is where most of us go

when we think about forgiveness. True?

And, um, he's also conflicted.

Like, he'll go out and he'll have a few beers

with his buddies in a bar and get in a bar room brawl.

You know?

Or he'll sweep his buddy in church.

Forgive me father.

For what?

I, I love it. I just love where Bobby is.

They caught lightning in a bottle with this.

They really did.

It is a fun ride.

We are very proud of the show and,

and the response that we've gotten across the board.

I could definitely see a world under which Cobra Kai

just keeps going.

I mean, much like the legacy of Karate Kid

has sort of lasted these past like 40 years or so.

That underdog story is something that I think audiences

are always gonna crave.

The story is really about Daniel and Miyagi.

And because the casting was so good,

because the magic was so good people relate.

And they relate to those tw characters deeply that way.

It's a very unique iconic movie and franchise

that's been created here.

It's this magical thing that happened in Hollywood

that I can't think of another movie

that's really done the same thing.

I mean, it totally infiltrated its way into the zeitgeist.

Sweeping the leg, like who even knew

what that was before 1984?

And now like you go around an you're like sweep the leg.

If you do the pose of the crane kick,

99 percent of the people that see you do that

are gonna know exactly what that's referring to.

All of these things just really became part

of pop culture and really, they've remained here.

They've never left.

It makes me feel good that, that I touched people that way.

And I never intended to.

This was a very innocent piece of material.

And that I think was the brilliance

of the Karate Kid is that it transcended age,

it transcended boys, girls.

You could love the Karate Kid no matter what your upbringing.

No matter, really, no matter what.

And that is why the Karate Kid has had so much staying power.