By now, most people have at least heard of the Rush Hour movie series made famous by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, and like any movie franchise, such as Lethal Weapon, it is going to have a television series. The premiere of Rush Hour on TV will be on CBS on 10-11 tonight on March 31st, and this is the news on the season premiere as well as how to live stream the pilot episode.
Of course, the issue with adapting material like Rush Hour is whether or not it needs to be made. The films always seemed self-aware that they were nothing more than good-natured buddy-cop films, and so it could make for a good-natured buddy-cop show, which is kind of missing on television these days.
Jon Foo will be playing Jackie Chan's role of Lee, the Hong Kong inspector who goes by-the-book. Like Jackie Chan, Foo is most well-known for his martial arts roles like in Tekken. Justin Hires has had some interesting roles in the past as well, and he plays Carter, is the streetwise cop that Chris Tucker played.
According to the show's IMDB page, the rest of the cast members don't look like any of the characters from the movies, such as Johnson, who appeared in the first Rush Hour movie, who was played by the late Elizabeth Pena. The other stars to appear on the Rush Hour show include Aimee Garcia, Wendie Malick, Page Kennedy, Jessika Van, and Kirk Fox.
The Rush Hour movie series had its first offering in 1998, and it got helped Jackie Chan get started with his movie career. Before that, Jackie Chan was known as a martial arts star who had his films like First Strike, Operation Condor, and Supercop imported and released into theaters, but Rush Hour was an American made film meant to use the actor. At the time, Chris Tucker was known for roles like Money Talks, and his fast-talking attitude served as a comic contrast to Jackie Chan.
Rush Hour made no denying that it was just a buddy-cop comedy, and even the director of all three films, Brett Ratner, has admitted that "there's nothing in these films that you haven't seen before." Rush Hour 2 was released in 2001, just before 9/11, and it took six years before the third and now the last film of the franchise, Rush Hour 3, was released in 2007. Chris Tucker has mentioned that there could be a fourth in the series, but this hasn't been confirmed, and this series could change that.
For those that want to catch a live stream of the premiere of Rush Hour, the TV Series, just check out CBS All Access to watch it from there at 10 PM ET/PT.
