| Genre: | Mystery |
| Creator: | Earl Derr Biggers (character) |
| Company: | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Voices: | (See article) |
| Country: | United States |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 16 |
| Runtime: | 30 min. |
| Network: | CBS |
The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (sometimes abbreviated as The Amazing Chan Clan) is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, animated by Eric Porter Studios in Australia and broadcast on CBS from September 9, 1972, to December 30, 1972, with reruns continuing through the summer of 1973 and in syndication from 1976 to 1982.[1] The show was loosely based on the Charlie Chan series of mystery novels and films, which began with the 1925 novel The House Without a Key.
Throughout the series, legendary Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan is both impeded and assisted by his brood of ten children and their dog Chu Chu, in the process of solving mysteries and catching wily master criminals.[2]
The family travels around the world in the Chan Van, a vehicle built by teenage genius Alan Chan, which can transform itself with the push of a button. While solving mysteries, the Chan kids break off into small groups with Henry and Stanley, the two oldest children, being paired together and driving the Chan Van. To ostensibly aid in their detective work, Stanley usually changes into some sort of goofy disguise much to the chagrin of his older brother Henry. As in many other Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the period, the kids also have their own music group, the Chan Clan, and they perform a song in each episode.
As the voice of the title character, Keye Luke is (to date) the only actor of Chinese ancestry to play the part in any screen adaptation.[3] Luke had previously portrayed "Number One Son" Lee Chan opposite Warner Oland whose characterization had a relatively limited vocabulary in the long-running Charlie Chan film series of the 1930s and 1940s by 20th Century Fox and later, Monogram Pictures.
Early on, it was decided that most of the children's accents were too thick for American audiences to understand, and all of the characters except Henry and Alan were recast. Once the new cast was in place, earlier episodes were re-dubbed.[4]
| Actor | Role | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | Re-dubbed | ||
| Mr. Charlie Chan | |||
| Henry Chan | |||
| Stephen Wong | Stanley Chan | ||
| Virginia Ann Lee | Suzie Chan | ||
| Alan Chan | |||
| Leslie Kumamota | Anne Chan | ||
| Michael Takamoto | John Gunn | Tom Chan | |
| Jay Jay Jue | Flip Chan | ||
| Debbie Jue | Beverly Kushida | Nancy Chan | |
| Leslie Juwai | Mimi Chan | ||
| Robin Toma | Michael Morgan | Scooter Chan | |
| Chu Chu the Dog | |||
The program was sharply criticized by Katheryn Fong, Community Coordinator of the Chinese Media Committee of Chinese for Affirmative Action, an advocacy group based in San Francisco, for continuing "to isolate generations of Chinese-Americans as being 'different and keeping the same "detective intoning stilted, fortune-cookie English spoken in proverbs". CBS President Robert D. Wood responded by calling the show "a lighthearted escapist program for youngsters", emphasizing the stereotypical Asian-American tropes of filial piety and intelligence as positive contributions with the hope "that CBS' Chan might begin to replace some of the abrasive imagery created by the old Charlie Chan character". Fong called this attitude a "great tragedy ... convincing many people that this kowtowing caricature is acceptable" and drew an analogy with a hypothetical cartoon about Adolf Hitler: "If CBS did a cartoon called 'Hitler's Haus' along the same lines of 'respect' and German pragmatism as your interpretation of Chan's wisdom, would that begin to replace some of the abrasive imagery created by the old Hitler and make him more acceptable to Jews?" Fong went on to testify about the program before the Federal Communications Commission in January 1973.[5]
Don Kirshner produced the songs for the show as he did for The Monkees and The Archie Show. Singer Ron Dante supplies the singing voice of Stanley as he did for Archie on The Archie Show.
A board game,[6] jigsaw puzzle,[7] lunch box[8] with thermos,[9] and comic book series were released as licensed merchandise alongside the animated series.
| Issue | Date | Story | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hot Ice Cream Man | 26 | |
| To Catch a Pitcher | 26 | |
| The Sticky-Fingered Mr. Chan | 14 | |
| The Disappearing Pharaoh | 11 | ||
| The Eye of the Idol | 14 | |
| The Phantom of Ophir | 12 |
On June 19, 2012, Warner Archive released The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release, available through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.[15]