"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

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Company:

Braun Entertainment Group

Trivia:

Sgt. Anderson's full name is Clayton Ezekiel Anderson. "Zeke" is short for his middle name.

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 Alberto Ruiz: If you ask me, sir, that's a stupid way to do it.
Sgt. Zeke Anderson: The army ain't asking, soldier.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Black Hawk Down (2001)

Soundtrack:

Eve of Destruction

COMBAT! with M-16s and Huey helicopters.

This series could have been titled COMBAT! THE NEXT GENERATION, and lived up to that status. Zeke Anderson was a next-generation Chip Saunders and Myron Goldman a next-generation Gil Hanley. In fact, I'm surprised and disappointed that the producers didn't have Rick Jason do a guest appearance as COLONEL Gil Hanley (and it's too bad Vic Morrow was no longer alive to show up as Sergeant Major Chip Saunders)!

I think one of the reasons this series wasn't as popular on its original run as it is in syndication today is precisely because it was essentially COMBAT! with M-16s and Hueys: a lot of people in the 1980s were still of the mindset that those who fought in Vietnam were all baby killers; they couldn't accept the simple fact that the Myron Goldmans, Zeke Andersons, Alberto Ruizes, Danny Percells, Marcus Taylors, Scott Bakers and Marvin Johnsons of Vietnam, 1967 were the same ordinary American boys as the Gil Hanleys, Chip Saunderses, Cajes, Littlejohns, Braddocks and Kirbys of France, 1944, doing their best in an ugly situation that was not of their making.

TOUR OF DUTY was one of my all-time favorite series, right along with another contemporary New World Television production also set 20 years in the past, THE WONDER YEARS; . I've always seen these two series as two sides of the same coin, i.e. the battlefront and home front of the Vietnam War. It's fitting that in the TOD episode "Soldiers" (where three of the cast regulars go to Hawaii for R&R), Olivia d'Abo of THE WONDER YEARS had a guest appearance essentially playing the same character.

[For the record, I did not go to Vietnam; I was still an ROTC cadet when the war ended. That does mean, however, that I got my share of the "baby killer" epithets and spitting upon my uniform during that era! ]

Having said all that, the series was not without flaws. The first flaw was the entire 2nd season with the introduction of the female love interests for Anderson and Goldman, coincident with the start of the competing ABC series CHINA BEACH. This is a classic example of the original trying to imitate the imitator and nearly ruining itself in the process. (Anyone remember Coke vs Pepsi, New Coke and the return to Coke Classic?) My second major criticism is that although this was still one of my all-time favorite series, there's no denying that elements of just about every Vietnam War theatrical movie of that era found their way into episodes of TOUR OF DUTY; the finale of the first season was essentially a condensed, cleaned up for network TV version of HAMBURGER HILL. There were so many cases of this that, at times, I felt the series should have been titled APOCALYPSE OF THE FULL METAL HAMBURGER PLATOON AT FIREBASE GLORIA! ;-)