The Californians
Director | Byron Haskin |
Producer | Felix Feist |
Production Company | Californian Film Enterprises, Desilu Productions |
Aired | January 21st, 1958 on NBC |
Cast | Adam Kennedy (Dion Patrick), Seán McClory (Jack McGivern), Nan Leslie, Keye Luke, John Anderson, Maria Tsien (Mei Soong), Kam Tong, Richard Cutting |
Dion Patrick (Adam Kennedy) and the vigilantes are investigating human trafficking in San Francisco’s China Town. While making inroads with the community Dion wins Mei Soong, played by Maria, from a dubious Chinese business man.
In the end he manages to return her to her true love, his Chinese guide during his investigation, and, with help from both, takes down the true villain: the white English teacher in a school for Chinese children.
Maria didn’t get to many lines in this role but had plenty of screen time. While there are still plenty of racial stereotypes in play in this show at least it was surprisingly low on Yellow Face and had a comparably high number of non-white actors in Asian roles for its time.
Scenes Featuring Maria
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