TV SERIES · 1984– · USA
The Master
19 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (19)
- #001
Many episodes of the series were filmed in 1983, and the series aired in the winter of 1984 as a mid-season replacement on NBC.
- #002
Sho Kosugi also appeared as a stunt double in several episodes in which Lee Van Cleef did not feature or appear, and he also handled the series' stunt work.
- #003
In the United Kingdom, where the series was shown late at night by some ITV broadcasters, it was seen as responsible for a sudden craze for ninja throwing stars among young men. In the mid-1980s, teachers reported an increase in confiscations of low-quality homemade stars produced in metalwork classes.
- #004
Every episode after the pilot began with a recap of Lee Van Cleef's character backstory, returning to the same scene from the pilot that Timothy Van Patten narrated and blended into the final episode.
- #005
The first two episodes were riffed as "Master Ninja I" by Mystery Science Theater 3000 in Season 4. The third and fourth episodes were riffed as "Master Ninja II" by Mystery Science Theater 3000 at the end of Season 4.
- #006
When Lee Van Cleef fights someone in the series, you immediately notice that Sho Kosugi steps in for him. You can tell from his height, his stances, his eyes and his shouts. Van Cleef does none of these in his fights with Kosugi as Okasa.
- #007
The butterfly medallion McAllister wears in the series is the symbol of his family in Japan. Any ninja who killed him could claim to be a true master and in the process destroy the family legacy. The only time the medallion was taken from McAllister was by the female ninja Allison Grant, after it emerged that Okasa had been his ninjutsu student. She wore it until McAllister took it back after foiling the assassination attempt in the Kunoichi episode.
- #008
Okasa is a former student of John Peter McAllister who wanted to kill him and become a master ninja after McAllister decided to leave Japan to search for his daughter, whom he never knew was in the United States. This explains why he turns up wherever McAllister and Max go and always tries to kill McAllister.
- #009
The theme is a reworking of Bill Conti's own music from the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
- #010
The series ended without anyone knowing who John Peter McAllister's daughter really was, and she never appeared in person in the series. The closest was the character played by Janine Turner, an actress posing as his daughter in a blackmail scheme. The other near miss was the New Orleans episode, in which his daughter was an informant in an illegal arms deal led by the shady businessman Robert Pine.
- #011
Oscar winner Bill Conti composed the music for the series' main theme and, along with several episodes, would also write the original score for the hit film The Karate Kid, released in the summer of 1984, just as this series was about to end in August.
- #012
It was widely felt that 58-year-old Lee Van Cleef was miscast as a ninja.
- #013
In the middle of the Kunoichi episode, one of the villains, the reporter Allison Grant, was revealed to be Okasa's student and a female ninja in training. After this series aired, Sho Kosugi would fight a "possessed" female ninja played by Lucinda Dickey in Ninja 3: The Domination, as the good guy rather than the villain as in the series.
- #014
Lee Van Cleef, who played "The Master," also appeared in The Octagon, starring Chuck Norris, which likewise featured a rogue ninja played as the main villain by Tadashi Yamashita.
- #015
The minivan Timothy Van Patten used in the series looks very similar to the van shown in The A-Team, with a different stripe color. Both shows were on NBC in 1984.
- #016
The series opens with a ninja star (shuriken) glowing red; it is the same star Okasa (played by Sho Kosugi) threw into John Peter McAllister's (played by Lee Van Cleef) back in the pilot, and the same star he carried with him and later gave to Max Keller.
- #017
Sho Kosugi, who played the ninja villain Okasa in this series, had played a villain not much different in his debut in Enter The Ninja three years earlier, where he was also an evil black ninja.
- #018
If the series had continued, Timothy Van Patten would have become a ninja, because Lee Van Cleef was training him in his own methods almost indirectly in every episode, and he already had many of Van Cleef's moves.
- #019
Demi Moore, who appeared in the series pilot, also starred in the newly released film Blame It On Rio when the series premiered on NBC in January 1984.
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