Summary
- Bruce Lee's guest appearance on the show Blondie in 1968 is impossible to find today, as there is no existing footage of the episode.
- Unlike his other American film and TV appearances, which are widely available, Lee's appearance on Blondie has been completely wiped from existence.
- CBS canceled Blondie abruptly and erased all the tapes of the show, so it's likely that Bruce Lee's cameo will remain lost to time.
In 1968, Bruce Lee made a guest appearance on Blondie, a show that lasted for only one season, and now, despite Lee’s fervent fan following, it’s impossible to find that episode. Blondie was never released elsewhere or shown again on TV, so there’s no existing footage of it. It hasn’t been seen since it aired in 1968. Lee was no stranger to shows that only lasted one season. The Green Hornet, his first big American hit, only aired for one season – but it achieved cult classic status that Blondie doesn’t have.
Since Lee is one of the most iconic figures in history, almost all of his American film and TV appearances are available today, either on home media releases or on streaming services. But his guest appearance in Blondie can’t be found anywhere. Outside of the theme song, very little of the show survives, even on YouTube. It wasn’t popular enough for it to ever be revisited in any way. When the producers of Blondie wiped the show from existence, they had no idea that the guest star from episode 13 would soon be one of the biggest stars on the planet.
Bruce Lee's Forgotten Guest Appearance On Blondie Explained
Lee guest-starred in the penultimate episode of Blondie, entitled “Pick on a Bully Your Own Size.” He played a karate instructor named Mr. Yoto. When Dagwood and Alexander are picked on by bullies, they decide to take a self-defense class taught by Mr. Yoto. This was the last episode to air, since the final episode, “Run Buddy Run,” didn’t even make it to air. Two more planned episodes, “The Dying Swan” and “Dagwood’s Private War,” were never even finished. CBS couldn’t wait to get Blondie off the airwaves and forget it ever happened.
Like an earlier 1957 series of the same name, which also only lasted one season, Blondie was adapted from the comic strip created by Chic Young, about a suburban couple raising two precocious children. Cast member Pamelyn Ferdin, who played Cookie on Blondie, wrote in a Facebook post that the show was canceled so abruptly that the cast learned of the cancelation during a lunch break in the middle of filming an episode. This kind of ruthlessness is typical of TV executives concerned only with their bottom line.
Why Bruce Lee's Blondie Cameo Will Likely Remain Lost
Back in the days before digital TV production, when a TV show was unsuccessful – and sometimes, even if it was successful, but it had reached the end of its run – the network would erase all the tapes to free up some space for new shows. In 1971, the BBC was set to erase and reuse all the tapes containing the classic Monty Python’s Flying Circus episodes (via Paste Magazine). If the Pythons hadn’t secretly made VHS copies of the tapes, the most influential sketch show ever made might have been lost to time. Blondie probably met the same fate, so Bruce Lee’s cameo will remain a distant memory.
Source: Pamelyn Ferdin, Paste Magazine