By Nancy Mills
BACK HOME, the Vietnam War wasn’t
really over until we’d seen it on TV—
specifically on China Beach. The TV show,
which aired on ABC from 1988–1991,
served as a four-season elegy for the unwon conflict. In the show, everyone at the
510th Evacuation Hospital outside Da
Nang showed grace under pressure while
playing a vital part in the war effort.
As First Lieutenant Colleen McMurphy,
Dana Delany was the heart of the series.
“McMurphy reminded me of Henry
Fonda or Clint Eastwood—the
strong, silent hero,” Delany, 57,
says today. “She is
probably the
closest character
to me that I’ve ever
played. I do have a bit
of the savior in me.
“While we were making it, we got letters
from school kids saying, ‘Thank you. Now I
understand what my father went through.’ ”
“I think we helped give veterans and their
families closure,” adds Marg Helgenberger,
54, who played “entrepreneur” K.C. Kolowski.
“McMurphy and I were good girl–bad girl,
but we had each other’s backs.”
She too influenced her character’s devel-
opment. “I told the writers about my summer
job in a Nebraska meat plant,” she says, “and
it became a core monologue in the episode
that won me an Emmy Award. They incorpo-
rated my pregnancy into K.C.’s storyline
because they couldn’t really hide it. I was
always wearing very little.”
“China Beach showed a lot of women’s
stories, but it never seemed to me like a chick
show,” says Nancy Giles, 53, who played
Private Frankie Bunsen, who worked in the
motor pool. “Instead, it made me see the
human side. It broke down the tragedy and
the human cost of people going into battle to
kill each other.”
For research, co-creators John Sacret
Young and William Broyles Jr. organized
weekend retreats where they introduced the
cast to nurses, doctors and Red Cross and
USO workers who had been in Vietnam.
“The interviews we did informed the
show in no small way,” Young says. “I had a
cousin who was killed in Vietnam. Bill was a
Vietnam vet and had written a book.
“Everybody was
scared about doing
something from the
women’s point of view,
but the material was raw
and fresh. The important question for us was:
What happened to the
lives of these young
men and women?”
Tablet or
smartphone?
Scan or click here
for a video about
the real men and
women who
inspired China
Beach. (See page 5
for instructions.)
arts & entertainment
To relieve the tension of working on such
heavy material and to build camaraderie, the
cast occasionally played practical jokes.
Robert Picardo, 59, who played womanizing
Dr. Dick Richard, remembers, “ ‘Dodger’ [Jeff
Kober] is supposed to be having a heart attack
on the operating table. I’ve cracked his chest
and Dana pushes me out of the way to massage his heart.
“One of the assistant prop people had
hidden under the gurney. When [she]
reached into the chest of the artificial body, a
hand grabbed her hand. Having just executed
such an emotionally wrenching scene, it was
great to see her burst into laughter.”
Turning serious, Picardo adds, “China
Beach’s biggest impact was changing our
deeper understanding and appreciation of
those who serve and sacrifice. The greatest
tragedy of that war is that we blamed the
soldiers, not the policy deciders.
“I heard that some of the
men who served in Vietnam
had trouble tuning the show in at
first. It was too painful, and it
didn’t look like their war. But once
they saw that the point of view was
from those supporting their efforts,
we got very high marks for getting it
right.” C
Nancy Mills is a Los Angeles-based journalist
who writes about film and TV.
The Costco Connection
The first two seasons of China Beach are
available on DVD in all Costco warehouses.
A visit with
the cast of
China Beach
From bottom left, clockwise, are cast
members Marg Helgenberger (red
dress), Cherry White, Robert Picardo,
Tim Ryan, Concetta Tomei, Brian
Wimmer, Chloe Webb, and, in the center, Michael Boatman and Dana Delany.
WARNER BROTHERS
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