One of the most popular trends in entertainment in the 80's was the fascination with all things ninja. Movies like American Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and The Octagon may not have been box office blockbusters, but were mainstays on cable and syndicated television. Grocery story magazine racks were replete with ninja-related fare, and comic book storylines often included the stealthy martial arts warriors in titles such as Daredevil, Wolverine, and Ronin. Ninjas were often featured, usually as villains, in TV shows of the day, paving the way for The Master, a show exclusively about ninjas. Well, sort of.
Another 80's trend were TV shows geared toward a young male audience that only lasted half of a season. Many shows attempted to capitalize on the success of programs like Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Airwolf, with limited results. Street Hawk was the motorcycle version of KITT, Blue Thunder, based on the movie, was ABC's version of Airwolf. Automan tried to continue the popularity of the movie TRON, and on and on it went. Most of these shows lasted for 13 episodes and were forgotten until the internet reminded everyone of how good or bad they were, depending on one's sense of nostalgia. The Master was one of those 13-episodes-and-then-gone shows, and is one of the few such programs to get the Blu-ray treatment.
Lee Van Cleef, best known for starring in westerns such as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, is John Peter McAllister. He's an American who became a ninja master while residing in Japan following the end of World War II. Naturally, he fell in love and sired a child, a daughter who, for reasons that aren't important (i.e. I can't remember), ended up in the states. McAllister returns to the U.S. in search of his estranged daughter, and runs into hapless wanderer Max Keller (Timothy Van Patten, related to the Van Pattens and now-director of TV shows). Max drives a van, keeps a pet hamster in a wheel under the dash, and is often thrown out of bars via the window. The only other recurring character is Okasa (Sho Kosugi of the Ninja trilogy), McAllister's former student turned evil assassin.
The formula of The Master at its core is a buddy/road motif, with martial arts thrown in for appeal. This formula works well for the era, and could have supported a longer run. The pilot episode shows promise, introducing the characters, establishing that Max wants to be trained by a reluctant McAllister, and starting the search for the estranged daughter. The pilot even features a young Demi Moore for Max to rescue and fawn over. It was goofy but worked, and stirred enough interest to continue the series.
What followed, however, was a hit-and-miss run of episodes, and when they missed, they missed hard. If the writers had stuck to the search for the daughter, and planned it out to give just a little more each episode, the first season probably would have lasted a full run. Instead, the search for the daughter seems to be forgotten every other episode. The stunt double for Van Cleef is painfully obvious, and many of the fight scenes are underwhelming, as Van Patten didn't seem to bother with any martial arts training whatsoever. The best scenes occur when Okasa shows up and fights a ninja-masked McAllister, giving viewers more authenticity to the skirmish.
The Master is an overall fun 80's throwback, but it was a mishandled show, and the thirteen episodes can become a bit of a chore to get through at times. The pilot is definitely worth a look for fans of all things 80's or all things ninja, but otherwise it's easy to see why the short lived series has fallen into relative obscurity.
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