War series to feature more women

Press, 25 January 1989, Page 15

War series to feature more women

By

JERRY BUCK

NZPA Los Angeles Kim Delaney had to read some history to get ready for her new role in the television series "Tour of Duty,” set in a war she is too young to remember. Delaney joined the series as it returned to the air for its second season, this time with more emphasis on women in the Vietnam War. She plays Alex Devlin, a combat correspondent for a wire service called American News International. “I had no real awareness of the war,” Delaney says. “The show is set in 1968 and I was only seven years old. I didn’t have much time to study before I got the job. But I’ve spent a lot of time since then reading and looking at documentaries, trying to get a feeling of the passion people felt then. It’s particularly hard to find something written by a woman.”

In its first season, “Tour of Duty” focused on an army platoon assigned to combat duty in the late 19605. In the second series, the time frame moves ahead slightly to 1968 and the platoon is reassigned to Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base in Saigon. Besides Delaney, Betsy. Brantley and Dan Gauthier also joined the cast. Brantley plays a civilian psychologist working for the Government and Gauthier is a young helicopter pilot. The changes in “Tour of Duty,”, previously an all-male show that revolved around combat situations, undoubtedly reflected the success of a series on the rival American A.B.C. network, “China Beach.” That show, set at a hospital and rest and recreation area, puts its emphasis on the women in Vietnam.