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Martial Law
Format	Crime Action/Adventure
Created by	Carlton Cuse
Starring	Sammo Hung Arsenio Hall Kelly Hu Louis Mandylor Tom Wright Gretchen Egolf Tammy Lauren
Country of origin	United States  Canada
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	44
Production
Running time	60 minutes (approx. 42 min)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS (1998-2000)
Original run	September 26, 1998 – May 13, 2000

Martial Law is a television series that ran from 1998 to 2000. It was created by Carlton Cuse.

The title character, Sammo Law, portrayed by Sammo Hung, was a Chinese law officer and martial arts expert who came to Los Angeles in search of a colleague and remains in the US.

The show was a surprise hit, making Hung the only East Asian headlining a prime time network series in America. At the time, though, Hung was not that fluent in English, and he reportedly recited some of his dialogue phonetically. In many scenes, Hung did not speak at all, making Martial Law perhaps the only US TV series ever which featured such little dialogue from the lead character.

Supporting cast

The cast endured turnover from the beginning. Detective Dana Dickson (played by Tammy Lauren) exited the show after Episode 6, "Extreme Measures", as she moved away to live with "her parents" as noted on the following episode. Then on Episode 9, "How Sammo Got His Groove Back", Arsenio Hall joined the cast as Terrell Parker, a wisecracking former LAPD press liaison who began helping out Sammo and the gang on cases. The pairing of Hung and Hall as partners was similar to, albeit a bit less overtly comedic than, the partnership between Sammo's friend, Jackie Chan, and Chris Tucker in the Rush Hour feature films. At the end of the Episode 05: "Cop Out", when Sammo Law is driving through Los Angeles, a sign is seen which advertises Rush Hour, as the movie was released at the time of the episode.

Changes

New executive producers Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin took the helm at the beginning of the second season due to runaway production costs. They more or less pretended that the first season did not exist, retaining only the basic concept of a fish-out-of-water detective. Cast members Louis Mandylor and Tom Wright were dropped. Gretchen Egolf was brought in to play the unit's new leader, Amy Dylan, from the beginning of Season 2. Additionally, Parker's past in public relations was scrapped. The first season's cliffhanger ending was explained away with a few throwaway lines.

Law made crossover appearances on episodes of Early Edition and Walker, Texas Ranger, the former preceding it and the latter following it in its Saturday time slot. Chuck Norris's Walker character, Cordell Walker, also made an appearance as part of the two-part Martial Law/Walker, Texas Ranger crossover.

Cast

• Sammo Hung as Sammo Law (Seasons 1 and 2, all episodes)
• Arsenio Hall as Terrell Parker (Seasons 1 and 2)
• Kelly Hu as Grace "Pei Pei" Chen (Seasons 1 and 2, all episodes)
• Tammy Lauren as Dana Dickson (Season 1)
• Louis Mandylor as Louis Malone (Season 1)
• Tom Wright as Benjamin Winship (Season 1)
• Gretchen Egolf as Amy Dylan (Season 2)

Story

The basic storyline is that Sammo Law, a well-respected Chinese cop, is transferred to America. As he works for the police department, fighting crime in Los Angeles, and later New York City, he is met with a clash in culture. He is also the mentor of Grace "Pei Pei" Chen, an undercover officer. When American techniques do not work, Sammo employs some Chinese cop work to get the job done.

Season 1 plot

Sammo is sent by the Chinese government to apprehend an old nemesis, Lee Hei. He finds out that his disciple, Pei Pei, had infiltrated Lee Hei's criminal empire. His goal is to capture Lee Hei and ends his criminal organization. Unfortunately, this plot line was unresolved and Season 1 ended in a cliffhanger, although Season two starts with Sammo mentioning Lee Hei's death. Tammy Lauren aka Dana Dickson who was initially billed as a main character also left after only a few episodes, in the story line of the show her absence was explained as she moved to another police force to be closer to her family, despite this the show still continued to show her in the opening credits and excluded Arsenio Hall as Terrell Parker.

Season 2 plot

Winship retires. Louis transfers to NYPD. Law decides to stay in Los Angeles and now is partnered with Pei Pei. The department also gets a new captain, Amy Dylan, who thinks that the Chinese way of police work is not the best way of handling things. In addition, there are revelations of a secret society whose members include Law's long lost son. While Law decided to return to China in the last episode, a line of dialogue leaves open the possibility of a follow-up.

Episode list

* This episode's storyline was continued on Walker, Texas Ranger.

Foreign broadcasters

In the Republic of Ireland and the UK, Martial Law has been broadcast on Bravo throughout the week. In Britain the show used to air on Five from 1998-2005, then on ITV4 showing replays of the episodes from 2005-2007, from 2009 onwards Bravo have acquired the rights to show replays of the show. In France, Martial Law (Le Flic de Shanghaï) can be seen on M6 and W9. It was previously broadcast on Britain's Channel 5 at 8pm on Sundays scoring high ratings in 98, Australia's Seven Network in 1998, on ATV in Hong Kong, on TV4 in Sweden and on TV3, Sky1 and Channel 4 in New Zealand. It was previously broadcast on Dubai based MBC 2 but can now be seen on MBC Action. In Germany the series was broadcast on VOX. In Brazil, the series can be seen on Rede Bandeirantes since November 2007 as Um Policial da Pesada ("A heavy-set cop"). In Hungary the series aired on RTL Klub as A harc törvénye ("The rules of engagement").

DVD releases

As of July 2009, there is no news about a release of Martial Law on DVD. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, DVD releases have yet to be available despite the push and petitions of fans.^[1]

Notes

External links

• Martial Law at the Internet Movie Database
• Martial Law at TV.com
• Martial Law Television Show: Martial Law content and media
• Fan page
• Martial Law scripts by executive producers Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin