Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

China Beach well deserves to be released as are so many lesser series on DVD by the season or a Box set including all the episodes. It was a shame it didn't run longer at the time and I don't know what killed it. I remember it had good ratings and a good fan following. China Beach was a wonderful drama that ran from 1988 through 1991. It was about an American base hospital in Vietnam located near China Beach. The beach itself was used for recreation by recooperating wounded soldiers and those on leave from combat. The beach itself offered a stark contrast to the pain and suffering in the hospital on base. It also offered some nice backgrounds for romantic scenes for the nurses and a chance to get some of them occasionally into shorts or bathing suits. However do not think it was some mindless beach movie! This series was a drama that showed the the lives and efforts of doctors and nurses working in a hospital in Vietnam. Unlike Mash that came before it, this was serious drama about the wounded soldiers coming through the hospital and the doctors, but mostly the nurses that took care of the wounded and sometimes dying. With some soldiers horribly wounded and suddenly dealing with the loss of limbs, eyes, and other life changing injuries there is plenty of drama to keep you interested. Also some of the nurses of course end up dating soldiers in the field. Like the real Vietnam the cast had many actresses and actors killed or returned to USA and some new cast members joined just in it's three seasons. The show itself was a showcase for the talents particularly of Dana Delaney playing Colleen McMurphy one of the nurses. She was outstanding and my favorite. She later on went on to do some Movies such as Wyatt Earp's love affair in the movie Tombstone, and a sexy role in Exit to Eden a good comedy. She also was in Fly Away Home, Moon Over Paradore (comedy), and House sitter. She is one of those women who is beautiful and exciting yet at the same time not so stunning that she doesn't seem real or obtainable. She is an earthy redhead you could easily meet and hope to marry. Yet this woman has an undercurrent of sexiness as seen more in a couple of her Movies that men only dream of. I guess it boils down to a real person not so out of reach, but yet facinating. The other star of this piece was Robert Picardo who went on to have a long stretch as the holographic doctor in Start Trek's Voyager series and on some Star trek Movies as well. lesser known but great in the series were Nan Woods as Cherry White, Chloe Webb as Laurette Barber and a slew of others. It was very well done show with a cast of attractive yet real looking people. It tied in well with the TV series run of Tour of Duty another series on Vietnam soldiers.