The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan - Overview

Overview

In this series, Mr. Chan (whose first name is never given, except in one episode title), his children, nieces nephews and their dog Chu Chu solve mysteries around the city, with the children helping their father/uncle in every episode (or at least trying to). They traveled in a van which could be transformed into other vehicles (much like Hong Kong Phooey's Phooeymobile, courtesy of Chan's fourth son, Alan, a mechanical genius) with the push of a button.

The older children also had their own music group, The Chan Clan; every episode featured a song, either being played over the action or with the characters playing various instruments and performing. Vocals for the group were provided by former Archies lead singer Ron Dante, with music supervision by Don Kirshner (who had supervised the music for The Archie Show).

Most of the voices of the children were recast almost immediately, as it was deemed that their (original) thick accents would be too confusing for young viewers to understand. With the new cast in place, old episodes were re-dubbed using the new voices. Prolific voice actor Keye Luke - who played Charlie's Number One Son in many of the Charlie Chan movie serials of the 1930s and 1940s - provided the voice for Mr. (Charlie) Chan, thus making him the first actor of true Chinese descent to take the role; also thanks to Luke, Charlie's vocabulary was notably expanded from that in the original film series (which is to say he now used prepositions, articles, pronouns, etc.).

Prolific voice actor Don Messick, the voice of Papa Smurf, Scooby-Doo and many other well known cartoon characters, provided the voice of the Chan family dog, Chu Chu. Gene Andrusco, who provided the (redubbed) voice of "Flip," went on to be a successful record producer and musician fronting the band Adam Again. Jodie Foster, who provided the (redubbed) voice of Anne, went on to become an Oscar-winning actress (The Accused, Silence of The Lambs, et al.).

Sixteen episodes were made in all. The show lasted for one season (and was then rerun for a second season) in 1972 on CBS, and is today often rerun on Cartoon Network's sister network, Boomerang. In the original novels by Earl Derr Biggers, Charlie Chan was a widower who worked for the Honolulu police department and had 3 children. No mothers, fathers or in-laws appeared or were mentioned in the Chan Clan series.