`China Beach' Signs Off With A Farewell Set In The Future

One of the most acclaimed drama series of recent years, ABC's "China Beach" - nominated for an Emmy last week as best drama series, despite being canceled - concludes tonight (9 o'clock, Channel 4) with a two-hour finale set in 1988.

Colleen McMurphy (played by Emmy winner Dana Delany) marks the 19th anniversary of her last day of overseas duty with a reunion that lures many of her former medical peers: Dr. Dick Richard (Robert Picardo), Beckett (Michael Boatman), Boonie (Brian Wimmer), Frankie (Nancy Giles) and the now-married Lila and Sarge (Concetta Tomei, Troy Evans). Wayloo Marie Holmes (former regular Megan Gallagher) also returns, and while sharing often-painful memories of their days amidst the overseas tumult, the group is kept wondering whether they'll be joined by the ever-pragmatic K.C. (Emmy recipient Marg Helgenberger) . . . even as they make an impromptu, climactic trip to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The bittersweet overtones of the episode are both fictional and factual, since most of the cast members have worked together since the premiere of the show in April 1988. Since then, the program has earned two additional Emmys, as well as other prestigious honors.

"It's just kind of a nice closure," says Delany, not only of tonight's specific story but also of the entire last batch of original "China Beach" episodes that ABC has been airing since early June.

"We finished shooting on Valentine's Day in Washington," she recalls, "and that was kind of teary. Then we had a million wrap parties to the point where we got sick of each other. Now, to finally see these things on the air, it's just great. Since I'm working on something else now (director Paul Schrader's movie `Light Sleeper,' also starring `Platoon's' Willem Dafoe), I really feel that's the end of it."

However, Delany adds she'd be happy to see "China Beach" repeats sold to a cable outlet or into syndication. "I think that's what we're all hoping for," she confirms, reflecting with a laugh that "we all look like such babies" in the 1988 pilot that would likely lead off such a revival.

"I didn't even think it would be picked up (as a series)," Delany recalls, "because I thought it was much too different. I was never bored, though, and it was always challenging. People have such respect for the character of McMurphy, I've gotten nothing but positive feedback, especially from nurses and vets." I've been involved with a lot of related things, like the Women's Vietnam Memorial Project and the recruitment of nurses."

Evidently, so will Delany's personal fascination with Vietnam, since she recently returned from her second trip there. She was accompanied by the executive producer and co-creator of "China Beach," John Sacret Young, her real-life beau, who was making his first visit.

"Ironically, he was the only person on the staff who had never been there," Delany says, "and I mostly went because I wanted to see his reaction. Unfortunately for him, I kept saying, `You should have seen this three years ago,' because it had changed so much. He loved it, whereas my first experience there was kind of debilitating, intense and depressing. John likes intense and depressing things, so he immediately wanted to move to Hanoi, live there and start writing there like Graham Greene.

"He got a very different view from when I was first there, though. I felt less guilt as a human being this time, and the people seem more positive and hopeful about the future. There are a lot of personal homes going up and other types of construction, and when I was there before, the only white people were Russians. There were no Russians when I went back, and mostly Japanese coming in to start businesses, so the economy is changing.

"(The Vietnamese people) still are very poor," Delany continues, "and they need our dollars - in fact, they call the Russians `Americans without dollars,' and they're only allowed in if they have dollars - but it's just a very different country. If I go back a year from now, it'll be completely different again."

Delany intends to concentrate her career efforts on big-screen projects for the time being, "and I'm trying to be very choosy. If some wonderful TV movie came along, I definitely would do it, but I wouldn't do a series again for a while."

(Copyright 1991, Tribune Media Services)