Trivia / Tour of Duty

• California Doubling:
  • The first season was filmed in Hawaii, whose rain forests were a convincing stand-in for Southeast Asia.
  • The second and third seasons were filmed in California, and don't look nearly as good. Ironically, the rolling yellow hills would have been a decent stand-in for the country near the DMZ during the dry season, where they were stationed in season 1, but it utterly fails as jungle around Saigon. Near the end of the series, a new guy lampshades it by pondering why Vietnam isn't as green as he expected, and Anderson explains that it is the result of the use of Agent Orange near their bases.
• Dueling Works: The series was this with China Beach, another Vietnam War drama that aired on ABC from 1988 to 1991.
• Executive Meddling: The show was originally conceived to try and depict the entirety of soldiers' experiences in Vietnam, including the moments of drama and levity that existed outside of combat. But executive meddling led to the show becoming more action oriented, along with the inclusion of an Intrepid Reporter love interest for Goldman who ends up in a Love Triangle with a hot shot helicopter pilot.
• Real Song Theme Tune: "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones (although this has been replaced with generic war music in reruns, due to licensing issues).
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The series was praised for its soundtrack, which was packed with period-appropriate rock music by luminaries like Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. Unfortunately, licensing and royalty issues means that these were replaced with generic instrumentals for syndication and DVD releases.

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