Was there a TV show about Vietnam during Vietnam?

[devilgrrl]

I'm referring to the tv show "Over There." In fairness, I haven't seen the show so I can make any comment on how good or bad it is. Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable with a tv show portraying a war that is currently being fought. The cast and crew get to go home at the end of the day, not so for the real troops in Iraq. I'm confused in what this show is supposed to tell us. Well, I guess I'll just have to see for myself. :shrug:

Is anyone else uncomfortable about such a show. Just curious.

[yvr girl]

1. M*A*S*H was about Vietnam

but it was in disguise.

[leftchick]

11. wasn't that the Korean War?

I was young then but that is what I recall.

[yvr girl]

16. That was the disguise

Ingenious, eh?

It was most definitely pointing to the Vietnam War, but it could only do it by 'being about Korea.'

[billh58]

49. M*A*S*H...?

I was a huge M*A*S*H fan, and did a little time in Vietnam. The only comparison the TV show had to Vietnam was that people were getting killed. It was an anti-war show, but had absolutely no relationship to Vietnam.

Other posters are correct, the nightly news was the TV show about Vietnam during the war. It was brought to our homes in living color, and there were no "embedded" reporters -- they were unfettered. We also got to see the dead and wounded coming home.

[newyawker99]

60. Hi billh58!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[annabanana]

64. Hi Bill...

I know it wasn't "like Vietnam".... but at the time, ANYTHING that was anti-war was ABOUT Vietnam (as I'm sure you remember)

Welcome to DU
:hi:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. No.

Even M*A*S*H, which was really about Vietnam, was set in Korea. There were no movies or TV shows about Vietnam until a number of years later. Nobody wanted to talk about it.

[NYCGirl]

3. They talked about it quite a bit on "All in the Family." NT

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. I guess that's true -- but the show wasn't "about" Vietnam,

and it seemed like most TV writers were afraid to bring up the subject. After the last helicopter fled the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, there was mostly silence. We lost that one, after all...

[Ilsa]

4. China Beach came along in the late 1980's.

It was pretty good, I thought, but much later than the war.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. Well, MASH, the book, movie and the TV series, was aimed at Vietnam...

...even though the setting was Korea. This according to the author and others.

I think that's as close as it got. Certainly, series like COMBAT were pure war fantasy.

EDIT: When I started the post, there were no responses. Two-fingered typists are s l o w!

[jody]

7. You raise a good point. Given people's tendency to believe what

they see on TV even though it's fiction, it can distort a viewer's perspective.

[Lannes]

8. I havent seen it

and I have to admit Im a little uncomfortable.But Im not praising or insulting the show,its just weird for me personally.Just as weird is that I would feel more comfortable seeing a film about it now,maybe because the war isnt interrupted by cialis commercials.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite

[A Simple Game]

18. If I remember right,

both Walter and Dan Rather spent a lot of time in Vietnam.

[yellowdogintexas]

73. correctamundo!!!!

I went into withdrawal if I missed Walter during that time. Dan Rather and Morely Safer both went to VietNam and went out with the troops. It was War, Live...gave whole new meaning to the term, "Film at Eleven".

When you add the fact that Walter was considered to be the Voice of God, and we were watching the war live, AND the editorial comments of Eric Sevaried, Harry Reasoner, Charles Collingwood (and others, whose names escape me at the moment) who were seasoned old pros who had covered WWII and/or Korea. God I miss Sevaried!!!!!!! I remember watching and cheering them on!

I just can't imagine that crew letting this stuff get away from them; they would be feasting on this stuff like it was Thanksgiving dinner.


just showing my age, I suppose.

[stanwyck]

19. Yes! The evening news actually showed war

every night. And the newspapers showed photographs. I was in junior high and high school. We saw film, then came video of bombings and firefights. It turned middle America. When you lose the soccer Moms (or the Viet Nam era equivalents) your leadership is over. Bush would know this if he hadn'tg spent his time partying while 300 soldiers A WEEK were dyiing.
He's losing the middle. The Young Republicans with their "whup ass" attitude sound ridiculous as they swill beer on Mom and Dad's sofa while 14 Marines die from a bomb.
The Bushies can keep renaming this "war" or "effort" but it's becoming increasingly clear that they've been wrong about everything and they're out of spin.

[Ptah]

40. I think you've hit the nail on the head, yellowdogintexas.

It was one of the earliest reality shows.

:shrug:

[newyawker99]

61. Hi Ptah!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ptah]

67. Thanks, newyawker99.

It's good to be a part of this community.


:hi:

[Liberal_Dog]

10. "The Green Berets"

Starring John Wayne, was made in 1968.

[manic expression]

21. That's what I was thinking of

wasn't it a pile of RW crap? I heard it was pure propaganda.

[dr.zoidberg]

28. More like a typical John Wayne movie.

Take that for what it's worth. Did you know that he turned down the lead for The Dirty Dozen for The Green Berets? Oh, what could have been.:(

[FredScuttle]

39. Yeah, a piece of shit movie like "The Green Berets"

Thankfully, the Duke took his wingnut marching orders and made that hysterical propaganda piece. Lee Marvin was born to play his role in The Dirty Dozen.

[Yupster]

54. Commander Sulu was in it

so how bad could it be?

[Kraklen]

70. Yeah, it was terrible.

John Wayne tortures then kills a POW but is still the "hero."

[ThomWV]

72. Look At The Final Scene In The Green Berets

If you want to see the accuracy of that idiotic film. In the final scene you will notice the sun settin .... over the South China Sea. When was the last time you saw the sun set in the East?

The rest of the movie is about equally accurate.

[lynettebro440]

12. So why don't we a do a reality TV show

set in Bagdad? Won't that be the only way people will actually pay attention? Make it with people eating bugs on dares and people will tune in. We made movements with Archie Bunker and shows like that back then. Why not make the war a reality show, because it is, instead of 10 stupid people (Big Brother 6)stuck in a house for 3 months. Let's see real live soldiers stuck in Iraq for 3 years. It might work. We could throw in Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie for the "real men" in the audience.

[NYCGirl]

13. Here's one that was somewhat late in the war...

(F.T.A. stood for "Fuck the Army")

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068562/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1GVEF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=21

Then there was this, set in a different war, but its message was clear...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067277/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1Kb2hubnkgR290IEhpcyBHdW58aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=21

And of course "Catch 22"
Lots of films were set in fantasy wars or real, previous wars, but the message was the important thing...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065528/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1DYXRjaCAyMnxodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=21;fm=1

[UTUSN]

14. Is the One about "Iraq" Really about "Iraq"? n/t

[JDPriestly]

15. It was called the news,

and it showed real film of real war. None of this fake stuff. It turned a lot of people off to war and that war in particular.

[Lannes]

20. Great point

The difference between the coverage now and then is like comparing that of the American press at the time and the Soviet Union's.

[Old Vet]

32. Thats Correct, Every single night 7 days a week ................

The news would tell people how many troops died that day. If I remember correctly it was the late 60s and mostly Walter Cronkite.

[BrotherBuzz]

41. CBS and Walter Cronkite were ahead of the curve

thanks in part to John Laurence, a CBS war correspondent. He contributed a lot of stories, yet the public didn't even get to see all of his work. He routinely sent over twenty minute film segments with sound that got edited down to a whopping thirty seconds, or so.

If you're up for the read, his book Cat From Hué is worth the time. Interesting, he ended up having more combat experience then most of our young soldiers over there and was one of the first wave of people to understand that continuing the damn war was futile. I like to think he and his reports were largely responsible for turning Uncle Walter against the war.

Some reviews of his book:
http://www.thecatfromhue.com/Press.htm

[deadparrot]

53. That was my first thought.

The first widespread television images of coffins being unloaded from the planes was probably extremely powerful. We've kind of become desensitized.

[BrotherBuzz]

58. They were, indeed, powerful images

But I question how we have become desensitized if we aren't even allowed to see today's coffins as per Bush*s orders. I guess he's just being a good little boy by trying to protecting his mother's beautiful mind.

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths," "Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" - Barbara Bush, ABC's "Good Morning America", March 18, 2003.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0429-11.htm

[deadparrot]

59. Yeah, we actually had some investigative reporting at that time,

which might have helped.

[BrotherBuzz]

17. Back then we had it on the evening news....

real film footage that was shot by real TV journalists risking their lives to bring us the real story in less then 24 hours. None of this embedded journalist massaged propaganda crap we see today.

[Tracyjo]

22. Maybe that's the point of the show?

To show the folks the truth? I dunno. No tv show could ever be as bad as the actual war, but if it tries to show people the truth about the war,if they see actual (actors) people being killed, maybe some minds will change. We can only hope. Yes, it uncomfortable, but true war is even worse. So far, I don't think they're doing such a bad job with Over There.

[ThoughtCriminal]

23. Gomer never talked about it - nt

[Chipper Chat]

24. In 1967 Pop music was blatently in-tune with Vietnam.

Remember Country Joe & the Fish with "Gimme an F" and "Fixin to Die Rag" If that song had come out today about Iraq Gonzales would be ordered by Dear Dictator to slap Joe in the pokey.
http://www.ocap.ca/songs/vietnam.html

[Lannes]

27. The good old days before Clear channel

[Hardrada]

44. "It wasn't me that started up that crazy Asian War

But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore..

Ruby, o Roooooby, don't take your love to town."

C&W song re: wounded VN vet. Remember it?

[steely]

25. Not that I remember, but 'Combat' ran in the early 60's

it was WWII based, action/drama. As a kid, WWII action intrigued me, but 'Nam stories of friends' older brothers scared me.

[Bozita]

26. The Smothers Brothers blasted the war every Sunday night ...

... until they got the axe.

Courageous and correct.

[BrotherBuzz]

52. It should be noted - The Smothers Brothers were canned only after....

Nixon was installed as president and it became a republican war....

I'm just saying :shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

29. Gomer Pyle, USMC, didn't ever mention Vietnam (nt)

nt

[dsc]

30. No

The Deer Hunter and Coming Home were both in the 1970's and directly about VietNam. MASH was set in Korea but decidedly was anti VietNam but only the movie came out while troops were still there. The TV show was after we left.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

31. I'm watching "Over There" right now....

...and I have to admit that it's pretty evenly balanced, so far.

I originally told myself that I wasn't going to watch it because I expected more of a show cheerleading our illegal invasion and occupation in Iraq. I'm definitely not getting that at all.

I'm seeing kids from all walks of life with different backgrounds doing their best to deal with a very bad experience. One of the main characters has one leg blown off, and we're following his story in the military hospital.

I'm also seeing some pretty raw television from a lot of different perspectives. The rest of the main characters have been manning a roadblock and out of four cars trying to get through, they shot up three of them. Of the cars they shot up, one was booby-trapped and blew up later, one had a little girl in the back seat who died because the back of her head was blown off (one of the soldiers started screaming), and one car had had a guy hiding in the trunk who they're going to turn over for interrogation.

As far as giving, or not giving, anyone advice to watch the show, don't look for that from me.

[hallc]

33. the little girl...

oh man - i didn't expect that at all. This episode was much better than the pilot (pilot was way to slow for my liking). I think it makes a pretty good case against the war, and it opens up the subject of the trauma the men actually see out there. Im gonna keep watching...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

38. Yeah...me, too.

[newyawker99]

62. Hi hallc!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Is It Fascism Yet]

50. sounds horrible. why are we there, again? why were they

killing people in cars anyway? Every one of our kids should go AWOL, it would be the most honorable way to deal with this "bad experience" and after all, it was good enough for our Shrub.

[gatorboy]

68. Seemed a bit too Pro-War to me.

Especially the scene with the little girl being shot.

Yes, the soldier was upset that he shot the girl but the makers of this series set it up that the little girl's car was a decoy for the next car coming in. She apparently was used as bait.
This made the incident less about the horror of shooting the inncocent and more about what evil lengths the insurgents will go to in the Iraqi war. So in the end, it still made it out as us good, they bad.

[pinto]

34. Yes. It was called the evening news.

[raysr]

35. "Tour of Duty"

was a pretty good show, long after 'Nam though.

[omega minimo]

36. Yes, it was called "the news"

"Uncomfortable." Indeed.

:rant:

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[newyawker99]

63. Hi Vitalsign!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DanCa]

42. The Billy Jack Movies

Werent the Billy Jack films openly critical of the vietnam war? I have to dig out my old beta tapes. I do know that the actor Tom Laughlin hates Bush www.BillyJack.com

[Neshanic]

43. DG, you are just tragically unhip, like me.

"Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable with a tv show portraying a war that is currently being fought."

If that's the way you feel, then you are in a obvious minority, along with me and some others. Geez, even Will Pitt gave it his smart ass "seal of approval".

No there were no serials about the war. An alien could watch the television between the years 1964 and 1968, and other than the news, which was brutal, the case could be made that the country was peacefull and happy watching shows about a Marine goof that never went to the war, a witch and her wacky antics, rich hillbillies, and a pig named Arnold that was smater than a Gabor.

Not until the late 60's did the cracks start, such as the mentioned above Smothers Brothers, Laugh-In, and the culmination with our guy that we as kids in kindergarten seeing reporting the dead, and then years later, calling the war a sham.

But it's 2005! A new Century with new wonderfull ideas to pitch. The Sneaker Pimps, odd juxtapositions of things that give you that visual pop, cool guns, cool gang of kids with the emotional baggage that makes it all about them, mix with a hack writer team with every cliche imaginable, and VIOLA, new line crossed.

You think that we need a re-write because of all the guy skilled in the last days? I am sure these writers and that hack Mr. B loose sleep. Not.

[Hardrada]

45. There was also a very strange Bob Hope special

on TV which made light of the fact that the VC were EVERYWHERE and there wasn't much we could do about it!! Circa late 1968 early 1969).

[Neshanic]

47. You are right. When this war slouches onward with no end...

Maybe, then maybe some here will understand the Vietnam Era people who in Kindergarten knew there was a war, then in grade school, knew the war still continued, then graduating junior high, and the war still dragged on, then in high school.....

A war that want on for years. We have the same now. This time Media talks about it all the time, but we do not see the truth, Leno jokes about the reasons, but do dares not tell the truth, a serial show about the war with a cast is aired, but we can't see coffins of our people killed in reality.

Our country has fallen down a rabbit hole. "The time has come the Walrus said"...

[SoCalDem]

46. Yes.. It was called the evening NEWS..

:)

[Is It Fascism Yet]

48. The only show about Vietnam during Vietnam era that I can remember`

was "All in the Family", which was definately written by liberals.

[Bouncy Ball]

51. I thought about that, too.

I haven't seen the show and probably won't, just because I'm not really a TV watcher.

But it struck me as odd that we would have a made for TV movie about a war that is STILL going on.

I mean WTF?

[Hardrada]

56. It's been going on longer than WWI

or WWII and they had movies, radio shows (WWII), etc. about those wars right when they were going on. The more realistic stuff came along sooner in WWII. The media now are trying to stop history and go in reverse. An impossible task.

[Freedomfried]

55. Rowan and Martins "Laugh In" tore up the legitimacy of the war.

Thats why they pulled em off the air from what I remember.

[WhiteTara]

57. The Smothers Brothers Show

was very political and so was Laugh In.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

65. There was a TV show called The Lietenant, or something like that,

that I vaguely remember. It was about a Marine unit and they ended up in Vietnam. I don't remember which network it was on but I think it ran from 1963-1966 and then was cancelled or pulled. My memories of it are very vague, but I do remember that show from that time period.

[catmandu57]

66. It takes a generation or so removed

from the actual event, movies are made during and immediately after, but television takes a while longer. Mash was vietnam for those with eyes, but it took until the eighties for the vietnam television shows to come out, just as the show Combat came along in the sixties twenty years after WWII.
We had the nightly news though, you had your choice of three networks, I prefered CBS for news coverage.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

69. The "Five O'clock Follies" and the daily body count sitcoms.

"5314 NVA, 9386 VC, killed. 1 American soldier suffered a broken fingernail while opening his C-rations."

What made them truly hilarious was that were given with a straight face.

[Maru Kitteh]

71. Um, yeah it was called MASH

Everybody knew it was about Vietnam. It was a funny show but I don't think it helped that much. They did succeed to a certain extent in rehumanizing lazy Americans image of Asian persons.

We watched Over There. It's no recruitment poster. The first episode was pretty much dedicated to everything that is fucked up about the military and our situation there, and a little of what it does to families too.