Tour of Duty Series 01 Overview

Introduction Tour of Duty is an American military drama television series based on events in the Vietnam War, broadcast on CBS. The series ran for three seasons, from 24 September 1987 to 28 April 1990, for a total of 58 one-hour episodes. The show was created by Steve Duncan and L. Travis Clark and produced…

Andrew Marshall

20/09/2020

1–2 minutes

Action, Drama, Military TV Series, The Vietnam War, US Army, War

Introduction

Tour of Duty is an American military drama television series based on events in the Vietnam War, broadcast on CBS.

The series ran for three seasons, from 24 September 1987 to 28 April 1990, for a total of 58 one-hour episodes. The show was created by Steve Duncan and L. Travis Clark and produced by Zev Braun.

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 South Vietnam and was one of several similarly themed series to be produced in the wake of the acclaimed Oliver Stone film Platoon (1986).

Outline

Tour of Duty examined the issues of politics, faith, teamwork, racism, suicide, fragging, terrorism, civilian deaths, sexuality, drug abuse, and how the lives of soldiers and civilians were permanently affected by the Vietnam War.

The first season began in 1967 and followed Bravo company’s second platoon, a standard light infantry platoon conducting “search and destroy” missions in Vietnam, under the command of 2nd Lieutenant (1st Lieutenant from the start of season 02) Myron Goldman (Stephen Caffrey) and Staff Sergeant (later Sergeant First Class) Zeke Anderson (Terence Knox). It was filmed on location in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks.

Guest stars included Lee Majors, James Hong, Mako, Kelly Hu, Angela Bassett, Ving Rhames, Melora Hardin, Everett McGill, Olivia d’Abo, David Alan Grier, Richard Brooks, and Michael Madsen.

Tour of Duty Series

You can find a full index and overview of Tour of Duty here.