John Corcoran, Managing Editor for Martial Arts Success

Dear Martial Artists:

Could I please recruit your help for a martial arts TV show that's beneficial for our entire community?

For over 35 years now, I have helped other martial artists promote their films and TV shows, only a handful of which I was personally involved. This time I need your help, too.

On Saturday, June 17th, MTV aired an episode of its hit reality-TV show, "Made." It was their prestigious 100th episode of the 9-season hit show and this time it presented a wannabe who sought to become a "karate kid" (see the recent media release below my signature line). Each episode of "Made" follows one willing candidate, a teenager, as they embark on a mission to transform their life through a chosen activity (sports, cheerleading, etc.).

The one-hour "Karate Kid" episode happens to be one of the best TV programs I've ever seen to date promoting the self-improvement, character development and life skills inherent to our industry. It's a terrific promotion for all of us. The subject, Ryan Watkins, is a lazy, overweight, 18-year-old junkfood junkie and hardcore video gamer who seeks to change his life and chooses the martial arts as his pathway.

Chan Lee , a taekwondo master from Wisconsin who runs a chain of successful schools with his father, Grandmaster J.K. Lee, plays the Mr. Miyagi role. Only thing is, Chan Master Lee is an excellent mixture of old- and new-school instructor. Master Lee sets the 5-week goal of leading Ryan to pass his gold-belt test and then participating in his first tournament. Plus, Ryan's a natural slop. He lives in the cellar of his parent's home and keeps it like a pigsty! Master Lee sure has his work cut out for him to transform this kid. You really need to see what happens.

Here's the problem we have and the way in which you can help. MTV didn't give Master Lee enough lead-time to pre-promote the show. He was only given the actual broadcast date a few weeks before it aired. Therefore, I couldn't get the word out in my magazine; nor could any other editor. Also, I didn't have sufficient advance time until now to contact the 1,000-plus martial artists in my e-mail address book.

So here's what we can do to make an impact for our industry ... we can help
this show! The one-hour segment is now on MTV's Website at
http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1586185&vid=239124

On that page, the video will automatically kick in for Part 1 of the show (the one-hour show is broken into 6 segments to accommodate commercial breaks. At the bottom of the video box, running horizontal, there are icons for all 6 segments. When each segments ends, hit the next one in line until you watch the entire show.

Here's how just watching this particular show on this Website will help. Right now, of all their 9 years of "Made" shows, the episode featuring a young girl who wants to a hip-hop dancer got the highest number of post-show views, 39,000. As I'm composing this letter, the Website showing the "Karate Kid" episode has 20,908 views. According to Master Lee, this number grew from just 600 hits on the day of the show (just 8 days earlier)!

My aim is to influence enough martial arts colleagues to beat the 39,000-view record and put martial arts in the first position. We only need 19,000 more viewers to visit that Website. This will help our industry to influence MTV to put more martial arts content into future episodes of "Made" as well as in other MTV shows (two years ago, MTV aired an entire series based on martial arts contests, hosted by Ernie Reyes, Jr.).

I'm doing my part by sending this info to over 1,000 influential martial artists, masters, instructors, school owners and personal friends. Could I ask all of you to please forward this message to all of your martial arts contacts and urge them to view the show on the MTV Website? Ask them, too, to forward this message to all of their martial arts contacts. As we know, e-mails grow exponentially, and within two weeks we should be able to easily trounce the hip-hop episode.

Thank you very much for your help. You're gonna enjoy the show, too!

Click HERE to read Master Lee's Press Release.
Click HERE to watch the MTV trailer.



User Rating: 13
(User Rating is the number of times article has been viewed.)


Special Note: The information contained in this article may point to a web site not maintained or controlled by LifeForce Karate or its owners or affiliates. LifeForce Karate cannot be held responsible for the content of linked web sites. We encourage you to contact us if you find information on a web site linked from our knowledge center that may be inappropriate or offensive.