The Martial Arts Today Television Program
Produced and Hosted by Grandmaster Crandall
The show was recognized as the only one of its kind in the United States and has received support from many world recognized martial artists. The American Martial Arts Institute played an important role in the success and philosophical direction of the T.V. show by the fact that stagehands and some of the camera crew were American Martial Arts Institute belts, but most of all because the host and producer of the show was Clifford C. Crandall Jr., the school's founder. Through the success of this show and the efforts of Grandmaster Crandall, the positive spirit and effective style of the American Martial Arts Institute has been presented to over 11 million homes from the East to the West Coast of the United States and Canada.
In 1987, Grandmaster Crandall founded the television series called the Martial Arts Today. The show aired on NBC affiliates throughout Central New York, New York City, and by satellite in Canada. It aired for over 12 years and reached more than 11 million homes. As the Producer and Host, he traveled to over 22-different countries and covered marital artists and their schools. The Martial Arts Today show helped to spearhead the growth of the martial arts, not only in the subject area of martial arts styles, but in the areas of women's self-defense, child abduction prevention and, through personal interviews, provide true insight into the background of some of the actual pioneers of the martial arts as we recognize it in the world today.
Archives: Martial Arts Today Show
The Martial Arts Today show began its airing with WKTV-2, an NBC affiliate in Central New York State. From there it slowly spread to other stations and networks throughout the United States and Canada. As the show's popularity grows so too grows the publicity. In a newspaper interview Clifford Crandall was quoted as saying, "It is truly a pleasure to bring the general public some accurate coverage of what the martial arts really is and at the same time personally a pleasure to be able to exchange my martial arts heritage with so many outstanding world leaders in the Arts."
Many of original episodes and one-of-a-kind interviews are archived at the main location of the American Martial Arts Institute.
Some of the guests who appeared with Clifford Crandall on the Martial Arts Today show were:
Tadashi Yamashita
Fumio Demura
Bill Wallace
Raymond P. Arndt
Patrick Tamburini
Hidy Ochiai
Mark Dacascos
Pan Zhiwei
Frank Dux
Tsuneyoshi Matsuno
Ernie Reyes Sr.
Sheldon Lettich
Charles Mok Hung Fai
Herman Pastor Jr.
Manuel Agrella
Ernie Reyes Jr.
Bud Malmstrom
Joe Lewis
Ron Van Clief
Dennis Brown
Paco Prieto
He Ying
Jeff Smith
Jean Frenette
Larry Hartsell
K.K. Kong
Castro Perez
Charles Wang