Tour of Duty (TV series)

infobox television
show_name = Tour of Duty
format = Vietnam War/Drama
runtime = approx. 1 hour
creator = Steve Duncan
L.Travis Clark
Producer = Zev Brown
starring = Stephen Caffrey
Terence Knox
Kim Delaney
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 24, 1987
last_aired = April 28, 1990
num_episodes = 58
imdb_id = 0092468
tv_com_id = 1335
num_seasons = 3

"Tour of Duty" was an American television drama series on CBS which ran from September 1987 to April 1990. The show follows an American infantry platoon on a tour of duty during the Vietnam War. It was the first television series to regularly show Americans in combat in Vietnam and was one of several similarly-themed series to be produced in the wake of the acclaimed Oliver Stone film, "Platoon". The show was created by Steve Duncan and L. Travis Clark, and produced by Zev Braun. It ran for three seasons as 58 one-hour episodes.

Overview

Not simply an action program, "Tour of Duty" was also groundbreaking as it addressed the issues of racism, suicide, fragging, terrorism, civilian deaths, drug abuse, and the shattered lives and confused feelings of those troops who finally made it home alive. The story focuses mainly on Bravo company's third platoon under the command of Lieutenant Myron Goldman (Stephen Caffrey), and Staff Sergeant (later Sergeant First Class) Zeke Anderson (Terence Knox). The series, and particularly the first season, can be considered the Vietnam War equivalent of the classic 1960s series "Combat!" which was set in World War II, with Goldman being analogous to Lieutenant Gil Hanley and Anderson being analogous to Sergeant Chip Saunders of "Combat!".

The first season opens in 1967 and follows a standard light infantry platoon. In the second season, the troops found themselves relocated to a base near Saigon while conducting the typical "search and destroy" missions. Production staff interviewed in "VIETNAM" Magazine cited this change as a change in premise that doomed the series, as female characters were also introduced (in hopes of gaining more female viewership) and the show ceased to be a realistic chronicle of life in the field for the average line infantryman in favor of being more romance- and action/adventure-oriented. In the third season, the remaining female character was killed off and the platoon was transferred to a SOG (Studies and Observation) unit under the command of Colonel Brewster, conducting covert operations in Vietnam and in Cambodia, culminating in the fictional version of the raid on Son Tay Prison. The third season was the show's last.

The series won an Emmy Award in 1988 for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series, and it was nominated again in 1989 and 1990.

In its third season, CBS moved the show to the Saturday 9:00 p.m. time slot. Being forced to compete with NBC's "The Golden Girls" and "Empty Nest", the show's ratings dropped and the show was canceled at the end of the season.

Music in Tour of Duty

The opening theme song was an abbreviated version of The Rolling Stones hit Paint It Black. The closing consisted of an instrumental, synthesized tune with a distinctive Asian sound mixed in with acoustic guitar; it was performed by Joseph Conlan, and was never released for public consumption other than in the series. That music was used as background music for most of the series. On DVD most of the Vietnam War era popular music was replaced by instrumental bits to cover the blank spots of music. It is most likely that the original score was not available due to copyright issues. The show was known for its classic American rock soundtrack including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane. One first-season episode, "USO Down," used "live" versions of "Wooly Bully" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" as performed by a USO band, the latter song being used also for ironic comment. The songs in this episode were retained in the DVD soundtracks. But for copyright reasons, the VHS and DVD soundtracks of the majority of episodes were replaced with more generic music by lesser-known bands -- a move which was widely protested by buyers, and resulted in a significantly lower sales volume for the third-season DVD set than for the first two.In the Netherlands, amongst other European nations, a total number of seven albums were released, containing most of the songs featured on the show. As a result, The Rolling Stones hit Paint It Black was re-released as a single, again hitting the number 1 position in the Dutch top 40 popchart in May 1990. 21

Filming

The first season was filmed on location in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks. For the second and third seasons the series was filmed around Los Angeles, California in order to reduce costs. This also enabled the producers to redress a studio backlot as Saigon. The move also meant reusing the same locations, notably a small river with grass on one bank and woods on the other which turns up in a number of episodes. A lot of filming was undertaken on the old set of M*A*S*H. Helicopter scenes with McKay were filmed on the ground with the rotors running.

International broadcasts

In the United Kingdom "Tour of Duty" was screened regionally among the 14 contractors of the ITV Network. The show was typically shown with two commercial breaks inserted around 1.20am on a Sunday morning by Central Television and at 11.35pm on Tuesday nights by Yorkshire Television. The Yorkshire time was the most commonly adopted among other ITV regions. In 1998 the show was screened in the UK on television channel Bravo.

The Australian television network Seven ran the series typically late at night on Thursday's, normally starting at 12:00AM.

In the Philippines it was aired on GMA 7.

In Mexico it was aired by Televisa's canal 5 as "Misión del Deber" (Duty Mission), whilst in Argentina it was broadcast as "Nam: Primer Pelotón" (Nam: First Platoon).

In Spain, Telecinco aired the show as "Camino del Infierno" in late night hours Wednesday, and later, on C+ as "Tour of Duty" at 12.00 M.

In Italy the show was aired by a local TV Network "Italia7" with the title "Vietnam Addio" (Goodbye Vietnam). It was aired in different time during the afternoon.

In Japan the show with the title "Good luck Saigon" was aired thuru the Wowow, a paid satelite broadcast around 1991. By this reason the show is least known by Japanese public.

In South Africa the show was aired with the title "Sending Vietnam" in Afrikaans by the SABC.

Cast members

*Terence Knox as Clayton Ezekiel "Zeke" Anderson
*Stephen Caffrey as Myron Goldman
*Tony Becker as Daniel "Danny" Purcell
*Ramón Franco as Alberto Ruiz
*Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Marcus Taylor
*Kim Delaney as Alex Devlin (1989–1990)
*Steve Akahoshi as Randy "Doc" Matsuda (1987–1988)
*Betsy Brantley as Dr. Jennifer Seymour (1989)
*Richard Brestoff as Darling (1989)
*Eric Bruskotter as Scott Baker (1987–1988)
*Kyle Chandler as William Griner (1990)
*Michael B. Christy as Duncan (1989–1990)
*Kevin Conroy as Rusty Wallace (1987–1988)
*John Dye as Francis "Doc Hoc" Hockenbury (1989–1990)
*Stan Foster as Marvin Johnson
*Dan Gauthier as John McKay (1989–1990)
*Patrick Kilpatrick as CIA Agent Duke Fontaine (1989–1990)
*Lee Majors as Thomas "Pop" Scarlett (1990)
*Joshua D. Maurer as Roger Horn (1987–1988)
*Maria Mayenzet as Sister Bernardette (1989–1990)
*Alan Scarfe as Stringer (1990)
*Peter Vogt as Elliot (1989–1990)
*Carl Weathers as Brewster (1989–1990)

Awards

Won

*Emmy Award
**1988: Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series (for "Under Siege")
*Founders Award
**1989: Terence Knox

Nominated

* Emmy Award
** 1989: Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series (for "I Wish it Could Rain")
** 1990: Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series (for "And Make Death Proud to Take Us")
* Eddie Award
** 1988: Best Edited Episode from a Television Series (for the pilot episode)

DVD

External links

*
* [http://bravo344.com Bravo344.com, a "Tour of Duty" fan site]
* [http://www.tv.com/tour-of-duty/show/1335/summary.html?q=Tour%20of%20Duty Tour of Duty] at [http://www.tv.com/ TV.com]
* [http://www.hum90.com HUM90 Tour of Duty pages]
* [http://www.page-creations.net/todmain.html "Tour of Duty" fanpage]
* [http://www.tourofdutyinfo.com/Notebook/Notebook.htm ToD Advisor's Notebook]
* [http://www.mythosnorden.de/_bravo Bravo-Company.De] (German); part of the Tour-Of-Duty-Fan-Project