Friday, March 29, AD 2024 6:49am

Tour of Duty

 

For a friend who recently passed away and who served his own tour of duty in Vietnam.  He loved the television show Tour of Duty (1987-1990) that followed a platoon  of  American soldiers in Vietnam.  CBS failed to purchase the rights to the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black for reruns or DVDs, so replacement music is used instead, which is a great shame.  I have seen few videos more evocative of time and place than the intro to Tour of Duty with Paint It Black.  The second and third seasons of Tour of Duty added soap opera and adventure elements which detracted from the realism of the show, but the first season is highly recommended by me for anyone wishing to see a realistic depiction of what life was like for the men who fought one of America’s more unpopular wars and who usually served their country far, far better than their country served them.

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Kennybhoy
Kennybhoy
Wednesday, January 14, AD 2015 5:01pm

A sound recommendation and one I heartily second.

I happened to be on leave when it’s pilot episode was first broadcast on British telly. I was channel hopping late one night, pushing midnight, and lucked onto STV as the announcer made the introduction. Within seconds it was into the theme tune. Blew me away. My Dad, God be good to him, would record it for me when I was away and I would binge on multiple episodes! Surprisingly, it received absolutely no promotion over here and remained in it’s late night slot for the duration…

Oh and I entirely agree with you about the difference in quality between the first and the following seasons.

“I have seen few videos more evocative of time and place than the intro to Tour of Duty with Paint It Black.”

I find most music of that era more than usually evocative…

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Alphatron Shinyskullus
Wednesday, January 14, AD 2015 6:45pm

Thank you for that! I loved that show. I enlisted the year it came out, and didn’t get to see any episodes until I was done with training. I lost interest the third season, though. I binged on it when it came out on Netflix.

Kennybhoy
Kennybhoy
Friday, January 16, AD 2015 6:26pm

Donald R McClarey wrote:

“I have seen few videos more evocative of time and place than the intro to Tour of Duty with Paint It Black.”

See you Maister McC, you have gone and set me off! 🙂

Everything I wrote above about “Tour of Duty” applies to “Crime Story”. On leave. Late night channel surfing. Lucked out, etc…

It also had an extra special appeal for me because Del Shannon’s “Runaway” was a childhood favourite of mine from way back in the early 60s. My big sisters noticed how much I liked it and would dance with me to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbBAhQoOhMA

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