"Tour of Duty" (1987) TV series 1987-1990

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Creators:

L. Travis Clark
Steve Duncan

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

24 September 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

The trials of a U.S. Army platoon serving in the field during the Vietnam War.

Plot Keywords:

Vietnam War | Vietnam | Military | Guerrilla Warfare | 1960s

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Stephen Caffrey	...	Lt. Myron Goldman (58 episodes, 1987-1990)
Terence Knox	...	Sgt. Clayton 'Zeke' Anderson (57 episodes, 1987-1990)
Tony Becker	...	Cpl. Daniel 'Danny' Percell (55 episodes, 1987-1990)
Miguel A. Núñez Jr.	...	Pvt. Marcus Taylor / ... (53 episodes, 1987-1990)
Ramón Franco	...	Pvt. Alberto Ruiz / ... (52 episodes, 1987-1990)
Stan Foster	...	Sgt. Marvin Johnson / ... (41 episodes, 1987-1989)
Dan Gauthier	...	Lt. John McKay (32 episodes, 1989-1990)

Runtime:

45 min (58 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Company:

Braun Entertainment Group

Trivia:

Helicopter scenes with the character John McKay, were filmed on the ground with the rotors of the helicopter turning.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In all the episodes of 1st and 2nd season, quite a few characters (Taylor, Johnson, Purcell) wear helmets with chinstraps from 1970s.

Quotes:

Private Marcus Taylor: The chaplain wasn't congratulating you for what you did on the field. He was congratulating you for coming back alive.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Black Hawk Down (2001)

Soundtrack:

Paint It Black

The Only Vietnam Series

Where to begin? This is one of the greatest tv series ever made.

It has everything. Brotherhood, strife, politics, morality and ethics, courage, ambiguity, everything. You have to see this movie as part of the time it was made. In 1987, there was no real visual example of what the war in Vietnam was really all about. Vietnam during the seventies and sixties was something people protested against. It was the longest war the United States had ever fought. It split a nation, between people who wanted to make a stand against communism and for conservatism, and people who couldn't see how a war more than a thousand miles away could possibly affect the USA. The seventies was also an era during which many former colonies (like Vietnam) were trying to become independent, like Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia/Southwest Africa. During the eighties, there was a largely Republican leaning movement of movies tangentially about Vietnam (First Blood, about a vietnam veteran, but set in Colorado, not Vietnam), Chuck Norris' movies, even Magnum PI with Tom Selleck (1980 onwards) and later Miami Vice. The Vietnam theme was "in", but no real movies/series set in Vietnam or dealing with the real day-to-day of ordinary soldiers had been made. And then there was Tour Of Duty. Tour of Duty set out to describe the daily grind of a platoon of the 199th Light Infantry. This series is great. Yes, it may reflect earlier series like the WWII series "Combat", but it is still unique. Unlike most series in the eighties, it isn't afraid of featuring Black and Hispanic actors in major, leading roles - Stan Foster, Miguel Nunez and Ramon Franco, mainly. In no small measure reflecting that the Vietnam War was the first war during which the US military was fully integrated/desegregated. Meanwhile, the storylines are great. Most deal with the daily strain of patrols, the interaction with the Vietnamese population, and there is even a love interest thrown in, in the form of female reporter Alex Devlin (Kim Delaney, based on the real-life reporter and war casualty Dicky Chapelle). Lots of themes are explored, from the stresses of combat, to the attitude to the war, to the situation of the people of Vietnam, the psychological damage (as through psychiatrist Betsy Brantley), etc. The second part of the series has the squad enlisted as Special Forces, under Colonel Brewster (Carl Weathers), highlighting the strains and tensions between Special Forces and regular army on the one side and the CIA (Patrick Kilpatrick as Duke Fontaine) on the other. This is a great series, see it if you can.