[Editor's Note: TVWW contributor Donna J. Plesh died April 2, 2015, from ovarian cancer. She was 71. Donna covered television since the early 1980s, initially for the Orange County Register and its TV magazine. She also was a member of the Television Critics Association. Donna was always a cheerful spirit within the TVWW network and often gave readers a kind, up-close viewpoint in her interviews with a wide variety of television stars. She will be missed.]
For many TV fans of a certain generation, one of the most memorable shows of the Eighties was ABC’s China Beach. The drama about nurses, doctors, soldiers and USO performers at an Army base in Vietnam during that tumultuous and often divisive war was one of the best TV shows focusing on that era.
Now, 25 years after it premiered in 1988, China Beach has landed again… both on DVD, as a complete-series box set, and also, with many cast members in attendance, as the subject of a recent [Sept. 13] Paleyfest -- .a Beverly Hills festival (soon to be replicated in New York) showcasing TV shows past and present, featuring actors and writer-producers discussing their work at the West Coast branch of the Paley Center for Media.
Cast members in attendance and the roles they played were: Dana Delany (nurse Colleen McMurphy); Marg Helgenberger (K.C. Koloski, prostitute and heroin addict); Michael Boatman (Pvt. Samuel Becket, who was in charge of the morgue); Robert Picardo (Dr. Dick Richard, nurse McMurphy’s crush); Brian Wimmer (Cpl. Boonie Lanier); Troy Evans (Sgt. Pepper); Nancy Giles (Pvt. Frankie Bunsen); Ricki Lake (Holly Pelegrino, the donut dolly); Jeff Kober (Sgt. Evan “Dodger” Winslow); Chloe Webb (Laurette Barber, USO singer); and Concetta Tomei (Maj. Lila Garreau).
The cast, along with executive producer and series co-creator John Sacret Young, shared some of their memories of their experiences on the show, some funny and some sad, before an audience of fans.
Dana Delany: “I read the script and loved it. I wasn’t a very good actor at the time, and I really needed to stay in character for an audition. So I was very serious, and I was pretending I was Clint Eastwood, in my head, because that is how I saw the character — the silent, strong type. I went to John’s office [executive producer John Sacret Young] and sat in the waiting room. I was there for, like, 45 minutes, and he kept poking his head out, and I finally went into his office, and he was like, ‘Are you Dana Delany?,’ and I said ‘Yes’ — and he said, ‘You’re here a day early.’ And nobody believes me that I didn’t do it on purpose! But I didn’t.”
Troy Evans (a cast member who actually had served in Vietnam): “I was a young character actor. What that means is you spend many hours a day praying for some kind of a job. John’s friend John Wells, who was a writer and producer on the show, I knew his wife from the theatre. He knew I was a Vietnam vet, and they hired me for one day to play a drill sergeant sort of guy. I did that one day. And then they had me back again and again, and the next year they had me back again. So it was really an act of generosity from them, and kind of a miracle for me.”
Concetta Tomei (On the show she married Sgt. Pepper. But she said what none of the cast knew was): “I wore the show wedding dress at my real wedding.”
Robert Picardo: “When I was cast, and auditioned as a bald man, the network said, ‘We gotta put hair on him, because he might be kissing Dana Delany.’”
Marg Helgenberger: “There is a scene where McMurphy and I are trapped in a building during the Tet offensive. Just the two of us. And K.C. [Helgenberger’s character] was having heroin withdrawal, and went a little crazy. And eventually Colleen understands what is happening to me, and we are on the ground fighting and she winds up punching me in the jaw. We had worked with a stunt coordinator on that scene. The timing was off and Dana actually did clock me on the jaw, and all I remember is my head hitting the concrete floor of the studio and hearing someone yell, ‘Medics!’”
Delany: “That’s rule No 1: you do not hit another actor… That’s bad acting.”
Picardo: “John came to me when we were going to do the last couple of shows in D.C. so we could appear at the Vietnam War memorial, and asked how I felt about having my daughter, who was two years old, playing McMurphy’s daughter. The most moving scene in that episode is Dana alone in front of the wall, holding her little daughter, who is reaching out and touching the wall because she somehow feels that her mother is focused on something. It is such a sweet and memorable moment, and of course that much richer for me to have had her [his daughter] there and be part of it.”
Young (Explaining that obtaining the music rights from songs of that era was the reason it took so long for the show to come to DVD): “95.7 percent of the original music is intact” on the DVD, he said.
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Postscript: Where are some of the China Beach stars today?
Nancy Giles is a contributor on CBS News Sunday Morning.
Dana Delany most recently starred on ABC’s Body of Proof. She is also active in theatre work.
Marg Helgenberger was a mainstay on CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for many seasons. Later this season, she will co-star with Josh Holloway in the new CBS series Intelligence.
Robert Picardo went on to star in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate: Atlantis, along with guest spots on a number of TV series and roles in films.
Brian Wimmer has had roles in numerous TV series, including Flipper.
Michael Boatman has had roles in TV shows ranging from Spin City to Gossip Girl and The Good Wife.
Troy Evans has had roles in such TV shows as ER, Closer to Home and The Division, along with voiceover roles.
Concetta Tomei has had roles in TV series ranging from Murphy Brown to Necessary Roughness.
Chloe Webb most recently guest starred on Shameless.
Ricki Lake has guest starred on numerous TV shows and, most recently, has hosted her own talk show.