China Beach

Tim served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, while I went to school and college. Vietnam was a horrible and divisive war that did not end well. My family hated it. I spent a big part of my senior year in high school worried that my male classmates would be drafted and killed in Vietnam.

Although the Korean-War-based sit-com M*A*S*H was supposedly an allegory of Vietnam, dramatic series about the war didn’t appear on TV until the late 1980s. Our favorite was China Beach. Set in an evacuation hospital in Vietnam, the show was unique in that it observed war through the eyes of the women who served as nurses, entertainers, volunteers and even prostitutes. The series was a revelation, realistically depicting the emotional as well as physical scars resulting from battle. The Paley Center for Media celebrated the show’s 25^th anniversary by holding a cast reunion, Friday night, in Beverly Hills.

As is typical for Paley events, an episode of China Beach was screened, followed by an hour-long Q&A with the cast and creator. All the major players were there: writer/producer John Sacret Young; Dana Delaney, nurse Colleen McMurphy, who quickly becomes the show's main character and conscience; Marj Helgenberger, the modern-day (and highly entrepreneurial) “courtesan,” KC; Concetta Tomei, Lila Garreau, the Army “lifer” who is eventually put in charge of the base; Brian Wimmer, China Beach’s life guard Boonie, who has PTSD; Robert Picardo, the notorious womanizer and aptly named Dr. “Dick” Richards, who falls in love with McMurphy; Michael Boatman, the reluctant camp undertaker Sam Beckett; Troy Evans, motor-pool sergeant Bob Pepper, who marries major Garreau; Nancy Giles, private Frankie Bunsen, who starts her Vietnam tour in the motor pool; Ricki Lake, Red Cross volunteer Holly; Jeff Kober, the war-damaged 19-year-old soldier Dodger; and Chloe Webb, the outgoing entertainer. The actors obviously all still have great affection for each other and loved working on the show. No reunion movie is planned, but John Sacret Young did announce that he’s currently writing a novel that follows McMurphy’s life 25 years after Vietnam.

The episode they screened was the heartbreaking “Vets,” a clip-show that incorporates interviews with the real-life women on which the series was based. I vividly remembered every scene, but didn’t start crying until I heard the theme song: a bittersweet melody that perfectly captures the deep underlying sorrow of the show. At the end of the evening, harmonica player Tommy Morgan was called to the stage to play, once again, the plaintive China Beach theme. By the time he finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.

Television Out of the Box

We finally made it over to Beverly Hills today to see the “Television Out of the Box” exhibit at the Paley Center for Media. The exhibit, which lasts until 2015, features artifacts from Warner Bros. studio’s most famous TV shows—for example, Big Bang Theory, True Blood, Fringe, Friends, ER, West Wing, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, China Beach, The Sopranos, and Band of Brothers—and, of course, numerous cartoons, like Bugs Bunny and Top Cat.

Sets, props, costumes, video clips, and lots of paper ephemera are nicely showcased upstairs in the two large rooms that used to house the viewing consoles, if you’re familiar with the Paley. Memorabilia from early westerns and detective shows, such as Cheyenne and 77 Sunset Strip (two favorites of both our families), are also on display, but to a lesser degree. There’s also a small theater where you’re encouraged to sing along to better-known TV theme shows. Gilligan’s Island, anyone?

West Wing

I must confess to shedding a few tears watching clips of my beloved West Wing, though I’m sure I’m not the only fan who caught her breath seeing the famous “Bartlet for America” napkin that Leo gave Jed at the beginning of his presidential campaign. Plus, I almost lost it (again) while watching a snippet of Mark Greene’s final episode on ER. 

Doug Ross (George Clooney) and John Carter's (Noah Wyle)

hospital badges from ER

“Television Out of the Box” is truly a wonderful exhibit for anyone who loves good TV.

Central Perk coffeeshop from Friends

"Smelly cat, Smelly cat, What are they feeding you?"

Thanksgiving dinner on Friends

Ordering the "big salad" on Seinfeld

Movie poster from Entourage

Bada Bing sign from The Sopranos

Big Bang Theory

P.S. There’s also a terrific exhibit of more than 50 Al Hirschfeld drawings of TV shows and personalities on the first floor of the Center. Tim and I got so caught up looking for the “hidden Ninas,” we almost didn’t make it upstairs!

Southland

We’ve always been fans of L.A. cop shows—Dragnet, The Shield, Law and Order: Los Angeles, and the still lamented Boomtown. But the best one, hands down, is Southland, the gritty docudrama that was picked-up by TNT when NBC foolishly canceled it two years ago. The show not only takes place in real-life Los Angeles settings (hooray for Molly’s, one of Tim’s favorite hot dog stands!), but is credibly acted by a terrific ensemble cast.

We made reservations last night to see Dick Van Dyke in conversation with Carl Reiner at the Writer’s Guild, but canceled immediately when we heard the Paley Center for Media was featuring Southland as the topic of one of its monthly evening events. Unlike its annual film festivals, which are staged in large venues to accommodate thousands of fans, events held at the Paley Center are small, intimate affairs (less than 200 people), where stars and admirers sometimes even intermingle. We’ve attended many such Paley events—an early Mad Men panel, a tribute to filmmaker Robert Altman, a Friday Night Lights panel, the final episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, etc.—and have never been disappointed.

The stars of Southland were already walking the “red” carpet by the time we arrived. All the actors on the show are brilliant, but we were especially happy to see our favorites: Michael Cudlitz, who plays John Cooper, the training cop addicted to painkillers; Ben McKenzie, a rookie cop from the ritzy westside; Regina King, the sensitive but grounded female detective; and Shawn Hatosy, hotheaded Sammy Bryant, whose partner was killed this year in the most heart-wrenching episode yet.

Cast members and show co-creators Christopher Chulack and John Wells sat at the front of the small Paley theater after screening the last episode of the season. We learned that the show is shot entirely on location, helping make the action seem very true-to-life. Since Southland is on cable, seasons are only ten episodes long, allowing the writers to create story arcs that begin and end relatively quickly. Plots are inspired by events experienced by LAPD officers, who work closely with the cast to advise on how cops would actually handle real police situations. Everyone was obviously very grateful to still be on TV.

Filming for next season starts in October, so keep your eyes peeled for live location shoots around town. Then set your tivo. New episodes of Southland begin airing in January 2012.

(Photos: 1. Cudlitz. 2. McKenzie, Hatosy, King. 3. Hatosy)

Paley Center for Media

Tim and I love television. We were kids when it was still a relatively new medium and love to regale each other with tales of life without color TV.

One of the best things (for us, at least) about living in L.A. is being so close to the entertainment industry. I grew-up in Burbank under the shadow of Warner Bros. and NBC. We now live in Culver City, where Sony Studios is king. L.A. is also home to the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio), which holds screenings and seminars on TV shows, old and new. Their big annual event is the Paley festival—a two-week extravaganza featuring the casts of television’s hottest hits—but even more exciting are the museum’s intimate series celebrating people and shows that aren’t necessarily among Nielsen’s top ten. Last year, Karen and I attended a tribute to legendary filmmaker Robert Altman, who had his start in television, a few months before he died. We were also among the handful of fans to attend a seminar on “Nip/Tuck” before it became a cable TV phenomenon. True to his character on the show, Julian McMahon (aka Dr. Christian Troy) looked like a sculpted god.

More recently, Tim and I went to panel discussions on “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and “Friday Night Lights,” my favorite TV show du jour. Julia looked quite fetching in her vintage cocktail dress and mod hairdo; but I nearly swooned at seeing all my favorite actors from “Friday Night Lights.” I was in testosterone heaven!

I went by myself, last night, to see a special seminar on “Cane,” the CBS drama about a rich Cuban family growing sugarcane in Florida. Jimmy Smits, who stood head-and-shoulders above the rest of the cast, not only stars as the prodigal-son-turned-murderer Alex Vega, he also produces the show. Obviously, he was the main reason most of us were there. The real attraction, though, was Rita Moreno, who plays the family’s matriarch. She sashayed across the stage in her brown leather pants and gold-coin belt and generally looked fabulous. It was hard to believe that she was my mother’s neighbor when they were both growing up in NYC.

Even better yet was the Paley’s “toast” to “Mad Men,” AMC’s spot-on drama about the advertising business in 1960. Still stuck in the 1950s/60s ourselves, this is the perfect TV show for us with all its perfectly recreated mid-century furniture and wardrobe. Jon Hamm, who plays Don Draper, the advertising exec with the mysterious past, is a lot more petite in person than he is on the screen. Actresses Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks were also far less voluptuous. "They must be forced to wear padding on the show," Tim kept insisting. If only the rest of us were so lucky!

10/30/07