User reviews

This superbly crafted drama was too good for American television, and even though highly rated at 8.2, was prematurely ended. It amazes me that dreck like Grey's Anatomy drags on and on (for the life of me I can't figure that out and having worked at one of the nations top medical centers for years can attest it is rife with inaccuracies) with its sophomoric "office romances." The problem with that show is not the actors who are a talented bunch - it is the writing. China Beach was just one of those shows you awaited with anticipation because the character development was so good and the material was universal regardless of whether it was a Nam drama or medical series - it was just beautifully done. Oh well, mediocrity prevails and excellence is shunned.

This was a very special show, one of television's finest moments. It saddens me that in an era of reality TV, we no longer have shows of integrity like this one. As with "Homicide: Life on the Streets," this show had more in common with film than it did with television. That may have been both shows' undoings, because plots require attention, etc. I'm puzzled that with "China Beach's" fan base that we haven't seen this show released on DVD. Emmy-winning performances, beautiful writing, and cinematography to match -- PLEASE GIVE US "CHINA BEACH" ON DVD!!! It would be an honor to add this one to my collection, and would give those who didn't have the pleasure of seeing it when it was new the chance to enjoy it.

This is the popular and much acclaimed "China Beach" TV series. Dana Delany has the role of her life playing Colleen McMurphy, a dedicated triage nurse in Vietnam. This is not a war action movie, but rather a drama about the lives of Vietnam soldiers and the nurses, Red Cross "Donut Dollies", and USO entertainers who are there for them. Dana Delaney is stunning in the role of McMurphy -- this alone would make this a classic. In addition, the deep respect and understanding shown for the Vietnam GI's sets this apart from most of the other Vietnam movies. This is a movie that people who weren't in Vietnam should watch to get a better appreciation for the men and women who served there. For those who were there, this movie is a token of respect and appreciation for your service.

China Beach was a great show and I can't believe that the series has not been put on DVD. We can get so many shows that are mediocre with no problem. I hope the executives realize what a gem they have and release it for everyone to see.

I watched this show when I was in middle school and high school. I would love to be able to watch it again as an adult, and as a history teacher. I know that much of it is not realistic, but there is no denying the emotion. There were so many scenes that just pulled at your heart.

I hope soon we will be able to enjoy the entire series on DVD.

I'm writing this review 25 years after it left the air. I have never forgotten it. It is superb television. The ensemble cast is stellar. It was co-written by John Sacret Young and William Dodson "Bill" Broyles, Jr. who served as a marine in Vietnam. While watching it, it made me intensely feel what it was like to be there; I could feel how every moment and every individual counts. I could also feel how relationships are exquisite and intense when you daily face life or death. Conversely, their lives were also portrayed after the war when they returned home where they were no longer making a big difference in the world; there I could feel just how empty, inane, and futile their existence felt in comparison to their lives at China Beach.

This is one of the all-time best series of the past or present TV era. A lot has been said of Dana Delany so I shall not do it again yet must say it all is true! I would like to give a different approach. I am a Viet Nam veteran from the area this film was about and I have been to the China Beach in 1969 and again in 1994. I served as a young officer operating with the Vietnamese as an "advisor".This series was gut-wrenching at times, calming at others, as I had been wounded there and remember not my doctors but the nurses I dealt with. This is a great series that displays the crap that is war and the compassion displayed by many to the unlucky that have felt the full fury of conflict. If one gets a chance to watch this series, do so as it now is out on DVD. Reality TV is a farce!!! This series presents many of the "realities" of this unpopular conflict as well as the generosity of simple things. Bravo Dana, and all your fellow actresses and actors who gave so much to make the series what it was; believable!! Thank you.

China Beach was one of the most powerful shows ever to hit television. Based on real vets and nurses (see the episode "Vets"), this show was the most realistic portrayal of the people who served in that horrible place and nothing else has come close. MASH was on for 11 seasons, but MASH wasn't exactly honest (after all, the movie was about Viet Nam, but to avoid reality and emotion they made the TV show about Korea).

During the third season word got out that the show was to be cancelled. Letters poured into ABC to save the show. Thousands of fans wrote in (including me), but all it did was guarantee a final season. For reasons never disclosed or understood the show was cancelled.

There has been a campaign to get the show onto DVD, but to no avail. China Beach was an incredible look at a horrendous place, at a horrendous time. It helped heal vets and helped families torn apart by an atrocity understand (a little) about what the bloody hell happened over there. No show has ever been that honest.

It astonishes me that an idiotic show like "The Simpsons" manages to stay on TV forever (18 seasons - enough already!) and a powerfully moving show like China Beach is on for only 4 seasons.

I haven't seen the series since it first was on ABC. I tried to watch every week and was angry when they canceled it, because it was a great series.I recently purchased a copy of the pilot episode on VHS tape (China Beach)and once again was reminded how well the series was put together. Like many others I want to own all of the series on DVD and hope that chance will come. Dana Delany was outstanding in this role and touches the heart. Through her you see what it is like to see young men dying or dealing with terrible, life altering injuries and how hopeless she feels when she can not save them. Yet she knows the important part she plays to those dying boys as the voice and touch that represents the mothers, wives, lovers, and sisters of those who are dying far from home. They are not dying alone when she is there. Others in the cast are outstanding as well. The Gal that played Cherry the donut girl, and the back up singer turned lead, when the pretty one can't stay well enough to sing. She came to meet the boys-a-rama ,but soon was doing much more to touch the hearts of those at war. This is not a drama about the fighting in the field, but about the nurses and doctors in the field and the soldiers that go through their hospital. This is not Mash in Vietnam! This is a serious drama that will have you crying for all those dead and wounded soldiers wasted on battlefields around the other side of the world fighting an unpopular war. Each deals with the stress in their own way, but you can not watch this series without it touching you deeply and emotionally. If you lived during the Vietnam years then this will bring back the emotions of those times. If for no other reason this series should be put on DVD to honor the nurses, Doctors, entertainers, and donut girls that tried to bring a touch of home to the troops in Vietnam. To those who were wounded and survived and the many who did not this series should be available and remembered. Tour of Duty also should be on DVD and is excellent companion piece to show what the fighting grunts on the ground went through. Tour of duty is scheduled to be released on DVD this summer. Now Give us China Beach!

OK, this is without a doubt my favorite television series of all-time, and the grand finale was devastatingly bittersweet...the cast was always stellar, and I loved the additions to Season 4 especially Colleen Flynn, Finn Carter and Christine Elise. To me, this last season was Karen's story (Christine Elise deserved an Emmy!): her search for K.C. ended with the two of them finally meeting up again after several years, taking a short walk and making amends??? One of K.C.'s final lines was "I'm not really good at writing letters!", then she slipped away in her limo! OK, when I was a kid and watched it live, I had hope for the two of them, thinking that K.C.'s hidden meaning in her anti-pen pal stance was that Karen could visit or live with her (I think she was back in the Far East) BUT upon watching it again on DVD, I was totally destroyed by their ending, K.C. leaving Karen on the curb like that for McMurphy to take care of when she returned from The Wall with her young daughter. Marg Helgenberger, who along with Dana Delany were two extraordinary actresses leading a superb cast...IDK why I see her playing it both ways: that last scene, she closed the limo door when it should have been left open for Karen to maybe leave with her, or they could have waited for McM to return (I'm sure she would have a few choice words to say to K.C. if she was indeed abandoning Karen again! That truly sad last look on Karen's face said it all! I know K.C. was a cold, ruthless, selfish woman at times and I loved her despite those flaws. I guess I expected more of a resolution either way! Are they going to now be a part of one another's lives (maybe not in that moment but in the future?) or was this short little reunion all there was left for both of them? Did anyone else feel hopeful and then hopeless about the two Karens??? I want to believe there was hope! I can't watch it again for a while!

China beach is filled with emotion and heart. It's a beautiful show that still holds up. Just a great overall comfort show that is everything a tv series should be.

The just released Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam has brought back a lot of painful memories which triggered my interest in seeing China Beach. The series focuses a great deal on a number of women, nurses, Red Cross volunteers and others who work at a medical facility which treats wounded soldiers brought in from the field.

It is not MASH updated for Vietnam. It is a very powerful drama which gives perspectives on the different people caught up in the war, not only U.S. personnel but also North and South Vietnamese, fighters and civilians. It doesn't adhere to any "party line" left or right. There were moments which brought me close to tears, but others which provoked laughter.

I was particularly impressed by Jeff Kober's powerful performance of the difficulties a soldier faces in returning to "normal" life. If this had been a film he would have been nominated for an Oscar for sure.

Another standout is Nancy Giles who plays Frankie Bunsen, an African-American woman who somehow copes with the disgraceful racism and sexism she encounters.

I can't recommend this series enough for anyone who wants to know more about this part of our history.

I would really like to know how actual Vietnam veterans view this series. Is it an accurate portrait of their war?

China Beach was a one of a kind television experience.

It deserves to be available to all generations, particularly those that lived thru it, and those who've merely heard about Vietnam, as a mere blip in the U. S. involvement in that country and the surrounding countries.

I don't understand why it's not free to viewers/subscribers! In these trying times, it's amazing that the series must be purchased at an astonomical price!

Shame on Prime Video, and those who've gone on before, for keeping this series from viewers who should have easy access.

Nobody wanted to say anything about Vietnam and what happened there. This show actually shows the hard work and great things that happened during what is often considered America's greatest defeat or mistake. The women that served over there had a tough job but also excelled at many. This was a great series that I would love to see rebooted. IMHO, why can't Netflix, Amazon or AppleTV do a reboot of this program? At the very least, it could get 'buffed up' to Blu-Ray and 1080p source. I wiould definitely buy it.

This closest thing to a perfect show is my favorite series of all time. The actors were always excellent (w/the exception of Robert Picardo and Megan Gallagher....I don't know, but I just didn't like them very much). The show could not have been made w/out Dana Delaney. If it had it wouldn't be half as good. She is Colleen McMurphy...McMurphy is China Beach...Dana Delaney is the key. Her performance both comic and drmatic are so true to life. Her emotions of the war are so real it scares you into thinking that this is too real. She has such a wonderful gift. I hope we see more of her real soon.

WHY IS THIS SERIES NOT ON DVD?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I find this a serieous omission. If anyone hears about it coming to DVD, please let me know by email! Thanks!

This show is fun if you like to celebrate defeat without possibility of success. The entire army was portrayed as lusting for war but totally incompetent. They were never portrayed as professional, thoughtful, passionate, patriotic, etc... The main character is a cork floating down the river, metaphorically. She is always subjected to the insanity of war, since it is depicted as something that is inconvenient to her. (mind: blown) She goes through VC tunnels that are really scary, and magically comes up pretty close to her own base... wow, the metaphor, so subtle.

She goes home on leave, and while having whiskey with her breakfast takes the time out to enjoy the snap-crackle-pop of milk on her Rice Crispies. Epic storytelling, right?

This show wasn't MASH. It's not Tour of Duty. It's more like 1990 sensibilities were somehow placed in 1968 people, and there is the turnoff: when Vietnam was being discussed, people who were in favor of the war and people who were against it were all good people.

China Beach oversimplifies everything as either good or bad. Yawn.

Dana Delaney's "McMurphy" (the principal character) is complex, captivating, beautiful and sexy. The entire cast is outstanding, right down to the extras. The scripts and story lines are gripping and move the viewer from one emotion to another, moment to moment. Issues great and small are addressed in each episode and characters are well-developed and allowed to grow and change throughout the series. One particularly outstanding and unique episode is built around interviews with nurses who actually served in Viet Nam, including the nurse who was the model for the McMurphy character. These interviews are coupled with scenes from the series that illustrate the interviews. It is one of my fondest hopes that the entire series will finally be released on DVD.

Nobody had anything good to say about the Vietnam War, until this show. This was great and had great stories for basic broadcasts not cable. I can only imagine how good it could be if it was done on cable without all the ratings restraints.

I can't remember ever hearing about this series when it was released in the late 1980s. Although, my memory these days, of those days, can be a bit suspect.

Like many males, I have always enjoyed action and war movies, but I originally found no pull to watch the China Beach series when I did come across it. Because of its focus on female nurses in non-combat situations, and my sometimes old fashioned male chauvinistic viewpoint, at first it sounded to me like some typical Hollywood push towards women's liberation by casting Female characters in lead action hero roles.

But, because the series dealt with a hospital in the middle of the Vietnam War... (aka Mash, which focused on the Korean War), and although this 3 season show is 35 years old, I became very interested in buying the complete DVD collection of the show and watching it.

After the first episode of Season 1, I realized that this TV Series was surprisingly fantastic!! The lengths the producers went toward authenticity was astounding. The production itself was Grade A, but the writing was unexpectedly excellent and the acting was superlative.

Because of my being extremely active in the Antiwar movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and also Honorably Discharged from the Armed Forces in 1972, this series brought back so very many memories of this Forgotten time and its forgotten war!

This show pulled no punches and gave no quarter in magnifying and reminding viewers of the constant and continual deaths of American 18 and 19 year old GI's. The show definitely brings back the extreme sadness and heartache of the reported FIFTY FIVE THOUSAND deaths of mostly American soldiers. 55,000!!!,

Watching this show and seeing the continual anguish at the slaughter, as well as the forced normality within the military evacuation hospital, brought me back to the reality of that war, a reality that most Americans living Stateside at the time had no idea about.

The music of this series, the music of that era, also brought back memories of that time... so many many memories those songs invoked, it was like a blast from the past!

The way this show was written, acted and produced, made it seem it had just been released in the 2020s. And, although all 4 Seasons were pretty phenomenal, the first 3 seasons were a bit better, as they focused on the characters "In Country" at the evac hospital In Vietnam. While the 4th Season tended to go back and forth from the character's lives in Vietnam, to the character's lives back in the United States (the world), and unfortunately often bouncing back and forth in time, from the years of the war, to times in the future, which sometimes left me confused and feeling like I was annoyingly watching a rerun of the movie Back To The Future.

Unlike World War II or The Korean War, because the Vietnam War was so unpopular, and constitutionally illegal, it has been almost forgot to both history, but especially to the majority of the American People today.

So, this TV Series was like a slap in the face, and a reminiscence of that time long ago, where Fifty Five Thousand American 18 and 19 year olds were brutally and unnecessarily sacrificed for political policies.

Thankfully China Beach brings back not only the memory, but the guilt of turning a blind eye to this tragic episode of America's past.

The involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War began in the 1950s and greatly escalated in 1965 until its withdrawal in 1973. The U. S. military presence in Vietnam peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 military personnel stationed in the country.

In 1956, with the help of the U. S. State Dept., Senator John Kennedy, and the CIA, Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam, and U. S Puppet, quashed all hope of the reunification elections called for by the Geneva Accords of 1954 because Ho Chi Minh would have won in a Democratic election. So the U. S. stopped Vietnamese Democracy

The United States did not call the Vietnam War, a war. It had always been labeled a "Police Action". Supposedly arming and assisting the South Vietnamese Army with training supplies and re-enforcements. The reality was that 55,000 Americans, mostly 17, 18, and 19 years old were killed in this Undeclared and Illegal WAR!

Because the Vietnam War was labeled a "Police Action" by the US Government, it did not have to be declared a war by Congress and the Constitution stipulates. Therefore, because it was in actuality a War, that Congress never declared, it was an Illegal War!

In 1955, a referendum was held in the State of Vietnam (South Vietnam) to determine whether the country was a republic or monarchy. It was primarily a contest between Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, who proposed a republic, and former emperor Bao Dai, who had abdicated in 1945 and at the time of the referendum held the title of head of state.

With the help of the U. S. State Department and the CIA, Ngo Dinh Diem won the referendum and established what almost amounted to a Dictatorship, setting up The Republic of Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem consolidated his power as the President of South Vietnam. He declined to have a national election to unify the country as called for in the Geneva Accords because he knew Ho Chi Minh would win by a landslide.

In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh apologized for certain consequences of the land reform program he had initiated in 1955. The several thousand Viet Minh cadres the North had left behind in South Vietnam focused on political action rather than insurgency. The South Vietnamese army attempted to root out the Viet Minh, later to become known as Viet Cong, shortened from Viet Nam Cong-San which means "Vietnamese Communist"

The Geneva Accords of 1954 forbade any increase in foreign military personnel in Vietnam and required all to withdraw by 1956. Adhering to the agreement, the U. S. had kept the level of its Military Advisory Assistance Group (MAAG) in Saigon at 342 personnel. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles with the concurrence of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U. S. Department of Defense authorized a "temporary mission" of 350 additional American military personnel to South Vietnam to salvage about $1 billion in military equipment left behind by the French military, now departed. By the end of 1957, nearly all of these additional personnel had been assigned to MAAG to train the South Vietnamese army (ARVN).

Senator John F. Kennedy gave the keynote speech at a conference of the American Friends of Vietnam, headed by General John W. O'Daniel. Kennedy lauded the accomplishments of President Diem and described South Vietnam as "the cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia.... This is our offspring-we cannot abandon it, we cannot ignore its needs." Kennedy opposed the elections called for in the Geneva Accords (1954) saying that elections would be subverted by North Vietnam.

Although I'm a 25 year old Israeli guy, born after the Vietnam war was over, and halfway around the world, this series touched me in a way most dramas didn't. Perhaps it was Dana Delaney's excellent dramatic acting, or the music, or any of the wonderful features of the talented crew that made this beautiful series possible, but I get the feeling that although I like new drama series like ER or The West Wing, I feel that John Wells has learned well, but not enough. China Beach had a certain something that other drama series did not. I'm no expert, so I can't put my finger on it, but whatever it was, I haven't seen it since, and I suspect I'll never see it again.