Same in Italy, it was prime time TV for a few years.

Not overly popular, but many people already knew him from the Bruce Lee era, so it had a following by default.

Same in Slovakia

Same in Hungary.

Belgian here, only thing I ever watched that had Chuck in it was Way of the Dragon.

IIRC Seinfeld aired on Tele Montecarlo/La 7, while WTR aired on Italia 1, the difference in audience was massive.

As others have said, WTR is very well-known in France while most people have never heard of Seinfeld.

Same with Dallas and The Dukes of Hazzard.

Yeah. As an American I would’ve absolutely never guessed it was that popular.

I've got the impression that the big US exports are ones that play into big American stereotypes, e.g WTR, Baywatch, Friends. Not even that they see these shows and get programmed with these stereotypes, but that they have these stereotypes (Texas, California, NYC) and shows like this feed their imaginations and give them detail.

Exported media is weird. Like the huge proportion of British/BBC output (usually period, but also often detective in a way redolent of Christie) that is made primarily for export to foreign consumers who think of British upper-class culture as aspirational.

Yes! Oldfagi remember. Also, he was just called "Cool Walker", which was appropriate.

Lies. Everyone knows The Red Green Show is the only television program legally allowed in Canada.

> You might be able to argue he was a bigger star than any of them.

I think that's a hard argument to make.

Candace Bergen's career was just as long. Her first movie role was 1966, she was nominated for an Oscar in 1979, and she was on a popular sitcom from 1988 to 1998 that won her five Emmies and attracted national commentary after criticism from the Vice President.

I was a kid in the 80s and 90s and to me even then Chuck Norris was a B-movie self-parody joke character. He was not an A-list "action star" in the sense that Schwarzenegger, Stallone, or even Van Damme were.

An immense amount of time, dedication and talent must have went into all those achievements. This requires mastery of body and mind at an exceptional level. Putting aside all jokes and acting roles, the martials arts is where he earned my full respect and that will also stick in my memory about him.

He had is own line of denims, with extra stretchy crotches. Makes roundhouse kicking baddies in the face easier.