Someone asked about Vietnam War-themed TV series made during war

[Sapphocrat]

Right, there weren't any. However, I ran across a page that mentions a number of made-for-TV movies that were indeed produced during the Vietnam War:

http://www.tvacres.com/broad_vietnam.htm

I think, for the purposes of the original question, a TV-movie is just as "good" as a TV series; it's still a televised fictional work on a war that was still underway at the time.

The page is one very long, hard-to-read paragraph, so here are some highlights...

Made-for-TV movies produced while the U.S. was still in Vietnam:

The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969) is the first made-for-television movie to deal with the traumas of the returning Vietnam veteran. ...

The Forgotten Man (1971) starring Dennis Weaver, Anne Francis, Lois Nettleton about a returning Vietnam POW veteran who finds his home changed and his wife remarried ...

Welcome Home, Johnny (1972) starring Martin Landau, Jane Alexander, Brock Peters about a Vietnam veteran who returns to his hometown that he dreamed of while a POW, but can't find it. ...

(I remember "Welcome Home, Johnny" -- and have never forgotten the town: "Charles, Vermont"!)

TV movies that just missed the pullout date of 1972, or are fairly early examples of Vietnam TV-movies (see link for synposes):

Sticks and Bones (1973) Cliff De Young, Tom Aldridge

Green Eyes (1977) Paul Winfield, Rita Tushingham

Just a Little Inconvenience (1977) Lee Majors, James Stacy, Barbara Hershey

My Husband is Missing (1978) Sally Struthers, Tony Musante

Friendly Fire (1979) Carol Burnett, Ned Beatty, Sam Waterson

When Hell Was In Session (1979) Hal Holbrook

Earliest TV series listed:

The short-lived military antiwar comedy THE SIX O'CLOCK FOLLIES/NBC/1980 is the first series set during the Vietnam War. ...

In the fall of 1987, the military drama TOUR OF DUTY aired on the CBS Network. ...

The page also mentions (and offers brief synopses of) a handful of TV specials/documentaries on the war -- which has nothing to do with the original topic, but may be of great interest if you care to hunt them down (note the air dates going back to 1964):

VIETNAM: THE DEADLY DECISION (4/1/64) CBS

LETTERS FROM VIETNAM (9/10/64) ABC

THE AGONY OF VIETNAM (8/25/65) ABC

VIETNAM: DECEMBER 1965 (12/20/65) NBC

WALTER CRONKITE IN VIETNAM (2/27/68) CBS

THE SELLING OF THE PENTAGON (2/23/71) CBS

POW's: THE BLACK HOMECOMING (7/27/73) ABC

7,382 DAYS IN VIETNAM (4/29/75) NBC

I doubt many of these docos are available for sale; however, I've had extremely good luck with the Museum of Television and Radio, where you can sit in a semi-private booth and watch tapes of programs that are absolutely impossible to find anywhere else. The MTR screening rooms are physically located in NYC and Beverly Hills, and open to the public (of course, you have to pay). And the Web site is http://www.mtr.org/

HTH!

[Richard Steele]

1. M*A*S*H was a "Vietnam" series, the Korea thing was just a METAPHOR....

And there was a VERY lame MASH-clone
actually set in NAM a few years before
Tour of Duty; it lasted about 2 weeks.
Does anyone remember the name?

"The Green Berets" was a Hollywood film made during Nam & about Nam...

My stepdad saw it when he was actually IN Nam.
And whoever sent it there was an IDIOT!(he says)

Picture it: He and all his buddies are on a firebase, in Nam,
watching a movie in the dark...

And the movie has a scene where about a million Vietcong
overrun........ a firebase in Nam!
NONE of his unit got any sleep after that film;
he doesn't remember ANYTHING but that scene!!!

[Sapphocrat]

3. Yep...

I was lucky enough to recognize M*A*S*H for what it was when it debuted. :)

Sadly, I also remember The Green Berets, vividly; my dearly departed dad, an otherwise good liberal, didn't care that John Wayne was a big, mean tighty-righty, so Duke movies were on the tube constantly.

Ask your stepdad if he caught the big, glaring goof at the end of the picture... where Wayne and a Vietnamese kid walk off into the sunset... as the sun sets in the east. LOL

Anyway, there are, no doubt, lots and lots of other TV shows and movies that would apply -- but I was trying to come up with those I don't recall being discussed in the original thread. (I think everybody agreed M*A*S*H really was about Vietnam; I'm not sure if anybody mentioned Catch-22, though.)

If I think of the name of the show you're trying to place, I'll holler.

[tsuki]

9. Yes, the Green Beret and the Ballad of the Green Beret song. Somewhere

around 1968, I believe. Parts were filmed at Eglin by the great Chickenhawk, John Wayne, who never saw a war script he wouldn't star in.

[Historic NY]

2. China Beach......was a weekly series on TV

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/chinabeach/chinabeach.htm

[Sapphocrat]

4. I think that one was discussed a lot too...

...but it's probably the most applicable show. Had a big cult following too, as I recall, but I never saw it myself. Too busy being a young adult with too many friends and too much partying to accomplish to watch much TV in the early 80s. :)

[WCGreen]

5. Tribes was a marine movie staring Jan Michael Vincent....

It was set in the run up to Viet nam....

Also, Gomer Pyle....

I know he and Srgt Carter and corporal Boyle spent two or three tours of duty in the Mekong Delta.......

[Sapphocrat]

7. Oh, I remember Tribes!!

Especially the scene where JMV defies all odds by standing and holding two buckets of water for an impossibly long time. He played an anti-war Native American, wasn't he? Without checking the IMDB, I'm pretty certain Darren McGavin was his frustrated D.I.

Good catch! :)

And while I don't remember anything about Gomer in the Mekong Delta ("Well, go-olllee, Ah don't know what they do to these noodles, but Ah sure am gonna get the recipe for Aint Bea back home in Mayberry!"), there's no question GPUSMC was at least set during the Vietnam era.

Ew, does this mean I have to subject myself to Gomer reruns now in order to catch any VN references? :)

[WCGreen]

8. Trust me on this one.... No Viet Nam reference there

In gomerville

[Kickin_Donkey]

6. Another early example of a TV movie about Vietnam ...

is "A Rumor of War," made from the book of the same name by Philip Caputo. Came out about 1979 or maybe '80.

Great movie. Well-written. High production values. Starred Brad Davis and Keith Carradine.

Second only to "Apocalypse Now" in my book.

[MoJoWorkin]

10. Tour of Duty was a very good series, I thought.

It showed some of the realities of war--not thru rose colored glasses.